Ria's Corner

edwdekock@hotmail.com                         12916 Los Terrazos Boulevard

Website: propheticum.com                      Edinburg, TX 78541

March 20, 2018

Dearest book friends and loved ones,

Today, on the eighth anniversary of Edwin's quadruple bypass operation, we praise God for each new day in which we may still work for Him. Distressing signs of decay in ourselves and all around us, relieved by glimpses of sheer joy, are messages of encouragement from our most loving God. Two bright and chattering cardinals (I mean the birds) in the morning, a most gorgeous red-gold sunset shimmering in the leaves of my orchid tree, a lone evening star—all encourage me. Spring, which comes early in our Valley, bursting out suddenly and unstoppably, encourages my already great longing for our perfect eternal home and gardens, for which Jesus has paid such an exorbitant price.

We can no more stop His gloriously overwhelming and sudden appearing than we can hold back the spring! What a day of rejoicing, but also what great terror for those who did not believe, or believed a Secret Rapture which they thought would give them warning to repent.

Here, as a companion document, is at last a new Prophetic Bulletin! With the advancing years, everything seems to take so much longer.

Edwin has been busy much of the time with Cristo y Anticristo en la Profecía y la Historia, the Spanish translation of his Christ and Antichrist in Prophecy and History, and his Esperanto Epic, La Konflikto de la Epokoj (The Conflict of the Ages). Sometimes he mutters about being only one person: a writer, an editor, a publisher, and a salesman. The last mentioned is a role that he especially dislikes. When he feels pushed too hard, he complains that he is no longer young and is apt to quote the Afrikaans translation of Ecclesiastes 12:5 about the grasshopper that drags itself along with difficulty. 

As for me, there has been increased waiting in doctors’ offices, which at least gives me the opportunity of handing out Glow tracts and encouraging people. Edwin always accompanies me and does our grocery shopping, though this makes him very tired. Nevertheless, Prophetic Bulletin # 34 is ready.

We cannot thank God enough that our precious son Carl is at present working on our website to make it available to more devices. We continue to thank and pray for Michael, our former web master, whose Parkinson’s has incapacitated him. In between, a most kind Br. Doug Platt helps out but also has a busy job to attend to. We thank him for standing in the breach.

Please pray for more volunteers to help us with the marketing of Edwin’s books. Which are the best ways of advertising? Our church magazines are expensive and not effective unless the advert is splashy, large, and often repeated. We so appreciate you and the few supporting ministries that from time to time order books. The system of countrywide Adventist Book Centers in the United States, through which we could market them before, seems to a large extent to have broken down, with its pieces taken over by the conferences.

On the bright side, we marvel how God established our Cuban connection, which resulted in Edwin’s A More Sure Word of Prophecy and its Spanish translation, La Palabra Profética Más Segura as well as the Cristo y Anticristo, which is now with the printers. Also being prepared on the island is the Spanish version of The Truth About 666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy.

All this is ultimately the fruitage of Alice Annandale’s International Prayer Warriors. Henry Stubbs who heads the World Youth Group, a ministry that operates from South Carolina into Cuba, receives her Internet bulletins. In one of them, he read about Edwin’s Historicist books, including The Truth About 666. He and his wife Arleen decided to check him out by getting in touch with one of our Church functionaries. He highly recommended Edwin’s work and said it was a shame that nothing like it had been written by any of our denominational scholars.

The upshot was an invitation for us to accompany them to Cuba as part of their mission outreach in October 2014. There, at the La Vibora Seventh-day Adventist Church in Havana, Edwin presented four lectures on prophecy. His interpreter into Spanish was Nestor Rivero.

After returning to the United States, Edwin realized that the material he had used in Cuba could be expanded into another book. In this way, A More Sure Word of Prophecy was born and published in 2015. During the same year, Nestor translated it into Spanish. It was printed in Cuba under the title of La Palabra Profética Más Segura.

The visit to that beautiful island also made possible the Spanish translation of Christ and Antichrist in Prophecy and History. It is at present being printed here in the United States. Boxes of Cristo y Anticristo en la Profecía y la Historia will hopefully reach us within a month or so.

In the meantime, the The Truth About 666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy is already being translated into Spanish and has progressed beyond the first volume. This material must, however, still be edited. It would therefore be premature to deal with it further at the present time.

So let us return to Cristo y Anticristo. It will, like the English original of 2001 and 2013, retail for $19.95. For a work of 440 pages that is surely a bargain. We have a special prepublication offer of this book for United States addresses: three books for the price of two, i.e. $39.90, plus shipping and handling. For orders of 10 copies or more, there will, moreover, be a discount of 50 percent. In each case, the order must come from the same buyer.

We praise God for him who made the translation and printing possible, but would appreciate help in getting some copies into other countries, since airmail shipping from the United States has gone through the roof.

We hope that at some stage some of our denomination publishing houses will take over the printing of these books in Spanish, right where the market for them is. The main editor of Cristo y Anticristo assures us there is nothing like it available in their language. It is also Edwin’s best- seller and has been devoured by many.

On another note, it is truly amazing how many high-quality friends we have made through his books, with whom we hope to spend eternity.

When Christ and Antichrist first appeared in 2001, Edwin was lying in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. He had congestive heart failure. We know that ever since then we have been living on borrowed time. Satan also tried to strike him down in 2010, a few days after his eightieth birthday, before he had completed The Truth About 666. He then received his quadruple bypass but subsequently completed not only this book but also wrote Seven Heads and Ten Horns as well as A More Sure Word of Prophecy.

We are so happy to know the books are out there to keep on speaking for the truth we love even if we happen, quite soon, to take a little nap, as Juanita Kretschmar calls it. What makes us especially happy is that the books may soon be translated into Polish. We also remember that a few years ago Pastor Clem Rosco from the Philippines wanted it badly in Tagálog. Edwin hopes that after he himself is gone, his books will keep on speaking and uphold the Historicist torch of truth.

Jesus is eager to come, but there is work for us to complete before he will do so. We want to go home ASAP and look forward so to being there together with you and all the Lords redeemed. In the meantime, please drop us a line to indicate your love and prayerful support.

Choicest blessings, healing, and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit to you and yours with fondest love

from Ria (and Edwin)