On August 16, 2014, Mike Link will give the sermon, titled, “Learn To Grow.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

Our society fulfills its desire for entertainment in an ever increasing level of shock and complete imbalance.  With the ability to record pictures and video on almost every cell phone in use today, it’s rare to not see the aftermath of accidents, disasters and wars captured with immediacy and made available for the world to see.  There is no lack of desire to see images more and more horrific in nature.  Mainstream media has standards of what they cannot show and often warn or black out images deemed too graphic.  But standards relax and what was unacceptable to show 20 or 30 years ago is now common place on nightly news.

We can attribute these growingly macabre desires to the god of this corrupt age and the influence he has unleashed on this world.  But Satan has been at work since his deception in the garden and mankind’s lust for gore is not a new one.  King David was given a heart wrenching decree by God because he gloried in bloodshed: “But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood’” (1 Chronicles 28:3).  Christ said that David was “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22) but more importantly we know that David had God’s Spirit.  Like each one of us with that same Spirit, David saw the world with his eyes opened by God. But, he stumbled because of his love of war and bloodshed and was not allowed to build a physical house for God.

Living as a Christian in this world is difficult.  The subtleties in how we interact on a daily basis can form lasting habits and those habits can either direct us toward godliness or away from it.  It’s too easy to mirror the standards of this society and grow accepting and accustomed to the comfort it appears to give.  But true Christianity should find no comfort in the beliefs of this age: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). 

Each of us must strive to build a spiritual house—one that God would desire His Spirit to dwell within.  It is imperative then, for our eternal existence, that we let our “conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).  Living a Christian life is not about “what I can’t do” but instead “what I should be doing.”  With that mindset we can conduct ourselves in a manner suitable for Christ.

In this edition, we are mainly focusing on three ongoing wars or military conflicts—the Gaza War; the murderous advancements of ISIS, as well as Turkey’s involvement and America’s response, coupled with domestic problems in Iraq; and the fear of Russia’s invasion in eastern Ukraine.

It seems, man tries to find salvation (and monetary advantages) in war, but war will never bring about lasting peace.

Hamas Reign of Terror

The Times of Israel reported on August 12:

“Israel may wish that Gaza’s dire situation would push residents of the Strip to rise up against their Hamas rulers, but more than a month into Operation Protective Edge, there are very few indications of that happening…

“Bassem Eid, a veteran Jerusalem-based human rights activist and political analyst, said that Gazans are reluctant to demonstrate for fear of Hamas… ‘Hamas has a physical presence in almost every house in Gaza and can listen to what’s being said. It’s a Stasi regime par excellence,’ he continued, referring to the East German secret police notorious for its eavesdropping capabilities…

“‘The population is much more scared of Hamas than it is of the Israeli soldiers,’ Eid said. Hamas, for its part, is more worried about the possible return of control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority than it is of an Israeli military incursion…

“Palestinian Authority media repeatedly gives credence to Eid’s reports of an atmosphere of terror in Gaza. Official Palestinian news agency WAFA has told of Fatah activists being placed under house arrest by Hamas from the early days of the Israeli operation. Fatah’s official Facebook page reported shots being fired at the legs of Fatah members, including the bodyguards of Fatah official Abdullah Ifranji…

“But Mkheimer Abusada, a political science professor at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, said that anti-Hamas demonstrations were unlikely to emerge in a society which largely regards Israel as the main cause of its suffering. ‘Even if there’s anger at Hamas, people are mostly angry at Israel,’ Abusada told The Times of Israel in a phone conversation from Gaza. ‘Hamas may bear responsibility for the war, but it’s Israel which is destroying homes and killing civilians.’ (Of almost 2,000 deaths reported by health officials in the Hamas-run Strip, Israel says 750-1,000 are Hamas and other gunmen.)…

“Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza have launched over 3,000 rockets and mortar shells into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, many of them from densely populated areas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has charged Hamas with using the civilian population in Gaza as ‘human shields’ — firing rockets and building tunnels from residential areas, providing Gazans with no protection, and sometimes even urging civilians to remain in fighting zones despite IDF warnings — while Hamas’s leadership has taken to hiding in underground tunnels. But Abusada indicated that Gazans viewed themselves as victims of Israel, not Hamas…”

There is a REASON why Hamas has been rightly classified as a terrorist organization. All the sugarcoating by analysts such as Professor Abusuda notwithstanding, it is surprising that people cannot see what is really going on. Of course, one looks for a scapegoat, and Israel has always been an easy target. This has been prophesied to occur, especially in these end times. 

There Will Be Miracles… If You Believe…

Jews News wrote on August 6:

“An Israeli commander claimed that hundreds of Israeli lives were saved recently when ‘the hand of God’ stopped a Hamas rocket:

“‘A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died. We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock.

“‘At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident. Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned…’

“One Hamas member was asked why they couldn’t aim their rockets better and actually hit an Israeli target. He responded: ‘We do aim them, but their God changes their path in mid-air.’ The first prime minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, said this once: ‘In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.’”

Israel’s Existence Has Nothing to Do with the Bible?

Yes News wrote on August 3:

“In a special interview with Die Tagespost last week, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, named by Pope Benedict to represent the Vatican in the Jewish State, declared that ‘Israel’s existence as such has nothing to do with the Bible.’ He then compared Christians’ condition in today’s Jerusalem with Jesus’ Passion: ‘We Christians never forget that even our Lord himself suffered and was mocked in Jerusalem.’…

“A few days ago, Patriarch Twal responded enthusiastically to the agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah. He also denounced ‘the Judaization of Jerusalem’ and attacked Israel for ‘trying to transform it into an only Hebrew-Jewish city, excluding the other faiths.’… Twal’s position on Israel and the Bible has been embraced at the highest levels in the Catholic Church. The Vatican synod in 2010 declared that Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people.”

Perhaps a review of both the Bible and historical evidence might be helpful to these so called scholars and theologians!

Israel’s Monetary Costs of the Gaza War

The Times of Israel wrote on August 12:

“… through last week, including both direct military expenses and indirect hits to the Israeli economy, the total cost of the four-week conflict is estimated at $2.5 billion to $3.6 billion… [For instance] Iron Dome intercepted 584 of [the Hamas’ rockets] — at $50,000 a piece. That comes to a total of $29 million, or about $1 million per day…

“Israeli planes have bombed Gaza approximately 4,900 times during the war — roughly 150 times a day… each of the Air Force’s 4,900 sorties cost $15,000, for a total of over $73 million…”

What a terrible waste of money, while millions of people starve for lack of food.

Little Progress at Cairo Truce Talks

JTA wrote on August 12:

“Negotiators at the Israel-Hamas truce talks in Cairo said they were still far from an agreement. Palestinian officials said Tuesday that the current three-day cease-fire between the sides will be the final one unless Israel and Hamas make progress toward a truce. The cease-fire, which began Monday, is the second three-day truce between the sides after a month of fighting…

“Hamas is demanding an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and the building of an airport and seaport, and Israel is demanding Gaza’s demilitarization…”

It was announced on August 14 that Hamas and Israel agreed to extend the truce for five days to continue negotiations in the Egyptian capital. However, there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East until Jesus Christ returns.

Waiting Too Long to Stop ISIS?

Breitbart wrote on August 8:

“Yazidis in Iraq are telling stories of mass murder and rape to their relatives abroad – including in Israel… [According to Der Spiegel Online, dated August 11, “Yazidis [is] an ancient, pre-Muslim religious community, with roots in Zoroastrianism, whose members worship seven angels, including a peacock angel, in addition to god.”]

“Obama announced action against the Islamic State as if that chamber of horrors sprang into existence last night, and he immediately leaped into action against it.  Nonsense.  He’s known this stuff was happening for weeks and months.  Contrary to his feeble excuses about learning everything at the same time we do, by watching the news, he gets presidential intelligence briefings.  The brutality shown by ISIS toward Christians has been a matter of record for a long time, and Obama said nothing.  No surprise the Islamists are even more brutal toward the Yazidis, who they consider ‘devil worshipers.’

“This was all as predictable as the sunrise, but Obama did nothing, said nothing, until global media lit up with pictures of those fifty thousand people stranded on the slopes of the mountain that looms above their ancestral homeland, dying of hunger and exposure…

“Foreign policy is all about timing.  Stopping ISIS when it was on the move into Mosul – with an almost laughably small initial invasion force that nevertheless caused Iraqi forces to break and run – would have been relatively simple…  Ejecting them from their conquered territory is impossible with only a few targeted bombing runs.  They’re mixed in with civilian targets now, and they won’t hesitate to take hostages.  They can threaten to blow up the Mosul dams.  They’re far stronger, better armed, and better financed than they were when they first came across the Syrian border…

“And no matter what happens next, there’s no way to bring back the people ISIS has already murdered, no way to undo the rape and pillage.  Obama treats foreign policy like he’s in college writing a thesis about something that happened a long time ago.  But the present is bad, and the future might be worse.  If ISIS uses its manpower and resources to launch terror strikes in the West – something they are very interested in doing – the same people trying to cover for Obama’s incompetence today will be asking why nobody stopped the Islamic State long ago, when it could have been done with relative ease…”

Sunnis and Turks Support ISIS

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 11:

“The IS advance would hardly be possible without support from Iraqi Sunnis.

“… the American air strikes on IS positions still won’t solve the fundamental conflicts in these two countries… the lack of strong governments in Iraq and Syria has allowed the IS to operate freely in large swaths of the region…  the Turks have sealed the border to Kurds attempting to flee. At the same time, Turkish officials are doing hardly anything to hinder jihadists who travel in and out of Turkish airports as they make their way into the region…”

ISIS Wants Conflict with USA

Newsmax wrote on August 10:

“ISIS has said it desires a direct conflict with the United States on American soil, and the current conflict may also be serving as a lure for new members… ISIS has stated it intends to form a caliphate, or Muslim religious state, and is known for its brutality, including beheadings, of non-Muslims and even non-Sunnis. It formerly was an al-Qaida affiliate, but broke from the group after al-Qaida criticized it for its tactics.

“Members of the Iraqi army laid down their arms and fled earlier this year as ISIS forces advanced. As a result, ISIS now possesses American weapons left for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki. It also has raided banks and taken over oil wells, adding to its power…

“Of ISIS’s estimated 10,000 members, up to half are thought to be from outside Iraq and Syria. And about 100 Americans are thought to have tried or succeeded in traveling to ISIS territory. That trouble[s] U.S. officials because they fear those Americans could return to launch terror attacks on the homeland.”

Iraq’s Political Turmoil –Shiites vs. Shiites

The New York Times wrote on August 11:

“Iraq’s president formally nominated a candidate on Monday to replace Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The step broke a months-long political deadlock, but it also seemed to take Iraq into uncharted territory, as Mr. Maliki gave no signal that he was willing to relinquish power.

“The Obama administration, which has been pushing Iraqi lawmakers to name a replacement for Mr. Maliki, added to the pressure on him by welcoming the nomination of the candidate, Haider al-Abadi, a member of Mr. Maliki’s own Shiite Islamist Dawa Party…

“The nomination of Mr. Abadi came hours after a dramatic late-night television appearance in which a defiant Mr. Maliki challenged the Iraqi president, Fuad Masum, and threatened legal action for not choosing him as the nominee…

“The United States has been reluctant to help the Iraqi government militarily as long as it is led by Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Islamist who is seen by many as exacerbating sectarian and ethnic tensions, alienating some Sunnis and driving them to join the militants…”

The Washington Post wrote on August 11:

“Iraq’s president chose a veteran Shiite politician to lead the government on Monday, setting the stage for a vicious political showdown in a country already struggling to contain an extremist Islamist insurgency…

“In his eight years in power, Maliki has consolidated power in his hands, ruling in a dictatorial style that has chipped away at his support among fellow Shiites and Sunnis alike. He is widely blamed for the fostering [of] an environment that has allowed for Sunni extremists from the Islamic State to seize control of huge chunks of Iraqi territory…” 

BBC News reported on August 14 that due to worldwide pressure, Maliki stepped down. The article stated:  

“Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has stepped aside, ending political deadlock in Baghdad as the government struggles against insurgents. He resigned on state TV to make way for Haider al-Abadi, who was asked by Iraq’s president to form a government. Mr Maliki had been under intense pressure to make way for Mr Abadi, a deputy speaker of parliament…

“There had been fears that Mr Maliki might use the power base he built up through his control of the armed forces to stay in power. But, with his own party and the Shia clerical establishment, not to mention influential outside powers such as Iran and America and the entire international community backing Mr Abadi, the writing was clearly on the wall for MrMaliki’s hopes of clinging to power.”

USA Provides Weapons to Kurds

The Telegraph wrote on August 11:

“The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, but the aid has so far been limited to automatic rifles and ammunition.

“Previously, the US only sold arms to the government in Baghdad, some of which would then be transferred to the Kurdish forces in the north.”

Germany Might Send Weapons to Iraq

The Local wrote on August 12:

“Germany said on Tuesday it was ready to send non-lethal military aid such as armoured vehicles to help Iraq push back against the advance of Islamist insurgents… Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said that, aside from humanitarian aid, Germany could possibly send equipment such as helmets, night-vision equipment, booby-trap detectors and medical supplies for Iraqi soldiers…

“Von der Leyen reiterated her government’s official position that Germany as a rule does not send arms into conflict zones but added that, if a ‘genocide’ loomed in Iraq, this question should be ‘debated intensively’ in Germany.

“Several German politicians across the party spectrum, including Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, have suggested the rule may have to be reviewed in light of the IS onslaught across vast areas of northern Iraq. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also signalled a willingness to pave the way for German weapons shipments to support Baghdad, citing the ‘existential threat’ posed by the IS…”

Sending weapons to volatile areas is never without great risk. But it is interesting that the German stance on the matter is apparently changing.

Back Into Iraq

The Huffington Post wrote on August 11:

“Obama has stated that the U.S. will not become the Iraqi government’s air force. Such an unequivocal declaration, though, presupposes that there is a functional substitute — and one that will be available in time to deal with military threats of the first order that could emerge literally any day. So, this is a typical Obama fudge. Barack Obama is a temporizer, a devotee of half-measures, ‘too clever by half’ as with his time-table limited mini-surge in Afghanistan in 2009.

“… He too often deceives himself that verbal declarations or pat phrases constitute a policy or program. Although the preferred course of action is far from clear, evasion of the tough issues and postponement of hard choices will lower the odds on coming up with wise decisions once they have to be taken…

“What are Obama’s time-frames? They seem to be confused… Certainly, there are no signs of a general strategy emerging in Washington.

“What role (explicit, tacit, or pantomime) for other outside powers, e.g. Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt?… On this question, too, we have no signs of the Obama administration’s overall thinking — much less the outlines of a strategy… This is a major liability and potentially highly dangerous…”

Regarding the President’s time frame, the Washington Post wrote on August 12: “Obama vacations as the world burns.”

Clinton vs. Obama

Newsmax wrote on August 10:

“Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has put the largest amount of space yet between herself and a rapidly more-unpopular President Barack Obama, calling his refusal to ‘build up a credible fighting force’ in Syria to battle the Assad regime a ‘failure’ that led to jihadists such as the Islamic State (ISIS) moving in… 

“Goldberg notes in his article that Clinton’s separation from Obama was only a matter of time, and as she comes closer to announcing her own candidacy, she was notably more blunt in her interview with him…”

Deutsche Welle added on August 11:

“Clinton… ‘is basically a believer in the use of military force for humanitarian purposes and is less sensitive than President Obama is…’ says David C. Unger, the long-time member of the New York Times Editorial Board…  As Obama’s previous secretary of state, Clinton had strongly argued for arming the Syrian opposition, but that argument lost out against a more cautious approach generally favored by Obama and others in the administration.”

Arming the Rebels?

The Daily Beast wrote on August 11:

“The argument that America should have done more in Syria, made for years by foreign policy leaders in both parties and several members of Obama’s senior national security team, was brought back to the fore this past weekend. Obama and Hillary Clinton gave dueling interviews in which they publicly split on whether the security and humanitarian catastrophe in Syria could have been avoided if the United States had played a larger role. Obama’s outburst on July 31, one week prior, reveals the criticism was already getting to him, even before the White House tried to deflect Clinton’s remarks as pre-presidential political posturing.

“Just before the congressional recess, President Obama invited over a dozen Senate and House leaders from both parties to the White House to talk about foreign policy. According to two lawmakers inside the meeting, Obama became visibly agitated when confronted by bipartisan criticism of the White House’s policy of slow-rolling moderate Syrian rebels’ repeated requests for arms to fight the Assad regime and ISIS.

“According to one of the lawmakers, Sen. Bob Corker asked the president a long question that included sharp criticisms of President Obama’s handling of a number of foreign policy issues—including Syria, ISIS, Russia, and Ukraine. Obama answered Corker at length… But days after the White House meeting, Corker wrote a blistering op-ed for The Washington Post criticizing Obama’s handling of foreign policy. ‘Today, after three years of bold rhetoric divorced from reality, 170,000 Syrians are dead, and we are not innocent bystanders. The president encouraged the opposition to swallow deadly risks, then left them mostly hanging,’ the senator wrote. ‘Extremist groups from Syria have surged into Iraq, seizing key territory and resources, and are threatening to completely undo the progress of years of U.S. sacrifice.’

“Top Democratic lawmakers agreed with Corker and Clinton that doing more to support the moderate rebels would have at least had a chance of averting or mitigating the current crisis, which has now spread to large parts of Iraq as ISIS expands its newly declared Caliphate…

“In a New York Times interview published Aug. 8, Obama said that the idea arming the rebels would have made a difference had ‘always been a fantasy.’ ‘This idea that we could provide some light arms or even more sophisticated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth, and that they were going to be able to battle not only a well-armed state but also a well-armed state backed by Russia, backed by Iran, a battle-hardened Hezbollah, that was never in the cards,’ Obama said…

“Not all lawmakers support arming the rebels; Sen. Rand Paul, for example, is on the record opposing the use of U.S. military resources to fight ISIS in Iraq or Syria. Also, Clinton and many lawmakers acknowledge that arming the rebels was risky and might not have worked. The weapons could’ve fallen into the extremists’ hands…”

Arming rebels is indeed a very dangerous endeavor. Now, the discussion has shifted to arming the Kurds and others in Iraq to defend against ISIS, as previous articles discuss. However, today’s “friends” can very quickly become tomorrow’s enemies. Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are prime examples.

The Lawless United States—Always at War Somewhere

The Huffington Post wrote on August 10:

“Ukraine. Gaza. Syria. Yemen. Pakistan. If it feels like the United States is always at war somewhere, that’s because it is. Not just Iraq and Afghanistan – the two wars we all know about. And, granted, we’re not only talking boots on the ground. It’s our money, our weapons and – more often in recent weeks – our Secretary of State, engaged in high-stakes diplomacy to uneven results… investigative journalist Kevin Gosztola put the U.S. war count at 74. These are mostly unannounced and undeclared wars against enemies that have different aspirations, strategies and ideologies…

“While the eyes of the American media and public might have shifted back to Iraq for now, just a week ago they were, momentarily, back on Afghanistan. In another example of how dangerous the country still is for our military, we heard about the killing of Major General Harold Greene, who was killed by an Afghan soldier in a green-on-blue gunfire exchange… Three in four Americans believe that history will judge the war in Afghanistan a failure…

“What we are leaving behind is in fact… ‘more war, and more terror.’ What we’re leaving behind in terms of our reputation is the idea of American lawlessness… Our lawlessness doesn’t just hurt us abroad. Lawlessness has encroached into the U.S.’s domestic affairs, with the NSA’s almost Orwellian reach into civic life…”

There is indeed a connection between fighting in war and engaging in lawlessness. Please read our free booklets, “Should YOU Fight in War?” and “And Lawlessness Will Abound…”

Wild West in Ferguson, Missouri

The Washington Post wrote on August 14:

“The killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., has produced a rare and surprisingly unified response across the ideological spectrum, with Republicans and Democrats joining to decry the tactics of the city’s police force in the face of escalating protests… Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)… criticized what he called the growing militarization of local police forces…

“The images of police in riot gear, with armored vehicles and heavy weaponry, shooting a tear-gas canister at an Al Jazeera camera crew… have drawn alarming reactions from the left and the right.

“The rough treatment and detainment of two journalists, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post, has added to the public outrage about the Ferguson Police Department’s handling of the protests over Brown’s killing.”

Erdogan Becomes Head of State in Turkey… Is This Bad for the World?

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 11:

“The Turkish presidential election is decided: [Outgoing] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will become head of state [i.e., President]. It’s a bitter win, and not just for opponents of further Islamization…

“The outcome was fully democratic and therefore irrefutable. That’s one side of the coin. But on the other side is the fear that Turkey could now head further down the path of transformation into an Islamic republic – with increasing religious requirements for citizens in everyday life.

“With Erdogan’s victory, the secular reforms of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk fall further to pieces… Erdogan was chosen because he gave the Turkish people a whole new sense of self-esteem based on religious values…

“Surrounded by ongoing crises in places like Iraq and Syria, and the conflicts in Gaza/Israel and Ukraine/Russia, not to mention the recently renewed fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Erdogan must overcome fears that he will only add fuel to these fires. It’s something he has often done in the past. The EU – and especially Germany – will have to cope with an increasingly uncomfortable relationship with Erdogan…”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 6:

“Erdogan, 60, has been in power for 11 years, and because he can no longer serve as prime minister after three terms in office, he has now [been elected as] president… [He] has become more and more authoritarian with each election win. He has had protests quelled and critics arrested, and has gradually implemented Islamic moral values…

“Istanbul law professor Bertan Tokuzlu believes that… [Erdogan] will transform Turkey into a one-man state, once and for all… Erdogan himself makes no secret of how he intends to govern in the future. In a television interview in late July, he announced his intention to introduce a presidential system, and he cited China and Russia as models…”

Turkey will continue to play a very controversial role in the near future. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.” 

“High Probability” for Russian Invasion in Eastern Ukraine

The New York Times wrote on August 11:

“The prospect of a Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine appeared to rise sharply on Monday, threatening to take to new lows what is already the sharpest East-West confrontation of the post-Cold War era.

“As the Kremlin announced it had sent a convoy of humanitarian aid to Ukraine under the auspices of the International Red Cross, the secretary-general of NATO said there was a ‘high probability’ of a Russian attack…

“With increasing urgency, Western governments have condemned in advance any Russian aid missions, which they fear could serve as a pretext for a military incursion to support hard-pressed pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian Army in the country’s southeast…

En Route Russian “Aid” Convoy Will Be Denied Access

Deutsche Welle reported on August 12:

“Just hours after Russia deployed 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson from Ukraine’s military said the convoy would be denied access at the border… pointing out that Russia’s army was managing the convoy and that its contents had not been verified by the ICRC [Red Cross].

“… The aid column is expected to complete its 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) journey from Moscow to eastern Ukraine within two to three days… French President Francois Hollande [said] that he had ‘grave concerns’ prompted by the ‘possibility of a unilateral Russian mission on Ukrainian soil.’…

“According to… NATO, roughly 45,000 Russian soldiers have been deployed to Russia’s southwest, close to the country’s border with Ukraine.”

The EUObserver added on August 12:

“The Red Cross says it has no agreement to govern what will happen when Russian ‘aid’ trucks arrive at Ukraine’s border…

“The UN estimates that some 168,000 people have fled from east Ukraine to Russia over the past three months of fighting, while another 117,000 people have become ‘internally displaced’… The Red Cross said on Monday: ‘The situation is critical – thousands of people are reported to be without access to water, electricity, and medical aid’.”

The Bible shows that ultimately, Russia and Ukraine will collaborate and become “friends,” at least temporarily. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Biblical Prophecy — From Now Until Forever”. See also our Q&A on the prophetic relationship between Russia, Ukraine and continental Europe. 

Many of the writers and reviewers of this publication once belonged to a different church organization. For the purpose of this Q&A, it does not matter whether or not you, as the reader, are familiar with that organization. Even if you have never heard of that organization, the following should still be very revealing. The organization referred to (the Worldwide Church of God under its human leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, who died  in 1986)  had taught the truth for decades. A few years after its founder died, the new leadership began to introduce doctrinal changes. The changes were subtly introduced, and it was claimed at the time that they were just clarifications or changes in terminology.

Before explaining in detail what actually happened, let us examine the nation of Israel and the building of the first temple under King Solomon to extract historical lessons from  it. 

When a nation or a church organization is pleasing God through faithful obedience, God blesses that nation or church. The first temple at Jerusalem was a most magnificent building. We can read about the Queen of Sheba, a person who was used to opulence and grandeur.  When she came to visit Solomon and viewed the temple, the servants and all that Solomon had done, she fainted. We read in 1 Kings 10:1-5 (in the Authorized Version):

“And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.”

Yet in spite of all the gold, silver and costly things in the temple and in Jerusalem, the temple was subsequently completely destroyed. Why did God allow this?  After all, even the ark of the covenant was placed in this beautiful temple.

We can read in the book of Ezra that at the time when the second temple was built, the people wept because they had seen the spendour of the first temple under Solomon,  and this second house did not remotely compare to it. Ezra 3:10-12 states (Authorized Version):

“And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy…”

Later, Jesus warned the disciples that the second temple, which had been greatly beautified by Herod, would also be destroyed. This occurred in 70 AD under Titus.

God allowed the destruction of the first and second temples because of sinful conduct and behaviour.

Sin, if not dealt with, is destructive to a nation, a church and an individual.

The Worldwide Church of God’s Auditorium in Pasadena, California, was one of the nicest buildings in the US, with near perfect acoustics for anyone speaking from or singing on stage.  Important people lectured there and world-renown artists played and performed. There was an  inscription in gold letters on the wall of the entryway, stating in part: “DEDICATED TO THE GREAT GOD.”

Yet today, the Auditorium and the entire College campus are no longer in the hands of Church members, and many of the buildings on campus have been torn down. So, what happened? The Worldwide Church of God has collapsed—even its name was changed, so technically, it does no longer exist; and the Church’s three Colleges (in Pasadena, Bricket Wood, England, and Big Sandy, Texas) are no longer operated by the Church.

Let us realize how sinful doctrinal compromise and false teachings led to the entire downfall of the Worldwide Church of God organization. It all really started with a “new understanding” regarding the “Born Again” teaching. As we explain in our free booklet, “Are You Already Born Again?”, we are begotten when we receive the Holy Spirit, but not yet born. The Worldwide Church of God under Herbert Armstrong understood and taught this, but the new leadership after Mr. Armstrong’s death was very anxious to change this teaching and to proclaim that we are already born again when we receive God’s Spirit.

Why were they determined to do this? Why was Satan’s first major attack on the doctrines of the Church directed towards that very teaching on “Born Again”?

Satan is not stupid. His agenda is and was to be worshipped as god and to replace the one and true God as supreme Commander of the universe. Satan is also very subtle. He is an expert at deception and lying.

The great commission to the Church of God is to preach and publish the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness, and to feed the flock. At the very core of this gospel message is the knowledge and understanding about “born again” and the fact that God is reproducing Himself through mankind.  Man’s potential is to become a born-again immortal God being in the Family or Kingdom of God.

In Satan’s eyes, the dismantling and changing of this understanding was crucial to bringing the church down, since that knowledge also includes the fact that as sons and daughters of God, we will replace Satan and the demons as the present rulers of this world.

Corrupting this understanding was just like placing a virus in a computer. Corrupting it was crucial in Satan’s efforts to ultimately destroy the Worldwide Church of God.

Christ is the Head of the Church of God, which is a spiritual organism. It operates through human organizations. If you think of a Church organization as a body, it stands on two legs.  The doctrine of “born again” was one leg which Satan wanted to cut off. The other leg which had to be cut off in Satan’s mind was the correct understanding about the nature of God–the knowledge that God is a Family, currently consisting of two Members. This knowledge is crucial to the gospel message, since it also helps us to understand our ultimate destiny.

Slowly turning that correct understanding to the pagan and unbiblical doctrine of the Trinity in all its various forms was cutting the second leg from the body which caused the body to fall, and the Worldwide Church of God has never recovered from that fall.

These two doctrines are crucial in order for us to stand as a Church, and they are also crucial for the gospel message to be properly understood. In order to spiritually survive today, we must never let go or compromise on those two doctrines. If we do, then the understanding of other doctrines will also be lost over a period of time.

Changing true doctrines and teaching spiritual error is sin. The Worldwide Church of God organization with its many buildings and campuses was destroyed because of the sinful and misleading conduct and doctrinal error of its leadership, after Herbert Armstrong’s death, and the many ministers and members who accepted these false teachings.

Let’s fully understand the destructiveness of sin regardless of the grandeur and spendour of Solomon’s temple; the temple in Jesus’ time; and the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. They were destroyed or polluted, and the Auditorium and the Pasadena campus of the Worldwide Church of God are now in the hands of Sunday-worshippers –all because of sin.

That’s why it is so crucial not to compromise with doctrine but to stick to the trunk of the tree, and not to get side-tracked from the commission of the Church of preaching the true gospel which contains the only hope for mankind.

In our free booklet, “Are You Already Born Again,” we describe in detail the doctrinal downfall of the Worldwide Church of God from its unique correct scriptural understanding to an appalling blasphemous apostasy:

“When the change on ‘born again’ came, some noted that this would ultimately lead to a change regarding the nature of God and the potential of man. A few years later, those changes, anticipated by some, actually had taken place. How could anyone have foreseen this development?

“Simply, because the correct ‘born again’ understanding goes hand in hand with other important Biblical concepts and teachings. When we understand that Christians—those who have received the Holy Spirit—are ‘begotten’ of the Father, we also understand that the Father is reproducing Himself through us. We understand that God is a Family, and that God wants to enlarge His Family through us. We also understand that Christ, the SON of God and the firstborn among many brethren, will marry His church at the time of His return (Revelation 19:7–9; Matthew 22:2; 25:10; Ephesians 5:31–32).

“One important principle taught in the Bible is that a kind only reproduces according to its own kind… [This] shows that Christ will NOT marry a church that is physical. Christ is God—a Spirit being. Christ will only marry Spirit beings. We understand that we are not yet Spirit beings. We also understand, however, that we WILL BE Spirit beings at the time of our resurrection and change to immortality. THEN we WILL BE spirit. THEN we WILL BE born again. THEN Christ WILL marry us. And NOT BEFORE!

“All of these Biblical concepts go together. After we are begotten of God’s Spirit, we have to grow in Christ’s knowledge. We have to become perfect (Matthew 5:48). The receipt of the Holy Spirit is just the BEGINNING of our journey toward perfection and ultimate entrance into the Kingdom of God.

“We understand, too, that the Kingdom of God has not yet come. Christ has not yet established the Kingdom of God on earth. He will do so when He returns. At that time, we will be IN the Kingdom of God. Why? Because we WILL BE God—and God is a Kingdom—the Family of God RULING over creation…

“Since Christ’s death made it possible that man can become God, and since Christ will rule as King of kings and Lord of lords in this Kingdom, under God the Father, the gospel message also includes information about Christ Himself. However, the gospel message goes beyond the person of Christ. It’s a message brought by Christ—not a message limited to the personage of Christ…

“We understand that our ultimate salvation is still in the future—that we will be saved when we enter God’s Kingdom—at which time we will be God…

“In time… we heard the terminology of a gospel about Christ, or that Christ was the gospel. At the same time, we were taught that the Kingdom, although still future to an extent, had already arrived, that we were already in the Kingdom, and that Christ would only come to ‘inaugurate’ the Kingdom.

“We were also taught that we were already saved. All of these ‘new’ teachings were ‘logical’ extensions of the false understanding of ‘born again.’ IF we were already ‘born again,’ then we could see and enter the Kingdom. Therefore, so the reasoning went, since we ‘were already’ born again, we ‘were already’ in the Kingdom and already saved. Since we were already saved, we were gradually taught that we didn’t have to ‘grow’ anymore in Christ’s knowledge as how to keep the law, since the law was allegedly no longer in force and effect. No more Ten Commandments, let alone any commanded observance of God’s annual Holy Days, as Christ supposedly did away with them all! Christ’s statement that we cannot see the Kingdom was incorrectly interpreted… in a way that He was merely talking about ‘perceiving’ the powers of the Kingdom. Of course, these so-called new concepts also required a ‘re-definition’ of what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God.

“Then, we were told that it is incorrect to say that God IS a Family—rather, we should say that God HAS a family. With that ‘subtle’ change, the truth of the nature of God began to become obscure. If God were not a Family, then God was not reproducing Himself, either. Again, we see the ‘logical’ consequence of the ‘born again’ change. This, then, led to the ultimate change regarding the nature of God. God was no longer perceived as consisting of two Beings (God the Father and God the Son), but as just ONE Being. Since God was no longer a Family, there was no longer a duality in the Godhead, either. Clear Scriptures proving the duality of the Godhead were re-interpreted, twisted, or simply ignored…

“We were also taught that God, although one Person, represents Himself within a ‘threefold mode of being.’ A ‘clever’ argument was presented that a person can have three functions—that of a father, a husband, and a president. In other words, God was described as consisting of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but these three ‘functions’ were not Persons, but ‘hypostases.’ This concept had been adopted from a Greek Orthodox idea that stemmed from pagan Greeks like Plato and Aristotle. It was then reasoned that Jesus Christ was a created being who did not exist prior to His human birth. So, we suddenly were introduced to God (one Person in three hypostases), and Christ (another—created—person), who was or somehow became a son, but separate and apart from the ‘Son’-hypostasis of the God-Person. We were even told that the Son was still in heaven (as one of the three hypostases), while Christ was here on earth, and that the Son remained alive when Christ, the physical person, died. With that idea, the supreme sacrifice of Christ had been denied and rejected.

“To add further to the confusion and heresy, we were subsequently told, without any explanation, that God was a Trinity, the same concept taught by the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches—one Person in three Persons (no longer ‘hypostases,’ as previously represented). Christ had now become part of the Trinity, although it remained unclear what He was before He became man, what He was when He was here on earth, and what He became after His resurrection. God, in any event, had become a closed Trinity. Since He was no longer a Family, man could not become a part of that Family. It was taught that God would ‘adopt’ Christians, but Christians would never become God’s real sons and daughters. God was no longer reproducing Himself through man. It was taught that God was CREATING or building a somewhat figurative ‘family.’ However, God was no longer adding to the very Family that He is and that He always has been. Christians were no longer understood as becoming members of the very God Family, with God being their true and real Father, and Christ being their true and real elder Brother…

“Without the ‘born again’ change, the subsequent changes could not have occurred. It is, therefore, imperative that we not tamper with the correct understanding of ‘born again.’ If we do, even in seemingly unimportant areas of ‘terminology’ or ‘explanations,’ we will change the proper understanding of what ‘born again’ means, and we will thereby open a floodgate of change, again. In the end, we might very well find ourselves being totally void of all correct Biblical understanding. It happened before to those who apparently understood the truth at one time. Let us not think that it could not happen again. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…’ (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).”

The Bible tells us that a falling away from the truth is still to occur in the Church of God, just prior to the return of Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). If history is our guide, then something very similar to the last apostasy in the Worldwide Church of God will happen again in God’s Church in the not-too-distant future. Even though we are clearly living today in the Laodicea era of the Church—which can be described as a big lukewarm social club without real zeal, being filled with riches, pride and self-deception (Revelation 3:14-18)—there are still remnants of some of the previous eras in existence today. One era is designated as Sardis, describing a church which has a name that it is living and alive, but it is spiritually dead, with works which are not perfect before God, and only very few in that church have not defiled their garments and are worthy to be given white clothes (Revelation 3:1).

Another remnant is that of Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-10), designating a faithful church with little strength, which keeps Christ’s Word and which does not deny His name. It stays faithful to the truth and refuses to compromise with doctrine. Only members with that Philadelphia spirit are promised protection from the terrible times to come.  It is they who will not fall for the errors of doctrinal deception, and only they will be spared from the clutches of the falling away from the truth which is still prophesied to happen.

If you are in a church organization which has begun to compromise with the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3)—especially in the areas of “born again” and the gospel of the Kingdom or Family of God—then God tells you to come out of that spiritual Babylon of confusion (Revelation 18:4), and to refuse to partake of its sins of false teachings. If you have and embrace the truth, make sure that you continue to hold on to it, no matter what the circumstances and challenges may be.

Lead Writers: Rene Messier and Norbert Link

The new August member letter has been written by Rene Messier. In this letter, Mr. Messier points out that, even as small as we are, our part in the work of God to preach the gospel now has the capability to be seen and heard all over the world.

Our new booklet, “When and How Will Christ Return?” was sent to Shelly Bruno, our graphic designer, for finalization.

“Lessons from the Little Bighorn Battlefield,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

“Das Arglistige Herz der Menschen!,” is the title of this week’s German sermon. In English the title is, “The Deceitful Heart of Man.”

The 2014 Fall Holy Days will be observed on the following dates: Feast of Trumpets–September 25; Day of Atonement–October 4; Feast of Tabernacles–October 9-15; Last Great Day–October 16. 

by Louise Amorelli

Recently my husband and I have had events in our lives where there was little down time. Family matters and visits, immediate and long term home repair attention, summer land/tree maintenance and other seemingly important responsibilities have been taking up a good chunk of our summer days. It seems like one day was just a continuing previous day without end!

I started to ask myself lots of questions. When is the down time?   Do we have the right balance?   Did we overextend ourselves in family matters/visits and make the right decisions? Should we let some things go and in what order of importance should they be? Do we fully trust God that He will not give us more than we can bear? What lessons is He teaching me?  But the one thing I realized most is that there was no quiet time… no silence… no time to meditate and re-evaluate on these issues daily.  Not only to rest physically but also to rest spiritually.  My body and brain were on overload and needed space and time to breathe!

Things needed to change – something was wrong! I needed to STOP and MAKE that time to meditate on the day’s activities in how I did spiritually and how to improve and meditate on my choices. Without that meditation time, I was just going from one day to the next without analyzing my actions against Godly principles and making the necessary, albeit difficult, changes that God requires of me.  What amazed me is how Satan can try and steal this very precious time!

I had better appreciate how important silence and meditation really are, so that I can be a true beacon of light in this world and to be a help in God’s Kingdom to come. After all, it’s not all about the physical, but about the spiritual.  I look forward to God’s Kingdom of true peace, where there will be time for all to meditate on God’s Word. In this fast-paced Satan-inspired world, silence is not only golden–it is refining! 

On August 9, 2014, Eric Rank will give the sermon, titled, “Ignorance, Obedience, Innocence.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

In the 1980s, I was involved in a management  training session which developed our abilities to properly prioritize things from the essential to the non-essential; the  most important to the less important; and the crucial to the insignificant. The purpose was to help us become effective managers in any company.

We had to imagine that we were isolated in the wilderness, with no help from anybody, and we had thirty items to choose from. Some of these items were of vital importance for our survival; others were trivial. To be able to survive, we had to list the items in the order of most important to least important; so it was essential to make wise choices. 

I don’t recall who provided the most correct answers according to the experts who had designed the list, but I do remember choosing correctly seven items out of the ten first ones, and I had also placed the first three in the correct order.

This reminds me that in this life we have to make choices and prioritize things so that we don’t waste time on frivolous and trivial pursuits while the crucial matters are being neglected.

Set forth below are examples of goals and objectives which Church members and non-Church members pursue in their lives. They include:

–Craving for material goods and buying all kinds of  toys  in an effort to keep up with friends and neighbours.

–Getting involved in local politics,  perhaps even running for the office of mayor, to make the community a better place.

–Getting involved in national political campaigns and propaganda, and voting for governmental candidates for the office of governor, senator, president, chancellor or prime minister.

–Being involved and  actively engaged in the process of preaching and publishing the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness in whatever capacity God sees fit for us. This would include the fact that we have the potential to become members of the very God Family in the future, and also, to give a warning message now to the modern houses of Judah and Israel, namely the white Anglo Saxon nations, as well as to all the nations on this globe, to announce to them impending doom as a result of their sins, coupled  with the hope of a coming better world when Christ returns and establishes the government of God on the earth.

–Seeking to do everything  physically possible to make sure we will be protected from the Great Tribulation at the place of safety; thereby focusing foremost on preserving our own life.

–Being involved in local outreach programs for the community and in missionary work in third-world countries in an effort to bring individuals to Christ and to be seen as shining lights, craving for recognition and glory from man; usually, but not always,  with the proclamation of a wrong gospel message and a false Jesus Christ.

–Joining the military and the armed forces since we feel it is our duty to defend our country from enemies, domestic and foreign.

–Growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ so we can answer any questions in regard to the hope that lies within us.

–Seeking the pursuit of wealth and riches, realizing that a twisted concept of the golden rule applies so often in this world; namely, that those with gold rule; and we want to be part of that group.

These are just some of the pursuits that people get involved with. In regard to your spiritual salvation, how would you prioritize these pursuits? And which pursuits would you identify as the only two, which true Christians should and must engage in today?

The choice is ours. Let us ensure we make the right choices in the correct order.

We begin with extensive reports on the Middle East and America’s hopeless role as a paralyzed superpower. While the relationship between the USA and Israel is deteriorating and anti-Semitism is spreading around the globe, some ask for continental Europe’s active engagement and the need for creating a “new order” in the Middle East.

We are introducing you to Prince Georg, great-great-grandson of Prussia’s Kaiser Wilhelm II; German Army brigadier general Markus Laubenthal who became the first non-American chief of staff of U. S. Army Europe; and recently declared late “saint” Peter Favre, the first follower of the founder of the Society of Jesus.

In other news, we discuss the “twelve years” of CIA’s lawlessness, as the Huffington Post put it; eleven named countries at risk of default; the ongoing “sanctions game” between Russia and the West which could prove to become very costly for all parties; and Europe’s unparalleled success in our questionable space programs.

The Paralyzed US Superpower

Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 5:

“John Kerry has spent months rushing from one conflict to the next, but has little [to] show for it. His failures are symptomatic of an America that lacks a foreign policy identity — and of a country that seems uncomfortable with its role as a superpower…

“In recent days, global diplomacy has seemed like an absurd form of theater, with John Kerry in the role of the tragic hero. He doesn’t look like the secretary of state from a world power, Haaretz jeered, but like ‘an alien who just disembarked his spaceship in the Mideast’…

“The helplessness of the world’s most important foreign minister shows just how little influence the US still has in the Middle East. And with each failure, Washington’s influence in the rest of the world erodes as well. A civil war is raging in eastern Ukraine, an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program is still a long way off, Islamist terrorists now control large swaths of Iraq — and the US doesn’t appear to be in a position to do anything about it.

“… as part of a government that is steering America away from its traditional role as global hegemon, Kerry also embodies the dilemma of the United States’ global role in the 21st century: How successful can a US foreign policy be if it depends more on strong words than it does on tanks and aircraft carriers?…

“The US remains the world’s only superpower, but it is also on the search for a new foreign policy identity. It is a country divided…”

The USA has lost the pride of its power, as was prophesied to occur thousands of years ago.

Did Israel Spy On John Kerry?

JTA wrote on August 3:

“Israeli intelligence reportedly eavesdropped on telephone conversations made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. In addition to Israel, at least one other intelligence agency also listened in on the phone calls, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported…

“‘Revelations of the eavesdropping could further damage already tense relations between the US government and Israel,’ der Spiegel wrote.”

USA And British People Condemn Israel

JTA wrote on August 3:

“‘The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,’ State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday. ‘The coordinates of the school, like all U.N. facilities in Gaza, have been repeatedly communicated to the Israeli Defense Forces…’

“The State Department statement was the harshest condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza… ‘The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.’”

JTA added on August 3:

“Much of the British public is ‘deeply disturbed’ by the impact of Israel’s operation in Gaza, the new foreign secretary of England said, and the response could be more widespread anti-Semitic attacks… Anti-Semitic incidents [in Britain] have doubled since Israel began its operation in Gaza nearly a month ago…”

Anti-Semitism Worldwide

The Hill wrote on August 26:

“The civilian casualties, though almost certainly overstated to include Hamas fighters in civilian clothes, are tragic.  The death of so many children is heartbreaking.

“But… Anti-Semitism has reared its head almost everywhere there are pro-Palestinian street protests.

“A heavily Jewish section of Paris was looted and attacked as crowds shouted ‘Gas the Jews,’ in what correctly has been called a pogrom.  Multiple synagogues and Jewish centers in Paris and elsewhere in France were firebombed, and neo-Nazi salutes were center stage.

“In Berlin protesters shouted ‘Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight.’ While in Frankfurt they carried signs such as ‘The Jews are Beasts’ and the Star of David is ‘The Star of the Devil.’

“In the Hague, Netherlands, crowds chanted ‘death to all Jews,’ shocking local officials.  In England, particularly London, there have been over 100 anti-Semitic incidents, and anti-Israel protesters pushed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion anti-Semitic tract.

“And it was not just overseas.  In Miami, protesters chanted ‘Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammed is returning’ commemorating an Islamic war victory. In Boston, pro-Israel supporters had to be rescued from an angry crowd that shouted ‘Jews back to Birkenau’ and ‘Drop dead, you Zionazi whores.’  A pro-Israel student was attacked by a woman insisting that Jerusalem would be cleansed of Jews, while another crowd shouted that ‘Jews better learn how to swim.’…”

These horrible developments are not just rare exceptions of a few deceived and hateful Islamists. Sadly, they are becoming more and more commonplace. At the same time, Israel is not helping in winning the support of others, as the next article shows.

Israel’s Fears And The Military Messianic Right

On August 5, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz. We are bringing you the following excerpts from her comments:

“Israel has a split, schizophrenic self-awareness: It cultivates its strength and yet cannot stop seeing itself as weak and threatened… Israel is a colonial military power, a militarized society and a democracy all folded into one… It is a militarized civil society because almost every family has a father, son or brother in the army and because the military plays an enormous role in the ordinary mentality of ordinary Israelis and is crucial in both political decisions and in the public sphere… But it is also a democracy, which grants rights to gays and makes it possible for a citizen to sue the state…

“The messianic right has progressively gained power in Israel. It used to be marginal and illegitimate; it is now increasingly mainstream. This radical right sits in Parliament, controls budgets and has changed the nature of discourse. Many Israelis do not understand the radical nature of the right in Israel. It successfully disguises itself as ‘patriotic’ or ‘Jewish.’ …

“Fear is deeply engrained in Israeli society. Fear of the Shoah, fear of anti-Semitism, fear of Islam, fear of Europeans, fear of terror, fear of extermination. You name it. And fear generates a very particular type of thinking… You always think about the worst case scenario… many Israelis still hold on [to] the view they are morally superior…

“The real danger to Israel and its sustainability comes from within. The fascist and racist elements are no less a security threat than the outside enemies… Israelis pay a price, but we are not really aware of it… People don’t make a connection between the bad living conditions they have and the amount of resources invested in the settlements and in the army…  Israeli society has become very insensitive. Not only to the suffering of others, but also to its own suffering.”

Trust in weapons and the military will lead to the ultimate downfall of any country.

A New Order For The Middle East

On July 21, Der Tagesspiegel (translated by Federal Foreign Office) published the following article by German Foreign Minister Frank‑Walter Steinmeier:

“We Europeans are preoccupied by the Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, the Middle East is coming undone. The uprising against the Syrian dictator Bashar al‑Assad first turned into a civil war and then into a regional proxy war. Now the crisis in Syria is affecting neighbouring Iraq and has reignited the smouldering embers of the conflict there, which had not been resolved.

“Shiites are fighting against Sunnis, radical against even more radical fundamentalists, Kurds against Arabs, terrorists against democrats and against dictators. Neighbouring countries in the region, as well as major powers, are providing their proxies with money, as well as arms. The international community has not adopted a coherent approach. Some are acting out of a sense of responsibility, while some are reckless, some defensive and others proactive. Neither those involved nor outsiders can say exactly whether the other side is acting out of strength or weakness.

“Millions of people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, thus placing a crushing burden on state‑provided services there. The ISIS terrorist group is extending its power base in Syria and Iraq and wants to sweep away the existing states…

“We should think about a new order for the Middle East which could redefine and guarantee the security interests of all parties… Parallel interests which could form a basis for a new order are there: all neighbouring countries and the international community are united in their concern that terrorist groups such as ISIS could become a permanent fixture. None of the states in the region want to see force being used to move borders. All of them are afraid that arms could fall into the wrong hands and be used against them. And it is in the best interest of all of them to ensure that minorities within their countries, whether ethnic or religious minorities, do not drift into open hostility towards the state.

“No‑one expects such efforts to lead to overnight success. However, a start should be made, and the sooner the better. We owe that not only to people in the regions where tens of thousands have been murdered and millions forced to leave their homes. For this will also help ensure our own security. Syria is a training ground for thousands of European jihadists who practice there what they subsequently want to carry out in our cities. And there is a real threat that Iraq will go the same way.

“This cannot be allowed to happen. For this conflict concerns us, and much more so than many want to believe.”

In due time, Europe will attempt to create such a new order for the Middle East. Steinmeier’s words almost sound prophetic.

Germany May Have a Decisive Role in Gaza

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 7:

“In an article to be published Friday in the Bild newspaper, Frank-Walter Steimeier said that he could see Germany having a role in Gaza following Israel’s month-long war there… ‘Together with our European partners, we are ready to make a contribution, for example with an EU monitoring mission of the border crossing,’ Steinmeier told Bild. ‘We are holding intensive talks with all sides to work out what would be necessary for this,’ he added.

“On Wednesday, a diplomatic source said Germany, Britain and France would consider reactivating a European mission to monitor the flow of goods across Gaza’s border with Egypt… Launched in 2005, the EU Border Assistance Mission monitored the Rafah border crossing after Israel pulled its troops out of Gaza, but it was discontinued two years later after Hamas seized power in the coastal territory.”

The Local added on August 7:

“‘The Germans, as Europe’s political leaders, must take a very decisive role in the Gaza conflict,’ Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Bild newspaper on Thursday. He also called for Germany to bring EU governments together to develop a solution to avert the unfolding economic and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

“Lieberman demanded that Germany and the EU send inspectors in to the region to oversee trade between the Palestinians and neighbouring countries. Germany should ‘take responsibility as instigator of such a mission,’ said Lieberman, with the aim of preventing violence escalating further.”

“The Man Who Would Be Kaiser”

The Irish Times wrote on August 2:

“[After] Germany lost a second World War, the Allies in occupied Berlin passed a law stating: ‘The Prussian state, which from early days has been a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany, has de facto ceased to exist.’…

“Prussia dominated Germany’s history for centuries. Mention Prussia to Germans today and they’ll trot out the ‘Prussian virtues’ – discipline, punctuality, deference to hierarchy – that many outsiders consider utterly German traits…

“Prince Georg [Kaiser Wilhelm II’s great-great-grandson] has no crown – and is not a prince under the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, which recognises the old title Prince of Prussia only as part of his surname – but has the calm energy of a man on a mission: to exhume and rehabilitate his family’s history, good and bad. His striking resemblance to Kaiser Wilhelm II, he jokes, makes it a delicate affair…

“[Prince Georg lost] his father when he was just a year old. In 1994 he lost his grandfather Louis Ferdinand snr, making the [then] 18-year-old head of the house of Hohenzollern…  Although they lost their aristocratic titles in 1918, the Hohenzollerns and other former ruling houses live on around Germany…

“The Hohenzollerns’ unhappy role in German history continued after 1918. Before Kaiser Wilhelm died in exile, in the Netherlands, in 1941, his son August Wilhelm flirted with the Nazis in the hope of taking back the throne. The relationship cooled after Hitler took office…

“After seven decades in the Third Reich’s shadow, Prussia is emerging again as a new generation of Germans shuffle the historical hand they have been dealt… Berlin is back on the political map and Germany’s role in Europe is shifting before our eyes. Understanding this country, and how it sees itself, means taking Prussia out of historical quarantine.

“Prince Georg sees Germany’s role in Europe differently from previous generations. He dismisses as absurd the former chancellor Helmut Schmidt’s recent remark that Third Reich crimes exclude Germany from a leading role in Europe for centuries to come. ‘I think it is clear to all that Germany should assume a leading role in Europe,’ he says.

“And what does he think about the leader shaping this new role, Chancellor Angela Merkel? ‘She represents the positive Prussian virtues of modesty, conscientiousness and sense of duty.’ Is such generous praise a sign that Georg Friedrich Prinz von Preussen, the man who would be kaiser, is happy to remain in the conditional tense? ‘The question of a return of the monarchy is not relevant at the moment,’ he says…”

Maybe not “at the moment”…

German Officer New Head Of U.S. Army Europe [USAREUR]

Army Times wrote on July 31:

“A German Army brigadier general [Markus Laubenthal] who recently served with NATO forces in Afghanistan is assuming duties as the chief of staff of U. S. Army Europe, the first time a non-American officer has held that position…

“Army sources in Europe said the first-ever assignment of a German general to the USAREUR staff is unrelated to the political furor over the spying revelations, but does reflect the increased importance of multinational operations in NATO… [It] is part of an American effort to give a more multi-national flavor to its major overseas commands.”

Germans are becoming more and more powerful and influential on the world scene.

Pope Celebrates Jesuits, Canonizes First Follower

Zenit wrote on August 6:

“Pope Francis on Saturday celebrated the feast of St. Peter Favre, the first follower of the founder of the Society of Jesus. St. Peter was the first of St. Ignatius’ followers, as Ignatius set the foundations for what would become the Society of Jesus.

“Some compare Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope, to St. Peter Favre. For his part, Francis has noted his own devotion to the saint, and as Pontiff, dispensed with some of the requirements of the canonization process in order to declare him a saint…

“Many note that Fr. Favre and Pope Francis have many characteristics in common and share many of the same ideas. Like Francis, Fr. Favre supported Catholic reform and was a pioneer of ecumenism…

“Fr. Favre became a canonized saint through the process of ‘equivalent’ canonization, which Pope Francis used also for now Saint John XXIII, canonized this April 27. ‘Equivalent’ canonization is a rare procedure, meaning popes can declare that someone who has enjoyed widespread reverence over time deserves veneration by the universal Church without having to go through the usual canonization steps. These steps include proving two miracles attributed to the candidate’s intercession. With ‘equivalent’ canonization, the Pope can override the two miracle requirement enabling the individual to become a canonized saint.”

The Jesuits have been viewed with great suspicion… and that for convincing reasons. Under Pope Francis, this perception is gradually changing. And not unlike President Obama who is circumventing Congress and the Senate through more and more “executive orders,” so Pope Francis ignores “usual canonization steps” by unilaterally declaring someone a saint through “equivalent canonization.”

Pope Pleads for Help

Reuters reported on August 7:

“Pope Francis appealed to world leaders on Thursday to help end the crisis in northern Iraq after a sweeping advance by radical Islamic state militants forced thousands of residents of Iraq’s biggest Christian town to flee their homes.

“‘His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others,’ the Vatican said in a statement.”

The Telegraph wrote on August 7:

“Islamic State, the jihadist group formerly known as Isis, have occupied churches in Iraq, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts, witnesses report, having overrun Kurdish troops forcing 200,000 to flee.”

Obama Authorizes Air Strikes in Iraq “If Needed”

The New York Times reported on August 7:

“President Obama said Thursday that United States military aircraft had dropped food and water to thousands of Iraqis besieged by Islamic militants on a mountaintop in northern Iraq… the president said he had directed the United States military forces to conduct targeted airstrikes on the militants if they moved to take Erbil, threatening the American citizens and military personnel there.

“And he said that at the request of the Iraqi government, he had authorized the military to use airstrikes to help provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi citizens, many of them religious minorities, who are trapped on the mountain.”

Twelve Years Of CIA Lawlessness?

The Huffington Post wrote on August 6:

“Twelve years. The time has flown by. Seems like just yesterday that the Justice Department sent over its torture memos to then-CIA General Counsel John Rizzo, ramping up a CIA torture program that horribly abused more than a hundred men, killing a few of them. No one at the CIA was ever even charged with a crime. Some agents, in fact, got job promotions…

“The CIA, with the backing or orders of the White House, ran a worldwide network of secret prisons where it tortured men with barbaric techniques… kidnapped people from European streets; and then reportedly lied to Congress, the White House, and the Justice Department about it.

“The lawlessness continued, even after horrified Americans found out what was happening. More legal memos were written to try to keep torturing, even after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) convinced Congress to pass yet another law to stop it. Top CIA officials ordered evidence — videotapes of men being subjected to simulated drowning — destroyed before investigators could view them…

“CIA officials, and all Bush officials, dodged any criminal indictments, were protected from lawsuits by courts that deferred to CIA secrecy and immunity claims, and did whatever they could to get in the way of Senate investigators. The lawlessness remains because the Constitution’s system of checks and balances is broken. The president, Congress, and the courts seem unwilling or unable to hold the CIA accountable.

“Incredibly, more than 200 CIA employees who were involved in the torture program are today still employed at the CIA. The acting general counsel of the CIA until this past March was the very same person who had been one of the CIA’s top torture lawyers a decade ago…

“The lawlessness seems to be coming to a head this year. The CIA’s internal watchdog, its inspector general, just gave a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee that found that the CIA spied on the computers used by the Senate committee to investigate the CIA torture program…

“An uncontrolled — and seemingly uncontrollable — CIA threatens the very foundations of our Constitution… It is long past time for Congress and the president to forever ban the CIA from holding anyone in its custody and running a secret prison. But President Obama must also stand up to the CIA and to John Brennan himself…”

There is little hope that this will happen. A country allowing for and engaging in more and more lawlessness disconnects itself from the Author of all righteous Law—the God of the Bible. 

Why Armored Tanks for Californian City Police Department?

The Daily Mail wrote on August 7:

“A war of words has broken out over police force in California getting a new armored vehicle built more for a state of war than patrolling in the Golden State. The Salinas Police Department recently issued a news release proudly announcing the arrival of the armored truck built to survive minefield explosions, which it got compliments of federal taxpayers as part of a program to convert military equipment to law-enforcement use.

“Critics took to the police department’s Facebook page to ask exactly why a city of 150,000 on the northern California coast really needs a vehicle designed for battlefield use. It’s more likely to be used against its own citizens, they said…

“This country only two months ago saw rangers for the National Park Service – National Park rangers, for God’s sake – turn into a bunch of storm troopers keeping World War II vets out of their own monument, and visitors from ‘recreating’ at Yosemite…”

Eleven Countries At Risk Of Default

USA Today wrote on August 1:

“After years of bitter court battles with creditors, Argentina has defaulted on its debt… the country missed necessary bond payments on July 31, triggering the default announcement…

“Alongside Argentina, Moody’s currently lists [these] 10 other countries… at risk of default:

“Ecuador… Egypt… Pakistan… Venezuela… Argentina… Belize… Cuba… Cyprus… Greece… Jamaica… [and the] Ukraine.”

More countries might soon follow, or they are already in the same category, without being listed in the article. Many fear that another worldwide great depression might not be that far off. Also notice the next article.

The Sanctions Game

The Guardian wrote on August 6:

“Vladimir Putin has banned the import of agricultural goods from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia in a tit-for-tat move that deepens the economic standoff between the Kremlin and the west… The import ban follows a threat of retaliation from Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, in response to the grounding of the budget airline subsidiary of Aeroflot as a result of EU sanctions. Russian officials are reported to be considering banning European airlines from flying to Asia over Siberia.

“Food has also been caught up in political tensions between Russia and the west. In recent days Russian food safety authorities have banned the import of Polish fruit and vegetables, while McDonald’s cheeseburgers and milkshakes are being investigated…

“The import ban will hit all EU countries and the United States, which last week stepped up punitive action against Russia in response to Moscow’s support for eastern separatists in Ukraine, unwavering despite the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17…

“Russia is Europe’s second largest market for food and drink and has been an important consumer of Polish pig meat and Dutch fruit and vegetables. Exports of food and raw materials to Russia were worth €12.2bn (£9.7bn) in 2013, following several years of double-digit growth… Russia banned EU pork at the start of the year as the Ukraine crisis escalated, cutting off 25% of all European pig meat exports in a move that the European Commission said exposed European farmers to significant losses.

“Russia’s state-owned banks have been cut off from Europe’s capital markets, while Russian defence and energy firms will no longer be able to import hi-tech western equipment that could have been used for military purposes, fracking or Arctic oil exploration.”

Ebola Outbreak

Reuters wrote on July 25:

“A Liberian man who died in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos on Friday tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said… If confirmed, the man would be the first case on record of one of the world’s deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and with 170 million people, its most populous country…

“Nigeria has some of the continent’s least adequate healthcare infrastructure, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money as Africa’s biggest producer of crude…”

Deutsche Welle added on August 7:

“Liberians stocked up on food Thursday after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced emergency powers lasting 90 days. ‘Operation White Shield’ allows Liberia’s government to contain the epidemic by restricting movement, deploying troops and giving police the power to impose quarantines on badly affected communities.

“Lacking the medical equipment and training to handle the new disease, some 32 health workers have already died of Ebola in Liberia and many sick people have gone untreated after doctors deserted their posts…

“In eastern Sierra Leone – the worst-hit area of that country – police chief Alfred Karrow-Kamara said security forces had been deployed on Wednesday ‘to establish a complete blockade’ of the Kenema and Kailahun districts, setting up 16 checkpoints on major roads. ‘No vehicles or persons are allowed into or out of the districts,’ he added.

“The World Health Organization reports that 932 people of the 1,700 diagnosed so far have died…”

Bloomberg added on August 7:

“As the death toll rises in West Africa amid the worst Ebola outbreak on record, a separate threat is compounding the problem: the rainy season and the malaria that comes with it. In Sierra Leone, with the most Ebola cases in the epidemic, a fearful population is failing to seek medical attention for any diseases, health officials say. If they have malaria, the feeling is they don’t want to go near a hospital with Ebola cases. If it’s Ebola, they don’t believe the hospitals can help them anyway, instead turning to traditional healers.

“It’s a widening challenge complicated by the fact that Ebola, malaria and cholera share common symptoms early on, including fever and vomiting, which can cause confusion among patients…”

Europe’s Unique Success In Spacecraft Maneuvering… But At What Price?

BBC News wrote on August 6:

“Europe’s Rosetta probe has arrived at a comet after a 10-year chase. In a first for space history, the spacecraft was maneuvered alongside a speeding body to begin mapping its surface in detail… ‘We’re at the comet!’ said Sylvain Lodiot of the European Space Agency (Esa) operations centre in Germany… Getting a spacecraft to match the speed of a comet and effectively ride alongside it is a landmark in space exploration… The comet is travelling at 55,000km per hour (34,175 mph). The spacecraft’s speed has been adjusted so that in relative terms it will be flying beside the comet at a slow walking pace of 1m/sec (2.2mph, 3.6kph)…

“Total cost of the mission is said to be 1.3bn euros.

“… in November… mission controllers will attempt to put the Philae lander on the surface. The lander will use harpoons to anchor itself and will carry out a series of experiments, including drilling into the material that makes up the comet.

“The mission aims to add to knowledge of comets and their role in ferrying the building blocks of life around the early Solar System.”

We will be spending 1.3bn euros for this “mission” to ultimately “prove” the creation of life without a Creator. Also, a top NASA representative announced recently on American television that the only (!)  reason for the existence of NASA and its costly endeavors is to find alien life somewhere out there. What an incredible waste of money and resources.

In Genesis 1:22, we are introduced for the first time to the concept of blessing. God created sea animals and birds and, in blessing them, He said that they were to be fruitful and multiply. In Genesis 1:28, God blessed the first man and the first woman and said that they were to be fruitful and multiply as well (compare also Genesis 5:2). Then, in Genesis 2:3, we are introduced to the third blessing of God—He blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it (compare also Exodus 20:11).

The Pulpit Commentary writes that blessing means, “to wish well… As on the introduction of animal life the Divine Creator conferred on the creatures his blessing, so when the first pair of human beings are formed they are likewise enriched by their Creator’s benediction.”

Regarding the blessing of the seventh day, the Benson Commentary writes: “He conferred on it peculiar honour, and annexed to it special privileges above those granted to any other day…” Barnes’ Notes on the Bible adds: “Blessing results in the bestowment of some good on the object blessed. The only good that can be bestowed on a portion of time is to dedicate it to a noble use, a special and pleasing enjoyment.”

We see, then, that blessing can refer to people, animals or even time in a very GENERAL way. Subsequently, God would bless the entire nation of Israel (Numbers 24:1; Deuteronomy 26:15), and Moses would also say a blessing for the entire congregation of Israel (Exodus 39:43), as did King Solomon (2 Chronicles 6:3) and the priests (2 Chronicles 30:27).  Jesus Christ blessed a meal (Mark 6:41), as He had promised the entire nation of Israel, to bless bread and water in case of their obedience (Exodus 23:25). We read about the cup of blessing, referring to the wine (symbolic for the blood of Christ) at Passover (1 Corinthians 10:16). Also note that Christ blessed the Passover bread—symbolic for His broken body (Matthew 26:26). We also read that people blessed God (Joshua 22:33; 1 Chronicles 29:10,20; Nehemiah 8:6; Daniel 2:19; Luke 2:28; James 3:9), in the sense of speaking well of and praising and thanking God.

We are told that we ought to bless our enemies and those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:28; Romans 12:14). The quoted examples above have shown us how blessings are bestowed in a more GENERAL way.

But we also find quite a few examples in the Bible where humans were blessed by others in a very INDIVIDUAL and SPECIFIC way.

In our Q&A about the concept of “laying on of hands,” we referred to several incidents when specific blessings were and are bestowed on others in connection with the laying on of hands of Christ or His ministers. We gave five specific examples of laying on of hands (baptism; healing; marriage; blessing of little children; and ordination). In the case of little children, it is specifically mentioned that Christ took up the little children “in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:13-16). We said: “The Church of God now follows this example by setting aside a time during the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebrations to bless little children, and especially, to ask God to grant them His protection and guidance.”

Even though in the four other examples discussed in our Q&A, the word “blessing” is not specifically mentioned, it is clear that in each case, blessings are involved. Note, for instance, that the symbolic act of laying on of hands at baptism “sets the baptized person aside or sanctifies him or her for the divine purpose of receiving from God His Holy Spirit.” What a spiritual blessing from God that is! (Compare also Ephesians 1:3). The prayer for the blessing of healing is accompanied with the laying on of hands by the elders. During the marriage ceremony, the minister “places his hands on the couple, while asking God in prayer to sanctify the marriage and to set aside the couple for the holy purpose of the marriage relationship”—so that the marriage will be blessed by God. And finally, ordinations “are always accompanied by the laying on of hands–setting the ordained person aside for the godly office of a deacon or deaconess or an elder.” This act manifests that “all official gifts flow… from the Church’s glorified Head.”

The point to notice is that in these cases, blessings were bestowed not in a general way, but through the LAYING ON OF HANDS. In light of this, let us examine numerous biblical passages which also indicate that individual blessings were bestowed on others in a very specific way—not just in a “general” way—through the laying on of hands by the one bestowing the blessing. In our Q&A, we stated: “The ‘laying on of hands’ is a symbolic act, setting individuals apart for God’s special intervention. Already in Old Testament times, it was understood as symbolizing the imparting of godly blessings (Genesis 48:13-20), His authority and spiritual power (Numbers 27:18; Deuteronomy 34:9).”

The above-quoted passage in Genesis 48:13-20, makes very clear that Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh—the sons of Joseph—by laying his hands on their heads (compare also Hebrews 11:21). Even when general blessings were bestowed on a group of people, these were many times signified by hands which were lifted up, even though hands might not have been laid specifically on each one in attendance (Leviticus 9:22; 1 Kings 8:54-56; Luke 24:50-51).

Let us consider additional examples of very specific and individual blessings.

First, we will review two more examples when GOD BLESSED humans QUITE SPECIFICALLY during PERSONAL encounters:

We read that Melchizedek (Jesus Christ) blessed Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20). This occurred during a personal meeting between them. What was specifically involved here?  Based on the other passages, noted above, it stands to reason that Melchizedek blessed Abraham by laying His hands on him. In Hebrews 7:1-7, we read that Melchizedek, as the “better,” blessed Abraham, the “lesser.”

When Jacob wrestled with the “LORD”—Jesus Christ—he insisted that God would bless him before he would let Him go. God did so, changing his name from Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:23-32). We can clearly see that this was not a general blessing, but a very SPECIAL act of a blessing which was apparently bestowed on him in a very specific way. Subsequently, God appeared again to Jacob to bless him (Genesis 35:9-13; compare also Genesis 48:3).

Let us now review further examples when people were individually and SPECIFICALLY BLESSED BY OTHER PEOPLE:

Isaac’s blessing of Jacob involved a very specific act (Genesis 27:4), and it was understood to be “in the presence of the LORD” (verse 7). In fact, this blessing—as well as Isaac’s blessing of Esau—was inspired by God (Hebrews 11:20). Later, before Jacob’s departure, Isaac blessed him again very specifically  (Genesis 28:1-4).

We read that Jacob blessed Pharaoh who had treated Joseph kindly (Genesis 47:7, 10). Israel also blessed every one of his twelve sons with a special blessing (Genesis 49:28). Joshua blessed Caleb for his faithfulness (Joshua 14:7-8, 13), and Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife—the parents of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:20). We read that David blessed his household (2 Samuel 6:20), and he also blessed Barzillai (2 Samuel 19:39), because he had helped David when he had fled from Absalom (2 Samuel 17:27-29). Finally, we read that the prophet Simeon, a just and devout man, blessed Mary and Joseph in the temple (Luke 2:25-34).

All these incidents of individual blessings through other humans were very special and specific. Even though the Bible does not say expressly that laying on of hands was involved, this is very likely to be the case, in light of other biblical passages and in consideration of the important symbolic meaning of the laying on of hands and the significance of the particular blessing.

Those blessings included the wish for God’s special favor and guidance on others and the plea to God to answer these prayers. We are reminded of the wording of a very well-known collective priestly blessing on the house of Israel and Judah, which, according to tradition, was passed on with lifted-up hands, and which reads as follows (compare Numbers 6:22-27):

“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, “This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.’”’ So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

The Life Application Study Bible has the following annotations to this passage:

“A blessing was one way of asking for God’s divine favor to rest upon others. The ancient blessing in these verses helps us understand what a blessing was supposed to do. Its five parts conveyed hope that God would (1) bless and protect them; (2) smile upon them (be pleased); (3) be gracious (merciful and compassionate); (4) show his favor toward them (give his approval); (5) give peace. When you ask God to bless others or yourself, you are asking him to do these five things. The blessing you offer will not only help the one receiving it, it will also demonstrate love, encourage others, and provide a model of caring for others.”

In fact, we read in 1 Peter 3:8-9:

“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.”

The commentary of Rienecker, Lexikon zur Bibel, states this about blessing:

“According to the Holy Scriptures, blessing (in opposition to cursing) is the gift of godly… favors towards men, be it through God Himself or through people who act within the power of God… The strength of the blessing passes on to the blessed person… it is transmitted through words… and the laying on of hands… The blessing can include the offspring…, the possession…, and the environment … of the blessed… Ultimately, it is always God who blesses… The Hebrew and Greek words for blessing can also mean praising and thanking.”

All of us are most certainly called upon to bless others in general ways and to speak well of them and wish them happiness. However, we should understand that at least since the establishment of the New Testament Church, only ordained ministers, acting “within the power of God,” should be laying their hands on others, including for the purpose of bestowing a godly blessing upon them. This is more fully explained in our above-quoted Q&A, and no biblical example exists which would indicate the contrary.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Following their extensive trip to visit brethren in Oregon, Idaho and Colorado, Norbert and Johanna Link have arrived safely back in California.

“A New Order for the Middle East?,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

The Bible prophesies that when the US falls, Europe under German leadership will rise. This programs gives you up-to-date information on America’s declining influence in the Middle East and around the world, and Germany’s ambitious plans for a new order for that part of the world, citing security concerns for Europe. We are also addressing the potential of the return of the monarchy in Germany. We are offering you three of our free booklets related to this program, dealing with biblical prophecy.

“Gab es Christen im Alten Testament?” is the title of this week’s German sermon. In English the title is, “Were there Christians in the Old Testament?”

The 2014 Fall Holy Days will be observed on the following dates: Feast of Trumpets–September 25; Day of Atonement–October 4; Feast of Tabernacles–October 9-15; Last Great Day–October 16.