Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.
Reaching Sabbath Keepers Around the World
A few years ago, the Sabbath Sentinel, a publication of the Bible Sabbath Association, published some of my articles related to early Christianity and the Sabbath.
Because of various issues, I had not submitted an article for some time (plus COVID seemed to have affected their publishing).
But this Fall, I submitted a couple of new articles.
Royce Mitchell, Sabbath Sentinel editor, informed me that they are planning on publishing my article on Waldensian succession in their next (January-February 2022) edition. Much of that material was covered in a recent sermonette video: Waldensian Apostolic Succession.
Anyway, since the Sabbath Sentinel reaches Sabbath keepers around the world, many Sabbatarians and their leaders will see it. Hopefully some will pay attention to it and see how we in the CCOG are restoring historical and other information.
Radio
Deacon Ondigo Ochieng sent the following report on December 5, 2021:
Deacon Ondigo Ochieng
Dear Evangelist Thiel:
For two Saturdays,I have tried going to the national radio station called Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Mayienga FM which covers the whole Kenya,parts of Uganda and Tanzania and we have received a very positive results.
Last Sabbath,my recorded message was displayed on KBC Mayienga FM 93.5 and it attracted 37 phone calls.Yesterday,the recorded message attracted 78 phone calls that was cutting across the nation.
May I thank you so very much for standing with us in love and the big heart you have for fulfilling Matthew 24:14 and 28:19-20.You truly have the heart of the Philadephian remnant.
This KBC station is a bigger door opened as compared to Togotane where the Pentecostal pastors and one accord association has blocked us from using.
The charges will still be the same because of the discount that they have given me because my elder brother called Ismael Ondigo is working with them. Otherwise,they do charge Kshs.8000 for 30 minutes.
Best regards,
Bro.Ondigo
As we still have radio funds we received from the group in France that cooperates with us, funds to go on KBC were sent for a trial period. We are reaching people over the radio. We also just formatted the next edition of the BibleNewsProphecy magazine in Kiswahili in order to have more follow-up materials for those with inquiries who are fluent in that language.
We are also looking at having others present on radio in Africa.
Suppression in the USA
While the prophesied Beast of Revelation will be European, this does not mean that places like the USA will not have problems with suppression of truth.
Suppression of truth by governments, Big Tech, and others will lead to the prophesied ‘Famine of the Word‘ that Amos wrote about (cf. Amos 8:11-12).
We are getting closer to that time.
Related to that, notice the following:
December 3, 2021
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) warned of a possible increase in abusive control and censorship from Big Tech in an interview with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow on Friday’s edition of the Breitbart News Daily podcast.
“I still worry about the censorship that occurs,” Nunes remarked. “What happens if these companies just decide next year, ‘Well, Republicans, they’re all insurrectionists. Let’s shut off all their credit cards and banking so they just can’t raise any money.’ They could do that, all these woke corporations.”
He added, “That’s a real threat to this country. It’s the most important threat, actually, that’s out there is … what Big Tech control of the Internet is doing to this country, and what they could do to be even more tyrannical than what we’ve even seen.” https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2021/12/03/rep-devin-nunes-big-tech-could-shut-off-all-republicans-credit-cards-banking/
Many so-called ‘conservative’ voices and positions have been deplatformed, ‘shadow-banned,’ or otherwise restricted by big tech. Certain platforms will also not tolerate certain biblical positions on aspects of morality either. As many realize, YouTube and Vimeo both pulled some of our videos as they do not wish various biblical views to be available to the public.
Notice also the following:
Disturbing prediction: Christians to be banned from jobs, bank accounts, money, plane travel
December 8, 2021
The head of a free-speech social-media site is making a dire prediction for Christians, saying in coming days believers in Jesus won’t be able to get jobs, use money, open bank accounts or travel by airplane, among other routine activities.
The warning comes from Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab.com, a popular alternative to left-wing social platforms such as Twitter.
“On December 6th Twitter banned thousands of accounts in their latest purge of dissenting thought on the doomed and failing platform,” Torba says, noting the action resulted in a jump in the number of Gab users.
“While this is great news for the Gab community, it’s not great news for Christians. In fact, it’s a sign of what is soon to come which will be much worse than losing your Twitter account.”
“I have long seen where things are headed for the simple reason that I’ve experienced it first hand myself. Soon it won’t just be Twitter. If you’re a Christian you won’t be able to open a bank account. You won’t be able to host a website on the internet. You won’t be able to send emails. You won’t be able to access the app stores. You won’t be able to transact with money online, or off. You won’t be able to get a job. You won’t be able to fly in an airplane. This is coming for us all, and it’s already happening to many of us right now.”
Torba noted, “Something that isn’t being said about the latest Twitter Purge is that it was almost exclusively targeted at young, White, Christian men. Twitter flipped a switch and made thousands of young Christians disappear from one of the world’s top communication systems. No longer can they share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations on a platform where much of the world communicates daily. That’s a big problem, but that is only the surface level of what Christians have coming.” https://www.wnd.com/2021/12/disturbing-prediction-christians-banned-jobs-bank-accounts-money-plane-travel/
The time will come when real Christians will be legally not allowed to buy and sell in many parts of the world as is foretold in Revelation 13:16-18.
COVID restrictions, moral censorship (YouTube, for example, censored our video, Disney’s abominable promotions!, which we still have up on other platforms), etc. are setting the stage for 666 and the Beast.
Pray, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:10, for the Kingdom of God to come.
Suggested Sabbath Service
Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:
- 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, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: German push for a ‘United States of Europe’. Other sermonettes are available at the Bible News Prophecy channel.
- 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 for this week is: Be a Philadephian Witness. 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.
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.
World News Items
In German, a new chancellor assumed office (see Olaf Scholz now German Chancellor: He wants to strengthen the EU–could he be the prophesied Beast?) . The recommended sermonette for the week is somewhat related to that (watchGerman push for a ‘United States of Europe’).
Pope Francis has been in Greece pushing unity with the Orthodox Catholics (see Roman Catholics Beware: Pope Francis again calls for unity with the Orthodox). Despite opposition from some Orthodox leaders, at least a type of temporal unity between the Roman and Orthodox Christians will be achieved.
We are seeing more COVID-blamed restrictions some see these as totalitarian steps (see Many COVID steps are moves toward totalitarianism and ‘German EU member warns of new Holocaust coming’ and Bill Gates believes “acute phase” of COVID will end in 2022 and blames public; COGwriter puts blame on politicians, the major media, and public health officials. GAB: Christians will not be able to bank, etc.).
More censorship is happening around the world (see United Nations removing web registrars) and some even suspect that will also lead to financial restrictions (see Rep. Devin Nunes: Big Tech Could Shut Off All Republicans’ Credit Cards and Banking).
Concluding Comments
The Apostle Paul wrote:
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
In our sermons and sermonettes, we tend to use a lot of scriptures–which are inspired by the Spirit of God.
Brethren, we hear a lot of false science and other worldly wisdom today from people who do not truly believe the word of God.
But you and I brethren, unlike the world, do need to believe and live our lives according to God’s word.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer