Q. One of your pamphlets, "Prophecies of the New Covenant", says that Czechoslovakia won't split up (p.2), yet that's exactly what happened. It also says that Russian Kaliningrad will be given to Germany (p.2). But neither of these has happened. It is not true that your Church also called someone living abroad by revelation to a position in the Church when that man was already dead? That means that you have published false prophecies and must either be a false church or be led by false prophets.

Firstly, the pamphlet you describe is not a publication of the New Covenant Church but was produced by a public organisation that ceased to exist in April 1992, called the Independent Church; this organisation has no connection with, and bears scant resemblance to, the contemporary New Covenant Church. The New Covenant Church of God has not published any prophecies about the nations of the world, nor does it distribute the prophecies you mention.

A word about these prophecies is, nevertheless, in order, and it is first of all worth pointing out that every prophecy published by the former Independent Church has been fulfilled. Especially noteworthy was the prophecy on the reunification of Germany and the prophecies on the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, the current Balkan war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and many other events that have subsequently occurred.

Kaliningrad (Königsberg)

The final status of the Kaliningrad oblast (region/district), a Russian enclave separated from the rest of Russia by Lithuania and Belarus (formerly German East Prussia), has not been determined. It is presently an important military region and is a transit station for Russian soldiers returning home from their former East European bases. As its military significance declines, as seems likely in the future, its importance to Russia will decrease also. Ever since the collapse of the USSR there has been talk of making the region a "Baltic Hong Kong" free of the tax constraints on mainland Russia. There is a strong movement in the oblast to make the enclave an independent republic either completely independent from Russia or (more likely) as one of the constituent republics of the Russian Federation. It has already opened its doors to tourism and western investment and two of the countries particularly interested in the region are Poland and Germany.

Though the majority of the people living in Kaliningrad are Russians, there is a very substantial Ukrainian and Lithuanian minority, with minorities from almost every region of the former USSR represented, including ethnic Germans.

Its future remains very uncertain. The prophecy in the pamphlet you read does not say that Kaliningrad will necessarily be restored to Germany, only that it will be restored to the German people (see NC&C 278:2-6). This is interpreted to mean that many Germans will return to the land, possibly by invitation of the Russians, or be sold directly to Germany and in this way be opened up to German settlement. It could, quite conceivably, become a political part of Germany again, whether in a United Europe or in the present political system. Quite simply, the prophecy is still running and waiting to be fulfilled. This does not mean it is a false prophecy, though, no more than the Second Coming of Christ is a false prophecy simply because it has not happened. It is unwise at best, and foolish at worst, therefore, to represent open prophecies as "false".

Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovak prophecy is a different matter altogether and is easily misunderstood because of poor English syntax. The original reads: "The nation of Czechoslovakia shall eventually prosper and [shall eventually] remain as one state, though she will have to make sacrifices, that all things may be made equal." (NC&C 278:17) The key word here is "eventually".

The two elements of the prophecy are that (1) Czechoslovakia is ultimately destined to be one state, but because there is economic inequality between the Czech and Slovak parts, sacrifices will have to be made, so that equality can be attained, and (2) she will prosper economically. A better wording of the prophecy would be: "The nation of Czechoslovakia shall eventually remain [survive] as one state and prosper, though she will have to make sacrifices, that all things may be made equal" as this retains the original sense given to the revelator. It should be noted that the word "remain" is here used in the sense of "being in the same place or condition at some future time" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, p.947), i.e. the entity called Czechoslovakia as it existed on 24 October 1990, when the prophecy was given, will exist as the same or a similar entity in the future. It says nothing of what will happen in the interim, namely, secession.

As a reminder of the fluid nature of political unions, it should be pointed out that North and South Yemen recently integrated as a single state and then started disintegrating -- at the time of writing, it is embroiled a in civil war. Egypt and Syria once united to form the United Arab Republic and then separated again. The Czechs and Slovaks united at the end of the First World War for security reasons, separated in 1994 and, according to New Covenant prophecy, will come back together again.

The majority of Czechs and Slovaks never wanted the Czechoslovak Federation to dissolve and it is our belief that the majority will one day insist that what they wanted will occur again. The new Czechoslovakia will probably be different but most probably some kind of Federal Union. Slovakia is the poorer of the two brothers and will become poorer because of the separation. Once the fervour of patriotic exuberance caused by independence has died down and the Slovak people observe the increasing affluence of their Czech brothers, they will desire reunion again. Whether this will be as an independent country or in some European arrangement is hard to tell but the Word of God tells us that this will happen. I must admit that I personally was not expecting Czechoslovakia to divide and therefore misunderstood the prophecy. For this reason publications containing, and about, this prophecy stated that the Czechoslovak Federation would not divide. In that respect, we were certainly very wrong and apologise for unintentionally misleading the public. Our commentaries are not, unfortunatelty, infallible.

Is there any further writing on the wall that the Federation will come together again? I believe so. One day the Czech and Slovak nations will become part of a Millennial Christian Kingdom. The Church which most closely resembles NCCG|, the Baptist Church, did not dissolve its Czechoslovak Baptist Union into two separate Czech and Slovak Unions -- they remain as one. We believe that this is a portent of what will happen, and that the Czech and Slovak baptists reflect a spirit that will one day prevail again in that little nation and, like Ephraim and Judah who have become estranged from one another, once more join hands as one nation. This is the meaning of the prophecy.

Historical Update (31 December 2007)

The Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the EU in 2004. It is quite possible that as the EU integrates further and is subdivided into regions that the two countries will be reunited into its own single EU region or province, thus making it a single nation again.

Calling a Dead Man?

Many years ago a prophetic word was received for an investigator living in the Netherlands. At that time in Church history revelations were coming so fast that it was not possible to record all of them (about 200 in 6 months written in odd moments of spare time!). To this very date there are some which still have not been written down. Many months later the Dutch revelation was recorded and dated. It was the practice in those days to date the revelation when it was recorded and not when it was received as no record of the date of reception was ever kept.

As it happened, by the time this revelation was recorded [1] the man in question had died, unknown to the revelator. He never did fully embrace the Gospel. When revelations were published they were always, as a matter of course, given a heading such as, "Revelation received by [revelator] on [date] at [location]" whether or not they were received or recorded on that day. As this had never caused problems in the past no thought had ever been given to explaining whether revelations had been received on the date stated or simply recorded later. It was common knowledge that this kind of thing happened and no-one ever questioned its validity.

Unfortunately one or two members then concluded that a revelation for a dead man had been given and doubted the inspired nature of the document which led them to a crisis of faith. This is to be deeply regretted. We are sincerely sorry if this document is still causing some people problems and apologise for not clarifying the time the revelation was received. But the fact of the matter is that the revelator does not know exactly, save that be believes it was at least 6 months old, if not older, when it was recorded. We can never be sure. If we had known before hand that this would cause one or two people problems, we would certainly have taken steps to prevent what is an unfortunate (and spiritually costly) sequence of events.

Since these documents are no longer relevant to the work of the New Covenant and are being used by former Independent Church members to stir up discontent amongst those earnestly seeking to unite themselves with the New Covenant, we categorically state for the record that these scriptures are not regarded as authoritative by the New Covenant Christian Fellowships (NPKF) and are not used by them. With this we trust the matter may be allowed to rest and will not comment further. And to those the one or two detractors who are harbouring bitterness of heart, who do not care for Christ's sheep but are only intent upon causing division and strife, we say with Paul:

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger...along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Eph.4:31-32, NIV)

"A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbours deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly" (Prov.26:24-26, NIV)

"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissention among brothers" (Prov.6:16-19)

Historical Footnotes

[1] This revelation was originally a part of the former Covenants & Commandments. The Revelations Committee voted unanimously not to include it in the second edition called the Olive Branch and is now no longer used by the Church. Almost all revelations to individuals were omitted from the Olive Branch.

This page was created on 6 June 1998 Last updated on 6 June 1998

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