Philadelphia Trumpet / Philadelphia Church of God

Of course, 1 Corinthians 12 is the classic chapter expounding on this principle.

Notice in 1 Corinthians 12 how the church of God is compared to the body of Christ.

Christ is the head of the church, but then the church is his body.

1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12 says, For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.

So we see here that mainly what we have in common with each other in God's church, the Philadelphia Church of God, is the fact that we have been brought together by God.

We have been united behind one purpose by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

So the many have slipped into this condition and just a faithful few have remained steadfast and persevered in this race.

Following Mr. Armstrong's death in 1986, This church, the Philadelphia Church of God, started with Malachi's message at the end of 1989.

And it's been 36 years since.

And we've seen growth.

But most of God's people have fallen away.

And Paul speaks of this in 2 Thessalonians 2, which is another passage, incredibly detailed and specific about the last days in God's church.

Soon after the Philadelphia Church of God started, early in 1990, my father gave this sermon.

in February of that year, so this goes way back many years, decades, some of the early services that we had in this church where he was focusing in on these prophecies in Revelation 2 and 3 about seven church eras.

And then it can make us wonder, why are they so well off while those of us actually trying to live God's way have it a little bit tougher than that? Well, God is building character in us.

He has a grand purpose for those in the Philadelphia Church of God, for those who are supporting his work today.

Acts 14 verse 22 says, "We must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God." Second Timothy 3 verse 12 guarantees that godly people will suffer persecution.

But then Second Timothy 2 in verse 12 says, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." And you can just find verse after verse throughout the entire Bible that shows we are in a spiritual war.

I kept the Feast of Tabernacles in Panama this year, which was a really good opportunity for some news gathering.

The Philadelphia Church of God has church brethren throughout many Latin American nations, and they all gathered into one feast site this year.

And I was actually almost a little surprised to... get some like on the ground feedback about just kind of like the sense of optimism about some good things that are happening, at least in the short term in the Latin American region.

In the last year or so, there have been about seven governments in south and central america that have shifted in a more conservative direction bolivia costa rica honduras chile ecuador colombia peru and brazil may soon be joining that number we'll talk more about that in a minute And so on this program, we have highlighted the fact that pretty much all of these shifts in a conservative direction have benefited the Catholic Church, but it has also benefited Just like safety, security, some pro-family values.

We've been excavating there for 60 years, going back to Mr. Armstrong's time.

an ambassador college, and back in 2006, Mr. Gerald Flurry, Philadelphia Church of God, Armstrong College, picked up the mantle there from Mr. Armstrong's time and continued excavating with Benjamin Mazars, who was the excavator from Hebrew University, his granddaughter.

Eilat Mazar.

She's famed for the discovery of King David's palace, many other discoveries.

Then the church was raised up.

It was the beginning of this Philadelphia era of the church in a country schoolhouse out west of Eugene, Oregon.

Now, those were my new converts that God gave to me.

And so I taught them, and among the new knowledge, it was all new to them, they were newly converted, were the seven annual holy days.