Dear Brethren and Co-workers with Christ,
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Weston will be traveling to Kansas City and Joplin, Missouri for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. These are the Holy Day Festivals that Christ and His apostles observed. If you have not yet read and studied our inspiring free booklet, The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan, be sure to order your free copy or read it online. With all the chaos, conflict and global dangers facing us, we need the encouragement and the assurance revealed in the Holy Bible. Jesus gave us this comforting promise: “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31-32).
Our Creator established the planetary cycles for the benefit of human beings He made in His image. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3). The Fourth Commandment powerfully states the reality that atheists, agnostics, and materialists foolishly deny: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).
God established His seven-day week and yearly calendar. We joyfully marked the first day of the new sacred year, Nisan 1, on Tuesday, April 9. And some of you marveled at the awesome total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8. News reports tell us that 44 million people were in the eclipse’s path of totality from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Newfoundland, Canada. Tourism officials estimate that more than 4 million eclipse-watchers traveled to the path of totality.
A total solar eclipse beautifully demonstrates the design of the great Creator. How is it that a total eclipse occurs with such 100 percent precision that the moon perfectly blots out the sun but allows a corona, light emanating from the rim of the sun? One NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) report explains it this way: “Solar eclipses occur when the moon blocks any part of the sun. Total solar eclipses, however, are only possible on Earth because of a cosmic quirk of geometry: The sun’s diameter is 400 times wider than the moon’s, but it is also 400 times farther away. The result is that the sun and the moon appear to be the same size from our perspective. When they line up just right, the moon can obscure the sun’s entire surface, creating a total solar eclipse.”
“A cosmic quirk of geometry”? Ancient King David knew better, proclaiming: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). Not only is God the Creator of “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,” but He intervenes in the affairs and governments of men. The prophet Daniel reveals “that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17).
Scripture reveals the power of Jesus Christ over the world’s nations as “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5). And Christians are also told to submit to our nations’ leaders: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil…. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:1-7). By the time you receive this letter, you may already have paid your income taxes for 2023. Christians set an example of practicing good citizenship in whatever country they reside. At the same time, some nations and communities reject biblical values and even persecute professing Christians, so we must always live by the principle stated by the Apostle Peter, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
All of you brethren and co-workers have proven—or should have proven by now—that God powerfully blesses the tithe-payer and those who give offerings. “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it’” (Malachi 3:10).
We are all involved in supporting the greatest work of faith on earth, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Your generous support has contributed to the growth and spreading of that Gospel. English-speaking viewers might not realize that the Tomorrow’s World telecast is also broadcast with voiceovers in French and Spanish. And we recently received this report from Mr. Mike DeSimone, Manager of Broadcast and Digital Media:
We are currently using AI [artificial intelligence] to translate our telecasts and also produce a voiceover with subtitles. We use AI to do 90 percent of the work, but we have members who speak those languages review and revise the translations as necessary. We are currently producing the [AI supported] telecast in the following languages: German, Dutch (subtitles only), Portuguese (done by the Spanish department), and just recently, Urdu, of which we should have the first video published on our new Urdu YouTube channel by the end of the month. Additionally, we are currently working on Hindi and have future plans for Italian, if we have the resources to make it happen.
Please pray that the telecast will soon be seen in many more countries speaking various languages! Incidentally, our UK office has used AI to translate some of our booklets into other languages. Of course, experts continually warn about the dangers of AI in disrupting and deceiving many sectors of our civilization. But, as we use it responsibly, it can be a valuable tool for preaching the true Gospel! We thank God that millions of lives around the world are being positively affected by this Work. One of the “Letters to TW” on page 30 of the current Tomorrow’s World magazine particularly encouraged me:
Thank you for all the information, enlightenment, and booklets that you share to me reminding me of all the suffering God has been through and still goes through for the love He has for humanity. I was also overwhelmed when I suddenly realized [the errors in] my “up-bringing beliefs” as well, though I have much more to learn. I am reading your latest letter and want to order myself a booklet entitled Law or Grace: Which Is It? I can’t wait to read and be more enlightened to follow Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you for all the work that you do for our Lord and the magazine we also receive. May God’s blessing be upon you tenfold. —Subscriber in New Zealand
This letter also commented on Christ’s suffering for us. As we prepare for the Passover, the annual memorial of our Savior’s death, we need to consider the sacrifice of the Son of God who was scourged and brutalized and then crucified. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). We thank God that we have been redeemed by “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Baptized members will observe the New Testament Passover after sunset on Sunday, April 21.
God’s plan of salvation brings us new life after baptism: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4).
Thank God the Father and Jesus Christ for Their awesome sacrifice and love to save us from the death penalty and further help us grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18). And thank you for your heartfelt support of God’s Work!
In Christian love,
Richard F. Ames