Letter to the Brethren: September 1, 2022

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from Grover Beach, California.

Joshua and the Near East Archaeological Society

The recommended sermonette for this week, Did Joshua of the Bible Exist?, mentions some aspects of archaeology and Joshua of the Bible.

Many so-called scholars claim that Joshua did not exist nor did he lead the conquest of the Promised Land. Many claim Joshua was a nationalist myth.

They are in error.

These are the same type of scholars who have falsely claimed the King David was a myth as well.

Groups like Wikipedia have promoted various anti-biblical views.

Now, the Bible teaches:

4 … Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3:4)
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:13-15)

And the so-called editors at Wikipedia are deceived and deceiving in many of their reports about biblical matters. As are biases from sources like Google.

But the Bible can be trusted. There is a God and that is provable (see also the free online book: Is God’s Existence Logical?).

One of the MANY mistakes that Wikipedia makes is claiming that the Exodus was supposed to be in the 13th century BC, then it says there is no evidence it was then, so it concludes that the Exodus is a myth.

Yet, the Exodus was in the 15th century BC. But Wikipedia tries to downplay that. Furthermore, it tends to not show proof from those who believe the Bible, and hence seems to push its anti-biblical perspective by trying to imply that the Bible cannot be trusted.

The Book of Proverbs teaches:

17 The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him. (Proverbs 18:17)
But Wikipedia does not really want to be examined and often removes information that supports the biblical view as I can personally attest to as I have been a volunteer editor at Wikipedia and have seen factual and documented statements removed.
Many of the so-called educated have claimed many fraudulent positions. Some have also claimed that the biblical David was a myth. Now, notice the following:

Here is a link to that July-September 2017 edition of Bible News Prophecy magazine. Its front cover shows an ancient stela that mentions King David, and contains more information about why true science supports the Bible.

How?

Well, the inscription “House of David” has been found on the Tel Dan Stele (9th century B.C.) and Mesha Stele (9th century B.C.) (Wood BW. The Tel Dan Stela and the Kings of Aram and Israel. Associates for Biblical Research, May 4, 2011). Thus providing archaeological proof of the existence of King David.

The Bible is true, but many do not want it to be believed.

Much of the world’s claimed knowledge is false.

The Apostle Paul warned:

20 … Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge — 21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

Be careful not to accept “knowledge” from those who are contradicting the Bible.

There was a Joshua just like the Bible teaches (and King David as well).

That being said, let me mention here, that many years ago a COG leader suggested we join the Near East Archaeological Society because it normally takes a pro-Bible view on matters of archaeology. So, the Continuing Church of God did become a member.

The membership cost is minimal (in total it has cost us about $70 for the nearly decade we have been a member of it). In addition to the Near East Archaeological Society providing archaeological information not found elsewhere (which we have used for literature as well in some online posts), it has other potential for us in the future.

While neither my, nor the CCOG’s, focus is on archaeology, but the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), having access to archaeological matters can better help us highlight and explain various aspects of the Bible.

Stanley Kibet

In the Letter to the Brethren: August 25, 2022, there was a report from Stanley Kibet.

Stanley Kibet was a CG7 pastor before he came in contact with the Continuing Church of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, … (1 Thessalonians 5:12)

With that in mind, here is a picture of Stanley Kibet and his family he sent this week:

Anyway, although I met him before (in 2017), I asked him to provide a little more information about himself to share with all of you. He then sent the following email from Mau region of the Rift Valley in Kenya:

Hello and receive a lot of greetings. We had once met together at Nairobi when you were doing Audination. That is when I learned alot about CCOG, and decided to be part of the church. I have worked with Evangelist Ochieng and Pastor Sawek and currently I am a Church Leader in the Mau Region.
The reason I quit the Church of God {7th day} and joined CCOG is because the Church of God {7th day} does not observe the God holidays as it is written in the Bible.
The only problem we have here in the Mau region is the low coverage network and electricity. otherwise at times I travel where i can get a laptop so as to communicate. The availability of laptop could easily ease the problem.
May God bless you.
Regards,
Stanley Kibet Tk.

So, that is a brief introduction.

There are many in Africa, like Stanley Kibet, who have come with us because we are more biblical, he better understood what we taught because of what we taught at the conference in 2017, and keep God’s Holy Days.

A CCOG member has been able to send used laptop computers to Kenya over the years, and hopefully Stanley Kibet should be able to get one in the next batch. Providing used laptops has helped our leaders in Kenya and is one factor of many, for our growth in that part of Africa.

Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church book

Our latest book, Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church, is now available in printed form. We finally received copies in the correct size format and have sent them out to our supporters.

As many of you realize, we also put out related sermons related to the contents of the book.

Here are a list of all the sermons directly tied to the Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church book:

This book and the available sermons are intended to help us to instruct many and answer many who have a professing Christian background:

33 And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; (Daniel 11:33, NKJV)
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. (1 Peter 3:15-16, KJV)

So, yes, this information is important for you to know, presuming you wish to be one who understands and obeys God’s word.

If you missed any of the sermons, or wish to re-watch any, hopefully the list will make that easier for you.

Many with a Worldwide Church of God, or other Church of God, background may be surprised to learn who true Christian leaders said the original catholic church was.

If you are interested in church history and what happened with the original church, you may also wish to read the book, which is available free online at the following link: Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church.

The Continuing Church of God is NOT Greco-Roman Catholic, but neither is it Protestant. For some of the reasons why we are NOT Protestant, check out the free online book, Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God Differs from Protestantism.

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested service for the weekly Sabbath for our scattered brethren unable to attend with live speakers:

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.
Sermonette: Did Joshua of the Bible Exist? Other sermonettes are available at the BitChute Prophecy channel https://www.bitchute.com/channel/prophecy/ and other CCOG used platforms.
Announcements (if any, other than, for many, this letter) and one hymn.
Sermon: 1 Corinthians 13-14: Love, Prophecy, and Tongues. Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
Final hymn.
Closing prayer.

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. Note: If there are ever commercials before, during or after, they ARE NOT from us nor do we receive money from them–but sometimes platforms put them up.

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

Weather issues are impacting major parts of the world. China, Europe, and the USA have areas of drought and flooding–some believe that this could harm China’s economy and trigger a “global catastrophe” (see China impacted by both droughts and flood risk–a global catastrophe?).

Much of the nation of Pakistan has been hit with horrific flooding (see Horrific flooding in Pakistan causing death and soaring food prices; Violence in Iraq). We received an emergency request for assistance from an orphanage which is connected to the bulk of our international language translations, which we assisted Tuesday. We also sent some funds to Malawi to assist with hunger issues there.

The USA continues to have shootings in its cities (see Shootings in Chicago, Detroit, and East Bend (Oregon): ‘the city is full of violence’). After that was posted on Monday, a supporter sent a link which had the following:

Based on official U.N. statistics, Ukraine’s civilian death rate is 13.12 per 100,000 people. By comparison, St. Louis has a rate of 38.2 murders per 100,000 people and Baltimore a rate of 37.3,
In Chicago, the 2022 murder rate is about 14.8 per 100,000, based on data compiled by CBS News from the FBI’s 2019 Crime in the United States report. 08/13/22 https://www.wnd.com/2022/08/murder-rate-major-u-s-cities-higher-ukraines-civilian-death-rate/

Yes, it is more deadly to be a civilian in several USA cities than to be a civilian in Ukraine subject to Russia’s “special military operation” there.

That said, there are more and more calls for Europe to rise up, be less reliant on the USA, and to have Germany lead a less “democratic” Europe (see Germany’s Olaf Scholtz wants Europe to develop joint air power and to reorganize). A militarily powerful Europe led by a dictator is consistent with Old Testament (cf. Daniel 11:39-43) and New Testament prophecies (Revelation 13:1-10). Having Europe dominated by Germany is consistent with prophecies such as Isaiah 10:5-12.

Concluding Comments

The Apostle Paul wrote:

15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:15-18)

Brethren, the word of God says that all things are for our sakes. So, do not give up despite the difficulties we often face.

Our fabulous reward in the kingdom of God will be eternal!

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer