New name for the magazine

I was very pleased to read of your decision to go with the new title Beyond Today for your magazine. Your board of directors has carefully and prayerfully analyzed the best direction to take, and I am confident our Heavenly Father will bless your efforts immensely. I want to be a part of that good work! Enclosed is my offering to help cover the costs of publishing and mailing the magazines.

Subscriber in Michigan

Thanks for your encouragement! Beginning with the next issue, the name will change from The Good News to Beyond Today. Readers can find more details in the editorial, Big News About the Good News, in this issue.

Grateful for the magazine, TV program and videos

I enjoy reading your Good News magazine and viewing your Beyond Today program.  Very uplifting, inspiring and professional—great spiritual food.  Thank you for providing this excellent service. 

From the Internet

Here’s to a courageous group of people steadily obeying and pleasing God by doing His will, and following the instructions laid out in the Holy Bible for all peoples at all times. Thank you.

Subscriber in Oklahoma

Thank you for being a blessing to me and every person watching your Bible study videos and sermons; they are highly appreciated.

Viewer in South Africa

We’re glad you appreciate and learn from them! Our Bible studies are available online at www.ucg.org/beyond-today/webcast, and our sermons are available at www.ucg.org/sermons.

Thanks so much for the publications you sent me. I came in contact with your magazine many years ago in a friend’s house, and subsequently made a request to receive it. When I received some of your booklets, I studied them all. In particular, I had special interest in The Middle East in Bible Prophecy and The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. I hail from Borno State, Nigeria, which is the epicenter of Boko Haram. A number of my relations were killed by this group. As a Christian I asked, “Why?” Your publications gave me the biblical answer. Keep up the good work. May God bless your ministry.

Reader in Nigeria

Appreciates abundant website information

I am so grateful for the abundance of information you have on your website. I am “hungry and thirsty” for God. Your website seems limitless with clear, broken-down examples for me to better understand Scripture and connect it to my life. God bless you!

Internet reader

It is a pleasure to let you know that I have been to your website and have been so much attracted to learn more for our spiritual growth here. Indeed it is good work done, and you are going to be a blessing to many who have not seen the light especially here in Kenya and other parts of the world.

Internet reader in Kenya

Request for booklet from prison

I am currently incarcerated in Louisiana. At my last institution I read your booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy and was astonished by its teaching. Because the booklet belonged to someone else, I was unable to bring it with me when I transferred here. I have told many people about it, and it has stirred a lot of interest at this prison. Since there are no publications from your church at this prison, can you please mail me a copy of The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy and The Book of Revelation Unveiled?

Reader in Louisiana

We’re glad you found our study guides helpful. Those you requested are on their way to you.

Looking for a congregation

I would like to know if you can refer me to a strict, uncompromising church. I like your mission statement. It is critical that every true Church of God has a discipleship program in place to help facilitate the spiritual growth and development of its believers. I am hungry and thirsty to be a member of a true Bible-teaching church. I anxiously await your response. Thank you kindly.

Reader in Brooklyn, New York

I stumbled upon your Beyond Today program and was so glad to find somebody on TV truly preaching and teaching God’s Word. Can you send your TV schedule and your church’s location?

Viewer in Texas

The United Church of God, which sponsors The Good News magazine and Beyond Today TV program, has congregations around the world, including in New York City and multiple locations in Texas. You can find the congregation closest to you at hwww.ucg.org/congregations. Our Beyond Today program listing can be found at BeyondToday.tv under the “Television” tab.

I want to know if you have a group here in Riyadh, so that I can enjoy and learn your teachings!

Reader in Saudi Arabia

Since it’s illegal for non-Muslim groups to meet or to practice Christianity in Saudi Arabia, we do not have any congregations there. However, interested viewers can watch or download sermons from our website at www.ucg.org/sermons. Sabbath services can be accessed live under the “Webcast” tab.

Wondering how to keep God’s festivals

I would like to request the booklet God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind. I watched the Beyond Today presentation about them and would like to know how to celebrate them.

Viewer in Christchurch, New Zealand

I have read your booklet God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind. I would love to learn more of what I need to do for each of the festivals that God wants us to observe. Is there any way I can learn what to do on each of these Holy Days that would please God? Thanks!

From the Internet

One important aspect of keeping God’s festivals is, wherever possible, to assemble with others who also celebrate them. The United Church of God observes God’s feast days throughout the year. Contact us at the address listed in the front of this magazine or at www.ucg.org/congregations to find out more about when these festivals are being observed and where.

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

My mouth dropped at your Beyond Today program “Is God a Trinity?” Do you deny the Holy Spirit? Because if you do, that is the only sin not pardonable. God mentions Himself, His Son, and the Holy Spirit separately. When you believe in the saving grace by God through his son Jesus, you will receive the Holy Spirit, which guides us to be like Jesus. How can you not see the Trinity?

Viewer in Toronto, Canada

We do not deny the Holy Spirit when we teach from the Bible that it is not a member of a Trinity. God is a family presently consisting of God the Father and Jesus Christ. They are adding to that family by calling human beings to become like Them in the process of conversion. This happens through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to a person at baptism and will guide him or her into becoming like Jesus Christ, just as you stated (see also the Q&A above).

But the Holy Spirit is not a separate, conscious entity—rather, it is the power, mind and essence of God. We offer a thoroughly researched study guide on this subject titled Is God a Trinity?—available for free at www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/is-god-a-trinity. We urge our readers to thoroughly examine what the Bible actually says—and does not say—about the Trinity (a word, incidentally, found nowhere in the Bible).

Support for spreading the Word of God

Your magazine gives so much helpful information for me in my Christian walk. Thank you for putting out a magazine that has spread the Word of God so well. My prayers are that you’ll be able to keep on sending the magazine to people. I’ll be sending a check at the end of the month.

Wisconsin subscriber

My wife and I are not members of the United Church of God. We would like to be, but the closest congregation to us is not close to where we live. We would like to send in our tithes to the United Church of God. Today I am sending our first check. We have learned much from your booklets and try to share with everyone that we can.

Readers in Georgia

I have Christian friends and relatives who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and your publications have been so helpful in directing them to the scriptures that answer so many of their questions. Seeing their excitement in putting the pieces together is exciting for me as well, and strengthens my faith. There is so little I can do physically. Perhaps God has given me more time after surviving two life-threatening health incidents to plant a few seeds of knowledge in the hearts of others. I will happily be including the United Church of God in my list of tithing recipients.

Subscriber in Wisconsin