Announcements for February 23, 2017

PCD Update on Second Half of 2016

From Cecil Maranville: Due to the timing of the fall festivals, there wasn’t time to prepare a report on PCD activity for the third quarter (July to September) of 2016. Then, when I examined September’s figures after the Feast, I realized that looking at them apart from October would present a skewed perspective. (September would have been up nearly 100 percent over the previous year, while October would have been down by about 11 percent.) So, I am reporting on the stats for the last half of 2016. We had 2,101 PCD responses for July through December 2016. That represents a 38 percent increase over the second half of 2015, which had 1,523 responses.

We saw a similar increase when comparing the year as a whole to 2015: 4,433 responses in 2016, about a 39 percent increase over the 3,188 responses in 2015. We now have 17 ministers on the answering team, in addition to our receptionist, Ina McLemore, and our proofreaders, Emily Burt (who takes care of most of PCD’s email) and Becky Bennett (who oversees all of our proofreading). Following is a sampling of questions we’ve received in the past six months.

•   How can intimacy be ruined, and why does it happen?

•   Where is it said in the Bible that God warns man to be careful [and] that He may give women the authority over men if they continued to abuse their authority? [Submitted by a man.]

•   Can you please assist me in obtaining direct contact email address of the high priests of the seven churches in Asia? I have tried locally in South Africa, getting help as much as I can, but no one can be able to help me. I believe I had or still have spiritual connection with the Lord and may need some guidance with regards to the following noted help.

•   May I share this article [Insights blog post on Dallas police shootings, “When Will the Violence End?”] with co-volunteers at various nonprofit organizations I work with? The truth is painful.

•   I came across your website while looking for teaching on the book of Esther. After that I went on to read further and downloaded booklets to study later. I have been searching for a true Church of Christ for a long time. I have run from church to church; [I] went to prophetic ministries, but I couldn’t find satisfaction for my soul. Scriptures are twisted and there is too much doctrines. Do you have a minister in Namibia? I want to repent of my sins, get baptized and start my newness life in Christ doing according to the Bible.

•   So I’m a little confused. I’m scared to die because I just don’t know much about how I’m going to be when the antichrist comes. I’ve looked at different articles, and they say the first time will be like a hoax. Everybody who doesn’t know about the antichrist will be fooled. But the second time Jesus will resurrect everybody who died, and they will have everlasting life. I just don’t know if the dead people will be resurrected when the antichrist comes back or what. And I’m 14.