Download PDF Dear Brethren and Friends, At the end of each year, it is customary for the media to look back over the previous twelve months but, in recent memory, 2016 will turn out to be a time of extraordinary events that have happened around the world, with many of these surely having an impact that doesn’t bode well for humanity. Peter Hitchens, a regular Daily Mail columnist, made these observations in his column on the 13th November 2016 when talking about the liberal elite in society today: “On they ploughed with their mass immigration, their diversity and equality, their contempt for lifelong, stable marriage, their refusal to punish crime, their mad, idealistic foreign wars, their indulgence of drugs, their scorn for patriotism, their schools and universities, turning out graduates with certificates they can barely read. And on they went with their destruction of real jobs, promising a new globalised prosperity that never came. Millions have just had too much of this.” Mr Hitchens was commenting on the extraordinary (humanly speaking) victory of Donald Trump in becoming the President-elect of the USA with his tenure of office due to commence next month. Mr Norbert Link, in our monthly letter last […]

Download PDF Dear Members, Co-Workers and Friends: What most did not believe possible has indeed occurred: Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected to become the 45th President of the United States of America. As the Republicans have also maintained the majority in both the House and the Senate, Mr. Trump will become the most powerful man on earth. His power will be greater than that of any recent American President. The German tabloid Bild ran this headline on November 9: “Trump Almighty.” As USA Today wrote, Mr. Trump will be in a position to repeal large parts of President Obama’s legislative agenda, repeal his executive orders with a stroke of a pen, and install conservative Supreme Court justices. As Commander-in-Chief, he will have the power to go to war. Almost half of Americans (Hillary Clinton won by popular vote) and most countries in the world have reacted with shock, concern and anxiety. The Guardian echoed those sentiments, stating that “this is primarily an American catastrophe that America has brought upon itself.” Europe is very concerned. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former German Minister of Economics and Energy, wrote: “A gruesome awakening for Europe! When it is finally waking up.” The BBC wrote […]

Download PDF Dear Brethren and Friends, Are you READY… or NOT? No greater challenge faces us than this question. Jesus said that we should be ready for His return—that we should be watching and actually knowing that the time has drawn near. Read again the momentous events revealed by Jesus in chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew—many occurrences prophesied are at play RIGHT NOW! Are you watching? Can you relate world events to key prophecies of the end time, and do you truly believe what you are seeing? Not many do, and it will be only the smallest minority of faithful Christians who will take Christ’s admonition seriously to, “‘Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man’” (Luke 21:36). Jesus prophesied about the end of the age and compared it to events leading up to the worldwide Flood. He specifically referenced “‘the days of Noah’” (Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26). During that tumultuous and evil age, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8), and God said to Noah, “‘you are righteous before Me in this generation’” […]

Download PDF Dear Brethren and Friends! When one takes the pulse of the current events in America and around the world, there is evidence that the patient is in critical condition and that there needs to be a change. Chicago has had a crime increase of dramatic proportions. According to recent data released by the Chicago Police Department, murders in the nation’s third-largest city are up about 72%, while shootings have surged more than 88% in the first three months of 2016, compared with the same period last year. A large degree of this crime wave is the result of unwed mothers bearing children with no father figure to stabilize the family, and thus many of the children revert to joining gangs which leads to crime and violence. It was reported that a couple from Colorado moved to Chicago. They only lasted there a week before moving back to Colorado because they did not feel safe there with all the violence and crime. The statistics about Chicago only reflect one city out of many with huge problems in the United States. To add to the mix, New York has 31 gender designations which is hard to put your mind around, […]

Download PDF Dear Members and Friends: In the early 1960’s, Bob Dylan penned a song that became a reflection of a generation growing up in that decade. “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became a ballad of the civil rights movement. Dylan himself became an icon for that era and embodied changes that many sought after, either peacefully or through radical means. History.com sums up this decade stating, “At the beginning of the 1960s, many Americans believed they were standing at the dawn of a golden age. On January 20, 1961, the handsome and charismatic John F. Kennedy became president of the United States. His confidence that, as one historian put it, ‘the government possessed big answers to big problems’ seemed to set the tone for the rest of the decade. However, that golden age never materialized. On the contrary, by the end of the 1960s it seemed that the nation was falling apart.” Fast forward five decades and it’s obvious no utopian change took place in that “golden” decade. But change has happened, just not for the betterment of man. Quite the opposite! The ruler of this world desires nothing less than the ruin of man. In Isaiah, we read […]

Download PDF Dear Members and Friends, We said in the beginning of the year that 2016 is going to be interesting; that things will not get better; and that we should be prepared for significant events to take place, in light of biblical prophecy. We are now in the middle of the year and what we have said has been confirmed: more ISIS terrorist attacks; more political drama; Great Britain leaving the EU; more racial tension and violent controversy; and there is more to come. With more than 7 billion people in the world, we have seen that some of the “minorities” are letting their voices be heard, but not in a good way. For example, the LGBT community has gained a lot more momentum lately—even more so now since last month’s terrorist attack at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida, where gays were specifically targeted. The world sympathized with them and brought increasing attention to the gay community. This is not to say that the murder of innocent civilians was justified, as that terrible action was clearly wrong. Same sex marriage is becoming more and more acceptable, even within the Catholic church, and is increasing in popularity all […]

Download PDF Dear Brethren and Friends, As we draw to the close of this age, what stands out for each of us? We live in a world that, as we watch each day, gets further and further away from God. This was pointed out in the first chapter of Romans where Paul tells us, in verses 19–32, that when people no longer want to retain God in their thoughts, then their debauchery and subsequent downfall is imminent. Truly, in a relative sense of the amount of years since the Bible was written, our time is short. If we truly think about it, 6,000 years is not that long a time, but the amount of progress that has been accomplished in just the last 50 years is staggering. We see that because God gave us creative minds, humans can do almost anything they put their minds to. We know that at the tower of Babel, God had to stop those people from continuing what they were doing. God rightly said in Genesis 11:6: “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be […]

Download PDF Dear Members, Co-Workers and Friends, We trust that all of you had a rewarding and meaningful Passover season. While this present evil age is nearing its completion in an unparalleled crescendo of unspeakable destruction, God’s people are looking beyond this time in anticipation of worldwide peace, prosperity and happiness. On April 21, 2016, baptized Church members gathered together to observe the annual Passover. Brian Gale and Kalon Mitchell conducted local Passover services in California; Dave Harris, Eric Rank and Robb Harris in Colorado; Rene Messier in Oregon; and Norbert Link and Michael Link in Germany. In addition, scattered brethren in the US and Canada were able to participate live over the Internet at the services conducted in Colorado. We are also happy to report that nine people were baptized in Germany by Norbert and Michael Link on the Sabbath following the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. By now, 42 baptized members of the Church of the Eternal God live in Germany and Switzerland. Further baptism counseling was conducted, and we anticipate that additional people will be baptized during the Feast of Tabernacles 2016 in Templin, Germany. Prior to Passover, we held our annual Church conference. We discussed our […]

Download PDF Dear Members, Co-workers and Friends: With the emergence of springtime, our thoughts begin to focus on the Holy Days of God that will shortly be upon us. It is a time when we reflect upon the great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we have the opportunity to embrace, by having our sins forgiven. But it is also a time when we consider whether we are holding up our end of the deal! Jesus Christ has willingly taken the responsibility to offer His life as a sacrifice for our sins so that we do not have to bear the burden of the penalty of death. This is a gift that is given to us freely by the immense mercy of God. Our responsibility, if we are willing to accept this gift, is to discipline our behavior according to the model of righteousness provided by Jesus Christ Himself. We are reminded to continually examine our behavior and make changes in our life to turn from sin and bear fruits of righteousness. The time is now that we need to reflect on our actions to make sure that we are indeed, bearing fruit. It is the fruit of the Spirit that […]

Download PDF Dear Members and Friends, 2016 will be a most remarkable year. It won’t be a peaceful or pleasant year—just the opposite. But it will be a year when we will experience and witness the continuing fulfillment of prophesied events, signaling the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ. At the same time, it will be a sobering year as we know that just prior to Christ’s Second Coming, terrible events of unparalleled severity will occur first (Matthew 24:21). It is the duty, responsibility and commission of God’s end-time Church to WARN the nations of impending terrible disaster and, at the same time, to witness to the world the awesome truth of the gospel (Matthew 24:14), which includes the good news or glad tidings of the message that Christ will soon rule on this earth—as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. God’s Church must not be side-tracked from fulfilling this all-important mission. In comparison, doing “good works” in Third World countries is of no lasting significance—knowing full well that the only hope for this world is the return of Christ… and the sooner God’s Church completes its commission of proclaiming this fact, the sooner Christ can return (2 […]