Sabbath 5/4/32/120

Dear Friends,

We are still progressing in the work at a rapid rate. As we go on there are more and more churches joining us. Yesterday we had another union of twelve Sabbath-keeping churches approach us for affiliation and membership.

These twelve were spread over Uganda, the Sudan and into the Congo at Kisangani.

What is happening is that the Sabbath Churches that have been battling on alone over the years are now being called into union with us over the entire area of the spread of the Sabbath-keeping Churches, commencing from Africa.

To put things in perspective, it should be noted that the Sabbath Churches were in the Nile valley from the days of the Abyssinian Church ca 200-400 CE. The church was established in Ethiopia in the first century, as we know from the book of Acts. These groups have gone on in various forms under many changes of regimes and rule. It was the Abyssinian Church that brought the faith to China under Archbishop Mueses of Abyssinia. He went there via India in the fifth century (see the paper General Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122)). They were attracted to the message of the Sabbatarian systems as they developed in the period post-reformation. These people as a rule are not offshoots of any British or American system with the exception of the Seventh Day Baptists from Britain and Europe and the Seventh Day Adventists. If they were attracted or working with them, the tradition of Sabbath-keeping goes back a long way in the Nile basin to the Lakes district.

There are well over two million Sabbath-keepers in the area and perhaps many more.

God seems to be putting these people together in CCG, in a great effort in these last days.

As we move into the Sudan the situation will become more serious, if it is not already serious enough. The oppression there in Darfur is horrendous. We will consolidate the south as best we can before we can make headway in the Muslim north.

There are now 16 nations in Africa in CCG. We are about to add Angola, Libya and the Sudan to the site map on CCG Africa.

The conversion of Islam is now under way and consolidating. We are, however, somewhat circumspect about what we say concerning them.

What is striking about the growth of the work is the difference between the support we get for Africa and the developing world from within CCG as compared to the pitiful effort that comes from those outside. For those of you that do support this enormous effort you have the heartfelt thanks of the nations that are trying so hard to do the work of God in their countries.

One of the factors that is affecting the movement of the Sabbatarians in Africa is that the Adventists put pressure on their ministry, once ordained, to become vegetarians. There is no biblical basis for this aberration and in Africa they cannot maintain health. Even in Australia 77% of the Adventist pastors checked by their own medical people were found to be nutritionally deficient. It is impossible for a family to be vegetarian in Africa on any sort of normal wage and maintain health and brain power.  Moreover, the Soy infant milk formula fed to infants will actually kill them, and vegans are prosecuted for this manslaughter in developed countries and hopefully they will be soon in Africa in the developing countries, as they become aware of the seriousness of the problem. The advice given by the vegetarian pastors may well constitute criminal negligence and become actionable at law.

In the meantime all CCG ministry are to encourage people to eat a healthy diet and shun vegetarianism and vegetarians like the plague. They are also reminded that these so-called soda pops are extremely unhealthy and no funds of the church are to be spent on them, nor are they to be provided at CCG functions. They contain sugars, high levels of caffeine and in many cases artificial sweeteners such as sucrose and aspartame which at higher temperatures such as found in Africa on a daily basis turn to formaldehyde which is used in embalming fluid.

There is nothing righteous about abstaining from meat or drinking soda instead of wine. In fact it is plain stupid and an act of negligence when you teach your children such nonsense. Moreover, it is an act of blasphemy and an accusation against the system God has set in place.

Encourage one another and make a conscious effort to help support each other in health and the Holy Spirit.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General