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Letter to the Brethren: January 26, 2023

Letter to the Brethren: January 26, 2023

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

We have no set information on the location of this year’s USA Feast of Tabernacles’ site as the visitor bureau in Hershey-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has not provided any information yet. Because of that, as well as to compare costs, we contacted two other areas in Pennsylvania to determine if they may be appropriate. We hope to be able to finalize a location in the next couple of weeks, so those of you who hope to attend can begin to better plan.

Reaching Religious Writers

Yesterday, I uploaded some information related to our book: Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete? to Academia.edu, whose logo is shown below:

This is something I had intended to do last month, but was not able to get to it. I plan to do more of this later this year.

Anyway, the use of Academia.edu is an interesting open door as it helps us reach readers and leaders that we otherwise would be less likely to reach. These religious writers are now getting exposed to organized historical information about the true Church of God, and in this case, evidence of why the early Church of God knew the books of the New Testament centuries before the Greco-Roman councils did. Not only is this a witness (cf. Matthew 24:14), it is also an avenue that could get more doctrinal truth to others should any refer to our literature or the CCOG in any of their writings.

Trip to Congo

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following on Tuesday after he returned to Kenya from visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo:

Pastor Dr Bob,Greetings from Kenya.I’ve reached home safely.I want to emphasize a little about the Church in Congo. I really appreciate the brethren in Congo. Those people are serious people …. Those are the people who wanted to know more about every step in the church. They accepted that they were deceived by the protestants churches and the seventh day church of God who were after many people but didn’t want to preach all the Truth and put them into the light. So when they receive the plans of God and how can the church be moving forward. They were really taking their time to listen. Not only listen but they were behaving like the Bereans. After we completed the discussion is when they go and sit a side themselves to study and to confirm everything we taught if they are true or not. When they came back the next day, they come when they are excellent.  So when we started another topic they make sure that they get it well. So we have a very Smart people in Congo. Even now they have started to process registration.What happened to me at the airport I feel that it’s the work of Satan to spoil my heart not to go back to Congo.  But he is defeated. Satan wanted to block My ways and suffer in Congo.  But God protected me till I reached home safe.Another thing, I told you that those people most of them wanted baptism but since that was my first time to preach to them, it wasn’t good to do the baptism just there before they study well. But the faith was good. So we can plan how they can be baptized before Passover.Also Moise wanted me to go and teach of things I taught there in Rwanda. So I will see if I can go to Rwanda before I go to Ethiopia. Or if I can go to Ethiopia first.As far as baptism goes I want to study it first all that you sent to me and after that I’ll let you know.Evans.

Evans Ochieng was with Moise Nshimiyimana from Rwanda (many with ties to Rwanda live in the Congo) when he was in the Congo.

As far as the airport incident, basically he had to pay more money to leave the country than he thought he should have as he felt that some officials were abusing their positions. That said, some countries do have an exit fee you have to pay (the first time my family and I encountered that was in Guatemala several years ago).

Here is a photo of some who Evans Ochieng met with last Sabbath:

Anyway, Evans Ochieng was highly impressed with the zeal of those in the Congo. We have, as his email shows, began the process of officially registering the Continuing Church of God in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

World Economic Forum, the New World Order, and YouTube

Last Friday was the last day of the World Economic Forum’s conference in Davos, Switzerland.

On the opening day of the WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland in 2023, Klaus Schwab called for his supporters to “master the future,”which looks to be directed towards globalist totalitarianism. On the closing day of that conference “Tanja Fajon, Slovenia’s minister of foreign affairs, complained about countries placing their own sovereignty over the interests of the ‘world order,’ ” (the loss of national sovereignty will happen at least in Europe according to prophecies such as Revelation 17:12-13).

Another 2023 WEF speaker, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs) stated shortly after Tanja Fajon, “Here at WEF…there’s a lot of discussion about what the new world order will be…” and he also stated that that they needed to continue working towards, “building this new world order.” Having watched the video clip of this, Bilawal Zardari also looked to be calling for something consistent with the final time of the Gentiles (Ezekiel 30:3).

There is no doubt that the WEF wants a new world order.

As it turns out, I had planned to speak about WWIII and the coming new world order last Sabbath–which I did. And, I included those WEF comments (watch WWIII and the Coming New World Order).

YouTube, within minutes/seconds of my uploading of that sermon put up the following context warning:

Context

New World OrderWikipediaThe New World Order is a conspiracy theory that hypothesizes a secretly emerging totalitarian world government.

The Bible teaches:

12 Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, (Isaiah 8:12)

In this case, the idea that many are working towards a new world order is most certainly not a conspiracy, but a documented fact.

We continue to see biases in Big Tech (watch also: ChatGPT and 666)–and we know that this will worsen (cf. Amos 8:11-12).

Suggested Sabbath Day Service

Here 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 cellular 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.

World News Items

There were various shootings throughout the USA this past week, with one initially killing 10 (see AP: LA mass shooting suspect kills 10 near Lunar New Year fest; Antifa-dressed Atlanta riot; COGwriter: The city is full of violence) and ultimately killing 11 in California. The further many go away from aspects of biblical morality, the more they are willing to use murderous violence.

The French and Germans celebrated the 60th anniversary of their Elysee agreement which brought closer ties this week (see DW: Scholz and Macron celebrate 60 years of Elysee Treaty; DA: Israelites will be instrumental in conquering the United States and Great Britain). Related to that, they made various statements pledging to work for a stronger military that is independent of that of the USA (see NYT: Can Germany Be a Great Military Power Again?).

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is getting more notice and funding from software giant Microsoft (see AP: Microsoft invests billions in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI). While it can be a useful and helpful tool, all should understand that ChatGPT is not objective when it comes to truth and has an anti-biblical view on various aspects of morality (see ChatGPT 4? Has ChatGPT gone woke?). Our recommended sermonette for this week is related to that and that the 666 beast is expected to use at least some forms of what are called Artificial Intelligence; watch: ChatGPT and 666.

Concluding Comments

The Book of Psalms teaches the following:

3 Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. (Psalm 146:3)

Yet, many are relying on the military of the USA to protect them. Understand that the Book of Daniel prophesies that the power with the strongest fortresses, the strongest military, will be defeated:

39 Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.  (Daniel 11:39)

Brethren, we are getting closer to that time. Perhaps by 2028 or 2029.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer