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Letter to the Brethren: April 25, 2024

Letter to the Brethren: April 25, 2024

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from Grover Beach, California.

As many of you are aware, all our websites were down last Friday. But by Friday evening, all were back up except the main COGwriter.com news page. That page came back early Monday. It has never been down this long since it began about two decades ago.

Being down also resulted in losing about 18 posts which were made last week. It is not that we removed them, but they were not part of the recent backup that our hosting company had when it restored files.

At least two things converged to cause these problems, and we are considering changing our hosting company as they required an upgrade that they did not handle properly. Pray that we have proper wisdom in the matter.

On other matters, as we strive to support the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, we received another 20 translations of our English booklet titled The Gospel of the Kingdom of God .

Baptisms

We received the following photos and report from Kisii in Kenya related to baptisms last Sabbath:

Thanks to God. I was able to baptize 21 new members today. 

Glory and honor be to our God for the add.   

Keep in touch.     

Yours fellow disciple of the Christ,       

Ezekiel Ombaso Oanda.

Jesus said:

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ 10 Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10)

So there was 21 times the rejoicing in heaven last Sabbath.

We also received the following photo of those who took Passover in Kisii:

Pastor Radson Mulozowa sent the following photo and report from Malawi:

Greetings from Malawi and Mozambique

We are all fine by the grace of God and the trip to Mwanza was very successful and because of the church growth we have elected some brethren to assist the work in chileka About the Passover we had Passover in the following place namely  Zomba, Chileka, Mwanza and Mozambique and all went wellDuring this period I have managed to baptized 30 brethren both Malawi and MozambiqueThis week am meeting all the leaders in Southern part of MozambiqueAnd during my trip I will visit the following congregation Nasiyaya, Chilimba and Miseu 4I will send you pictures on WhatsApp

Best regards

Radson

So, over 50 baptisms!

We should also be joyful as well as grateful that God is working with more and more people.

Passover Record, Night to Be Observed, and First Day of Unleavened Bread

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following report:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.I’m happy to say that the Passover went very well in Kenya and the number that attended Passover this year was large. The Passover was done in many places in Kenya. some congregations joined other congregations eg Oriang, Aora Dak came to Ndhiwa. Achak, Giribe, kituka went to Got kachola, Motosiet went to Daktech. Other centers were chilani, kaplecho, Bomet, kisii, Ngaroni, meregi, Mao, Molo, Njoro, Migori, Nyakach.The people who took Passover in Kenya were 2958. This year we have the largest number of those who are baptized and were prepared for the Passover.The number of this year is the largest number ever for the baptized members that attended Passover.I also received the report from Kisii that 3 member’s from Living Church of God joined CCOG in Kisii.I was talking with Molozwa this afternoon and he told me that the Passover was well attended in Malawi and Mozambique.

Waiting to hear from you.

Evans.

That is a record amount of people who took Passover in Kenya in the CCOG.

We had a fine Passover, Night to Be Much Observed, as well as First Day of Unleavened Bread here in Grover Beach. Here is a photo:

We received positive reports from several areas around the world, though sometimes with difficulties.

Here is a photo and report from Moise Nshimiyimana of Rwanda:

Dear Pastor Dr Bob, greetings from Rwanda and Congo.

The Passover and the first day of unleavened bread was fantastic and we were with brother Martin from Congo on the Passover but Martin went to continue the feast of unleavened bread in the Congo. However, just before Passover, until now we have obstacles of people from COG7 and 3 delegates from Kenya came to Rwanda, one of those went Congo to … our brethren of CCOG in Rwanda and lied to them that in this days of new testament we should not celebrate the Passover, but that we should celebrate Lord’s Supper in a way of confuse them . But I continue to talk to them that this is not appropriate.Another thing is that last week I went to talk to the leader of Rwanda government officials and asked them about to do Passover and the feast of unleavened bread but again I asked them to do the feast of Tabernacles in the October . So this time they agreed to do it and to rent a place to pray while we still don’t have our own house of worship but they also ask us to do some good activities to help Rwandans such as buying health insurance for some the needy or sanitation for some of the poor needy especially such as building inexpensive toilets to them.

Best Regards,

Moïse.

Yes, we still face obstacles, but must strive to continue to do what the Bible says.

Spring Holy Days

We are now in the middle of the Days of Unleavened Bread for 2024.

The period from sunset April 28th through sunset April 29th is the Holy Day called the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, which is to be kept as a Sabbath.

Were the Days of Unleavened Bread done away? Consider something else that Herbert W. Armstrong wrote:

Not Abolished With Old Covenant

Observe that the Days of Unleavened Bread are a PERIOD, having two high-day SABBATHS. And this PERIOD is established FOREVER — while the Israelites were still in Egypt — before the ceremonial law of Moses had been given or written — before God even proposed the old covenant! What the law of Moses, or the old covenant, did not bring or institute, THEY CANNOT TAKE AWAY! In Fenton’s translation, the 17th verse is translated: “consequently KEEP THIS PERIOD AS AN EVER-LASTING INSTITUTION.” The whole period is included.

This ALONE ought to prove that the HOLY DAYS — and the seven Days of Unleavened Bread — are binding today, and FOREVER!

Now, if these texts apply to the 15th, not the 14th, as they assuredly do, and is here conclusively proved, then is the Passover established FOR-EVER? Indeed it is! But THESE texts above refer to the FEAST and not the PASSOVER. In the paragraph beginning Exodus 12:21 the PASSOVER is again referred to, and verse 24 establishes it FOREVER! …

To observe Passover alone, and then fail to observe the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, means, in the symbolism, to accept Christ’s blood, and to continue on in sin — to say …  the LAW is done away, we are under grace, meaning license, to continue in sin!

The seven Days of Unleavened Bread picture the keeping of the Commandments, which is another way of saying the putting away of sin. (Armstrong HW. What You Should Know About the Passover and Festival of Unleavened Bread. Good News, March 1979)

Early Christians did not believe that the Days of Unleavened Bread were done away. The Apostle Paul endorsed properly keeping the Feast with unleavened bread (1 Corinthians 5:7).  He and others still marked/observed it and observed it outside of Judea:

6 But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. (Acts 20:6)

If Christians were not keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Holy Spirit would not have inspired this to be recorded like this. Now Philippi was a Gentile town in Macedonia. It was ruled by the Romans–thus keeping these days was NOT limited to a place like Jerusalem. In at least two places in the New Testament, we see that the Days of Unleavened Bread were to be kept in Gentile areas (1 Corinthians 5:7; Acts 20:6).

Consider also the statement “it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread” in Acts 12:3. Since the Gentile author Luke addressed the Book of Acts to another Gentile (Acts 1:1), why would he have mentioned these days if they were unknown to the Gentile Christians and had ceased to exist?

Perhaps it should be added that the spurious 3rd century Epistula Apostolorum claims Jesus taught His followers should keep the Days of Unleavened Bread until He returns. While we cannot rely on that document, it does indicate that some were keeping those days into the 3rd century.

Information from outside the Bible reports that the Apostles Paul, John, and Philip, along with Polycarp of Smyrna and other early Christians, kept the Days of Unleavened bread (Pionius. Life of Polycarp, Chapter 2).

Despite this, Canon 38 of the Council of Laodicea of the fourth century (c. 363-364) prohibited the observation of the Days of Unleavened bread (Synod of Laodicea. Translated by Henry Percival. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 14. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900). Those in the Church of God could not comply with many decrees of this Council which went against the Bible and the early traditions of the faithful.

Therefore, various Sabbath-keepers continued to keep the Days of Unleavened bread afterwards (Pritz. Nazarene Jewish Christianity.  Magnas, Jerusalem, 1988, p. 35; Jerome as cited in Pritz, pp. 58,62,63; Ephiphanius. The Panarion of Ephiphanius of Salamis: Book II (sects 1-46) Section 1, Chapter 19, 7-9. BRILL, 1987, p. 117-119) and into the Middle Ages and beyond (Liechty D. Sabbatarianism in the Sixteenth Century. Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs (MI), 1993, pp. 61-62; Falconer John. A Breife Refutation of John Traskes Judaical and Novel Fantyces, pp. 57-58, as cited in Ball B.  Seventh Day Men: Sabbatarians and Sabbatarianism in England and Wales, 1600-1800, 2nd edition.  James Clark & Co., 2009, pp. 49-50).

As we in the Continuing Church of God do not accept that the Council of Laodicea spoke for the true Christian church, we still keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. We eat some unleavened bread for each of the seven days as the Bible admonishes (Exodus 12:15; 13:6; 23:15; 34:18). This bread can be made of different grains/nuts—the use of wheat is not biblically-required.

(It perhaps should be mentioned that one can eat foods other than only unleavened bread during this Feast, it is just that no leavened breads are to be eaten. Also, unlike Passover, the first and last Day of Unleavened Bread are days, like the weekly Sabbath, that one is not to work.)

While some like to allegorize away many portions of the Bible, although there certainly is a spiritual understanding to the Holy Days, there is also a physical one. And the physical observance helps us to better understand the spiritual lessons.

The Days of Unleavened Bread help picture that we Christians are to strive to put sin and hypocrisy out of our lives (cf. Matthew 16:6-12; 23:28; Luke 12:1). By keeping them physically, it helps us to better learn the spiritual lessons that God intended.

Last Day of Unleavened Bread

The seventh day of unleavened bread occurs on the 21st of Nisan/Abib of the Hebrew calendar.

“The Crossing of the Red Sea” by Nicolas Poussin c. 1634

 On the 21st of Nisan/Abib, God had the Red Sea parted (Exodus 14:20-21). God called for the children of Israel to cross on dry land under the cloud (Exodus 14:20-22,29), where they were symbolically baptized (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). They endured their fleeing with their enemies behind them and the waters stopped on both sides of them. During the daylight hours of the 21st, the Egyptian army pursued them and was destroyed (Exodus 14:23-28).

Understand that it was on the Seventh Day of Unleavened bread that the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea and the army of Egypt was destroyed. The Seventh, the last, Day of Unleavened Bread pictures fully leaving the dead works of sin behind.

A Christian sequence of events starts from our acceptance of Jesus, repentance, and baptism (Acts 2:38-39). Christians endure to the end (Matthew 10:22) attaining to the first resurrection (Revelation 20:6) to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

The crossing of the Red Sea may have other lessons for Philadelphian Christians. As they flee to a place in the wilderness just prior to the start of the Great Tribulation, Satan will be angry with them (Revelation 12:13-16). During the time the Philadelphian Christians are being protected (Revelation 3:7-13), bad things will be happening in the world around them (Revelation 12:14-17). They will often need to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Furthermore, the New Testament also seemingly shows a fulfillment of the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the destruction of the world’s armies who will fight against the returning Jesus (Revelation 19:19-21).

The Seventh Day of Unleavened Bread helps picture the end of the world’s systems and the emergence of the Kingdom of God.

Suggested Sabbath Day ServicesHere is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people:

Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p. If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some mobile telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.

IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones  channel.

In case one or more of our video channels are unavailable, down, restricted, or ?, understand that we are on multiple platforms.

For sermons in English:

ContinuingCOG YouTube channel. Dr. Thiel has produced video sermons for this channel.

Also available at BitChute COGTube https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogtube/

For sermonettes in English:

Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel BibleNewsProphecy https://www.youtube.com/user/BibleNewsProphecy.

Bitchute Prophecy https://www.bitchute.com/channel/prophecy/,

Vimeo at Bible News Prophecy https://vimeo.com/channels/biblenewsprophecy

Brighteon Bible News Prophecy https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccogbnp.

Rumble https://rumble.com/c/biblenewsprophecy.

DailyMotion https://www.dailymotion.com/dm_e24c8ac0050c5e7445cd5573711869c6/videos

For animations in English:

CCOG Animations YouTube channel.

Also available at BitChute COGAnimations https://www.bitchute.com/channel/coganimations/

Sermons and sermonettes in Spanish:

CDLIDDSermones channel.

African videos:

CCOGAfricaYouTube channel.

Also available at BitChute COGAfrica https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogafrica/

Audio messages:

Bible News Prophecy radio. This is an audio version of the Bible News Prophecy videos on one of our internet stations as well as our radio broadcasts in English. The BibleNewsProphecy.net website also has information about our international radio presence for Europe, Asia, and North America. That page is also available as a mobile app.

Bible News Prophecy International radio. This has links to our non-English language online radio station as well as materials in multiple languages.

There is also additional information at the Continuing Church of God Multimedia page.

Suggested Last Day of Unleavened Bread Services

Here is a suggested holy day service for the First Day of Unleavened Bread for our scattered brethren and other interested people:

  • 2-3 hymns (our songbook, The Bible Hymnal, contains the materials from the 1974 Bible Hymnal from the old WCG with new covers, plus ten additional hymns; there is also some Choral Accompaniment online).
  • Opening prayer
  • Offertory: Holy Day Offertory: Days of Unleavened Bread.
  • Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
  • Sermon, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested is by Steve Dupuie: Unleavened Bread 2024. Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
  • Final hymn.
  • Closing prayer.

For those interested in two services, here is a suggestion for the second service:

Here is some Spanish language information:English title: Offering Message First day of Unleavened Bread 2023Spanish title: Mensaje de Ofrenda Primer dia de Panes sin Levadura 2023Spanish youtube link:  https://youtu.be/wAFSXiCL3lAEnglish title: An Important ReminderSpanish title: Un recordatorio ImportanteSpanish youtube link:  https://youtu.be/NeWi0Mlt2oE

World News Items

We have seen increased anti-Semitism since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Now, it is getting unsafe for Jews to be on the campuses of some famous universities in the USA (e.g. see Jewish students warned to leave Columbia campus, Columbia University closes in-person classes seemingly fearing ‘Passover’ persecution). This is terrible, but also shows that the USA is degrading fast.

We continue to see technologies being developed that can deceive people into thinking that someone says things that they do not (see WND: Deceptive new tech has people voicing words they never said). While this happened with letters in the Apostle Paul’s time (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2), modern technology can be convincingly misused. And yes, I expect that various ones will put out fakes related to leaders in the CCOG as well as likely other COG groups. Satan is the accuser of the brethren per Revelation 12:10 and will likely influence the production of videos and/or audio recording of people. Such as supposedly me, for example, saying or doing things that I did not and would not say. For what its worth, let me add I have seen over the past year or so, that people, without the use of deep fakes, believed I said things I did not say. We have warned about the emergence of deepfakes for some time now. Back in 2021, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put out the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel: Lies and Deepfakes.

The ‘bird flu’ is getting more attention as a possible pandemic item (see ‘Bird Flu’ a ‘Great Concern’ for the WHO; NYT: Bird Flu Is Infecting More Mammals. What Does That Mean for Us?). The recommended sermonette for this Sabbath is related to that: Bird Flu and 4th Horseman’s Ride.

The article about how various COGs view Iran in prophecy was lost by our hosting service. So, like Jeremiah did when something he wrote was destroyed (Jeremiah 36:32), when I updated it, additional words were added that were not in the original (see Iran & Syria & Israel: PCG, WCG, CGG, UCG, CEG, COGaIC, LCG, RCG, ICG, CGI, and CCOG).

Concluding Comments

Notice an account with the apostles and Jesus:

5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” (Luke 17:5-10)

Brethren, yes, it is our duty to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread.

But if your only objective is to obey the minimum, and not truly support God’s work, etc., you, too, may be an unprofitable servant.

Something to think about during this Holy Day season.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer