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Letter to the Brethren: July 4, 2024

Letter to the Brethren: July 4, 2024

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities Region of California.

Today is celebrated as Independence Day in the USA. Although much of what the colonists rebelled against is worse with the current USA government than what happened under British King George III, most in the USA do not realize that.

The recommended sermon for this week is Jesus and God’s Plan for Muslims. With that, we have now completed the five-part sermon series related to the upcoming book Islamic and Biblical Prophecies for the 21st Century.

Here is a list of the sermons, which are also live links, for you to watch and/or review if you have not seen them already:

  1. Seeing Christianity Through Islamic Eyes.
  2. Imam Mahdi, Women, and Prophecy.
  3. Terrorism, Iran, and Fatima.
  4. Dajjal, Antichrist, Gold, & Mark of the Beast?
  5. Jesus and God’s Plan for Muslims.

Interestingly, the fifth, and last, of the sermons above has been had the most views and it has not even been out one week.

That said, we received additional translations of our Gospel of the Kingdom of God booklet this week. This is an “open door” we are going through, despite our “little strength” (cf. Revelation 3:7-8)

Bible News Prophecy magazine

Last week, we mailed out the latest issue of our Bible News Prophecy magazine.

We had also planned on mailing copies of our new book, Meditation for Faithful Christians, with the magazine, but for reasons that made no sense to us, our printer decided against printing it–so we sent it to another printer and plan to announce that booklet’s mailing when we are able to do so.

While we do mail the magazines around the world, those in Kenya and other parts of Africa mainly receive copies that are printed in Nairobi and then distributed.

Here is a link to the Bible News Prophecy magazine July-September 2024.

In This Issue:

From the Editor: No More Excuses! Remember to obey God and attend the Feast of Tabernacles each year if possible.

Prophecies for 2 Tribes, Part 1 There are prophecies about the so-called lost tribes of Israel that most people have discounted or overlooked.

Could You Be Caught Off Guard? This is an article by Eugene M. Walter that was originally published by the old Radio Church of God, with some updated introductory and ending comments from Bob Thiel. 

Study the Bible Course Lesson 24: God Won’t Ultimately Accept You “Just as You Are” To be a child of God you must change.

Multimedia Other than radio, what forms of mass media does the Continuing Church of God utilize?

Continuing Church of God Radio Log Listen to the Bible News Prophecy radio broadcast around the world.

Questions and Answers: Why Did God Make Males and Females?

Back Cover: Internet and Radio This shows where written and audio-visual messages from the Continuing Church of God can be found.

The magazine helps us fulfill the commissions of Jesus in Matthew 24:14 as well as Matthew 28:19-20.

Again, here is a link to the Bible News Prophecy magazine July-September 2024.

Philippines Feast of Tabernacles’ Site

Joe Lumpay sent the following from the Philippines:

Anyway, God has chosen for us where to place His name for us to worship Him in this year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The place is in Moalboal town, a part of Cebu province, a 2-hour and 46 minutes ride. We booked a whole 2-storey house, more than enough to house our number. This is within the BIGSAND RESORT & CAMPGROUNDS. …

Warm regards,

Joe

Feast of Tabernacles services are to begin the evening of October 16th and continue until sunset ending the Last Great Day which is October 24th in 2024.

For a list of where sites are planned around the world, check out the following link: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2024.

4000/6000/7000 Years?

Several days ago, a reader of my article, Could God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End?, pointed to the following statement Jesus made, just before He died:

30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

The reader speculated that could be the end of the four thousand years when Jesus spoke “It is finished!” And that could be so. Jesus spoke again to the disciples and others after that after He was resurrected (John 21:6-23; Acts 1:4-7)–and presuming that the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews, we know Jesus spoke to him in Acts 9:4-16 as well. And perhaps it was after Jesus was buried was when day 5–of the last days–began.

If the 4000 years ended when Jesus died, then we might be able to conclude that Adam sinned on Passover when he ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6) and the 6,000 year countdown began. That, then, looks like it also would tie in with the annual date of Passover. And actually, that may be precisely why Passover is on the date that it is.

Jesus, who the Bible says was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), had the need to be slain for humanity on the day that Adam sinned– which could very well have been Passover. That would be another reason that the date of Passover should never have been changed–which is something that the Greco-Roman Catholics did (see Did Early Christians Celebrate Easter?).

This Passover date change to Easter Sunday–which Emperor Constantine made official for those who would support him–may be one more reason that the Greco-Roman Catholics stopped endorsing the biblical millennium (see also Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism?).

That said, related to the 6,000 years, the Continuing Church of God put out this sermon on its ContinuingCOG channel that was given at the Feast of Tabernacles in 2023:

1:23:44

When Does the 6000 Years End? 2031? 2035?

Jews, Christians, and Greco-Roman Catholics have taught that just like God re-created the Earth in six days, then rested on the Sabbath, that He also has a similar plan for humanity. Yet, instead of six literal days, followed by another literal day, that this is 6,000 years, followed by a 1,000 year millennium. Could God have a 6000/7000 year plan? If we are in “the last days,” when might the last days have begun? According to Jews, there was to be a 2000 year Messianic era–when might it end? Why does 2030 seem too early? What about 2031? Since 35 A.D. also had a Tuesday evening Passover, could 2035 possibly be the end of the 6,000 years? What about looking for the signs Jesus taught, such as the abomination of desolation and the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom to the world as a witness? If the 6,000/7,000 year plan is based on tradition, must it be so? Do any scriptures support the 6,000/7,000 year plan? Dr. Thiel addresses these matters.

Here is a link to the sermon: When Does the 6000 Years End? 2031? 2035?

If there is a 6000/7000 year plan, then the 6000 years is ending fairly soon and the millennial Kingdom of God is not very far away.

Suggested Sabbath Day Services

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 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.

World News Items

Norway has resumed a program it once had to store grain in case of food supply disruptions (see ‘Norway to stockpile 82,500 tons of grain to prepare for famine and war’ & ‘If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone’). We are also seeing food price inflation (see also ‘Norway to stockpile 82,500 tons of grain to prepare for famine and war’ & ‘If The High Cost Of Groceries Makes You Feel Sick, You Are Not Alone’). The Bible foretells a time of food price inflation (Revelation 6:5-6) and we may be in that, or very close to it starting, now.

Election matters have been in the news. In France, there are concerns that anti-immigrant leader Marine Le Pen’s party may gain power, and various other French parties are hoping to stop that from happening (see ZH: Le Pen Is Mightier: Conservative National Rally Crushes Macron, Socialists In 1st Round Of French Election). In the USA, there are concerns that after last month’s televised debate that Joe Biden will lose to Donald Trump — and some Democrats would like to see Joe Biden replaced (see  Democrats concerned as ‘Only Michelle Obama bests Trump as an alternative to Biden in 2024,’ and at least 25 Democratic Congressmen want Joe Biden out).

The UK is holding an election today and NPR asserted, “Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is forecast to lose big. … And the opposition Labour Party is expected to form the next British government” (https://www.npr.org/2024/07/03/nx-s1-5026583/uk-election-2024-explained).

Remember that biblical prophecies will be fulfilled irrespective of who becomes the President of France, the President of the United States, or the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Concluding Comments

The Apostle Peter wrote:

8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Brethren, while sometimes it seems like God’s plan is dragging on, remember that God is love (1 John 4:8,16).

God’s loving plan includes people you may not think it would, but it does include offering salvation to all that ever lived as our free online book, Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation, shows.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer