d COG News: Emphasizing News of Interest to those Once in the Worldwide Church of God
"For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you" (I Corinthians 11:19).

* LCG News *  LCG 2006 Feast of Tabernacles' Information * Listing of Living Church of God Congregations *Sunset Times for the U.S. *  News of Those Once Affiliated with the Global COG * Prayer Requests

Click Here for the COGwriter Home Page which has articles on various sabbatarian Churches of God (COGs) and articles supporting beliefs of the Philadelphia portion of the Church of God.

10/20/06 a.m. PCG is in the news:

Local College Students Heading to Jerusalem for 'Find of the Century'

KSBI-TV Oklahoma City,  October 13, 2006Edmond, Okla -- Archaeologists are calling it "the find of the century." Israeli archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, claims to have uncovered the Palace of Biblical King David in East Jerusalem, and three students from Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond are heading overseas on Sunday to help with the excavation. As you can imagine they are delighted at the opportunity.For the next four months, Edwin Trebels, Jeremy Cocomise and Brent Nagtegaal will trade in the walls of Herbert Armstrong College for what is believed to be the remains of King David's Palace in Jerusalem. "Just the overall project, it's just very exciting," says Trebels.  The students were chosen by the college to participate in the dig.  Cocomise says, "The hairs on my arm stood up when I first got in-- to know that you could be a part of something with such great significance."Before the discovery of David's Palace, the college's founder, Herbert Armstrong, originated what's called the Temple Mount Digs years ago in Jerusalem.   Since then, students of his named ambassador college have taken part in various excavations overseas, so this is an opportunity that holds even more significance for Trebels, Cocomise and Nagtegaal."It's certainly inspiring for us and exciting to be able to continue that legacy with a similar dig, something he didn't get to dig in -- the City of David where we're digging," explains Nagtegaal.About 10 percent of the structure has been uncovered. Archaeologists have already found 10th and 11th century pottery, dating back to the time of King David. Nagtegaal says being a part of discovering more history will be the opportunity of a lifetime."Being there everyday, waking up in the morning, going and digging int he hopes that you'll find something that can further cement this is David's Palace is something to get you up in the morning, that's for sure," says Nagtegaal.The students will return from their trip in February.

http://www.ksbitv.com/home/4395561.html

Two comments: 1) Hebert Armstrong was NOT the founder of PCG's Hebert W. Armstrong College. 2) This is a part of an apparent PCG strategy to have as much that appears to be LIKE the old WCG, but without having the same actual WORK of the Philadelphia era of the Church of God.

An article of possible interest may be Teachings Unique to the Philadelphia Church of God.

10/18/06 p.m. Post Feast of Tabernacles greetings. My family and I went to Guatemala. This is the first time my English-speaking family went to a Spanish-speaking FOT site. There were language issues, but it was still God's Feast.

In his last newsletter, SDA Dr. S. Bacchiocchi wrote:

Why I Examined The Da Vinci Code

You may be wondering, why would a Church Historian like me, invest much time and money in examining a novel? The answer is simple. The DVC is much more than a novel. It is a social phenomenon that is shattering the faith of millions of Christians by blatantly attacking the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. In many ways this is a blasphemious and sacrelegious novel that insults God, Christ, the Gospels, the Bible, and fundamental Christian teachings.

The problem with the DVC is that it is fiction presented as fact. On page 1, called the "FACT" page, Dan Brown, states: "All descriptions of art work, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" (DVC 1). On several interviews, Dan Brown repeated the same claim. When asked by Matt Lauer in the Today Show how much of the book was based on actual events, Dan Brown replied, "Absolutely all of it"...

I read the book but I was not enlightened at all. On the contrary, I was greatly distressed by the sheer absurdity of the following false claims:
* Christ married Mary Magdalene and they had a daughter Sarah.
* Christ chose Mary Magdalene to lead His church, not the twelve apostles as the Gospels tell us.
* Constantine chose our 4 Gospels out of 80, because they promote Christ's divinity. He rejected the Gnostic Gospels because they stress the human traits of Christ.
* The early Christians worshipped the "sacred feminine" with ritual sex in order to experience the knowledge of God.
* The Catholic Church has conspired to suppress the secret of Christ's marriage by using murderous organizations like Opus Dei.

As an Early Church historian, I can assure you that there is not a shred of historical evidence for any of these absurd claims. Yet million of gullible Christians are accepting as truth Dan Brown's false claims about the origin of Christianity. The reason is that they are biblically and historically illiterate.

His and my reasons for looking at that book were essentially the same. For a real and COG perspective, you may wish to read the article The Da Vinci Code: Some Good, Most Bad.

Dr. B. also wrote:

The Fact of the Resurrection

The Christian belief in the resurrection of the body did not arise from philosophical speculations or wishful thinking like the notion of the immortality of the soul. It arose from the conviction that such an event had actually already taken place with the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Since the Son of Man is the representative of all mankind, what happened to Him is a clue to what is going to happen to every believer. Because Christ rose bodily from the grave, we have every reason to believe that we, too, shall rise in a similar fashion.

Two articles of related interest might be Did Early Christians Believe that Humans Possessed Immortality? and The Resurrection.

10/05/06 a.m. The COGwriter site just switched servers (the last one was down too often). Anyway, searches are much quicker on the new server. You can search here:

The Feast of Tabernacles begins tomorrow night. Those in the COGs, that are able, will be traveling to approximately 200 different locations around the world for its observance.

COGuk (a CGOM affiliate) reported last night:

...since the beginning of the Christian church it has been understood that the seven day week is a model. There would be six 'days' - each of a thousand years - when mankind would have (almost) a free hand to conduct his affairs. It is followed by a millennial 'day of rest' for which the seventh-day Sabbath is a model
...the 'day of rest' is known as 'the Millennium'. Jesus will return to reign over all political and religious entities: 'King of kings and LORD of lords' . The annual Day of Trumpets pictures this momentous event.  Pictures, too, the resurrection to unending life of all in whom is the Spirit of God - the 'first resurrection' (Revelation 20:7) It will initiate a time of rest from war, freedom from ill-health and disease, economic stability, abundant resources, pure religion. The Devil's influence will be temporarily removed and mankind will be universally reconciled to God - for which the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is a type
  ...the annual Festival of Tabernacles sums up human frailty. It has many layers of significance: thankfulness for God's provision in the harvests, a commemoration of Israel's wilderness sojourn (when they lived forty years in 'tabernacles' - temporary dwellings), the human body (it is temporary and wears out), the millennium, the general resurrection. Overall it spans the whole time of sinful human existence in the flesh 
...the final day of the seven-day  Festival of Tabernacles - termed 'the Great Day of the Feast' (John 7:37) - represents the general resurrection to judgment of 'the rest of the dead' (Revelation 20:5). All those from all ages of man hitherto excluded from the true faith will be resurrected in the flesh and have opportunity to embrace the Gospel - the 'good news' of salvation: ie becoming a part of the Kingdom (Family) of God.

Five articles of related interest may be:

Did Early Christians Observe the Fall Holy Days? Did they? Did Jesus?
The Feast of Tabernacles: A Time for Christians? Is this pilgrimage holy day still valid? Does it teach anything relevant for today's Christians?
Millenarianism (a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth, often called the millennium) was taught by the early Christians.
The Feast of Tabernacles: A Time to Learn the Law In addition to the millenium, we are to learn to appreciate the law of God at the Feast.
Last Great Day study paper Was Jesus speaking about the 7th or 8th day of the Feast in John 7:37? UCG says the 7th, but what does the Bible teach? This extensive paper reviews UCG's LGD study paper and includes comments as to where it erred.

The last article, not only explains why UCG (the largest COG) is in error on what its leaders teach about the Last Great Day of the Feast, it also explains a lot of the meaning of the LGD. If you are about to attend (or have attended) a UCG Feast site (and many outside of UCG do), you really should read what this group actually teaches. Also you may wish to read the article on Differences between the Living Church of God and United Church of God.

Readers of this page who do not keep the biblical Holy Days may at first think this is strange, but we who do consider those who ignore Bible teachings to be even more unusual. For example, last night I added this to the article about the Eastern Orthodox:

Eucharist/Lord's Passover

Orthodox: "the Eucharist is offered. This sacrament is performed by a bishop or a prebyter using leavened (never unleavened) bread... (Clendenin, p. 28).

COG: "At the end of Jesus’ human life, Luke tells us: "Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat…. ’ Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’" (Luke 22:7–8, 15)...Also, the Apostle Paul clearly commanded the Gentile Church at Corinth to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread. Speaking of these days, Paul wrote: "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). Paul was obviously speaking of "keeping the Feast" of Unleavened Bread...First comes the solemn observance of Christ’s suffering and death on our behalf. The Bible calls this the "Passover." It pictures our acceptance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood, which He offered as our Savior. But remember, this is only the first step in God’s Plan for us! Next, we need to GROW in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and begin to put our old sinful ways and habits completely out of our lives. This "overcoming" process is pictured by the Days of Unleavened Bread (Meredith RC. THE HOLY DAYS—God's Master Plan. LCG Booklet, on-version c. 2006).

There is no indication in the biblical text that leavened bread was ever used, which is why the COGs use unleavened, and never leavened, bread. Why the Orthodox intentionally use leavened bread in violation of the practice of Jesus and Paul is unclear to this writer.

We in the COGs have much more biblical support for our practices than "mainstream" groups. An article of related interest may be:

Is There "An Annual Worship Calendar" In the Bible? This paper provides a biblical and historical critique of several articles which state that this should be a local decision. Also you can click here for the calendar of Holy Days.

The COG differs from the churches of the world. Articles of interest may include:

Hope of Salvation: How the COGs differ from most Protestants How the COGs differ from mainstream Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a COG background.
Sola Scriptura or Prima Luther? What Did Martin Luther Really Believe About the Bible? Though he is known for his public sola Scriptura teaching, Martin Luther's writings about the Bible suggest he felt that prima Luther was his ultimate authority.
The Similarities and Dissimilarities between Martin Luther and Herbert Armstrong This article clearly shows some of the doctrinal differences between in the two. At this time of doctrinal variety and a tendency by many to accept certain aspects of Protestantism, the article should help clarify why the COG is NOT Protestant.
Some Similarities and Differences Between the Orthodox Church and the Churches of God Both groups have some amazing similarities and some major differences. Do you know what they are?
SDA/COG Differences: Two Horned Beast of Revelation and 666 The COG is NOT part of the Seventh Day Adventists. This article explains two prophetic differences, the trinity, and differences in approaching doctrine.

Three Dissimilarities Between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Church of God The COGs are not related to the Mormons and this article gives three reasons why.
Being Separate: What Did Herbert Armstrong and the Bible Teach About Where Not to Fellowship? Some believe that it is acceptable to attend groups called COG, but who are not actually. What did HWA and the Bible teach about this.
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation?

10/04/06 a.m. October, according to CG7's president Whaid Rose, is observed by some Protestants as "Reformation Month". Since we in the true COGs know that we are not Protestant, the following articles might be of interest:

Hope of Salvation: How the COGs differ from most Protestants How the COGs differ from mainstream Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a COG background.
Sola Scriptura or Prima Luther? What Did Martin Luther Really Believe About the Bible? Though he is known for his public sola Scriptura teaching, Martin Luther's writings about the Bible suggest he felt that prima Luther was his ultimate authority.
The Similarities and Dissimilarities between Martin Luther and Herbert Armstrong This article clearly shows some of the doctrinal differences between in the two. At this time of doctrinal variety and a tendency by many to accept certain aspects of Protestantism, the article should help clarify why the COG is NOT Protestant.

History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church?
The Churches of Revelation 2 & 3 Do they matter? Most say they must, but act like they do not. This article contains some history about the Church of God (sometimes referred to as the continuation of Primitive Christianity) over the past 2000 years.

What Does Rome Actually Teach About Early Church History? Although most believe that the Roman Catholic Church history teaches an unbroken line of succession of bishops beginning with Peter, with stories about most of them, Roman Catholic scholars know the truth of this matter. This eye-opening article is a must-read for any who really wants to know what Roman Catholic history actually admits about the early church.
Location of the Early Church: Another Look at Ephesus, Smyrna, and Rome What actually happened to the primitive Church? And did the Bible tell about this in advance?

On other matters, I have noticed that the anti-COGrs on the net have been correctly noting that the Syd Hull letter does not help David Pack or his Restored Church of God. Actually, only one intent on ignoring the truth will fail to see the many contradictions in Sydney Hull's odd letter.

However, some of the anti-COGrs keep publicly speculating about me and my relationship with the Living Church of God (although I will say that I found some of Gavin R's ordination comments amusing some time back).

So to try to set the record straight (not that certain anti-COGrs will care), let me say the following:

1) Years ago I told RC Meredith I was not interested in ordination to the ministry.
2) I do not want to be a church pastor.
3) Years ago, when he asked me, I told RC Meredith that I had no intention to move to Charlotte, NC when I saw him for the last time at the San Diego congregation of LCG.
4) I prefer living in California.
5) I am not interested in any job held by anyone currently in the employ of LCG.
6) No specific employment offer has ever been made to me by LCG.
7) I have never asked for any type of employment or money from LCG.
8) The one time RC Meredith brought up the idea of paying for the LCG-related work I do, I turned it down. Those who posted that RCM is intentionally not hiring me to save money or that I am doing this website do for money are in error.

Now this is not to say that I may not ever change my mind or that LCG may not ever have a need that might require it or me to change our views, but I hope the above statements clarify my position.

Also, contrary to any comments and recollections that some seem to have, RC Meredith and I get along well. We speak on a fairly regular basis.

On an official basis, RC Meredith has twice mentioned me and my website by name in letters he has included as part of LCG's weekly updates.

The last one was last week (dated September 27, 2006) which stated:

Incidentally, if any of you want to really know the details of David Pack and his confused approach, please check up on him on the Internet site of Dr. Robert Thiel, members.aol.com/cogwriter/lnews.htm. Here you will find many facts about what is really happening.

In the other time was April 7, 2006 where he wrote:

Though Dr. Thiel’s comments on his personal website and in his articles do not necessarily represent "official" Church teaching, he has tried hard to be helpful and we should all appreciate that—which I certainly do.

The bottom line?

I am an LCG videorecipient who takes Jude 3 personally and who that maintains a personal website that is supportive of the Philadelphia remnant of the COG, which is LCG. RC Meredith appreciates that. Period.

10/03/06 a.m. The Feast of Tabernacles begins Friday evening. Tens of thousands of COG members will be leaving their homes and traveling to around 200 different sites throughout the world. In the old WCG days, the Feast of Tabernacles we in the COG held, was considered to be the largest annual convention in the world, when nearly 150,000 used to attend (it is possible that the COG Feast of Tabernacles still is the largest, but I have not seen any information that specifically confirms or denies it).

Is this pilgrimage holy day still valid? Does it teach anything relevant for today's Christians?

LCG's RC Meredith wrote:

After Christ’s return, God pours out His Spirit and begins to enlighten all humanity with the true understanding of His great PLAN. At that time, God says, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). This is pictured by our joyous observance of the sixth Festival in God’s Plan—the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles or "Feast of Ingathering" (Exodus 34:22)...

During the Millennium, God’s laws are to be written in the hearts and minds of His people all over the earth. For God’s laws expresses His very CHARACTER—the character He demands that we develop in order to be kings and priests forever in His Kingdom! This blessing will be afforded ALL MANKIND during the wonderful "Feast of Ingathering," the 1,000-year reign of Christ here on this earth. Revelation 20 tells us: "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (v. 6).

One article of related interest may be The Feast of Tabernacles: A Time for Christians?

Although they call themselves Orthodox, with the intent of suggesting that they carry on the teachings of the original church, they have changed many doctrines. Yet they still have some similar to those of the COGs. The Eastern Orthodox represent hundreds of millions of people.

Do you know much about them. Would you be interested in learning about Some Similarities and Differences Between the Orthodox Church and the Churches of God?

Notice what HWA wrote:

YOU are to have fellowship only with those who know and obey the TRUTH!...

But WHO does have fellowship with God? Just anybody? Members of worldly churches? LISTEN! "If we say that we have fellowship with HIM, and walk in darkness we lie, and do not the TRUTH: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light (truth), we have fellowship one with another." (Verses 6-7)...

We must have fellowship only with Jesus Christ, and those who are joined together in the TRUTH--all speaking the same TRUTH...

We are not to have social or religious FELLOWSHIP--close friendship--with any except those who know and OBEY the TRUTH. We must not try to WORSHIP with them--attend their churches...

Again God instrusts through Paul: "Have NO FELLOWSHIP with the unfruitful works of darkness." (Eph. 5:11). (Armstrong HW. Should we listen to others. Good News magazine, May 1960).

Since WCG is now a worldly church, and no longer a COG, no one who is being faithful to the teachings of HWA should consider attending any WCG church services or Feast of Tabernacle's sites any more.

Two articles of related interest may be:

Comments on the Teachings of Ron Wallen, Philip Neal, Kenneth W., GRUMPS, Jesse Arellano, and others who Profess(ed) that WCG has God's Authority
There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God?

10/02/06 a.m. ACD's Ken Westby asks and answers the following:

What's Wrong with the Feasts of Israel?
Nothing, of course. Then why is it they were rejected by the Christian church centuries ago? There must be something wrong or unseemly or irrelevant about them to have been replaced in the Christian calendar by festivals such as Christmas and Easter. When we speak of the feasts of Israel we are referring to the biblical festivals God gave to his people Israel. They are all mentioned in the Torah and else where in both Old and New Testaments and clearly have the precedent of Scripture behind them.

The biblical holyday festivals are divided among three seasons--spring, summer, and fall. They are 1) The Days of Unleavened Bread (beginning with the Passover); 2) Pentecost; 3) Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah); 4) Day of Atonement ( Yom Kippur); 5) Feast of Tabernacles and The Last Great Day. The last three festivals occur in the fall during the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.

Today is the Day of Atonement. It pictures Christ's sacrifice, our reconcillation with God, and Satan being bound for his role in sin. Those interested in more information may wish to read the article The Day of Atonement--Its Christian Significance.

Some may also be interested in taking my son Michael's Day of Atonement Quiz

In his latests newsletter, SDA Dr. S. Bacchiocchi discussed the Pope's Islam comments. First what Dr. B. liked:

I read the full text of the Benedict''s lecture and I find that he makes three crucial points that have been overshadowed by the controversy about his alleged offensive comments about Islam.

The pope's first point is that the way we envision God determines how we define what is good or evil and the methods we use for advancing truth. For example, if we imagine that God is a remote, transcendat majesty with whom our only possible relationship is one of blind submission (Islam=Submission), then we must accept even what seems to be irrational, like the murder of innocents.

Benedict contends that the God of Biblical revelation is a rational God, who does not cancel out or abrogate human reason. Christianity has taught that human beings can build decent societies by following the light of reason. By contrast, the Koranic God is a transcendant God who is not subject to the logic of reason.

The pope's second point flows from the first, namely, that irrational violence aimed at innocent men, women and children "is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the [human] soul." Muslim believers who insist that the suicide bombing of innocents is an act pleasing to God, must be told that they are mistaken in their understanding of God, of His purposes, and His moral commands.

Furthermore, Islamic leaders have a responsibily to correct these distorted views of God, but too few of them, the pope seemed to suggest, have the courage to undertake a cleansing of Islam's conscience, as Pope John Paul II taught the Catholic Church to cleanse its historical conscience. (Crusades, inquisition).

Honest Muslim and honest Christians have the right to disagree on their respective beliefs, but they do not have the right to force the choice imposed to the two Fox News employees by their captors in Palestine: convert or die. There is a serious asymmetry which Benedict has critized before. The Saudies can build multi-million dollar mosques in Western Europe and the USA, yet Christians can be arrested in Saudi Arabia for giving out Bibles.

The Danger of Postmodern Relativism

The pope's third point, which has largely been ignored in the heat of the controversy, is directed toward the West. The pope warns that the postmodern relativism (which I discuss in my lecture Cracking The Da Vinci Code) and irrationalism, which reduces truth to subjective beliefs or feelings, undermines the ability of the West to defend itself.

But Dr. B. also raised the following objection:

The positive aspects of Benedict's lecture, must not overshadow what I consider a major flaw, namely, his condemnation of the Reformers for rejecting the synthesis between faith and reason which had been worked out by such influential theologians like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. By adopting the principle of Sola Scriptura, the Reformers sought to define faith as found in the biblical Word, not in the phylosophical speculation of scholastics like Thomas Aquinas.

For Aquinas there are two channels through which God reveals truth: via naturalis (human reason) and via supernaturalis (Scripture). For the Reformers there is only one channel: Sola Scriptura. They rejected human reason as a channel of divine revelation, because historically the Catholic church developed a host of heresies on the basis of reason, rather than Scripture.

Now while I agree that the Roman Catholics have developed heresies, this is essentially based on its view of Tradition and the Bible. This is also true concerning their teachings on Apostolic Succession (note: I updated this article yesterday) as well as Church History.

Yet, Dr. B. neglects to say that the Reformers he is referring to also based their heresies on Tradition over the Bible as well as human reason. The truth is that Martin Luther did not actually believe in Sola Scriptura as he dismissed many aspects and even books of the Bible. The other truth is that SDA's accept the teachings of the human Ellen White which results in them accepting various heresies.

An article that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants may all wish to read is Location of the Early Church: Another Look at Rome and Asia Minor. This will help them better appreciate that there really are reasons to take another look at Early Christianity and perhaps their current religious beliefs.

10/01/06 a.m. The German military was in the news yesterday:

Deutsche Welle - Sept 30, 2006
After 4 years in the making, the NATO Response Force will be operational as promised in time for its October 1 launch. Germany is contributing the majority of the soldiers for the alliance's new rapid deployment force...

Germany taking lead in NRF

 

Currently, the German Armed Forces are providing the largest amount of soldiers. German commander, General Gerhard Back, explained that not all of the 26,000 NRF soldiers are to be deployed at once. Rather, units with different abilities such as air transport, mine clearance or ground fighting, are to be available on request.

The German military continues to get experience in the field as well as experience learning how the US miitary really operates. This will be an advantage to them when the US is attacked and taken over by the Europeans.

The top ten read articles at the COGwriter site for September 2006 were:

  1. Why Not the Restored Church of God? This group, led by David Pack, claims to be the most faithful. The information in this article suggests otherwise.
  2. History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church?
  3. What Does Rome Actually Teach About Early Church History? Although most believe that the Roman Catholic Church history teaches an unbroken line of succession of bishops beginning with Peter, with stories about most of them, Roman Catholic scholars know the truth of this matter. This eye-opening article is a must-read for any who really wants to know what Roman Catholic history actually admits about the early church.
  4. Teachings Unique to the Philadelphia Church of God Simply calling oneself 'Philadelphia' does not make one so (see Revelation 3:7-9). This article provides quotes from this group which claims to be faithful.
  5. Justin Martyr: Saint, Heretic, or Apostate? Justin is considered one of the first Christian theologians and scholars. But did he support a Gnostic version of Christianity? Do you know what he taught about souls going to heaven upon death?
  6. Church of God, Seventh Day Nearly all COG's I am aware of trace their history through this group. Do you know much about them?
  7. Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation?
  8. Some Similarities and Differences Between the Orthodox Church and the Churches of God Both groups have some amazing similarities and some major differences. Do you know what they are?
  9. Polycarp of Smyrna Polycarp was the successor of the Apostle John and a major leader in Asia Minor.
  10. Binitarian View: One God, Two Beings Before the Beginning Is binitarianism the correct position? What about unitarianism or trinitarianism?

The RCG article has now been number one for three months in a row. It dropped to 2nd or 3rd earlier this month, but various news items made it much more popular than usual. It was also updated several times in the past few days. I actually did update most of the articles in the top ten sometime last month, but the RCG one probably had the most additions. The article What Does Rome Actually Teach About Early Church History? is becoming increasingly popular, and even though it has no "google ranking" it comes up first in MSN and on the first page with Yahoo searches.

I was pleased to see that a relatively new article Irenaeus: The Most Dangerous Heretic? was number 11. My articles on UCG and the SDAs also remain popular.

September was probably the record month for visits from those in China. I suspect that the following articles were part of the reaon:

China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 1: Genesis and Chinese Characters This article provides information showing that the Chinese peoples must have known about various accounts in the Book of Genesis up until their dispersion after the Tower of Babel.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 2: The Sabbath and Some of God's Witness in China When did Christianity first come to China? And is there early evidence that they observed the seventh day sabbath?
The Dramatic Story of Chinese Sabbathkeepers This reformattedGood News article from 1955 discusses Sabbath-keeping in China in the 1800s.

Tonight at sunset begins the Day of Atonement. Observant individuals affiliated with the Churches of God will fast from sunset tonight until sunset tomorrow night (if they are physically able--nursing mothers, small children, pregnant women, and various others are not expected to fast). In this fast we go without food or drink. More information on the Christian aspect of this Holy Day can be found in the article The Day of Atonement--Its Christian Significance.

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Volume 10, issue 23 COG writer B. Thiel (c) 2006