Information Related to "Letters From Our Readers - Jul/Aug 2000"

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Letters From Our Readers

Comments about The Good News

Thank you for sending The Good News. Truly speaking, I have changed a lot in my life since I began to read it. Every word I read is as if every fresh current watered my dried mind. I read and meditate. I wish everyone would read The Good News to correct themselves and live better. Unfortunately, the first difficulty we meet is language. Not everyone uses English, do they?

N.M.L., Vung Tau, Vietnam

We sympathize with your language plight. Although we also publish The Good News in Spanish, German and Italian, and some booklets and articles in additional languages, we regret we currently have no literature in any Asian tongue. There is some consolation in that English is rapidly becoming a world language and is actively taught in many nations.

I happened to pick up your publication while waiting at the doctor's office this morning. I am compelled to write and tell you how impressed I am on the quality of the writing and the relevancy of the topics, particularly the two I read on the rapture and the Good Friday-Easter Sunday question. These are two subjects that had never been established with any certainty in my soul. Thank you for advancing the truth in the Spirit of Christ.

H.L., Lafayette, Louisiana

What happens after death?

Thank you for sending me the booklet What Happens After Death? Your explanation, using scriptures from the Bible, is very effective. It proves that God is truly a loving and merciful spirit being who would never want to see any human being suffer in pain and misery for eternity. Jesus lived His life as an example of love for us to follow. Eternal damnation has no part in His love. This truth gives hope and promise to all.

J.F., Bruce, Wisconsin

The Bible Study Course

I am a new reader of The Good News magazine and received your letter inviting me to enroll in your free Bible Study Course. At the time your letter reached me I was debating whether to enroll or not. I was considering that, since I am already a Bible teacher in my local church and run a teaching ministry, such a course would not be really for me. But, upon receipt of your letter and reading it through, it dawned on me that I should not close my mind to the possible new insights on scriptural knowledge and interpretation that your Bible course might contain. Therefore I have decided to enroll.

E.D.E., Cross River State, Nigeria

This is the kind of open-minded approach that was practiced by the Bereans, who are complimented in the book of Acts. They "were more fair-minded ... in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11). We encourage our readers not to simply accept what we or anyone else says about the Bible, but to search the Scriptures to discover and prove the truth for themselves.

Enthusiastic interest in Canada

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying your magazine, and so do the prisoners to whom I am sending the extra copies. I noticed you had a 12-lesson Bible Study Course, which I would very much like to do myself. The inmates also love courses and especially Christian courses and literature. I would like to have How to Understand the Bible and Is the Bible True? for myself and for the inmates. I believe that the Canadian office has a Web site. I think I'll log onto it to see if I can get them to send me these materials.

J.R., Ontario

I enjoy the articles in your Good News magazine and look forward to the next issue. They give one understanding of God's plan for mankind and world events as they are unfolding in our present time. Please may I have the booklets Is the Bible True? and Are We Living in the Time of the End? I would also like to try the Bible Study Course.

M.A., New Brunswick

Would you please send me the following: God's Holy Day Plan, The Church Jesus Built and the Bible Study Course. Your publications are factual, interesting and appropriate in today's society. I thoroughly enjoy and absorb every word. Please accept this donation towards postage and other expenses.

K.B., Ontario

Please see the international addresses on page 2 for how to contact our office in Canada and other offices around the world. All our publications are free on request from any of our offices.

Revolting pictures

I've browsed several issues of The Good News magazine, and quite simply I'm less than impressed. Certainly as we need to be aware of the suffering and sorrows of this world we also need to be equally aware of and focused on the actual "good" which is in fact out there and what we can do to greater effect that good. Many of the pictures in your magazine are revolting. Why do you do this to your reading audience?

Does God's Bible have such revolting pictures? No, it does not. Thus I charge and challenge you to begin using a different pictorial approach that would be more appropriate to portraying the message of God. We see the pains and sorrows of this world every day in the print media, TV news, etc. We don't need to see it in church publications such as yours.

D.T., Fresno, California

Although we do not agree with you that our pictures are revolting, we can understand and agree with the intent of your comment. Ideally we wish that we all lived in the biblically promised wonderful world tomorrow right now and were presently enjoying the utopian conditions prophesied in the Bible. Then there would be no need to publish anything but the most positive pictures illustrating the universal good news that will mark Christ's reign in the Kingdom of God.

However, we live in what the Bible calls "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4)-a world mired in satanic deception (Revelation 12:9; 1John 5:19). As an integral part of our mission to herald the good news of God's coming Kingdom, we are to warn as many as possible of the sure punishments God's Word tells us will afflict an increasingly disobedient world.

The biblical writers were quite graphic in their descriptions of the suffering that results from sin and rebellion against our Creator (see, for example, Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Even Jesus Himself used two current, widely known tragedies of His day (Luke 13:1-5) to emphasize an aspect of His message: We must repent or perish. In the same vein we try to illustrate our articles that specifically fulfill this role with pictures appropriate to the subject. We try to illustrate the seriousness-and the grave consequences-of sin.

The Bible itself is God's inspired Word to mankind (2Timothy 3:15-17). He chose not to illustrate it pictorially at all. Some Bible publishers have added pictures and illustrations, but they carry no divine authority.

Association with our work

Thank you so much for the copy of The Church Jesus Built and the magazine The Good News. They have helped me to see Christianity in a new light. Though not born a Christian, I have always been inspired by the teachings of Jesus. They have given me strength in times of deep distress. I find your writings quite relevant and of great importance to people who find it hard to come to terms with a kind of Christianity that seems to be going every which way.

Keep up the good work. I would be happy to receive more literature in the future. If there is any way I could associate with your work, do let me know.

M.M.S., Coimbatore, India

You might want to request our free booklets The Gospel of the Kingdom and What Is Your Destiny? In terms of spreading the good news of the coming Kingdom of God, these two publications best explain the basic purpose of our mission in the world.

Published letters may be edited for clarity and space. Address your letters to The Good News, Box 541027, Cincinnati, Ohio 45254, U.S.A., or E-mail gninfo@ucg.org (please be sure to include your full name, city, state or province, and country).