Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Greetings from the Five Cities Region of California.
Jesus said that the end, meaning the Great Tribulation, would begin shortly after Matthew 24:14 is fulfilled. Other scriptures point to Jesus’ return after the tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31).
Meaning?
Jesus will return a little over 3 1/2 years after Matthew 24:14 is fulfilled.
To aid in that fulfillment, we continue to receive additional translations of our our English booklet, The Gospel of the Kingdom of God. On Monday, we received another 28 translations. We have well over 900 different languages and dialects now. This has never before occurred in the history of the Church of God. We are getting closer to the end as we strive to do our part in preparing for the “short work” that the Apostle Paul wrote of Romans 9:28 (see Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word) which is also part of the final phase of the work (e.g. Revelation 7:9; see also The Final Phase of the Work).
We all should be grateful that God is allowing us to support His end-time Philadelphian (Revelation 3:7-13) work.
Bible News Prophecy International Radio on the Air in the Spanish Language
As mentioned last week, we planned to start Bible News Prophecy International as a multi-language internet radio channel.
Kristy Gorman sent the following report:
Hello Dr. Thiel,With Shirley’s help and expertise, the bnpi radio broadcast is on the air. She updated the website to show what is playing and what is coming up. The text is in Spanish for now. We can add translations later when we have more languages.I know how to get the sermons and sermonettes from CDLIDD YouTube, convert them to audio, tag them and add them to the radio channel. There’s more to learn but for now, it is broadcasting in Spanish 24/7. …
Today, Shirley Gestro sent the following report:
Dear Dr. Thiel,
Kristy has been great, she learnt quickly with radio audio preparation, station and website set up, and following up on several related tasks. There are still other aspects we will go over, nothing urgent. We may have to wait a bit, for the Spanish audio books.
The radio station stream is all in working order on a 24/7 schedule like the English station.
With the website, we are limited on a few things in comparison to the English radio website. I understand there will be more languages added in the future. …
As far as adding BNPI on other radio listening platforms/directories/mobile apps, Tune-In (Web/mobile app), one of the most popular have stopped accepting new stations. BNPI radio info was submitted to Streema and also a new one myTuner. I tested myTuner with the English radio, they are fast to respond, and we are already live on the platform, players and links have been added to the BNP.net site. I don’t think it will be long for BNPI to be on soon. Streema takes longer. Also, myTuner is available in more than 200 countries and territories and has 20 million active listeners every month spread through all major platforms: mobile, web, desktop, TV, wearables, cars, and others. When these listening options are ready, we will add to BNPI.net. More listening options will be added in the future including the mobile stream.
Kind regards,
Shirley
It is great that it has started and expansion to other platforms is in progress.
This project also demonstrates some ways that women have been volunteering and serving to assist in the fulfillment of Jesus’ commissions in Matthew 24:14 and 28:19-20.
Anyway, you can find this station at: https://www.bnpi.net
We expect to add more languages for radio as well as put up links to online literature in hundreds of languages to that website relatively soon.
One of those languages we expect to add is Kiswahili out of Kenya. This week evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following:
Pastor Dr Bob,
Greetings from Kenya.We met with Joel, Granton, Charles Agwenge and I. We discussed about radio program … {Let’s renew}
for 3 months {now} …Evans
So, we are in the process of renewing a radio station in Kenya for three months.
More on our radio presence can be found at the Continuing Church of God Multimedia page.
Google Campaign
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago (see Letter to the Brethren: October 26, 2023), out Google campaign is again running as Google removed the improper suspensions that it had put in place.
In the past few weeks, we have made an additional 11 million computer impressions with our campaign to witness to the world! This campaign is part of the work we are doing to reach the world to assist in fulfilling Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:19-20, and Romans 11:25.
We also have a small campaign with Microsoft that targets and reaches Sabbath keepers–this has not been stopped and we continue to reach thousands that way.
Suggested Sabbath Day Services
Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people:
- 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.
- The suggested sermonette is: Artificial Intelligence Superhuman Persuasion? Other sermonettes are available at our Prophecy channel on BitChute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/prophecy/
- Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
- The suggested sermon, which for most who receive this letter via email will be: Baptism, Infants, Fire, & the Second Death. Other sermons are also available at the COGTube channel on BitChute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/cogtube/
- 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. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones channel.
World News Items
The Hamas-Israel war keeps dominating the news. Many have been protesting Israel’s military response in Gaza–an unusual part of the fallout of that seems to be that Germans are now more opposed to getting Islamic immigrants (see Massive anti-Israel protests around the world; Most Germans do not want any more Islamic migrants).
Many in the government of Israel continue to make victory statements more hopeful than biblical reality (e.g., see Israeli says Gaza split in half; I365 points to Zechariah 9 as ‘a prophecy for our time’ and Israel defeating Gaza, but … ). Many outside the government of Israel suspect that the more “successful” Israeli interventions into Gaza are, the more likely others in the region will get involved (e.g. see ‘The IDF Is Making Major Progress in Gaza, and That Makes Intervention by Hezbollah Much More Likely’). Many non-combatants are being killed. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and for God’s kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10).
Despite military power, the prophetic reality is that Israel will ultimately lose territory to the Palestinians. Furthermore, because the Bible tells of a temporary “peace deal” in the region (cf. Daniel 9:27), it is likely a broader regional war will occur before such a deal. This is something to “watch” (cf. Mark 13:37).
On other matters, we continue to see more steps away from the use of the USA dollar as the world’s international trading currency. The BRICS nations and others are working for ways around it (see NEW WORLD CURRENCY ANNOUNCED? – New BRICS CBDC To Be Launched Next Year? ’10 U.S. Sectors To Be Affected If BRICS Stops Using the Dollar’). The introduction of the Euro decades ago was partially done for the same purpose (and, at least within Europe) and has had some success that way.
After enough international trade is no longer done in USA dollar and nations no longer feel the need to maintain high balances of USA currency and notes, this will result in massive inflation in the USA. And it will get to the point that the USA dollar will, after prophesied creditors rise up (cf. Habakkuk 2:6-8), be worth no more than its scrap or nostalgia value. Steps towards that are already in process!
Concluding Comments
The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write the following:
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:2-5)
Yes, the end of war is coming.
Brethren, pray, as Jesus said (Matthew 6:10), for God’s kingdom to come.
And remember, that God’s millennial kingdom will come in just over 3 1/2 years after Matthew 24:14 is fulfilled to God’s satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer