Sabbath 23/10/31/120A

Dear Friends,

As many are aware, we are experiencing an influx of people from other faiths into CCG. Some are coming from other Churches of God in different places. However, majority elements are from churches that have no real exposure to Churches of God doctrines. Many are Sabbatarians and many are not. Some are Protestants and some were even trained to be Roman Catholic priests. The love of truth is not confined to any one group but rather to the people who are called by God as His elect.

For those coming to CCG as part of a group there is a significant problem and a number of steps for you to take.

We expect to treat everyone as an individual and not as part of a group. Your salvation depends on your direct relationship with Jesus Christ. Your baptism is critical to your salvation. Your keeping of the Passover with the body of Christ is also critical to that salvation.

The Churches of God have experienced a serious and troubling time over the last three decades. Many Churches of God have the same doctrines but cannot agree to worship together because of ministerial ambition. Many groups have been treated like travelling circuses. This has led to spin-offs in the far-flung groups of the churches in nations and continents far removed from the USA where most of the friction is generated.

The people we are experiencing joining us are doing so because of the reach of our Internet media and their research into what aspects of the faith are true. Those of you reading this as part of the new groups in CCG will recognise which process it was that brought you into the truth. Most of you would have either studied this yourself or had your minister take you through the issues each week. Either way the decision making process is yours and no other’s. Your salvation is your responsibility and not another person’s.

What we all must avoid at all costs is the ministerial manipulation of groups around the Churches of God. One of the problems we find, especially in Africa, is the communal movement of people from one of the churches to another in the search of “benefits.” This behaviour is a form of a cargo cult mentality. In Papua New Guinea it saw people build wharves up streams and airstrips in the jungle because they had seen such action result in ships and aircraft bringing cargo. The relationships of the purpose and the effect were not understood. If you are coming to CCG for a handout you are wasting your time.

If you are a minister of one of the groups then you have your work cut out making sure that those with you fully understand what the doctrines are and what we expect of each prospective member of CCG. You also have to familiarise yourself with what we expect of you.

Some have been studying and teaching the doctrines for as long as twelve years. Some are fully familiar in studying the doctrine from a COG background and there are a number of those churches. Many of them are in non-COG churches that have also been studying for three years or so. A great many have been studying for some time and the doctrines are new to them. They will take a little time to become fully aware but they also do not have to divest themselves of as much baggage either. It is harder to unlearn wrong teaching than it is to learn new information. Each of us has to come to it with an open mind. Remember, there is not much we have not encountered before. There is generally an answer for every problem in the papers as someone has almost surely thought of the problem beforehand.

There are papers written specifically to counter erroneous doctrines. However most are written to clearly explain the Bible position on any matter and the position of the First Century church and the moves away from that position over time.

All people coming in will find the paper General Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122) useful in order to get a picture of the scope and antiquity of the Sabbath faith. The African churches will take great pride in seeing the extent of the evangelism of the Abyssinian Church in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries when Europe was at war with the faith trying to destroy it. The work Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170) will give everyone a grasp of the history of the Churches of God and how they have waxed and waned like the moon over the centuries. Contrary to popular belief in the WCG offshoots the WCG did not reinstate the Festivals. It was restored by the Church of God (Seventh Day) in the Caldwell Idaho Conference and not using the Hillel Calendar either. The Hillel Calendar was introduced by Herbert Armstrong and also by the Nigerian Conference of the COG (7D), and they were both wrong. The Nigerian COG is at last waking up to that fact and correcting it among other doctrines or at least in the branches coming to CCG. The Churches of God over the last three centuries had been virtually dead and may well be called the Sardis era. Its end is that it has the name that it is Living but it is dead (Rev. 3:1).

The Laodicean era is also lukewarm and spewed out of Christ’s mouth (see also Rev. ch 3). The smallest and most faithful of all the churches is that of Philadelphia. Our job is to be that faithful flock that is the church of brotherly love. These matters have been discussed in the paper The Pillars of Philadelphia (No. 283). All of us are sinners but we are to repent. My prayer is that of King David speaking in the Holy Spirit of Christ, and it should be the prayer of all of us, both those who lead our people and those who serve in any task given to them. Those of us who are in want pray that God restores us all as He restored Christ.

Psalm 69

[0] To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Psalm of David.

[1] Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. [2] I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. [3] I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. [4] More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore? [5] O God, thou knowest my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from thee. [6] Let not those who hope in thee be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek thee be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. [7] For it is for thy sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face. [8] I have become a stranger to my brethren, an alien to my mother's sons. [9] For zeal for thy house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult thee have fallen on me. [10] When I humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. [11] When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. [12] I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me. [13] But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of thy steadfast love answer me. With thy faithful help [14] rescue me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. [15] Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. [16] Answer me, O LORD, for thy steadfast love is good; according to thy abundant mercy, turn to me. [17] Hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in distress, make haste to answer me. [18] Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies! [19] Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to thee. [20] Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. [21] They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. [22] Let their own table before them become a snare; let their sacrificial feasts be a trap. [23] Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; and make their loins tremble continually. [24] Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy burning anger overtake them. [25] May their camp be a desolation, let no one dwell in their tents. [26] For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and him whom thou hast wounded, they afflict still more. [27] Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from thee. [28] Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous. [29] But I am afflicted and in pain; let thy salvation, O God, set me on high! [30] I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. [31] This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. [32] Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. [33] For the LORD hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds. [34] Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves therein. [35] For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and his servants shall dwell there and possess it; [36] the children of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

Our task is a very important one in these last days. We are reproached for our faith and those who know nothing hurl insults and jibes at us.

Those coming to us have to be dealt with according to the errors of their previous conviction as well as the truth of the structure of the Faith once delivered.

Those of you coming from Judaism and its calendar in use among the Churches of God have to have the errors of the Postponements and the Hillel Calendar explained. Most importantly the errors of the Nature of God have to be gone through thoroughly. It is in these two areas that the modern Churches of God fell into error. The New Moons have to be explained and kept properly. Look at the papers God’s Calendar (No. 156) and also the papers on the Postponements and the errors of Judaism.

CCG has no place for Vegetarianism (see the paper Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183) and the paper The Food Laws (No. 015)), nor does it allow any Passover to be taken without properly fermented wine. Grape juice is not permitted (see the paper Wine in the Bible (No. 188)).

Those from an Adventist background will benefit also from the papers The Millennium and the Rapture (No. 095), The Warning of the Last Days (No. 044) and False Prophecy (No. 269). All those from the COG or Jehovah’s Witness background would also benefit from that work.

These works also need to be translated in Africa – into Kiswahili and the languages of Uganda and Rwanda and Burundi as well to deal with the large numbers coming in from there. All ministers are to familiarise themselves with these works in order to deal with them easily in discussions.

The Muslims should have the papers relevant to the Calendar and the Qur’an also translated into the African languages.

Each of us should be happy that we are achieving great strides now as people are reached out of the nations that have not heard the gospel preached as it should be preached in truth and power. The voice of God is a still small voice spoken quietly and in that still small voice is the power of the authority of God.

We are aware that for some of you English is your third or fourth language. Be patient as the translators work steadily through the papers so that we all can understand and contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints (Jude 3).

May the Lord bless and keep us and lift up the Light of His Countenance upon us and give us peace.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General