Church of God News

As long-term readers are aware, I, Dr. Bob Thiel, AKA COGwriter have frequently been a radio guest.

But I am not the only one involved in radio in the Continuing Church of God.

CCOG Elder Aleksandar Veljic from Serbia has been as well–and in English. Additionally, we have helped sponsor a radio program in Ghana that Overseer Samuel Ofosu hosted.

In New Zealand, Shirley Gestro continues to handle our Bible News Prophecy online radio channel. Various men in CCOG have been on it. This is another way we reach people.

We have now added another radio station.

Here is something from the latest Letter to the Brethren from the Continuing Church of God:

We made a deal late last Thursday with Radio Miami International (WRMI), and began broadcasting last Sunday night in North America (Monday in the Eastern Hemisphere). WRMI was fairly inexpensive and more cost effective than other options we looked into.

WRMI says this about its background:

Radio Miami International was founded in 1989 by Jeff White (currently General Manager) and Kiko Espinosa (chief engineer, who passed away in 2005). RMI began broadcasting in 1989 …

In December of 2013, Radio Miami International purchased the former Family Radio shortwave station in Okeechobee, Florida, and we moved all of our transmissions to the new, much larger facility in Okeechobee. Our transmitter site in Hialeah (Miami) was closed, although we maintain an office and a studio in Miami. The Okeechobee site is the largest privately-owned shortwave station in the Western Hemisphere, with 14 transmitters (most of them 100,000 watts) and 23 antennas beamed in 11 different directions around the globe. We now have a studio and administrative offices in Okeechobee in the 16,000-square-foot transmitter building about 20 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. The antennas and transmitters are located on a 660-acre site (that’s one square mile of land) …

WRMI broadcasts some of its own programming, mainly the program “Viva Miami” (in both English and Spanish editions) with travel features, letters from listeners, music, interviews with studio guests etc. We also co-produce the weekly DX program “Wavescan” with Adventist World Radio. But most of our airtime is sold to outside organizations. including political, religious, commercial and cultural organizations, overseas relays and more. Most of our programming is in English or Spanish, but some programs are in Creole, Portuguese and other languages.

WRMI is a member of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB), and WRMI General Manager Jeff White is currently Secretary-Treasurer of the NASB.

Family Radio was formerly affiliated with the late Harold Camping, who I repeatedly denounced (see Harold Camping’s Teachings About the End of the World Do Not Agree with the Bible). That said, Family Radio did have a broad reach and we will see how this new station will work out for us. But it truly gives us an opportunity to reach people in ways that we have not in the past.

Anyway, here is a map showing part of the reach of the frequency 5850 kHz we are now on:

The station owner, Jeff White, added:

Unfortunately the map doesn’t go much further than Alaska, but if you follow the beam on across the Pacific, the center of the 315-degree beam is close to many places in Asia, such as Korea, Japan, Beijing and Shanghai in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Russian Far East including Vladivostok and Kamchatka.

Here are some details and times:

5850 kHz: 0130 UTC Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday

Which would be received in North America on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 9:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time and 8:30 pm Eastern Standard Time, 5850 kHz.

In Asia, this program would begin at 10:30 am Japan/Korea Standard Time and 09:30 China Standard Time on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

With WRMI, we now have coverage in much of North America and parts of Asia. We had also hoped to truly reach India, but there were no available options from WRMI at this time.

With European Gospel Radio (which is out of Milan, Italy) we are covering Europe, parts of the Middle East, and parts of North Africa.

We are also on radio stations located in Kenya, Ghana, and the Philippines.

That said, after our first broadcast on WRMI, we received an email contact from someone who listened to our The Bible and Halloween Facts episode in Spain. This would have been at Monday at 0230 am in Spain. What is interesting about that is Spain (or any part of Europe) was NOT one of the areas that WRMI indicated that its 5850 kHz signal would properly cover.

However, we knew shortwave was received around the world. Being on two different shortwave frequencies will help us reach people we otherwise would not have reached (cf. Matthew 24:14).

Here is what WRMI’s website has up about our program:

Bible News Prophecy

The Bible News Prophecy program broadcasts news and information in the light of the Bible and its prophecies. This includes proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God to the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14), teaching all things that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20), providing prophetic warnings of God’s impending judgments, contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), assisting in the calling of the full number of those to be reached before Jesus returns (Romans 11:25-26), explaining mysteries of God’s merciful (James 2:13) and loving plan (e.g. Romans 16:25-27), helping people better understand the Bible (Acts 8:30-31, Romans 10:14-15), explaining God’s loving plan of salvation (Psalm 68:30, John 3:16-17, Luke 3:6, Romans 11), encouraging people to live the way of Philadelphian (Hebrews 13:1) and agape love (1 Corinthians 13), and calling for personal (Acts 2:38) and national repentance (2 Chronicles 7:13-15).

The Bible News Prophecy program teaches the fact of God’s existence, the fact of Jesus being Savior, and the certainty of biblical truths. The program discusses what the future holds for humanity in the light of Bible prophecy. The Bible News Prophecy program analyzes news and world events by the light of the word of God and also explains matters that will happen in the future, based on Bible prophecy.

The Bible News Prophecy program is sponsored by the Continuing Church of God. We trace our unbroken history to the start of the New Testament church in the Book of Acts. We are a pacifist church that teaches original Christianity as taught and practiced by Jesus Christ, the original Apostles, their early faithful followers, and others faithful to original Christianity throughout history. We have supporters and congregations around the world. We have literature online in over 200 languages at ccog.org.

Our primary English speaking radio presenters for the Bible News Prophecy program on Radio Miami International (WRMI) as well as on European Gospel Radio are Steve Dupuie and Dr. Bob Thiel in North America and Aleksandar Veljic in Europe. The Bible News Prophecy program is also available online at biblenewsprophecy.net.

We also have native language broadcasters in Kenya, Ghana, and the Philippines on stations in those lands. More on our global outreach and various forms of media can be found at ccog.org/multimedia.

Bible News Prophecy is heard on WRMI on 5850 kHz at 0130 UTC Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

https://wrmi.net/index.php/programming/

Note: The time of 0130 UTC means the broadcast would heard in North America on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 8:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.

In other radio news, deacon Ondigo Ochieng sent me copies of the receipts for payment to continue to be on three radio stations in Kenya until late February 2023.

Dear Dr. Thiel:

First and foremost am grateful to receive funds for radio contract renewal. I have so far paid for 1 regional station and 1 local station i.e Togotane 88.3 FM and Milambo 103.8 FM respectively.

We will be on the two radio stations for four months starting from this weekend to 25th February 2023. Milambo 103.8 FM have agreed to offer us a month one month free which is the whole March 2023.

The remaining funds will be used to pay at least two programs of 20 minutes each for national station.

I am also grateful to receive 100 copies of Kingdom of God booklets in Swahili from Evans Ochieng and other 30 copies of Continuing History of the Church of God books. I realized it is has more information than the first edition. Thanks for more elaboration.

Herein attached are the two receipts of the radio stations.

We will have ministers like Joel Owuoti, and others speak over the radio.

Best regards,
Bro. Ondigo Ochieng.

CCOG deacon Ondigo Ochieng earlier sent the following pictures about our radio program in the Kenay/Tanzania area:

Deacon Ondigo Ochieng

Deacon Grantone Otieno

The Kenya program has been sponsored by a COG congregation in France which has long maintained a cooperative relationship with the CCOG.

Radio is one of the “doors” we are using to work to fulfill Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20, while also working towards part of the fulfillment of Romans 11:25.

More information on our radio and other outreaches, check out the CCOG Multimedia page.

Of course, being on radio is something that COG leaders have done since no later than the 1930s. Radio was used so much to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and other biblical messages, that after he left CG7, the late Herbert W. Armstrong initially named his group the Radio Church of God.

Here is a photograph that my wife Joyce took in 1994 of a building in Eugene, Oregon that had been used decades before by the old Radio Church of God (I believe it was their headquarters’ building in the 1940s):

One-time Radio Church of God building, Eugene, Oregon

(To see other buildings later used by the old Radio and Worldwide Church of God, check out Joyce’s Pictures of the Pasadena Campus of Ambassador College and the former Headquarters of the old Worldwide Church of God.)

Notice something published by the old Radio Church of God:

Revelation 3:7-13: “And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that OPENETH, and no man SHUTTETH; and SHUTTETH and no man openeth.” The great door that God has opened to this work is the facility to go into all the world and preach the gospel; the door of radio, the door of the printing press, plus many other such doors. God has set before us an open door and no MAN can shut it. God can shut it, and He will when the work is finished and the Philadelphia Church goes to a place of safety. “I know thy works: Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name” (verse 8).

Notice that this Church has works. It has works of ZEAL and of REPENTANCE. This Church has only a little strength. But, by contrast, the Church of Laodicea believes that IT is increased with goods and has a great deal of strength. Philadelphia has little strength to do this great work that God has given it to do. God has opened the door, and yet look how insignificant, how weak, how little strength we as a Church have to do that work. How much we lack in every way, and yet God has opened the door and has given us certain vital, supernatural, spiritual gifts. Very often we lack enough money to pay the radio bills and other expenses. WE ARE FEW IN NUMBER, while many other eras of the Church of God numbered in the hundreds of thousands. We indeed have little strength. And yet, look at the great power that God has placed before us. (Neff L. What Is the LAODICEAN CHURCH? Good News, August 1959)

The ‘open door’ to the Philadelphians does have to do with gospel proclamation. Consider the following scriptures:

12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord (2 Corinthians 2:12).

8 But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. 9 For a great and effective door has opened to me (1 Corinthians 16:8-9).

27 Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts 14:27).

We in the Continuing Church of God are going through the open doors in radio as well as with the printing press, the internet, travel, and personal contact. This includes to areas like Africa with Gentiles.

Radio is one of the forms of mass media that we in the Continuing Church of God use to teach people about Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:14) and other teachings (Matthew 28:19-20).

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work.
What About Romans 11:25 and the Full Number of the Gentiles? Some in the West discount God’s calling of Gentiles, but the Apostle Paul wrote about the need for them to come to the truth before Jesus returns. Two somewhat related videos are available: Gentiles and When Will Jesus Return? and Puerto Rico, Trials, and Triumphs.
What is the Ezekiel Warning? Should the end-time descendants of Israel and Joseph be warned? What should the watchman warn about? Regarding a watchman, you can watch the following video: Go, Set a Watchman.
Joyce’s Pictures of the Pasadena Campus of Ambassador College and the former Headquarters of the old Worldwide Church of God Here is some pictures of the old campus taken in 2016 for those interested in what it did look like and what remains.
The Final Phase of the Work What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here is a related YouTube video titled The Final Phase of the Work. The written article has been translated into Spanish La Fase Final de la Obra.