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August 15, 2023
Dear Brethren,
Across the world there are signs that some people and some nations are resisting the World Economic Form’s satanic push to institute a world government. In addition, there is growing opposition to the assaults against our children—all the sexual immorality and transgender practices and surgeries. Here in America, many are pushing back against the sexualization of children’s educational programs in schools. Many states have restricted abortion practices, while the state of Indiana has entirely outlawed abortions.
Russia has outlawed the entire transgender agenda—with severe punishment and jail time for violations. The Indonesian government passed laws against sexual immorality of all kinds, making sex within marriage between husband and wife the only legal sex.
These are good signs, but America has a long way to go in stopping all of these satanic practices. Meanwhile, the hand of God’s correction is still on this nation—as evidenced by the flood of immigrants continuing to pour into the country. Massive homelessness, unrelenting crime, and unabated drug abuse and addiction continue to plague our land.
On the political front, the Biden Mafia continues to lie while oppressing the American people. They have brought four major lawsuits against former president Donald Trump in blatant attempts to keep him from being elected in 2024. As Trump said, “It is a shame. This should never happen in America!” How all this works out, only time will tell.
On the economic front, we are still facing a devastating inflation crisis that may soon grow out of control. The major cause is uncontrolled government borrowing and spending, causing debt that has now reached a massive $32.6 trillion. More troubling is the fact that one trillion dollars in deficit spending is added to that debt every 6-8 months. Will it soon reach $50 trillion? This burden of debt has brought about a significant downgrading of America’s financial credit worthiness. The credit rating company Finch, which rates the treasury bonds of nations, has officially downgraded US bonds from AAA to AA+. As all the financial experts say, “THIS IS A BIG DEAL!” It reflects the fear in the financial world that America will never be able to repay the face value of its T-bills. Indeed, T-bill holders will never receive back the face value of these bonds. Moreover, a number of countries are selling their US T-bills. This past year alone, Japan sold $274 billion of US T-bills. And they are having to sell them at a large discount from their face value. All this means more inflation and financial difficulties in the long run.
In the face of all these things taking place, we—the brethren and elders—need to make preparations for the coming troubles. We need to get out of debt as much as possible, store some food, and reduce our expenses.
We Need to Continue to Preach the Gospel: The motto of the CBCG is stated in our letterhead: Restoring Original Christianity—for Today! What does that mean? It means that we are to preach and teach the original first century Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and the apostles—without the traditions of men! The apostle Jude said it best: “Beloved, when personally exerting all my diligence to write to you concerning the common salvation, I was compelled to write to you, exhorting you to fervently fight for the faith, which once for all time has been delivered to the saints. For certain men have stealthily crept in, those who long ago have been written about, condemning them to this judgment. They are ungodly men, who are perverting the grace of our God, turning it into licentiousness, and are personally denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3-4).
Thus, we are to feed the flock of God—to teach and prepare the brethren for the return of Christ and the Kingdom of God—and we are to preach the Gospel as Jesus commanded: “Now the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them to meet Him. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age’ ” (Matt. 28:16-20).
After Jesus ascended to the throne of God to present Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, He appeared to the disciples later that day. He then opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and expanded the message of how to preach the Gospel to the world: “And He said to them, ‘These are the words that I spoke to you when I was yet with you, that all the things which were written concerning Me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘According as it is written, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. And in His name, repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. For you are witnesses of these things’ ” (Luke 24:44-48).
On the 40th day after Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to the apostles for the last time. On this momentous day He further expanded the mission of preaching the Gospel to the world: “So then, when they were assembled together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has placed in His own authority; but you yourselves shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth’ ” (Acts 1:6-8).
The phrase unto the ends of the earth is clearly a prophecy for the entire Church of God from that time until Jesus returns—showing that the Word of God, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, through the writings of the apostles would reach “unto the ends of the earth.” Obviously, by the time the apostles died, they had not gone to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. Please read “Why Are There So Many Bibles in the World?” on page x in The Holy Bible In Its Original Order. This short essay shows that Jesus prophesied that the Gospel, the Word of God, would be published in all the world before the end would come: “But the end is not yet…. And the gospel must first be published among all nations” (Mark 13:7, 10).
When we put these scriptures together, we understand that what Jesus commanded was, in fact, an age-lasting mission for the churches of God until He returns. My continuous prayer is that all the brethren and ministers in all the various churches of God would yield to God the Father and Jesus Christ and faithfully carry out these commands of Jesus.
Jesus began His ministry in Galilee by “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel’ ” (Mark 1:14-15). The message in the four Gospels defines for the churches of God what we should be preaching and teaching.
Each one of us has a part in preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God—through our lives as a light to the world as well as what we do as part of a church of God. Jesus promised, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14). In recent years, not understanding what was taking place in the churches of God, many ministers and brethren have thought that this warning would be left for the Two Witnesses to do. While it is true that they will have a tremendous work to do, we should never assume that we can sit back and relax and not preach the Gospel—leaving it to the Two Witnesses. To do so would be a great dereliction of our duty before God.
The apostle Paul understood that he had a God-given responsibility to preach the Gospel: “For though I preach the gospel, there is no reason for me to boast because an obligation has been laid upon me. And woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if I do this against my will, I have been entrusted with a ministry” (I Cor. 9:16-17).
He also understood that his ministry was a stewardship from God—a sacred trust committed to him by God: “[Let] every man regard us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Beyond that, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful” (I Cor. 4:1-2).
All of us need to view our calling in the same way—a stewardship, a calling of faithfulness—because God the Father and Jesus Christ have personally chosen to dwell in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, while we live in the world, we are not a part of the world. This fact is especially evident during the worldly holiday seasons.
We are not to be partakers of the world’s ways and religions. Paul warned of this when he wrote, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? And what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what union does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement is there between a temple of God and idols?
“For you are a temple of the living God, exactly as God said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from the midst of them and be separate … and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you; and I shall be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters’…. Now then, beloved, since we have these promises, we should purge ourselves from every defilement of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor. 6:14-18; 7:1).
Thus, we need to be faithful—for we have been called to eternal life in the Family of God, to become immortal spirit beings at the return of Christ and the first resurrection. Always remember, Jesus loves us—He died for us. The Father Himself loves us—and answers our prayers! This is why we are to pray directly to the Father, as Jesus said, “[You] shall ask in My name; and I do not tell you that I will beseech the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (John 16:26-27).
Notice how the apostle John emphasized the fantastic love that the Father has towards us: “Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (I John 3:1-3).
All of this is because of the love of God—His love for us first—as John also wrote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
In order to receive eternal life, we must come to God on His terms. We do not come to God on our terms. The longer we live with the Spirit of God within us, coupled with continuous daily prayer and the study of the Word of God, we grow in the love of God and grow in our understanding of the depth of God’s love for us. John understood this more than the other apostles because he was the one whom Jesus especially loved. This is why his Gospel and epistles teach us more about the love of God than any other book in the Bible. Further explaining the love of God for us, John wrote: “In this way the love of God was manifested toward us: that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this act is the love—not that we loved God; rather, that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also are duty-bound to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. Yet, if we love one another, God dwells in us, and His own love is perfected in us. By this standard we know that we are dwelling in Him, and He is dwelling in us: because of His own Spirit, which He has given to us…. And we have known and have believed the love that God has toward us. God is love, and the one who dwells in love is dwelling in God, and God in him.
“By this spiritual indwelling, the love of God is perfected within us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in the love of God; rather, perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. And the one who fears has not been made perfect in the love of God. We love Him because He loved us first” (I John 4:9-13, 16-19).
The love of God is more than an emotion, though emotion is involved. Through the Holy Spirit, our love of God is dynamic, active, and producing fruit; the love of God is perfected in us because we are living God’s way of life. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments” (John 14:15).
John confirmed this when he wrote, “By this standard we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (I John 5:2-3).
Because deceivers had infiltrated the churches of God with false doctrines and antichrist teachings in John’s time, his writings are key to “restoring original Christianity.” In the short epistle of II John, we find verification that the love of God, commandment-keeping, and truth go hand-in-hand and are vital spiritual keys for us today. This is why we must be deeply rooted in the Word of God and the love of God. Notice what John wrote: “I rejoiced exceedingly that I have found among your children those who are walking in truth, exactly as we received commandment from the Father. And now I beseech you, lady, not as though I am writing a new commandment to you, but that which we have observed from the beginning, that we love one another [original Christianity].
“And this is the love of God: that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, exactly as you heard from the beginning, that you might walk in it [original Christianity], because many deceivers have entered into the world—those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is the spirit of the deceiver and the antichrist.
“Watch out for yourselves in order that we may not lose the things we have accomplished, but that we may receive a full reward. Anyone who transgresses and does not continue in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. But the one who continues in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son [original Christianity]” (II John 4-9).
John’s messages encompass everything God wants us to believe and do. On the other hand, the Orthodox Christianity of this world, under the deception of Satan the devil and the spirit of antichrist, does not have the Father and the Son. Their mixture of truth and error, their rejection of God’s Sabbath and holy days, coupled with a counterfeit love of God, are an exact duplicate of what John and the brethren were experiencing during their time.
Once we understand the simplicity of it—the Spirit of God, the love of God, keeping His commandments, keeping the Sabbath and holy days—we can understand the truth of God. We can be restoring “original Christianity” in our lives.
Through the sacrifice of Christ, God the Father has reconciled us to Himself personally. As Paul writes: “And all things are from God, Who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:18). This gives us direct access to God the Father, with God’s Holy Spirit within, through personal prayer and Bible study: “And that He might reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] to God in one body through the cross, having slain the enmity [of human religions and human nature] by it. Now when He came, He preached the gospel—peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have direct access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:16-18).
The Universal Deception: Satan the devil is actively deceiving the whole world in nearly every aspect of life—every institution, every government, and all religions (Rev. 12:9). In the last days of the apostles, the Church was being engulfed with false teachings and a “universe of deception” (I John 4:6). Likewise, we are today experiencing the same thing—but on a far greater scale because the “Mystery of Lawlessness” is now fully developed worldwide. In the Book of Revelation, God names this entire religious and government system “BABYLON THE GREAT!”
Compared to the Babylon of ancient history, this modern “Babylon the Great” is even more intensive, oppressive, and invasive because of modern media, the Internet, and advanced technology. It affects all nations and all peoples—and will ultimately dominate the entire world. John describes it this way: “And after these things I saw an angel descending from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried out mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird; because ALL NATIONS have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the power of her luxury.’
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, My people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and that you do not receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached as far as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her as she has rendered to you; and give to her double, even according to her works. In the cup that she mixed, give her back double. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, give to her as much torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart, “I sit a queen enthroned, and am not a widow; and in no way shall I experience sorrow.” For this very reason, her plagues shall come in one day—death and sorrow and famine; and she shall be burned with fire; for the Lord God, Who executes judgment upon her, is powerful. Then the kings of the earth who have committed fornication with her and have lived luxuriously, will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning’ ” (Rev. 18:1-9).
This is how we need to preach original Christianity—for today! Come out of “Babylon the Great”—this world’s satanic ways! Repent! Return to God! Jesus Christ is returning to this earth! The Kingdom of God is near!
Brethren, in our own lives, we need to draw close to God in heartfelt prayer and in the daily study of His Word—so that we can grow in grace and knowledge and always be overcoming. We thank God the Father and Jesus Christ daily for their goodness and mercy. We thank you personally for your continued love and faithfulness to God and each other. We thank you for your prayers for us and all the brethren, and for your faithfulness in tithes and offerings. We pray that God will continue to bless you and keep watch over you in everything. We continue to pray for you, for your health and healing, and for God’s love and grace to be upon you in all circumstances.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
