sermonette: The Humblest of Beginnings

CGG's Internet Work
David C. Grabbe
Given 24-Sep-02; Sermon #FT02-06s; 14 minutes

Description: (show)

John asked me to spend just a few minutes to give you an overview of the Internet projects of the Church of the Great God and to let you know some of the plans that we have for the future.

In the 1969 edition of the Ambassador College Correspondence course, one of the lessons is entitled, “The Book, and the Church They Couldn't Destroy.” This lesson details the work of preaching the gospel throughout the early eras of the church. And the underlying theme throughout the lesson is God's oversight and sovereignty, causing His good news to be preached to the world.

The lesson also points out how various technological advances have allowed the gospel to reach more people faster and more effectively.

For example, one of the first uses of the Gutenberg printing press was the printing of the Bible. For the first time it was possible for an individual to own a personal copy of the Word of God. As the level of technology increased, so did the opportunities for putting it to use in the work of God. In fact, it is entirely possible that God inspired and caused some of these technological advances, at least in part, so that His work could be preached.

Throughout history, we see the work of God being accomplished through the latest technology available, and through the various media of the times. In the last century we have seen how God works through the media of the printed magazine, the radio, and television to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

In his autobiography, the late Herbert Armstrong often referred to the earliest days of the work of the humblest of beginnings. It started with a small-town evangelistic campaigns and even smaller congregations. The first magazine was hand-copied on a hand cranked mimeograph, and the first radio station was not even a blip on the radar screen in terms of audience or reach.

When Ambassador College was founded sometime later (1947) that first class had only four students. Herbert Armstrong frequently reiterated the fact that when God works through mankind, He starts very small. The history of the church during this last century demonstrates this powerfully and it underlines the warning in Zechariah 4:10 to not despise the day of small things.

There is an exhilarating story to be told this morning about the phenomenal growth of the church's websites as well as the future possibilities. But first, I want to call to your mind the words of Psalm 127 where it says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1-2). This is very exciting, but clearly the end of the story, as well as each individual page will be written by that unseen Hand from somewhere.

John 6:29 says that the work of God is not a specific physical activity, but it is to believe in Jesus Christ and what He purposes to do, and then to follow accordingly. The future of these projects clearly rests on the caveat of the phrase, “God-willing.”

As most of you know, our main website is at www.cgg.org. And, when we first began keeping track of the activity there in July of last year, we recorded an average of 94 visitors per day. Now 94 is a pretty insignificant number when you consider the vast size of the Internet. But what is significant is that in one year up through July of this year that number grew by 110%. In the time between July and August of this year alone, the average number of daily visitors grew by an additional 31%, and cgg.org is currently averaging over 300 visitors per day. It is slightly down right now because a lot of people are at the Feast, but it is still maintaining pretty much that average.

Late last year, God opened the door for us to purchase the much sought after domain name of Sabbath.org at a greatly reduced price. This website provides information on that foundational doctrine—that sign—between God and His people, as well as the annual Sabbaths, the pagan holidays, and the ever-controversial topics of law and grace that seem to undergird every discussion about the Sabbath.

This doctrinal website caters to individuals who have not yet proved the truth of the Sabbath. And it provides an introductory tour to help them understand the relevant issues. It is also useful to longtime members of the church by serving as a repository for sermons and articles that go beyond the doctrinal basics. And we are considering using this model of a doctrinal website for other websites in the future.

When www.sabbath.org was released in April of this year, that first month we averaged 37 visitors per day. In five months, that number has grown by 70%. Last month we averaged 63 visitors per day, and the numbers continue to climb. Again, these are very small numbers, but the rate of growth is exceptional, especially considering such a specific topic.

In June of this year, we released a third website at Worldwatchdaily.org. This is a news watching website for individuals interested in the world news and cultural trends, especially in the light of Bible prophecy and Christian living. We send out a daily newsletter from this website with news headlines and links to news articles. This newsletter also allows us to advertise our own booklets and articles and sermons that relate to prophecy and current events.

Right now, Worldwatchdaily.org is our main window on the world. It allows us to reach people not even remotely interested in the church or in its doctrines, and it allows us to get our foot in the door and challenge long-held mainstream beliefs with our own material.

When it was first released in June, Worldwatchdaily averaged 70 visitors per day. In just three months' time, that average has grown a staggering 140%. What is equally moving is that the number of subscriptions to the Worldwatchdaily newsletter has grown by 75%, again in just over three months, and we are currently sending out over 360 emails per day from this website.

We have no way of predicting or projecting what will happen with these websites. Truly God has blessed these efforts, and any future increase will also come from Him. We do not know exactly where we are headed with this. But we can rest assured that God will open the doors that He wants us to walk through.

And it seems another door has opened.

The church has registered a fourth domain name. And God willing, this new website under the name of BibleTools.org will be released within the next month or so. BibleTools will be tailored to the Bereans of the world—those individuals within the church or without who are dedicated to searching the Scriptures daily.

For a little over a year without any concrete plan or intent, we have been collecting electronic versions of the Bible and various Bible study resources. A significant number of these resources fell into our laps, and slowly an idea took shape in our minds. All of these resources are considered to be public domain, and so we can use them freely.

God-willing, in its final form, the BibleTools website will have nine Bible translations, including the King James Version, the American Standard Version, and the Revised Standard Version.

You will have nine commentaries, including Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Adam Clarke, and Barnes’ Notes.

We have six different Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias such as the notorious International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Thayer’s Greek Definitions, and Brown, Drivers, and Briggs’ Hebrew definitions.

You will have two topical study Bibles, Naves' Topical Bible, as well as Torrey's Topical Textbook. You will also have the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, which is a chain reference tool of momentous proportions.

And finally, we also have several historical reference works that we plan to add, such as Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Fox, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim, and the Wars of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews, both by Flavius Josephus.

For those of you who only recognize a few of these names, you are not alone. I did not know what a lot of them were either until I started to explore them. But in a nutshell, these commentaries, Bible helps, dictionaries, and historical works are widely recognized within the religious community as authoritative and respected reference works. These are the works of dedicated scholars, men who spent their lives studying Greek and Hebrew, history, linguistics, culture, geography, and have reported their findings so that we do not individually have to become experts in these areas.

We do not look to these scholars as the final authority of biblical understanding because we know that in their worldview there is a missing dimension. They do not have the whole picture, nor is it possible for them to, unless God has opened their minds. These resources can aid in discovering some of the individual puzzle pieces, but in order to catch even a glimpse of the final picture requires the God-given understanding to go with this knowledge.

This is where the past, present, and future work of the church comes in. We have over a decade's worth of Forerunner articles, sermon transcripts, and booklets that the Church of the Great God has produced. We have the booklets written by Herbert Armstrong, as well as the correspondence courses that form a framework of basic doctrinal understanding, and these are the resources that allow the whole picture to come into sharper focus.

Now take a minute and imagine a website where you can look up a scripture or a series of scriptures. Imagine being able to browse through what the scholars say about the verb tense, the diction, the context, the culture, the history, and the geography that all play into more fully understanding that verse. Imagine being able to quickly see what other verses relate to your chosen verse links either by topic or a phrase. Imagine being able to get definitions and explanations of all of the names and places and important words within a verse from the English translation as well as from the native Greek and Hebrew. Now imagine also being able to see every article, booklet, Bible study, correspondence course, and sermon transcript that references that verse and being able to draw upon the decades of experience and understanding that God has given to His church.

Imagine (and certainly this will be a long term project) a type of church commentary consisting of sections taken from our articles, and especially our transcripts that expound upon a verse or a topic, and show how it fits into a larger picture that only the Body of Christ can fully understand.

A website such as this cannot provide motivation or commitment. It cannot impart the Holy Spirit, and it can in no way replace an individual's relationship with God. But by providing some of the basic building blocks of knowledge and adding in true spiritual understanding, an individual's vision can be enhanced. And as John [Ritenbaugh] said recently in an article, where there is true vision that motivates those who receive it conduct their lives in a way that produces good fruit, fruit in relationships, in true worship, in daily conduct, and in changed perspectives.

The new medium of our time is the Internet, and while other mediums have not passed away, the Internet provides unique opportunities and advantages. This is a channel that is always on and accessible from virtually anywhere. It is not restricted by schedules. It provides content at the individual's convenience and can be tailored to the individual's preference and vantage point.

With the Internet, it is possible to both preach the gospel to the world and feed the flock. The Church of the Great God is doing a work, and it is a work that fits our size and our means perfectly. We do not have the income to support a radio or television program, and we cannot afford to send out hundreds of thousands of magazines each month. God simply has not opened these doors for us, but He has opened the doors for work to be done through the Internet, a medium that is extremely cost effective for an organization of this size. And I submit to you that the potential reach of this medium is far greater than any of the media of the last century.

Clearly, we are in the day of small things. We are already seeing very positive results. Last month alone, our three websites received a total of 85,000 page hits. And this is due in large part to our success with the search engines.

If you do a search for the word Sabbath, our website typically comes up on the front page, as a lone Christian website in the wilderness of Ozzy Osbourne's Black Sabbath fan sites. Do a search on the Microsoft network for Christian living or Bible prophecy, and we usually come up on the first page.

Our articles are being linked to in forums and news groups. Our number of visitors is steadily increasing. We have sister sites at CGGCanada.org and CGGZambia.org. We have a growing collection of transcripts and things in French, thanks to the Boyers, and now we have things in Dutch, thanks to the Bilders and the Evers in the Netherlands. And very shortly we will have four major websites, four avenues to approach both the world and the church, each one with a slightly different message, a slightly different vantage point, and a different audience.

Are these websites a household name? Not in the least. But we have a solid, if humble beginning and an extraordinary upward trend of growth.

And this is a thought that I want to leave you with. We simply do not know where all of this will end up, but we do know that with God at the helm, it will be perfect for what He purposes to do.

Finally, Matthew 9:37 says that, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” So if anyone has ideas or suggestions, or if there is in some way you would like to help contribute to this, please come and find me and let us talk, and we will see what doors open up.