Letter to the Brethren: August 22, 2024

USA and Canada Feast of Tabernacles for 2024

The Feast of Tabernacles runs from sunset October 16th through the Last Great Day which ends sunset October 24th in 2024.

Our planned North American site is at the Moody Gardens Hotel & Spa, 7 Hope Blvd, Galveston, TX 77554, 409-744-4673.

(Photo from Moody Gardens Hotel accommodations” page)

While the per room rate is a bit higher than other sites ($169 per night, plus taxes), remember that no one needs to stay there in order to attend the Feast of Tabernacles’ services there. The hotel provided us a link in which you can book rooms should you choose to stay here: https://www.reseze.net/servlet/SendPage?hotelid=1722&skipfirstpage=true&page=227651

That said, Moody Gardens Hotel only set aside a small block of rooms for us. We hit that number already, so I had to ask them to allow additional reservations, and they did. However, please understand that if you want to stay there, you should book soon as they may not have any available for too much longer.

While no one has to stay at that hotel, at this instant we are encouraging people in the United States and Canada to attend the site in Galveston.

While we may have some type of video site in Canada, we strongly recommend that Canadians should be attending the USA site or one of the many international sites if possible.

Canadians normally have no problems being able to cross into the USA, so we are encouraging attendance in Galveston.

That said, all should be saving ‘second tithe’ so they will be able to afford to go to one of our festival sites around the world.

Information regarding our planned sites around the world is in the following article: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2024.

Restored Truths

Herbert W. Armstrong once wrote, “1933 … At least 18 basic and essential truths have been restored to the True Church since that year” (Mystery of the Ages, Dodd & Mead, 1985, p. 251).

(UnSplash photo)

In a sermon titled Mission of the Philadelphia Church Era by Herbert W. Armstrong given on December 17, 1983, he started off with the following:

Greetings, everybody! This afternoon I want to speak on the mission of the Philadelphia Era of the Church, this Church today in comparison to the first era of the Church, the Ephesus Era of the Church. It’s been seeming more and more to me, as the years go by, that the Bible was written primarily for the Philadelphia Era of the Church …

During that sermon, he listed 18 truths he felt that the early Church of God held, but that had been lost by the time of the Sardis era of the Church of God.

The CCOG may be the only COG that has ALL the 18 restored truths that Herbert W. Armstrong pointed to as restored to the Philadelphia portion of the COG in its official Statement of Beliefs–see Statement of Beliefs of the Continuing Church of God.

This subject of restoring knowledge is important because Jesus prophesied the restoration of all things when He stated:

11 … Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. (Matthew 17:11, NKJV throughout unless otherwise noted)

In Matthew 17:11, the term translated “will restore” is the Greek term apokathistemi which means “to reconstitute” or “restore (again)” (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.) and is preceded by the Greek term men which means “truly” in the asseverative sense.

Here is the first historical quote I found in WCG’s literature about an Elijah to come:

The Work of Elijah 1. Did Christ affirm that ‘Elijah’ must come before His own return?  Matt. 17:11…John the Baptist did a one-man work.  But today God works through the Body of Christ — the Church composed of many members (Eph. 4:12, 16)  After Christ’s ministry on this earth, it was no more a single individual that did God’s Work (through the power of His Spirit), but the BODY of Christ…Today the ‘body’ of Christ — the entire CHURCH OF GOD through its voice, its prayers, its tithes and offerings and its various other functions — is heralding Christ’s eminent return (Matt. 25:6)…And the hearts of both parents and children are being turned back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This is what the ‘Philadelphia’ Era of God’s Church is doing today!…And it is this Church which will be taken to a temporary place of safety just as Elijah was taken to a place prepared by God (Armstrong HW, editor. Lesson 53. Ambassador College Correspondence Course. 1969).

Hence, it was originally Herbert W. Armstrong’s position in WCG that the Philadelphia Era of the Church of God would be involved in the Elijah role. Later, instead of just the Philadelphia era, he felt that it would be just one person, with the assistance of others in the church. Of course, the verses in the Bible clearly are referring to one man; but also one who would have support from the Philadelphia portion of the Church of God.

In a coworker letter dated, August 24, 1982, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote:

John had come in the power and spirit of Elijah, but they did not recognize who he was. “Now why, then was Elijah YET, in the future, to come-just before the ‘day of the Lord?’ Verse 11, Jesus said to ‘restore all things.’ John the Baptist DID NOT do that! … Have WE, through this Work, RESTORED anything? Indeed we have!

So, yes a group can assist in restoration.

In the 20th century, Herbert Armstrong wrote that there would be a final human being as type of Elijah as well.

Since Herbert Armstrong died in 1986, he could not be the final Elijah according to his own writings. For example, he wrote:

Malachi 4:5-6 pictures the Elijah to come at the very end of the Church age (Mystery of the Ages. 1985, p. 349).

When did he write that the Church age was over? Notice:

At the end of the Church age and 6,000 years from Adam, Christ would return to earth as King of kings and Lord of Lords, ruling all nations, with the saints, for one millennium. (Armstrong HW. What If Adam Had Taken of the Tree of Life? Plain Truth, March 1983)

The “very end” of the Church age was not decades ago in the 20th century! The 6000 years has NOT yet been fulfilled (see also Could God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End?). Since the “very end of the Church age” has not happened, and Herbert Armstrong died last century, his writings support that there must be another Elijah.

Notice also the following prophecy in the Book of Daniel:

4 … Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. (Daniel 12:4)

Yes, with planes, trains, and cars, many go to and fro. And with computers, the internet, etc. knowledge has been increasing. But that prophecy also would seem to support the idea of spiritual knowledge being able to increase.

We have been restoring much of that in the Continuing Church of God–and in more details than others.

In addition to us holding fast to the 18 truths Herbert W. Armstrong said he restored, here is a summary (with links for details) of other matters restored in the CCOG:

Dreams & Signs of Acts 2:17-18
Why God Created Anything
Why God Created Human Beings
Teaching all things Jesus taught (Matthew 28:19-20; see also The Final Phase of the Work)
Church History–and how it supports the COG contending for the original faith
Laying on of Hands Succession and List
Violent Sports (see also Is American Football Evil?)
Details and Ramifications of Being Non-Trinitarian (see also Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity?)
The Final Phase of the Work and Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God translated into over 1500 languages–while working on more (see also Preaching the Gospel in Over 1500 Languages)–and while distinguishing between the millennial and post-millennial phases of the Kingdom of God
Romans 11:25 and the Full Number of the Gentiles
Prophecy (watch also 50+ Laodicean Prophetic Errors)
Habakkuk 2 and Debt (e.g., see Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel)
Identity of the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2
Daniel 11:39 and the Start of the Great Tribulation
USA-Samaria Identification
Mark of the Beast
Why Do Christian People Die?
Information on the Third Resurrection (see also Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation
The reason there was a both Passover and Atonement sacrifice representing Jesus (see Should You Keep God’s Holy Days or Demonic Holidays?)

There will be a 21st century Elijah, and that individual would be expected to be part of the Continuing Church of God.

We have also put out information to help, “turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6 AFV)–and are working on other ways to better do this.

God has restored last days’ signs to people now in the CCOG (for details, see Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18?).

Because of Acts 2:17-18 and Daniel 12:4, we can know that the final restoration of “all things” in the last days did not happen in the 20th century, and must therefore happen in the 21st century.

The CCOG has restored more in the 21st century than all other COG groups we are aware of–we are setting the stage for the Elijah fulfilling Jesus’ words in Matthew 17:11.

We in the Continuing Church of God are continuing to support the work of restoring all things–and many truths have been restored in our church. See also the article: Continuing Church of God, Elijah, and Restoring All Things.

Suggested Sabbath Day Services