United Church of God Raleigh

Knowing & Understanding God Jeremiah 9: 23- 24  God wants us to know and understand Him... and He wants us to then pattern our lives after what we know. Because that is how we will get joy and pleasure from the gift of eternal life. We know and understand Him through 1) what He does (hesed, exercises kindness, grace, mercy) and 2) what He says (guidelines for justice and righteousness). What H...

We proclaim the coming kingdom of God... like Jesus did, like the apostles did…  and the early Church did. We know the rule of God on earth  does not come about by human efforts or pretensions of progress... the rule of God on earth begins with the return of Christ preceded by clear signs and events foretold by Jesus and the prophets. Like the disciples we ask and wonder... when will it come?

The relevance of the day of Atonement for new covenant believers is covered in the book of Hebrews. It directly addresses two of the four main themes of the day. Get a FREE copy of our eBook "What Really Happens After Death?" Full details are at this link: http://eepurl.com/ddB0yb The Day of Atonement Has Meaning For Our Time Hebrew 9:8-10 - one of the features of the day of atonement is: our pres...

Resurrection from the dead and the gift of eternal life is the “hope” of all mankind. To no longer fear or anticipate death. The scriptures teach that ALL will be raised (John 5:28) but that there is an order in which the dead will be resurrected. The Feast of Trumpets celebrates and proclaims the resurrection of those who are in Christ at His return. the resurrection of the just… the better resur...

Daniel 10-12 The Final Vision: King of the North and the King of the South This is the longest and most detailed of the visions given to Daniel. It adds detail to previous visions but without the symbolism or riddle. The focus of the vision is the person who will rise up at the end time... a.k.a. the man of lawlessness, the anti-Christ, the beast. The coming of this person is one of the key pieces...

Sins of hostility and enmity are about how we think about others. Do we think of a treat others as friends, or enemies... are they family or are they rivals? This applies within the Church and outside the Church. If God is going to raise you up to be seated with Christ and assist Him in the millennial rule and beyond... you have to build a positive outlook towards others. Get a FREE copy of our eB...

Holiness can be undermined by bitterness… leading to defilement… leading us to becoming godless and profane. Along the way I’m going to add definition to: Holiness - set apart for a God given purpose Bitterness - focusing on the negative Defilement - caused by disobedience Profane - unable to see, unwilling to acknowledge God’s purpose The path from holy to profane, is a path from life with purpos...

The 70 weeks prophecy is the essential prophecy of the bible: ◾ It ties into Persian history with the proclamation which allows us to figure out the start of the countdown ◾ It provides numbers that allow us to predict when events would happen ◾ These numbers correspond to the time of the crucifixion which then mesh with the 3 days and 3 nights, the holy day sequence, and the lunar solar calend...

Intro Paul’s Sin Lists Digital media company Buzzfeed made a billion dollar business out of click-bait headlines  like “10 things you must do now if you want to…” or “7 Reasons You Shouldn’t…”. People love lists! You’ll even find lists in the bible [ex. the Women’s discussion group is going over the “7 things God hates”]. The apostle Paul is known for providing interesting lists of spiritual virtu...

C hrist as Head of the 7 Church es of Revelation Revelation chapters 2 & 3 contain messages written for and sent to the 7 Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.l Each receives its own short, personalized message from the head of the Church, the resurrected Jesus Christ.l Each message follows a pattern of noting their accomplishments, their faults or ...

Mark 16:9-11  as a human being… Mary Magdalene was nobody special really. What made her special is Jesus’ appearance to her... Likewise, you are nothing special, [not a gathering of the beautiful, the rich, the elite] what makes you important, significant, noteworthy is that you have been brought into the body of the resurrected and living Christ. Keep Reading »

Jesus’ Baptism   Matthew 3:13-17 1. Jesus came to John to be baptized even though He had no sins to be forgiven and washed clean from. 2. When John questioned Him about submitting to baptism Jesus said that it was necessary to establish an example “let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness”. 3. This was a full immersion baptism, Jesus “ came up out of the water”...

D id Je sus Death By Crucifixion Really Happen ?   Since the very beginning there has been opposition to God's truth and His church. Some opponents even make the bold claim that Jesus death by crucifixion never happened. Keep Reading »

The 3.5 year period  Jesus spent preaching and teaching  was filled with amazing activity. He healed the sick, raised the dead, quieted the storm, cast out demons, and proclaimed the coming kingdom of God... Yet, out of the tens of thousands He reached, He was misunderstood and rejected by almost everyone. Only 120 people were there when the Church of God began with the receipt of the holy spirit....

Contemporary research has determined that one of the main reasons young people abandon God, scripture, church is confusion and doubt about Genesis 1. What is the biblical explanation for the world before Adam and Eve ? Get a FREE copy of our eBook "What Really Happens After Death?" Full details are at this link: http://eepurl.com/ddB0yb

The Rebellion That Causes Desolation Daniel 8:1  Most bible reading people agree that Daniel chapter 8 is a vision providing greater detail concerning the Greek empire that will follow Persia in the succession of gentile kingdoms.  So it expands upon  Neb's dream of the metal statue [focusing on the transition from the arms and chest of silver to the belly and thighs of brass... and Daniel's own v...

Did Elijah Really Go to Heaven? 2 Kings 2:11  The average person reads about the fiery chariot that swoops down and takes Elijah up into heaven and assumes it means that Elijah was taken up into the spiritual realm where he would then live forever in the presence of God. It seems like a logical conclusion… especially for people who believe that human beings possess an immortal soul which never die...

What Is a Human Being? Is it a spiritual soul temporarily encased in a physical material body... is the spiritual soul good while the flesh and blood material body is bad?...  What happens at death? ... The material body obviously disintegrate into atoms and molecules... But does a spiritual/soul live on? Does it suffer consequences for what was done in the flesh... can it experience bliss... wher...

The 7th chapter of Daniel is the turning point in the book. The first half of the book gave us the story of Daniel's life and background: a man of impeccable character, a man of great wisdom, great skill, a trustworthy spokesperson of Israel and the one true God of heaven. The second half of the book [chapters 7-12] switches from Aramaic to Hebrew and is a record of the prophetic visions delivered...

Philippians 4:1-3  Now we get to the real-life circumstances that caused Paul to write this letter to the congregation in Philippi. Up to this point Paul has given instruction on unity, and positive interactions among the members of the congregation. He covers these themes in great detail because there is friction between two women in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche. Keep Reading »

How Spiritually Mature People Think Philippians 3:1  we begin with a call to rejoice which is one of the over-arching themes of the letter. Because we understand the truth of what God is accomplishing in the world we can have a positive, uplifting outlook on the events and circumstances life throws at us. Hebrews 12:2  the joy Jesus had was not based on material circumstances, rather it was based...

Christ's second coming to planet earth is announced by a mighty trumpet blast  Matthew 24:31-32 .Two long awaited event take place at His coming: 1) the resurrection of those who are in Christ 2) the time when he will take up His rule as king of kings announcing condemnation upon the governments, cultures, and false religions of humanity. 1 Corinthians 15:52  Paul tells us this trumpet blast is "t...

What Will Be The Sign of Your Coming? First let’s review Jesus’ first coming…Scripture tells us the Word [who was God and was with God] set aside His glory to come to us in the form of a flesh and blood human being. Furthermore, we are told that He did not come into the world to condemn it. His purpose was to save those who were willing to listen and heed God's call to repentance, baptism, and the...

A great and horrible lie taken root in our society... the lie is this: "human life has no purpose". We are not created beings with a great destiny to fulfill. We are a highly improbable accident that came about by a series of random events. We come from nothing and our end is nothing. In between the best we can do is grab a bit of pleasure and enjoyment until the day we die. God's message to you i...

Daniel 3:1-3  Just before this section of the book Nebuchadnezzar had experienced a dream of a golden statue which Daniel, the man of the true God in heaven, interpreted for him. That dream foretold the sequence of worldly kingdoms that would dominate the earth from the time of Israel’s demise, until the return of the Messiah at the end of the age. In that vision Nebuchadnezzar had the flattering...