Church of God News

Entrance to Joseph’s tomb (photo by Shuki)

COGwriter

We continue to see anti-semitic terrorism. Notice what happened in Germany today:

9 October 2019

Two people were killed in a shooting in the eastern German city of Halle on Wednesday and police said they were looking for suspects who fled the scene.

Mass-selling daily Bild said on its website the shooting took place in front of a synagogue. Bild reported that a hand grenade was also thrown onto a Jewish cemetery.

“According to initial findings, two people were killed in Halle,” local police said on Twitter.

“There were several shots. The alleged perpetrators have fled with a vehicle. We are searching urgently and ask citizens to remain in their homes.”

The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism when Jews fast for more than 24 hours, seeking atonement. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/two-killed-in-shooting-in-eastern-german-city-of-halle-1.4045137

October 9, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Several shots were fired Wednesday in the eastern German city of Halle, leaving two people dead as the suspected assailants fled, police said. …

Police gave no details about the target, or targets, of the attack but federal prosecutors, who handle cases involving suspected terrorism or national security, took over the investigation.

A video clip broadcast by regional public broadcaster MDR showed a man in a helmet and an olive-colored top getting out of a car and firing four shots from behind the vehicle from a long-barreled gun. …

Wednesday is the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, when synagogues would be busy. …

The head of Halle’s Jewish community, Max Privorotzki, told news magazine Der Spiegel there were 70 or 80 people inside the synagogue and security outside when the shooting occurred.

Synagogues are often protected by police in Germany, and police in two other eastern cities, Dresden and Leipzig, stepped up security at synagogues there after the shooting in Halle.

Police said shots were also fired in Landsberg, about 15 kilometers (nearly 10 miles) from Halle. It wasn’t clear whether the two shootings Wednesday were related. https://www.apnews.com/1ffa8eb5cbb244f3bab1444bfabb9a66

October 9, 2019

The latest synagogue shooting in the West unfolded Wednesday morning – coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, what is supposed to be a day of rest, fasting and prayer – in the East German city of Halle. Police told RT that one individual has been arrested in connection with the shooting, which left two people dead and an unknown number of others injured.

While most synagogue shootings in the US have been blamed on far-right-wing ideologies, some local media outlets reported that the attackers were fundamentalist Muslims. Still others reported that the shooters were right-wing anti-semites. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/2-dead-several-injured-german-synagogue-shooting-one-suspect-still-large

As far as security measures go, my wife Joyce and I attended a gathering at a local park a few weeks ago. It was basically vendors who sold local apples and local honey. It was sponsored by the Jewish Community Center and also featured a blowing of the shofar demonstration. There was a police officer at this small park the entire time. Having lived in this area for decades, we simply had not seen police security for events like this in the past. Obviously, there were, sadly, concerns of possibly violent anti-semitic actions. But none took place.

A while back, top German officials have warned about anti-Semitism in Germany:

31 July 2018

The report entitled “Anti-Semitism and Immigration in Western Europe Today: Is there a connection?” presented findings and recommendations from a 2016-17 project involving five separate national reports from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The research was commissioned by the Berlin-based “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Foundation (EVZ) and led by the Pears Institute for the study of Anti-Semitism, Birkbeck, University of London. …
Fear leading to emigration

Notably, the report’s findings indicated rising fear among Jews in every country studied. In Germany, for instance, 78 percent of German Jews noticed an increasing threat, according to a 2017 study.

Just shy of half (48 percent) of the readers of the Dutch Jewish weekly Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad said last year they were concerned about security and anti-Semitism. In 2016, about two out of three (63 percent) French Jews had the impression that there was “a lot” of anti-Jewish sentiment in their country. In fact, Jewish people in France take the threat so seriously that quite a few have left: while about 1,900 French Jews emigrated to Israel in 2012, the number rose to 7,800 in 2015 and 5,000 a year later — still more than double the number just a few years earlier.

Belgian Jews are also worried, with authorities in Brussels advising people in more than one case to no longer publicly show their religious affiliation. …

Moroccan Dutch, and more recently Turkish Dutch, youths have been involved in harassing Jews on the streets. Dutch citizens with a Muslim background were clearly present in anti-Semitic incidents in the summer of 2014, with supporters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization waving black flags and chanting “Death to the Jews” in Arabic. …

“Anti-Semitic attitudes and/or behavior are disproportionately present among Muslim minorities as well as among people with sympathy for extreme right-wing groups,” the researchers said in their summary of findings. https://www.dw.com/en/anti-semitism-on-the-rise-western-european-jews-think-so/a-44884904

It is no surprise that Jews are fearful when people publicly call for their death.

Notice also the following:

Dozens of Palestinians rioted on Sunday night following the pilgrimage of some 1,000 Jews, under Israeli security escort, to the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem/Nablus to pray. The rioters threw firebombs and burning tires at security personnel. 10/07/19 https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/138201/arabs-hurl-firebombs-burn-tires-as-jews-pray-at-josephs-tomb/

Many people hate others, and the Jews tend to be one of the more hated groups. But that is not how people are to live.

Notice something that God had Moses record:

8 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)

It is not just physical, ethnic Jews that are at risk–spiritual ones are as well (cf. Romans 2:28-29; John 15:20; see also The Spanish Inquisition and Early Protestant Persecutions).

There was a poem many years ago by Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

It is not just Jews that are hated now or will be hated in the future. Throughout history, true Christians have sometimes been called “Jews” and have been subject to persecution supposedly directed towards Jews. Early Christians kept biblical Holy Days on the same days of the Jews, and Rome initially considered Christians to be a sect of the Jews.

We also have historical evidence pointing to its observance by Christians from the Book of Acts and later centuries keeping it (see The Day of Atonement–Its Christian Significance).

Notice, for example, that Sabbath-keepers in Transylvania in the 1500s kept the Fall Holy Days such as the Day of Atonement:

The Sabbatarians viewed themselves as converted Gentiles … They held to the biblical holidays … The Day of Atonement was a day of fasting, although they emphasized that pentinence is more easily achieved by a peaceful and quiet meditation on the law and one’s life than by fasting. (Liechty D. Sabbatarianism in the Sixteenth Century. Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs (MI), 1993, pp. 61-62).

Andreas Eossi on Szent-Erzsebet was a rich Szekely of noble birth, who owned three villages, a great number of estates in the countries of Udvarhelyszek, Kukullo and Fehervar, and who belonged to the earliest adherents of Unitarianism in Transylvania. Having been visited by severe trials, [he was ailing for many years, and had lost his wife and three sons], he sought consolation in religion. ‘He had read the Bible so long’ — runs the account of the chronicler already mentioned – ‘that he evolved from there the Sabbatarian from of religion.’ What he recognized as truth, he endeavoured to disseminate in the surrounding district; he composed treatises, prayers, and hymns, caused copies of these and other writings to be prepared, and lent them out in all directions. He possessed no knowledge of Hebrew, and had only a slender acquaintance with the Classics. He was, however, well versed in Church history, and was completely master of the Old and New Testament, from both of which he derived his teaching. He was altogether an enemy of the scholastic theology, and said on one occasion: ‘They ask me in vain where I discovered the true way of salvation, since I sojourned neither at Padua nor at Paris. As if salvation consisted of knowing many heathen writings and many heathen languages.’ He betook himself with his new propaganda to ‘the great simple community,’ as the chronicler says. Soon, too, he had fellow-workers, whose names have only been partially preserved. About 1600, there was compiled ‘the old hymn-book of the Sabbatarians,’ probably by Eossi himself. This book is the most important source whence a knowledge of the doctrines of the sect may be derived; it is the oldest monument of their literature, and contains paraphrases of the Psalms [very much like our own] and other poetical passages of the Bible, metrical renderings of the Jewish prayer-book, older Unitarian hymns either unaltered or adapted to the new religious views, numerous original hymns and FESTIVE songs, and lastly, a collection of didactic poems. Of the 110 poetical compositions which are to be found in three manuscripts of this old Sabbatarian hymn-book, no less than 44 relate to the Sabbath, which, on account of the special regard in which its celebration was held, gave the sect the name they bear. FIVE songs belong to the NEW MOON, 11 to the FESTIVAL OF PASSOVER, 6 to the FEAST OF WEEKS, 6 to TABERNACLES, 3 to the NEW YEAR, and 1 to the DAY OF ATONEMENT. Besides these, there are 3 funeral hymns, 26 hymns of varied contents, and 5 didactic poems. The foregoing summary shows what position the Jewish festivals occupied in the ritual of the Sabbatarians. They kept, of course, only the festivals enjoined in the Pentateuch, for the Sabbatarians of the first period only recognized the Five Books of Moses as the religious law to which they were pledged. They did not celebrate Purim and Chanukah. (Bacher W. The Sabbatarians of Hungary. The Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 2. Macmillan, 1890, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Nov 10, 2008, p. 472-473)

Today, although we do  not call it Yom Kippur, we in the Continuing Church of God annually observe the Day of Atonement.

True Christians have had to suffer through the so-called Inquisition (see The Spanish Inquisition), which utilized torture against those that had Church of God beliefs–and more is expected in the future (see Persecutions by Church and State). Protestant leaders, including Martin Luther, have also promoted antisemitism and Church of God persecution (see The Similarities and Dissimilarities between Martin Luther and Herbert W. Armstrong) as have various ones who were Eastern Orthodox (see John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople and Antisemite).

Real Christians have always been on the side being persecuted and have never been on the side of the persecutors. And this will be true again in the future.

People should not be antisemitic. People should not hate others.

It is not just certain Muslims who hate Jews–many who claim Christ still hold anti-Semitic views, and some take direct anti-Semitic actions.

Sadly, we will see persecution greatly increase before Jesus returns (cf. Daniel 7:25; 11:30-35; see also Persecutions by Church and State)–this will affect Philadelphian Christians.

On November 5, 1819, Catholic nun Anne Catherine Emmerich, who was “beatified” on October  3, 2004 in Vatican City, warned about a certain man who “looks like a Jew” (Schmöger, The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, Volume II, p.273). One called blessed by the Eastern Orthodox, Hieronymus Agathaghelos warned about the same man in 1279 A.D. and said that there would come a public executioner of the Sabbath-keepers, which was a reference to Christians, and not Jews (Tzima Otto H. The Great Monarch and WWIII in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Scriptural Prophecies. The Verenika Press, Rock Hill (SC), 2000, pp. 127, 132-135, with a partial translation from page 240)

Of course, the Bible is clear that all the faithful will be subject to persecution and being betrayed by professing believers (Matthew 24:9-13, Mark 13:12-13; Luke 21:16-18; Daniel 11:32-35).

The underlying antisemitism in Europe and throughout the world will allow for this, especially when the time comes when the Beast’s government mandates it (Revelation 13:15-17).

This will happen in Europe according to Revelation 13.

In the past, Christians were persecuted because they:

• Claimed Christianity
• Kept Passover on the 14th
• Refused to eat unclean meat
• Would work on Sunday
• Had false accusations railed against them
• Were binitarian
• Kept the Sabbath
• Kept the Fall Holy Days
• Were not trinitarian
• Taught that the pope was an Antichrist and precursor of the final Antichrist
• Having and teaching from the Bible
• Rejected papal authority
• Did not accept idols
• Had different teachings than the Church of Rome
• Had writings Rome did not like
• Rejected Roman sacraments
• Objected to the dress of the Roman ministry
• Considered Rome to be the prophesied Babylon
• Taught that in the time of the final Antichrist that some would fall away
• Had practices that Rome considered Jewish
• Refused to baptize infants
• Did not participate in carnal warfare
• Teaching the millennium
• Taught the Kingdom of God
• Baptized adults

In the future, according to Catholic teachings, they will also be persecuted for:

• Not accepting non-biblical teachings about Mary
• Not accepting the Great Monarch (Beast, King of the North)
• Teaching that the Kingdom of God will come soon
• Not wearing crosses as a mark (cf. Revelation 13:16-17; see also Mark of the Beast)
• Keeping the biblical Sabbath in accordance with the commandments
• Possessing/advocating writings that disagree with the Church of Rome
• Teaching after the Great Tribulation begins that Jesus will return within a few years

Christians have been persecuted for holding doctrines that we in the Continuing Church of God hold and are clearly expected to be persecuted in the future for holding Continuing Church of God doctrines.

Persecution is a fact of history. It has happened before and we should be prepared for the fact that it will happen again.

Jesus said that His followers would sometimes have to flee:

23 When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes (Matthew 10:23).

Severe persecution is expected to occur against the Sabbath-keeping Philadelphian Christians just prior to the time the true Church is to flee (please see the article There is a Place of Protection for the Philadelphians):

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. 15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. (Matthew 24:9-20)

And then will come the Great Tribulation:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand (Matthew 24:21-25).

It may well be that Philadelphian Christians in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere may decide that they need to flee to the tiny nation of Israel prior to the start of the Great Tribulation. And that may be why Jesus made comments about fleeing Judea (watch also What is the Fate of Christians in Europe and Elsewhere?).

Jesus indicates that the end time persecution may be the biggest test of faith for believers. Notice:

7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7-8)

The Bible and the facts of history have revealed persecutions for the people of God. While false Christians have also been persecuted, true Christians have never been the persecutors as true Christians “do not imitate what is evil” (3 John 11). Those who really want to know what happened to the true Church of God should begin with the The History of Early Christianity page.

The Bible shows that end time persecution will come (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:17).

The underlying anti-Semitism in Europe and throughout the world will allow for this, especially when the time comes when the Beast’s government mandates it (Revelation 13:15-17).

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 9th, 2019 at 7:45 am and is filed under Religious News.

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