The World Ahead Weekly Update — March 27, 2014
Greetings from Charlotte,
Severe weather conditions continue to plague various parts of the world. Heavy rains and a massive mud slide claimed an undetermined number of lives in the state of Washington, while serious drought conditions have hit the important agricultural region of California. Drought conditions also prevail around the Black Sea and in parts of Argentina, Brazil, Africa and Australia. End-time Bible prophecies (Matthew 24:7; Revelation 6:5-6) have long indicated that serious drought conditions would increase prior to the return of Jesus Christ. Here in Charlotte, Dr. Meredith taped another new television program today and has held a number of meetings this week. Mr. Ames reports that 52 visitors attended the TWP that he and Mr. Glen Harrison conducted last weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Weston also reports that 54 visitors attended the TWP held last weekend in Vic toria, BC, Canada. Mr. Rand Millich is scheduled for a TWP in Independence, Missouri, this coming weekend. Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread will be here soon. Please pray that God will guide and strengthen His people as we approach these special days.—DSW
Church Administration
Tomorrow’s World Presentation in New Orleans
The New Orleans congregation hosted a Tomorrow’s World Presentation on Sunday, March 23. We were delighted to have 52 visitors and 40 brethren listen to the powerful presentation from Evangelist Richard Ames, entitled “After Armageddon: Five Keys to End-Time Prophecy.” After a short intermission, South Louisiana Area Pastor Glen Harrison gave a positive and clear PowerPoint presentation on “The Mystery of God’s Holy Days.” Some of the visitors enjoyed taking home the various booklets on display and some asked about attending the weekly Sabbath service in New Orleans. Many very positive comments were heard about the issues and contents addressed in the presentations. Overall, this event was a huge success.—Glen Harrison
Passover 2014—U.S. Congregations—Repeat Announcement
All Pastors: Please let us know as soon as possible if any of the congregations you serve will need additional Passover Service supplies (bread trays and/or wine trays or glasses) or a copy of the Passover Service recording. Also, let us know of any scattered members who are unable to keep the Passover with a congregation and who need to receive the Passover Service recording and letter instructions for observing it at home. (U.S. pastors will automatically receive one copy of the Passover Service recording.)
You can direct your requests to the Church Administration Department at cad@lcg.org. The Passover Service will be observed on Sunday evening, April 13.
Internet Department
New Tomorrow’s World Web Site Launched This Week!
After more than a year of development, server upgrades, database upgrades, security upgrades, a complete redesign and the migration of more than 1,000 pieces of content, the new TomorrowsWorld.org Web site launched this week. Again, our thanks to everyone for their prayers and encouragement about the project… as well as for the hundreds of e-mails complimenting the beta version and offering very good suggestions. In addition to the new design and the fact that the new Web site is optimized for computers, tablets and mobile devices, you will also find some very helpful new functionality in the new site. New French and Spanish Web sites are next!—Wyatt Ciesielka
Feast of Tabernacles
Register for the Feast—Beginning Sunday, March 30!
Festival Registration for the Feast of Tabernacles 2014 will begin Sunday, March 30 at 12:00 noon EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, USA). You can find out about each site, and register, at the Festival Web site: fot2014.lcg.org.
Making Housing Reservations
Please do not make housing reservations until you have received the confirmation e-mail saying your registration/transfer request has been approved. Note that not all venues are heavily staffed on weekends. So, if you have trouble getting through to your housing establishment on Sunday, try again on Monday morning.
Those Without Internet Access
If you do not have Internet access, please contact your Festival Advisor to print off information for any site(s) you are interested in attending. If you do not know who your Festival Advisor is, please check with your local Pastor.—Festival Office
Congregations and Feast Site Assignments—Repeat Announcement
To find out what Feast site your local congregation is assigned to, consult the following list:
Boerne, TX
New Mexico: El Paso/Las Cruces
Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Hawkins,
Houston, Lufkin, Midland, San Antonio, Temple
Gatlinburg, TN
Alabama: Athens, Birmingham
Georgia: Blairsville
Kentucky: Berea, Louisville
North Carolina: Asheville
Ohio: Cincinnati
Tennessee: Chattanooga, Clarksville, Crossville, Knoxville, Nashville
Virginia: Bristol
West Virginia: Bluefield, Logan, Ripley
Indian Wells, CA
California: Concord, Fresno, Garden Grove, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Sacramento, San
Diego, Santa Maria
Hawaii:
Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno
Lake of the Ozarks, MO
Arkansas: El Dorado, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Harrison, Little Rock, Mena, Russellville
Iowa: Des Moines
Illinois: Peoria
Indiana: Indianapolis, Terre Haute
Kansas: Chanute, Wichita
Louisiana: Monroe, Shreveport
Missouri: Columbia, Joplin, Kansas City, Rolla, Springfield, St. Joseph, St. Louis
Nebraska: Omaha
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Tennessee: Memphis
Myrtle Beach, SC
DC: Washington
Maryland: Baltimore, Salisbury
North Carolina: Asheboro, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Statesville
South Carolina: Anderson, Walterboro
Virginia: Norfolk, Richmond, Williamsburg, Winchester
Navarre, FL
Alabama: Montgomery
Florida: Pensacola
Louisiana: Baton Rouge, Ferriday, Lafayette, New Orleans
Mississippi: Columbus, Jackson, Laurel, Ocean Springs
Palm Harbor, FL
Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Lake City, Ocala, Tampa
Georgia: Atlanta, Braselton, Columbus, Macon, Thomasville
Puerto Rico: San Juan
Park City, UT
Arizona: Phoenix, Prescott Valley, Tucson
Colorado: Colorado Springs, Denver, Meeker
Montana: Great Falls, Helena
New Mexico: Albuquerque, Santa Fe
Utah: Layton
Wyoming: Casper, Saratoga, Thermopolis, Wheatland
Seaside, OR
Alaska: Anchorage
California: Eureka, Redding
Idaho: Boise
Oregon: Portland, Grants Pass
Washington: Richland, Seattle/Tacoma, Tonasket
Tannersville, PA
Connecticut:
Delaware:
Massachusetts: Auburn
Maine: Freeport
New Hampshire: Lebanon
New Jersey: Cranford, Hammonton
New York: Albany, Buffalo, Corning, Melville, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse
Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Tannersville
Rhode Island: Providence
Wisconsin Dells, WI
Iowa: Dubuque
Illinois: Chicago
Indiana: Fort Wayne, Knox
Michigan: Detroit, Kalamazoo, Lansing, McMillan, Traverse City
Minnesota: Duluth, Minneapolis
North Dakota: Bismarck
Ohio: Akron, Columbus, Lima
Wisconsin: Appleton, Merrill, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dells
South Dakota:
Living Youth Programs
Online Teen Bible Study—Friday Evening
The online Teen Bible Study Friday evening, April 4, will be on “Our Incredible Human Potential,” presented by Mr. Sheldon Monson. If you haven’t had the opportunity to join us for one of the online Bible Studies yet, I encourage you to do so. It is a wonderful way to start the Sabbath day.
The Bible Study runs from 8:00-9:00 p.m. (EDT) and the chat room will be open for a half hour before and after the study. You can access this Bible Study at livingyouth.org. We hope as many of our youth as possible will join us for this wonderful opportunity for godly fellowship and learning. For those of you who are unable to make it to the study, archives of previous Living Youth Bible Studies can also be found on the Living Youth Web site.—Sheldon Monson
Registration for LYC 2014 Camps
We are still accepting applicants for all of our camps except the Adventure Camp.—Sheldon Monson
Important Announcement for Employees of the Living Church of God
All employees of the Church should register for any camps they wish to attend no later than Sunday, April 13. Employees will be notified of acceptance or denial by April 22.—Sheldon Monson
Finance
Green Holy Day Envelopes, U.S. Only—Repeat Announcement
The green Holy Day envelopes were mailed to U.S. households March 12. These pre-coded envelopes save the staff hours of processing time when they are used for Holy Day offerings. We would suggest that you place these envelopes with your Bible and notebook that you take to services. If you do not receive your envelopes by March 26, please e-mail records@lcg.org and we will resend them to you.—D. Jerry Ruddlesden
Comments
Prepare for the Passover: In just about two weeks, we will be observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. These annual Festivals are a memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for our sins and a reminder that we need to recognize and eliminate sin and inappropriate aspects of our lives. For the Passover period to be meaningful and profitable, and not just routine, we need to do our part to prepare for this important part of God’s plan of salvation. To put the Passover into perspective, it will be helpful to read and meditate on the gospel accounts of the events in Jesus’ life that led up to the Passover, the crucifixion and the resurrection. Putting our own period of self-examination into this biblical context will help us appreciate the tremendous significance of Christ’s sacrifice—for us individually and for th e whole world. Spending time every day preparing for the Passover will pay dividends for our spiritual growth.
Have a meaningful Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
News and Prophecy
Catholic Church vs. the United States: According to the Cardinal leading the Vatican’s highest court, “the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization. He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies… Obama wants to restrict religious freedom and force the individuals, outside his or her place of worship ‘to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions’… ‘Such policies would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago’” (CNS News, March 21, 2014). While the U.S. President is not solely responsible for the policies of his administration, religious freedoms are under attack in the U.S. and many other nations. How might this impact the future of the United States? Bible prophecy reveals that a powerful church will play a major role in the rise of an end-time Beast power in Europe and lead the world to worship this Beast (Revelation 13:12). If the Catholic Church, which has backed the move for European unity, perceives that the U.S., or any nation, is standing in the way of Catholic worship, it may well use its influence to effect a change. Prophecy reveals that the British-descended nations will experience an end-time captivity (Deuteronomy 28:41; Amos 6:7; 7:11). The Catholic Church could become an agent that will help fulfill these ancient prophecies. For more on the future influence of the Catholic Church on world affairs, be sure to read our booklet, The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?
Proof of the Big Bang? Decades ago the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein predicted mathematically that if the Big Bang were true we should find lingering evidence. Last week, scientists reported what they believe to be some of that evidence in the form of gravity ripples in space (National Geographic, March 17, 2014). “The long-sought observations [telescope readings], taken from Antarctica, strongly support the cosmological theory of ‘inflation,’ which explains how the early universe smoothly expanded to unimaginable vastness in the first fractional second of its existence”—the universe instantaneously came into existence from nothing (ibid.). While atheistic scientists are lauding the finding as s upport of their secular Big Bang Theory, Bible-believing scientists use this same information as proof of creation by a Creator. Physics professor Nathan Aviezer of Bar-Ilan University observed, “Throughout the centuries, creation ex nihilo [from nothing] was considered impossible, but today it is taken as scientific fact” (Times of Israel, March 19, 2014). Science has now proven the millennia-old biblical understanding that the universe came into instantaneous existence from nothing. However, scientists will not ask the harder question, “who or what created the universe from nothing?” While the Bible is not a scientific textbook, it does provide information and answers to many deep questions of science. For more information on the proofs of God’s existence, be sure to read our free booklet, The Real God: Proofs and Promises.
Our Amazing Nose! King David mused “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works” (Psalm 139:14). Modern research adds to David’s ancient observation. “The human nose can detect one trillion different odors, far more than we previously thought… Until now, the long-held belief was that we can sniff out about 10,000 smells. New estimates published in Science magazine suggest the human nose outperforms the eye and the ear in terms of the number of stimuli it can distinguish between” (BBC, March 20, 2014). Professor Stephen Liberles, of Harvard Medical School, said “the nose has a large number of olfactory receptors, which implies our sense of smell could be even more powerful than the latest estimate” (ibid.). Scientists like to claim that the incredible diversity in nature and the human body came about randomly, over eons of time, as an adaptive response to demands placed upon it. However, what type of demands would cause the human body to evolve the ability to smell a trillion different scents or to see up to 10 million colors (ibid.)? Honest scientists realize that the need to survive requires exponentially fewer! And how long would it take to evolve such diversity without the pressure of adaptation to survive? God made us with acute senses and gave us a Savior so that we could live an “abundant life” (John 10:10). For more information on the proofs of God’s existence, view our telecast “Questions Evolution Cannot Answer.”—Scott Winnail, John Wheeler and Ron Ramsingh