On December 21, 2013, Michael Link will give the sermon, titled, “Relentless Sins.”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

People have told me that they don’t watch the news or let their children view the awful violence that floods across the television reports. They choose to insulate themselves from all the negative influences—at least, as much as that is actually possible.

However, this approach is short-sighted. For readers of our weekly Updates, you know that we do report the news and that includes some things that are extremely unpleasant. This is a job which has been given to the Church of God, and it is a part of proclaiming the gospel which must incorporate a warning message of evil things to come. Included in the commission given to God’s faithful servants is this command:

“‘Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins’” (Isaiah 58:1).

This was the work given by God, and the prophet Jeremiah was among those chosen to deliver this message.

Following the rebellion of the House of Judah, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to plunder their land and lead many of the survivors into captivity. They had been warned that their evil conduct would result in grave punishment from God, and it did! However, even while they were living as dispossessed slaves in Babylon, Jeremiah was inspired to send them a remarkable letter, in which God said:

“‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Jesus Christ came to this earth to bring a message of peace and hope to all of mankind, and His proclamation is called the gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). Jesus also lifted His voice like a trumpet and told the people of His day that they must repent and obey God. The gospel is the central message of the Church of God—as witnessed in Peter’s dramatic preaching on the Day of Pentecost (compare Acts 2:14-39).

That first generation of the Church lived to see the destruction of the nation of the Jews—including the demolishing of the Temple of God in 70 AD. Yet, the good news of the Kingdom of God was preached then, and so it is again to be preached in our time (Matthew 24:14)! 

While we certainly must confront the shocking and deplorable age in which we live, we must never lose sight of the promise God has set before us! And not only for our benefit but for the future and hope of all of mankind—note what we are told:

“So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, FOR MY SAKE AND THE GOSPEL’S, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time–houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions–and in the age to come, eternal life’” (Mark 10:29-30).

We begin with an alarming article manifesting the global decline of American power; the deteriorating relationship between America and Germany; and the controversial spying activities of the NSA.

We continue with internal struggles and fights within the Republican Party and conservatives; the mysterious death of an Hawaiian official; and the fragile “deal” between Iran and the superpowers.

We report on Germany’s “not-so-grand” governmental grand coalition without any meaningful opposition; developments in Ukraine and North Korea; the pope’s adoration of the (Mexican) “Virgin Mary”; the real danger of Yellowstone’s Super Volcano; astonishing weather conditions in the Middle East; and China’s space program.

U.S. Power Is Fading…

The Washington Post wrote on December 13:

“Is President Obama an American version of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader whose well-intentioned reforms led to the demise of his country’s global power?… This concern about erosion of American power is powerfully stated in ‘The End of History Ends’ by Walter Russell Mead in the American Interest.

“… there’s no denying that the worries he expresses in the article are widely shared by some of the United States’ traditional allies. ‘Does the administration understand that, in this part of the world, its credibility has collapsed?’ warns one well-connected Arab who speaks often with the region’s leaders… ‘I wish I could sue the Obama administration for criminal negligence.’

“Partly this scornful tone reflects the well-publicized unhappiness in Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers of the Persian Gulf about Obama’s diplomatic opening to Shiite Iran and what’s seen as his feckless policy in Syria. But there’s a deeper anxiety that Obama… has begun a process that is undermining America’s global role and making its traditional allies more vulnerable… One Arab analyst argues that as Obama has sought to rebalance U.S. power, he has adopted ‘the Ostrich doctrine’ — meaning that he has ignored the reversals that have followed U.S. attempts to disentangle itself in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In Iraq, where the United States spent more than a trillion dollars and thousands of lives, the government is now effectively an Iranian client, but that hasn’t drawn a U.S. reaction. In Afghanistan, where the United States also devoted enormous effort, President Hamid Karzai thumbs his nose at America and gets away with it. Foreign leaders worry that Obama doesn’t see that U.S. power is fading…

“Military historians note that retreat, even to a more defensible position, is among the most difficult and dangerous of maneuvers… repositioning a superpower is a tricky business.”

The above-quoted article referred to Walter Russel Mead’s piece, who wrote this on December 2, 2013, in “The American Interest”: 

“… optimism is so ineradicably grounded in American intellectual culture that even our great power realists are instinctively hopeful. Troubled by the costs and the risks associated with two unsatisfactory foreign wars and longing to redirect resources from the defense budget to domestic priorities, a significant number of foreign policy analysts inside and outside the current administration have developed a theory of benign realism. This theory holds that the United States can safely withdraw from virtually all European and all but a handful of Middle Eastern issues and that as an ‘offshore balancer’ the United States will be able to safeguard its essential interests at low cost.

“This view, which seems to guide both the administration and some of the neo-isolationist thinking on the right, assumes that a reasonably benign post-American balance of power is latent in the structure of international life and will emerge if we will just get out of the way… What is missing from the ‘peaceful withdrawal’ scenarios is an understanding that there are hostile and, from our point of view, destructive powers in the world who will actively seize on any leverage we give them and will seek to use their new power and resources to remake the world in ways we find fundamentally objectionable and unsafe…”

The Bible is very clear that America’s power will decline, and that ultimately, the USA will be defeated in a war. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

US Endangering German-US Partnership

The New York Times wrote on December 16:

“American officials have refused to extend the ‘no spying’ guarantee beyond Ms. Merkel… How aggressively to continue targeting the leaders of countries allied with the United States is one of the most delicate questions facing Mr. Obama…

“But as Mr. Obama considers his options, the effort to repair the damage to the United States’ relationship with Germany appears to have stumbled. American officials have so far refused to pull back from electronic spying in the country, save for Ms. Merkel’s own communications, even though German officials argue that the United States is violating German law. At the same time, Germany is equally reluctant to enter into a deeper cooperation agreement, at least on American terms…

“The distaste within the German political establishment for the United States’ approach extends beyond former citizens of East Germany, like Ms. Merkel. Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the Social Democratic Party and deputy chancellor in Ms. Merkel’s new government, took time in a speech last month to emphasize Germany’s dismay that the United States could engage in the kind of surveillance Mr. Snowden has disclosed. ‘The United States, the country we Germans have so much to thank for,’ Mr. Gabriel said at a party congress in Leipzig, ‘is at the moment endangering the most important foundation of our trans-Atlantic partnership.’”

The Bible shows that Germany and America will become mortal and deadly enemies. For more information, please read our free booklets, “Germany in Prophecy” and “Europe in Prophecy.”

Merkel Compared NSA to STASI

The Guardian wrote on December 17:

“In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up. The German chancellor also told the US president that America’s National Security Agency cannot be trusted because of the volume of material it had allowed to leak to the whistleblower Edward Snowden…

“Snowden is to testify on the NSA scandal to a European parliament inquiry next month, to the anger of Washington which is pressuring the EU to stop the testimony. In Brussels, the chairman of the US House select committee on intelligence, Mike Rogers, a Republican, said [that] [i]nviting someone ‘who is wanted in the US and has jeopardised the lives of US soldiers’ was beneath the dignity of the European parliament…”

NSA Phone Collection Likely Unconstitutional

The Verge wrote on December 16:

“A US district court has ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records is likely unconstitutional. Today, Judge Richard Leon granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiff Larry Klayman and a group of other Verizon customers, saying that they were suffering harm from having his records collected and that he had made a strong case that the NSA’s secret court orders, which require carriers to provide metadata on virtually all US phone calls, were likely to violate the fourth amendment.

“In his opinion, Leon cites the huge pool of numbers that could be included in the three “hops” that analysts are allowed to make beyond a single suspicious number, as well as the mistakes, misconduct, and obfuscations described in declassified documents from the FISA court. Most importantly, he says that the NSA’s policy has direct harmful effects on Verizon subscribers — a marked contrast from previous rulings. Because of this, the case can move forward.”

Boehner Declares War on Tea Party

The Hill wrote on December 13:

“Tea Party Patriots said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has ‘declared war on the Tea Party’ with his ‘smug and pretentious rant’ against certain right-wing organizations… In the past two days, Boehner has repeatedly attacked the conservative groups that championed the October effort to defund ObamaCare and are now opposed to the recent budget deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). He has criticized the groups for being more interested in raising money than actually solving problems.

“The letter quotes Boehner’s statement that ‘outside groups’ were ‘using our members and … the American people for their own goals.’… The letter goes on to refer to Boehner as a ‘ruling class politician’ who only pretends to be conservative while remaining a ‘tax-and-spend liberal’ at heart.

“It castigated him for passing a ‘back-room budget deal which increases discretionary spending, does nothing to reform entitlements, and fully funds Obamacare.’ The deal, it said, ‘is an out and out betrayal of the American people.’… The group was an early backer of the push to defund ObamaCare that led to the government shutdown in early October.”

Newsmax wrote on December 15:

“House Speaker John Boehner would not be House Speaker John Boehner if it were not for the tea party and the other conservative groups he now criticizes. He says that they ‘lack all credibility’ and accuses them of ‘using our members [Congressmen] and the American people for their own goals.’ If it were not for these groups — the Tea Party Patriots, Heritage Action for America or others — the Republicans would have lost the elections of 2010 and he never would have been speaker… For Boehner to cast aside these party enthusiasts and conservative workhorses is shortsighted and ungrateful in the extreme.

“The tea party types are amateurs. They are small businesspeople, retired military, doctors and so forth that are professionals in their occupations but amateurs in politics. We need to be patient with their learning curve… In this light, the speaker’s comments are outrageous and cast real doubt on his ability to lead the House in the future.”

America’s political landscape is one of chaos and confusion, with NO human hope for meaningful change in sight.

Controversial Bi-Partisan Deal Passes

The Washington Post wrote on December 18:

“Congress declared a holiday truce in the budget wars Wednesday, sending President Obama a blueprint for funding the government through 2015. But the next skirmish was already on the horizon: an election-year fight over the national debt. The budget deal that passed the Senate on Wednesday amounts to a handshake agreement to avoid a government shutdown when a temporary funding measure expires Jan. 15.

“However, the accord does not address the need once again to raise the debt limit, setting up a potentially complicated confrontation in late February or early March. That fight would come just months before midterm congressional elections, and the GOP is deeply divided over tactics to deal with the debt, a core issue for the Republican base. Some conservatives are calling for another showdown, insisting on an additional round of spending cuts in exchange for granting the Treasury Department more borrowing authority to pay the nation’s bills. But GOP leaders, especially in the House, have no appetite for another Washington fiscal crisis…

“Congressional leaders appointed Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to negotiate a cease-fire… The deal makes no effort to solve the nation’s biggest budget problem: a social safety net strained by an aging population… Last week, the deal sailed through the House and, on Wednesday, it easily passed the Senate, 64 to 33. Nine Republicans joined all 55 members of the Senate Democratic caucus in voting yes.

“… attention will turn to the national debt, which stands at $17.2 trillion. Enforcement of the debt limit has been suspended until Feb. 7…”

The Daily Mail added on December 13:

“[The deal does not] have the force of law. What Ryan and Murray proposed Wednesday is merely a framework for a budget that has yet to be written. Members of Congress who sit on appropriation committees will still be required to craft – and pass in both houses – a final budget bill by January 15. Unless they can pull it off, the federal government will be headed for its second shutdown in three months.”

“What the Budget Deal Means for Ordinary Americans”

The Washington Post wrote on December 13:

“… Airline tickets will become more expensive… the airlines are livid. Delta’s chief executive, Richard Anderson, wasted no time in making investors aware of his displeasure, saying that his company would pass the cost to its customers. At a conference on Wednesday, he was especially careful to call the higher fees a ‘tax increase’…

“… If you’ve been unemployed for a long time, you’re on your own. The budget deal does not include an extension of expiring unemployment benefits, and it doesn’t look as though Republicans will agree to an extension anytime soon. About 1.3 million people who have been without jobs for at least 26 weeks will lose their unemployment insurance, and another 3.5 million people are likely to lose their insurance next year.”

Hawaiian Official Linked to Release of Obama’s Birth Certificate Dies in Plane Crash

The Wire wrote on December 12:

“On Thursday morning, USA Today reports that Loretta Fuddy was the sole fatality in the crash of a Makani Kai Air plane off the coast of one of the Hawaiian islands.

“Fuddy was the acting health director in the state of Hawaii in 2011, when she oversaw the release of the detailed version of Obama’s birth certificate to the White House. Obama hoped that the document’s release would curtail the long-standing rumor that he wasn’t born in the United States… [but it didn’t]…

“Within minutes of the USA Today story, World Net Daily — epicenter of anti-Obama conspiracy theories — ran the headline… on its main page…”

According to Der Stern, Donald Trump immediately responded to the news, asking whether it wasn’t amazing that Fuddy died in a plane crash, while all other passengers survived.

Tighter US Sanctions on Iran—and Iran Halts Further Talks

The website of freebacon.com reported on December 12:

“The Treasury Department on Thursday tightened the economic screws on Iran by sanctioning a range of companies and individuals for their efforts to bolster Iran’s nuclear and WMD programs. The crackdown comes as the Obama administration pushes Congress to hold off on passing a new round of economic sanctions on Iran that it argues could destroy a recently reached nuclear accord meant to temporarily freeze Tehran’s uranium enrichment program…

“The new designations were issued at a critical juncture in the Iranian-U.S. relationship… The move by Treasury is being viewed by some as a way for the Obama administration to appease lawmakers anxious for more sanctions… At least five of those entities targeted by the Treasury Department’s latest sanctions have been found to be aiding Iran’s rogue weapons programs…”

The website of freebacon.com reported on December 13:

“Iranian negotiators abruptly ended nuclear talks with Western powers in Vienna on Friday just a day after the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions on Tehran. Iran had threatened that new or tighter sanctions would nullify the recently reached Geneva interim deal, which is not yet in effect.

“The Iranians abruptly ‘halted’ the talks and left Vienna so that they could consult with higher-level officials about how to proceed with talks following the tighter sanctions… ‘America’s move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,’ Iranian chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi reportedly told the Iranian press… Iranian and Western negotiators were in the middle of talks about ways to implement the interim agreement when the sanctions were announced…”

This ridiculous “deal” was destined to fail from the outset.

Saudi Arabia Prepared to Act Alone Against Iran and Syria

AFP wrote on December 18:

“The West’s policies on Iran and Syria are a ‘dangerous gamble’ and Saudi Arabia is prepared to act on its own to safeguard security in the region, a top Saudi diplomat said. ‘We believe that many of the West’s policies on both Iran and Syria risk the stability and security of the Middle East,’ the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, wrote in a commentary in the New York Times…

“The bluntly-worded warning was the latest in a series of public statements by senior Saudi figures expressing displeasure with US and Western diplomatic initiatives towards Syria and Iran… The Gulf monarchy had ‘global responsibilities,’ both political and economic, and he said: ‘We will act to fulfill these responsibilities, with or without the support of our Western partners.’ In a thinly veiled jab at US President Barack Obama, the Saudi ambassador said that ‘for all their talk of “red lines,” when it counted, our partners have seemed all too ready to concede our safety and risk our region’s stability.’”

New German Government With Virtually No Opposition

The Associated Press wrote on December 14:

“Germany’s main center-left party cleared the way on Saturday for Angela Merkel to start her third term as chancellor, announcing that its members had voted by a large majority to join the conservative leader in government… It set the stage for Parliament to re-elect Merkel on Tuesday – ending nearly three months of post-election political limbo in Europe’s biggest economy…

“The Social Democrats already served as Merkel’s junior partners once, between 2005 and 2009 in her first term, and emerged weakened from the experience. In September, they finished a distant second to Merkel’s Union bloc… The new government will have an overwhelming parliamentary majority. It holds 504 of the 631 seats in the lower house; the rest are held by the left-leaning Greens and the hard-line Left Party.”

The Local added on December 14:

“The coalition is to make formal announcements on the cabinet on Sunday, but leaks to media revealed many of its most prominent members.

“Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, one of the main architects of Germany’s tough-love response to the eurozone crisis, is to stay on. Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD is awaited back at the foreign ministry, where he served during Merkel’s first 2005-09 term. Meanwhile [SPD chief Sigmar] Gabriel is to head up a ‘super-ministry’ in charge of the economy and Germany’s ambitious energy transformation away from nuclear power and toward renewables.

“In one surprise, Germany appears poised to tap its first woman defence minister, mother-of-seven Ursula von der Leyen. She had until now held the labour brief. And Merkel’s chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, unexpectedly announced his exit. As coordinator of the secret services, Pofalla had been widely ridiculed for a mild response to the scandal over mass snooping by the US National Security Agency, culminating in the explosive revelation in October that it had tapped Merkel’s mobile phone…

“The pro-business Free Democrats, Merkel’s junior partner during her second term, crashed out of parliament for the first time since 1948… A poll for public broadcaster ZDF published Friday showed that 49 percent of Germans are looking forward to a grand coalition government while 33 percent oppose it.”

The Not-So-Grand Grand Coalition

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 17:

“… one of the not so grand consequences of the ‘grand coalition’ or ‘GroKo’… is that there will be no real opposition left in both houses of parliament… Another not so grand consequence is that the new cabinet list had to allow for many considerations to create a politically-correct balance between the top representatives of the three parties, in addition to the usual male-female, protestant-catholic, East-West balance.

“As a result, we now have a labour minister who never worked in a profession (outside of her party organization) and a minister for defense who has never been near the army. Of course a ‘grand coalition’ could do grand things… Looking at the coalition treaty, however, reveals that these great challenges – not to mention the future of the EU and the Eurozone – have not really been addressed… For the German on the street, the mere formation of the ‘grand coalition’ after three months of political inertia and uncertainty is reason for great relief but it is no reason for grand expectations.”

The history of Germany’s grand coalitions has been one of disaster and failure. This time, it will be no exception. Germany’s mass tabloid “Bild” already announced that in light of the lack of any parliamentary opposition, the newspaper will now become the public “conscience” and the instrument holding the feet of the governmental politicians to the fire.

Merkel for More European Control

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 18:

“In the first parliamentary speech of her third term, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Europe needs to take more action to make its single currency crisis-proof and urged states to undertake binding economic reforms… Germany wants closer economic policy coordination and will push… for changes to the Lisbon Treaty to give greater European control over policy…”

EU and Ukraine Drifting Further Apart

The EUObserver wrote on December 13:

“EU and Ukraine drift further apart despite new talks… The EU has said it will give Ukraine more money if it signs a trade pact, but its list of political conditions is getting longer… the moment of good will has evaporated… [An] EU diplomat warned that some EU countries might no longer be willing to sign even if Yanukovych bends over backwards…”

Russia to the Rescue…

The New York Times wrote on December 17:

“In a sharp rebuff to the West in the diplomatic wrangle over Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin said Tuesday that Russia would come to the rescue of its financially troubled neighbor, providing $15 billion in loans and a steep discount on natural gas prices.

“It was a bold but risky move by Russia… Mr. Putin seemed to gain the upper hand over Europe and the United States in their contest for Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46 million that Russia sees as integral to its economic and security interests. It is by far the region’s most populous and influential country that has remained outside the European orbit.”

The EUObserver summarized on December 18:

“Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych has opted for a no-strings-attached Russian bailout instead of the EU alternative.”

North Korea’s Rule of Terror

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 13:

“South Korea has voiced concern after North Korea’s announcement that it had executed the uncle of its leader, Kim Jong Un. Jang Song Thaek had been considered the second-most powerful person in the country… Seoul will prepare fully for ‘all possibilities in the future’ while coordinating closely with its allies, a ministry statement said… South Korean President Park Geun-hye has accused Kim Jong Un of resorting to a ‘reign of terror’ to cement his leadership.

“The United States also expressed concern at the execution. ‘If confirmed, this is another example of the extreme brutality of the North Korean regime,’ US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said… The North Korean state news agency KCNA announced on Friday that Jang had been executed, calling him a ‘traitor for all ages’ and ‘despicable human scum’ who had targeted leader Kim Jong Un with a planned coup. Earlier in the week, North Korea… branded him as a drug user and a profligate playboy who had gambled away millions in state funds at foreign casinos. The description is a complete reversal of the previously propagated image of Jang as a mentor and father figure to Kim Jong Un in the early stages of his rule…

“Although the Kim family has regularly purged those showing the slightest signs of dissent during its six-decade-long rule, Jang’s execution, if confirmed, was the highest-level one in the country in decades. Jang’s death has raised fears of a further-reaching purge in the country… Japan’s defence minister warned this week that the purge could herald an unheaval comparable to the Cultural Revolution in China, which led to widespread persecution and destruction.”

Worldwide Persecutions of Religious Minorities

Reuters reported on October 9:

“In 13 countries around the world, all of them Muslim, people who openly espouse atheism or reject the official state religion of Islam face execution under the law… And beyond the Islamic nations, even some of the West’s apparently most democratic governments at best discriminate against citizens who have no belief in a god and at worst can jail them for offences dubbed blasphemy…

“A first survey of 60 countries last year showed just seven where death, often by public beheading, is the punishment for either blasphemy or apostasy – renouncing belief or switching to another religion… But this year’s more comprehensive study showed six more… there was systematic or severe discrimination against atheists across the 27-nation European Union. The situation was severe in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Poland where blasphemy laws allow for jail sentences up to three years on charges of offending a religion or believers…”

This persecution is not limited to atheists, but includes those who dare to question the actions of “established” religions or who want to change their religious affiliation.

The Pope and the Mexican Virgin Mary

CNS wrote on December 12:

“In a message sent to the Americas on Dec. 12, a day the Catholic Church celebrates in honor of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, Pope Francis, who was named Person of the Year this week by Time magazine, said that America is called to be ‘a land prepared to accept life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age.’… Dec. 12 is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe because the Church approves and millions of Catholics believe that the mother of Jesus appeared to a Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, in Guadalupe in 1531.

“Commenting on the special day, Pope Francis said, ‘When Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego, her face was that of a woman of mixed blood, a mestiza, and her garments bore many symbols of the native culture. Like Jesus, Mary is close to all her sons and daughters; as a concerned mother, she accompanies them on their way through life.’…

“In Mexico, Dec. 12 is a bank holiday celebrated with public celebrations (fiestas) in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The day is not a federal holiday, but a religious festival where children dress in traditional garb and are blessed in churches; and thousands show up at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City to pray… For Catholics, Our Lady of Guadalupe is also called the Patroness of the Americas. She is also honored as the patroness of the unborn, and her image, from the Guadalupe depictions, is frequently used in pro-life marches and prayer vigils…”

Unbiblical Mary worship is surely a development to be prepared for.

Yellowstone’s Super Volcano Could Wipe Out America

The New York Post wrote on December 12:

“We’ve long known that Yellowstone is merely the skin on top of a supervolcano – a giant pool of magma sitting just under the Earth’s surface. Exactly how giant has been the subject of much speculation. Until now.

“A team from the University of Utah have [found out]… that Yellowstone’s magma chamber is 2.5 times larger than previously thought. It is an underground cavern measuring some 55 miles by 20 miles and containing between 125 and 185 billion cubic miles of molten rock. If it blows it will wipe out America – and have enormous impacts on the rest of the world…

“From analysis of rock and sediment layers, scientists say another eruption is almost due – at least by geological standards… So what would happen if Yellowstone was to erupt? Something close to Armageddon. Soil samples reveal that the last time it happened the whole of North America was smothered by ash. The lava flow was almost as great. The streams of molten rock were hundreds of miles long, and miles thick. Such was the extent of the smoke and debris cloud generated by the eruption that the climate of the entire world was affected for several centuries…”

Our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution—a Fairy Tale for Adults,” describes past natural catastrophes like the one referred to in the article, and shows that future catastrophes are prophesied to occur.

Unprecedented Snowfall in the Holy Land and the Middle East

The Los Angeles Times wrote on December 13:

“Nearly three feet of snow closed roads in and out of Jerusalem, which is set in high hills, and thousands in and around the city were left without power. Israeli soldiers and police rescued  hundreds trapped in their cars by snow and ice. In the West Bank, the branches of olive trees groaned under the weight of snow.

“In Cairo, where local news reports said the last recorded snowfall was more than 100 years ago, children in outlying districts capered in white-covered streets… In other parts of the city, rain and hail rocketed down…

“Storm-driven waves lashed Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, and fishermen in the ancient port city of Alexandria were warned by authorities against putting out to sea. In the Sinai Peninsula, snow fell on Mt. Sinai and St. Catherine’s monastery at its foot. Sleet washed the dusty fronds of desert palm trees.

“The inclement weather worsened the situation for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, where many live in makeshift camps, abandoned buildings and other temporary sites lacking heat and protection from the elements. In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, many refugees were digging out snow from their provisional shelters amid subfreezing conditions. The situation is likely worse for multitudes of displaced people inside rebel-held and contested areas of Syria, where clashes and blockades by both sides in the country’s civil war have severely hampered delivery of aid.

“In Israel, where the storm was described as the heaviest December snowfall since 1953, thick clouds temporarily closed Ben-Gurion International Airport, causing the diversion of two international flights to Cyprus. Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, likened the storm to a snow tsunami.”

One is reminded of Christ’s admonition to pray that the flight of His disciples is not to occur on the Sabbath or in winter (Matthew 24:20).

China Lands on the Moon—in Honor of Moon Goddess and Her Rabbit Pet

The Associated Press wrote on December 14:

“China on Saturday successfully carried out the world’s first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, state media said, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon. The unmanned Chang’e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down on Earth’s nearest neighbor… The probe carried a six-wheeled moon rover called ‘Yutu,’ or ‘Jade Rabbit,’ the goddess’ pet. After landing Saturday evening on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon, the rover was slated to separate from the Chang’e eight hours later and embark on a three-month scientific exploration…”

CNN wrote on December 14:

“Chang’e-3, an unmanned spacecraft, will release Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) — a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples to a depth of 30 meters… The robot’s name was decided by a public online poll and comes from a Chinese myth about the pet white rabbit of a goddess, Chang’e, who is said to live on the moon.”

Pagan Easter traditions are alive and well. For more related information, please read our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.”

God’s command, not to add to or take from His Law, has wide-ranging applications and practical consequences in many areas of daily life. For instance, when we look at the question, why we are not to observe Christmas or Easter, then the first answer might be that they are pagan, not Christian, and that the Bible nowhere commands their observance. In fact, God prohibited His followers to worship Him, as pagans worshipped their gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32), and Christ warned us that we are not to uphold human traditions while rejecting God’s commandments (Mark 7:8-9).

But there are additional important reasons to consider, which are not limited to the question of Christmas and Easter observance, and they affect our worship of God in other ways.

In our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas,” we state the following:

“Moses reminded ancient Israel of a timeless principle when it comes to true worship. We read in [Deuteronomy] 4:1-2: ‘Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving to you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you’ (Cp. Deut[eronomy]. 12:32, Rev[elation]. 22:18 [and] 19).

“We find the same admonition in Proverbs 30:5-6: ‘Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.’… So if we contend that Christmas is a festival that honors God, then we add to God’s Word, which has nothing to say about the celebration of Christmas.  God will rebuke us, and we will be found ‘liars,’ since we have misrepresented God.

“Let’s also note how the apostle Paul approached the Christians in Corinth… he tells them in 1 Cor[inthians] 4:6: ‘Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, ‘Do not go beyond what is written.’ (NIV)

“A similar reminder is recorded in the second letter of John. He states in verse 9: ‘For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will leave God behind; while if you are loyal to Christ’s teachings, you will have God too.’ (Living Bible). Those who do celebrate Christmas ‘go beyond what is written,’ and ‘wander beyond the teaching of Christ,’ thereby leaving ‘God behind.’”

This concept is not limited to Christmas celebrations. It can affect us in many different ways in our daily lives. We might take weekly Sabbath observance as an example. Are we becoming too liberal in our conduct, or are we becoming too strict? If we add to or delete from the commandments that God gave us regarding the true worship of the Sabbath, we are guilty of SIN.

It is true, without any doubt, that TRUE Christians ARE commanded today to keep the Sabbath. Those who refuse to do so, and who claim that Christ abrogated the Sabbath and replaced it with Sunday, are guilty of sin and of lying, and Christ told them that they are worshipping Him in vain, “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7; Isaiah 29:13). But notice too what we are saying in our free booklet, “God’s Commanded Holy Days,” when describing the sinful conduct of the Jews at the time of Christ, in regard to Sabbath observance:

“From God’s perspective, the Sabbath is a Feast Day, intended to be a day of joy and happiness, as well as physical and spiritual renewal. We can learn from the mistakes of the Pharisees and avoid repeating them today. By adding humanly devised restrictions to God’s Sabbath commandment, the Pharisees did, in fact, violate God’s law (Matthew 23:4; Mark 7:8–9, 13)…

“The Pharisees totally misinterpreted the prohibition against carrying burdens on the Sabbath. They decreed that a person was guilty of breaking the Sabbath if he carried a sheet of paper, or any food that weighed as much as a dried fig, or if he carried more than one swallow of milk, or enough oil to anoint a small part of the body. If a fire broke out in a person’s home on the Sabbath, he could carry out only the necessary food to be consumed on the Sabbath. This meant that if the fire broke out at the beginning of the Sabbath—right after sunset—the person could take out enough food for three meals; but if the fire broke out on the afternoon of the Sabbath, he could only take out enough food for one meal. The rest could not be carried out and had to be left behind, to burn with the building. Further, only necessary clothes could be taken out of a burning house on the Sabbath.

“Very likely, the Pharisees had been subconsciously influenced by their former Babylonian environment when they devised those Sabbath rules. The Babylonians had set apart the seventh day of the Babylonian week, called ‘Shabattum,’ as ‘ill omens’ or ‘evil days.’ For instance, it was forbidden on those days to eat flesh cooked upon coals. One must wonder whether we find a reason here why some Orthodox Jews have misunderstood the above-described passage in Exodus 35:3 regarding ‘kindling a fire,’ falsely concluding that even turning on a light switch was prohibited. The Babylonians also forbade the change of garments on those days, as well as calling for a physician. As we will see, Christ had to deal with a similar Pharisaic concept. The Pharisees in His day insisted that He should not heal anyone on the Sabbath—that people were not supposed to request healing on that day. Again, the parallel to Babylonian superstition is evident.

“We might laugh about those restrictions today, but these were no laughing matter at the time of Christ. He had confrontations with the Pharisees on numerous occasions when He refused to abide by their man-made Sabbath rules. We must be careful today not to create for ourselves, and others, similar rules on how to keep—or not keep—the Sabbath, when such rules cannot be found in Scripture.”

Again, it is all based on the biblical injunction, not to add to or delete from God’s commandments. Richard Elliott Freedman makes the following statements in his “Commentary on the Torah,” regarding Deuteronomy 4:2:

“One may think that, by doing more than the law requires, one is doing better, being more religious, more observant, when one is in fact thus violating the law… Adding to a command is as dangerous as taking away from it… in postbiblical Judaism a principle developed of ‘building a fence around the Torah’”…

Although this practice may seem logical to the human mind, in its final analysis, it is in violation of God’s command not to add to His Law.

We find that Moses was very careful not to add anything to God’s commandments, and he reminded the people before his death that they must not do so, either (Deuteronomy 5:33). He added that they must not turn to the right or to the left, but that they had to be careful and watchful to stay on the narrow road (Deuteronomy 5:32). This injunction complements of course the command not to add to or take away from God’s Law.

When we are tempted to add to or delete from God’s commandments and develop a guilty conscience when we do not follow the dictates of our human hearts (which are not in harmony with God’s Law), then we are sinning. We need God’s wisdom to show us exactly, in a given situation, what His command is, rather than replacing God’s lead with our own self-righteous and presumptuous human imaginations.

We should also accept the fact that God leads His Church through His ministry. For instance, the question as to whether or not to eat in a restaurant on the weekly and annual Sabbaths has been a stumbling block for some.

We wrote this in our free booklet, “God’s Commanded Holy Days”:

“If Church members today eat occasionally in a nice, quiet restaurant on the Sabbath or a Holy Day after Church services, for instance, while, at the same time fellowshipping with other brethren and speaking about the things that pertain to God, then we must not condemn them for that. For instance, Church members might be traveling for quite a distance to attend Church services, looking forward to spending additional time with their brethren after services.

“If, on the other hand, your conscience does not allow you to go to a restaurant on a Sabbath or a Holy Day, then you must not do so, since ‘whatever is not from faith [or conviction] is sin’ (Romans 14:23). It would be advisable, though, to review the Scriptures to see whether your conscience is based on the Bible or merely on man-made traditions. God never accepts our conviction as justification for the violation of His law, and man-made regulations can… cloud the intent of God’s commandments in the minds of men.”

The last sentence should also be viewed in light of the fact that God gave the ministry of His Church the authority to bind and to loose,  and with it, the responsibility to explain biblical passages which might not be that clear at first sight. In our Q&A on Matthew 16:18-19, Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23, we state the following:

“The ministry has been given the authority from God, to ‘bind and loose,’ and to ‘remit’ and ‘retain’ sin. It is critical that we understand correctly the scope of this authority… The Nelson Study Bible comments on Matthew 16:19 and on Matthew 18:18: ‘In rabbinical literature, binding and loosing refers to what was permitted or not permitted. So this passage may refer to judgments that Peter [and the other apostles] would make about what would be permitted or forbidden in the church… As in [Matthew] 16:19, the tenses [in Matthew 18:18] imply that what is loosed or bound on earth will have been determined already in heaven. In other words, this is a promise of divine direction…

“‘The New Bible Commentary: Revised, agrees and adds the following remarks: ‘…  Judicial rulings, like the promulgation of rules of conduct, are binding.’… The Broadman Bible Commentary, commenting on Matthew 18:18, explains the meaning and scope of ‘binding and loosing,’ as follows: ‘The authority to bind and loose, given to Peter in [Matthew] 16:19, is here extended to the whole church [that is, its ministry]. In [Matthew] 16:19 it seems to relate primarily to instruction, what conduct is permitted and what not [We might insert here that this would include conduct that is not clearly defined in Scripture. The Church is not permitted, however, to do away with any of God’s commandments, judgments or statutes, compare Matthew 5:17-19; James 2:10; Mark 7:6-13. Likewise, the Church is not to add prohibitions regarding conduct that the Bible permits, compare Revelation 22:18; Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:5-6]. Here [in Matthew 18:18] it relates primarily to church discipline…’

“In summary, Christ empowered the leadership of the Church, throughout the Church’s history and existence, to discern God’s Will regarding binding Church decisions as to what God permits and prohibits, based on His law, and who is to be excommunicated and reinstated, based on the Church leadership’s discernment of the person’s repentance and God’s forgiveness…”

Over the centuries, the true Church of God has declared, based on the directions and instructions of the Bible, that it is wrong to observe Christmas and Easter, or to participate in any of their customs. Furthermore, it has declared as binding God’s injunction to observe the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days. In this context, it has recognized and therefore dogmatically pronounced that God gave the Jews the sole responsibility of maintaining the Hebrew calendar.

God’s Church has also declared God’s Law of abstaining from unclean food, while clarifying that it is wrong to insist that we must be vegetarians today. Rather, that it is not wrong to eat the flesh of clean animals (while rejecting the consumption of fat and blood). The true Church of God has determined for a long time that it is wrong for a Christian to vote in governmental elections and to serve on a jury, and it has pronounced God’s revelation of circumstances when God binds a marriage, and when a Church member is free to divorce and remarry. God’s Church has also clarified that we are not obligated to observe new moons, and it has determined, based on the Bible, that the Passover is to be kept in the beginning of the 14th of Nisan, as this was the correct time when ancient Israel, Jesus and the apostles observed it.

In addition, as mentioned, God’s true Church and its ministers have also declared with godly authority that it is not wrong or a sin to eat out in a restaurant on the weekly Sabbath or annual Holy Days, including during the Night to Be Much Observed on the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Even though the Church respects the conscience of (newer) members who may not be comfortable with going out on a weekly or annual Sabbath, because the Church realizes that their faith may (still) be weak (compare the principle in Romans 14:2; 1 Corinthians 8:7-13), it expects that they, in time, will grow in the knowledge of God and, in submitting to the guidance of the Church ministry, will come to understand the truth in the matter. It is clarified, of course, that they must never try to convince other Church members of their unique individual religious conviction (which is not based on Church teaching), and that they must be very circumspect in the practical application of their conscience, as this could otherwise create division within the congregation.

In conclusion, we should carefully heed God’s admonition to His followers in Ecclesiastes 7:16-18:

“Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself? Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp this, And also not remove your hand from the other; For he who fears God will escape them all [NIV: “will avoid all extremes”].”

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

“Will Yellowstone’s Super Volcano Wipe Out America?,” is the title of our new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

The New York Post wrote on December 12, 2013, that if Yellowstone’s Super Volcano erupts, it will wipe out America and have enormous impacts on the rest of the world. But is this possible? Our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution,” explains that in the past, historic natural catastrophes, including volcanic eruptions, have destroyed large parts of the earth, and the Bible warns that similar events will happen in the near future.

“Tiere in der Bibel,” is the title of a new German language sermon to be played this coming Sabbath in services conducted in Germany. It begins a new series on the biblical teaching about animals. Title in English: “Animals in the Bible.”

A new “SW Talking Points” program with Rene Messier has been posted. It offers our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

Our new Member letter, has been posted and sent out this week. In it, Dave Harris reminds us of the understanding and promises God has given to His faithful people in order for us to face the tumultuous events that are now signaling the end of this age.

A new Member Letter has been sent to the brethren in Germany. It includes a German translation of Mr. Link’s Editorial, “Is It God’s Will to Quit?,” which appeared in last week’s Update. Plans have also been made for Mr. Link to address the German brethren via Webex this coming Sabbath.

On December 14, 2013, Robb Harris will give the sermon, titled, “Rebellion.”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

We have this promise: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask ANYTHING according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears, WHATEVER we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

But HOW do we know, in a given situation, what God’s Will is for us? Is it God’s Will to marry our fiancée? Is it God’s Will to sever our marriage? Is it God’s Will to accept a particular job? Is it God’s Will to quit our current job? Is it God’s Will to end our studies in college or university? Is it God’s Will to move? Is it God’s Will to be healed of a particular sickness? Is it God’s Will to buy or sell a house or a certain car; to spend our vacation at an exotic location; to engage in a particular activity? The list may be endless…

How DO we know?

The answer is, in many cases, we may NOT know right away!

In our free booklet, “Teach Us to Pray,” we state the following:

“We have to ask God for His help and intervention ‘according to His will’ (1 John 5:14). This requires that we understand what His will is (Ephesians 5:17). In other words, God needs to REVEAL His will to us (Ephesians 1:9)…

“When we pray to the Father that His will be done, we ask Him… to give us the right kind of discernment to prove or test what His will is in a given situation; to permit Him to work in our lives… We should always ask ourselves when contemplating a major decision in our lives: Is this God’s will? We should not approach the issue with the attitude of: I know it is God’s will, because that is what I want to do. James 4:15 tells us, instead: ‘… you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”’…

“When we pray: ‘Your Will be done,’ we pray for understanding from God to determine what His Will is; for the ability to accept His Will and agree with His Will for our lives; and the strength and desire to do His Will, even though it might not be easy. When we are facing difficult situations in our lives, we are asking God to help us not to make hasty decisions out of impatience or frustration, but to reveal His Will to us and give us the will-power to accept His Will, agree with it, submit to it wholeheartedly, and DO whatever God may require of us, knowing that God will help us. We are saying with Jesus, when He was facing the most difficult situation in His life: ‘Not My will, but Your Will be done.’”

We need to prove or test to find out what God’s Will may be for us in a given situation. This may not be as difficult as it sounds. We pray by asking, seeking and knocking, having the faith that God hears and that He will answer. Circumstances in our lives may reveal His Will for us. If we pray to God for His direction, BELIEVING that He will see to it that a certain plan of ours is or is not going to come to fruition, He IS GOING to answer our prayer. If the car is a “lemon,” He will show us. If it is not His Will to heal us right away, He will make this very clear (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). If a particular job is not the best choice for us, it will become manifest.

Sometimes, we must knock at several doors, not knowing at first which, if any, will open. Ecclesiastes 11:1-2, 6 tells us: “Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, For you do NOT KNOW what evil will be on the earth… In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do NOT KNOW which will prosper, Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good.”

The key is, whatever we do, and as long as we do it, we must do with all our might (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

We must not quit, if God has not made it obvious that a certain course of action is against His Will. Some become disappointed and discouraged if a planned action does not show results right away, and they contemplate giving up. Some are far too quick in changing jobs. They never seem to settle down or stick to a given task. They lack perseverance in trials, concluding erroneously that a trial at the job shows them that God wants them to quit their job. Quite the opposite might be true. Maybe God wants them to stick it out so that they can learn how to conduct themselves properly in a difficult situation. But they quit too early. In fact, if it is God’s Will that we ought to change our job or a given course of conduct, then we don’t need to worry about whether or not to quit, because God will answer our prayers for the revelation and manifestation of His Will by making an end to our plans and our work (compare Acts 5:38-39).

In the famous inspirational poem by an unknown author, “Don’t Quit,” these memorable words are uttered:

“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit — Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

“Life is queer with its twists and turns, As every one of us sometimes learns, And many a fellow turns about When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don’t give up though the pace seems slow — You may succeed with another blow.

“Often the goal is nearer than It seems to a faint and faltering man; Often the struggler has given up When he might have captured the victor’s cup; And he learned too late when the night came down — How close he was to the golden crown.

“Success is failure turned inside out — The silver tint in the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It might be near when it seems afar; So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit — It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.”

If you are considering whether you should do, continue to do or abrogate a certain task, ask yourself: Is it AGAINST God’s Will? It is NEVER God’s Will that we sin! But do we or would we sin? You need to carefully evaluate your situation based on your knowledge of the facts and circumstances—not based on hearsay, gossip, misstatements, accusations or opinions of others. Jesus did not care about man’s opinions… He healed the sick on the Sabbath, even though the Pharisees condemned Him for it; He spoke in public with a Samaritan woman even though the Jews did not “allow” it; He associated with “sinners” and “tax collectors,” even though the establishment rejected Him for this conduct.

If you cannot say, after careful and honest analysis of your situation, that your (contemplated) conduct or current condition are against God’s Will, then allow God to show you His Will through clear circumstances in your life. He will make it obvious to you! Have patience and faith that He will show you… and He will… in His good time—but in the meantime, until the answer is clear, don’t quit!

This Week in the New

We begin reporting on accelerating problems involving the Temple Mount, which are going to lead to an ultimate explosion of biblical significance. While President Obama makes promises regarding a final deal between Iran and the USA and other super powers, a controversial US Budget Deal has been introduced; and the NSA tries to defend indefensible daily spying activities regarding billions of cell phones, and more dangerous US court proceedings come to light.

The Ukraine is in uproar, and the German President is taking a strong stance against Putin’s dictatorial Russia. One of America’s most respected journalists is charging that President Obama lied to the American people regarding Syria.

We are focusing on frightening German Christmas traditions and customs; discuss the troublesome advance of drones; and conclude with interesting revelations about the real Neanderthal.

Trouble at the Temple Mount

The Times of Israel wrote on December 6:

“Last Sunday, the Jerusalem District Police was forced to close the Temple Mount when a group of Jews visited the site during the hours designated for non-Muslim visitors and began to sing Hanukkah songs. Dozens of Muslims, including Islamic extremists (not necessarily the Salafis) who are permanent fixtures on the mount, attacked the Jewish group as dozens of police officers tried to disperse the violent confrontation… On Wednesday, the compound was closed to visitors and worshipers once again after fireworks were shot at police from the Al-Aqsa Mosque… Combined with other incidents on the Temple Mount over recent weeks, this seems to be just the beginning…

“One of the most active groups on the Temple Mount in recent months is known as Al-Shabab Al-Aqsa. This group of young men is most often recruited by members of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement… in order to ‘protect Al-Aqsa.’ This means physically preventing Jews from attempting to pray on the Temple Mount…

“Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, director of the Waqf in East Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa, charges that Israeli ‘radicalism’ is ‘ruining everything.’

“In an interview this week, he described a recent Sunday when, he said, a group of 26 Orthodox Jews visited the Temple Mount and ‘even attacked your own soldiers,’ and he warned: ‘If a fire erupts here, it will ignite the entire world…. We dream of Jerusalem being a source of peace between religions,… each with its own holy site: Al-Aqsa to the Muslims; the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Christians; and Al-Buraq Wall (the Muslim name for the Western Wall, named for the horse that carried the Prophet Muhammad to the heavens), which belongs to the Muslims as well but the Jews may pray there.’…

“Throughout the conversation, Al-Khatib cautioned that every Jewish attempt to pray at ‘Haram a-Sharif’ will draw a response and objections from the Muslims. ‘This site represents 1 billion, 700 million Muslims. We do not want a religious war to break out in the region. It will put us all in danger.’

“The complex and dangerous circumstances that are rapidly developing on the Temple Mount prompted Israel’s two Chief Rabbis, Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, to this week reaffirm the ruling made by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook (years before the establishment of the State of Israel) which forbids Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. This new-old ruling, however, is unlikely to have much impact at this most sensitive of sites, where years of seething tension appear to be bubbling ever closer to the surface…”

The Temple Mount is going to “explode.” The Bible is very clear that Jews will begin to bring sacrifices, apparently on or near the Temple Mount, and apparently in conjunction with the building of the Third Temple. This will ignite a fire storm between Arabs and Jews, which Europe will try to stop by invading militarily.

President Obama’s Promises Regarding an Iran Deal

JTA wrote on December 7:

“President Obama sharply criticized as not viable several Israeli government postures on talks with Iran… Obama anticipated a final deal that would grant Iran some uranium enrichment capabilities… Obama outlined U.S. red lines in a final agreement, including the dismantling of the plutonium reactor at Arak and the underground nuclear reactor at Fordow, as well as advanced centrifuges…

“Israel’s government believes that Iran has been allowed to advance its nuclear capability to the point where even a modest enrichment capability positions it dangerously close to weapons breakout capacity… Obama said he did not trust Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s newly elected president, but noted that he was elected on a platform of reaching out to the West… Obama twice said that he would reassert the military option should talks fail with Iran…”

Let’s wait and see whether these promises regarding an Iran deal will be kept—at least within the pages of a written document to be signed by all parties.

US Under No Illusions Regarding Iran?

Fox News wrote on December 7:

“U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel opened the door for the U.S. to sell missile defense and other weapons systems to U.S.-friendly Gulf nations, with an eye toward boosting their abilities to counter Iran’s ballistic missiles, even as global powers ink a nuclear deal with Tehran. In a speech Saturday to Gulf leaders, Hagel made it clear that the emerging global agreement that would limit Iran’s nuclear program doesn’t mean the security threat from Iran is over.

“Instead, he laid out steps to beef up defense cooperation in the Gulf region, while at the same time insisting that America’s military commitment to the Middle East will continue. ‘I am under no illusions, like all of you, about the daily threats facing this region, or the current anxieties that I know exist here in the Gulf,’ Hagel told a security conference… He said the interim deal is just a first step that has bought time for meaningful negotiations, adding that ‘all of us are clear-eyed, very clear-eyed about the challenges that remain’ to reaching a nuclear solution with Iran… And, he warned that with America’s sophisticated weapons, ‘no target is beyond our reach.’…

“The most concrete proposal Hagel outlined is the Pentagon’s plan to allow military sales to the Gulf Cooperation Council, so the six-member nations can have more coordinated radars, sensors and early warning missile defense systems. While the U.S. can sell to the individual nations, Hagel is arguing that selling the systems to the GCC will ensure that the countries will be able to communicate and coordinate better.

“It is unclear, however, how effective that plan will be considering it can be difficult for the six sometimes-combative nations of the GCC — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to reach agreements…”

US Democrats Attack Iran Deal

The Washington Times wrote on December 10:

“President Obama’s nuclear deal reached last month with Iran faced bipartisan criticism Tuesday as Secretary of State John F. Kerry gave his first defense of the agreement on Capitol Hill. Several Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee joined Republicans in expressing skepticism about the administration’s willingness to ease sanctions on Iran without requiring Tehran to cease all uranium activities while negotiations on a more permanent agreement take place. ‘I want to make it clear that I have some serious reservations,’ New York Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the committee’s ranking Democrat, told Mr. Kerry… he slammed the initial agreement, saying that, ‘at a minimum, it should have required Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, as demanded by six separate U.N. Security Council resolutions.’…

“The committee’s GOP chairman, Rep. Edward R. Royce of California, joined his Democratic colleague, warning that the U.S. ‘may have bargained away our fundamental position.’ ‘That fundamental agreement is that Iran should not be enriching and reprocessing,’ Mr. Royce said. ‘And we may bargain that away for a false confidence that we can effectively block Iran’s misuse of these key nuclear bomb-making technologies.’…

“Mr. Kerry and the administration are trying to head off moves on Capitol Hill to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran, warning it could undermine the agreement…”

A Compromise Budget Deal in the Making?

Fox News and The Associated Press reported on December 10:

“Congressional negotiators on Tuesday announced a tentative budget deal that would avoid a partial government shutdown, but also begin to unravel hard-fought spending cuts. The lead negotiators — Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — detailed the specifics of the proposal at an evening press conference… But the measure could face a tough climb, particularly in the House which is expected to take up the bill first. Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, fiscal conservatives raised alarm that lawmakers were proposing to roll back sequester cuts.

“The proposal would restore about $63 billion in funding that had been cut by the so-called sequester. Officials said the increases would be offset by a variety of spending reductions and increased fees elsewhere in the budget totaling about $85 billion over a decade, leaving enough for a largely symbolic deficit cut of $23 billion over the next decade.

“However, fiscal conservatives warned that lawmakers were simply trading increased spending now for ‘promises’ of cuts sometime in the future… Marco Rubio, R-Fla., came out against it. ‘In the short run, this budget also cancels earlier spending reductions, instead of making some tough decisions about how to tackle our long-term fiscal challenges caused by runaway Washington spending,’ he said…

“The hesitation, and opposition, on both sides,… indicates that congressional leaders still have a lot of convincing to do. Congress has until Jan. 15 to pass a new budget or they will trigger another partial government shutdown…”

A Terrible Deal

Breitbart wrote on December 10:

“These are the 4 most important take-aways from this deal.

“1. The Deal Increases Federal Spending. Discretionary spending, the only spending controlled by the Congressional budget process, would rise next year to $1.012 trillion. Spending in 2013 was $986 billion and, under current law, was scheduled to drop to $967 billion next year. In other words, spending will be $45 billion higher than under existing law.

“2. The Deal Increases Federal Revenue. While the additional revenue is raised through ‘user fees’ rather than taxes, it is generally a distinction without a difference. One of the major sources of new revenue is an additional surtax on airline tickets, ostensibly to cover TSA airport screening… it is important to remember that any additional revenue raised under this deal is to finance additional spending, not deficit reduction.

“3. Spending Cuts Fuel More Spending. The deal reportedly cuts spending throughout the budget. One of the more concrete proposals revealed so far is requiring federal employees and members of the military to contribute more to their federal pensions…

“4. The Promised Deficit Reduction Will Never Happen. The summary document on the Ryan/Murray deal promises that the agreement will reduce the deficit by $28 billion over the next ten years. Never mind that this amount is a rounding error when the government will spend around $40 trillion in this time-period, it is also a fiction…”

The Washington Times summarized this deal in this way:

“New budget accord saves $23 billion — after $65 billion spending spree.”

NSA Defends the Indefensible

NBC News reported on December 6:

“The National Security Agency on Friday said its tracking of cellphones overseas is legally authorized under a sweeping U.S. presidential order. The distinction means the extraordinary surveillance program is not overseen by a secretive U.S. intelligence court but is regulated by some U.S. lawmakers, Obama administration insiders and inspectors general… the NSA gathers as many as 5 billion records every day about the location data for hundreds of millions of cellphones worldwide by tapping into cables that carry international cellphone traffic…

“The NSA said Friday it was not tracking every foreign phone call and said it takes measures to limit how much U.S. data is collected. The NSA has declined to provide any estimates about the number of Americans whose cellphones it has tracked either because they were traveling overseas or their data was irrevocably included in information about foreigners’ cellphones…

“A frequent justification for the NSA programs by President Barack Obama and top U.S. intelligence officials is that they are overseen by all three branches of government… The NSA spokeswoman [Vanee] Vines said legal restrictions under the intelligence law still apply to the cellphone tracking. When NSA analysts realize they unintentionally collected an American’s information, they would have to separate it when possible or wall it off from the other information, and limit who can access it and how long it is kept. But an intelligence lawyer also told the Post that when U.S. cellphone data are collected, the data are not covered by the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

It’s a joke, but it’s not funny. And it’s not happening in Russia or China, but in the USA –a land which was once thought to be the land of the brave and the free. Of course, it really never was—since it was and still is under the control of Satan the devil, as all countries are. Only, that by now, this fact becomes more and more obvious to the more-than-casual observer.

Dangerous Court Cases

The Washington Post wrote on December 6:

“A baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs or face fines, a judge said Friday. The order from administrative law judge Robert N. Spencer said Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver [Colorado] discriminated against a couple ‘because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage.’

“The order says the cake-maker must ‘cease and desist from discriminating’ against gay couples. Although the judge did not impose fines in this case, the business will face penalties if it continues to turn away gay couples who want to buy cakes… Nicolle Martin, an attorney for Masterpiece Cakeshop, said the judge’s order puts Phillips in an impossible position of going against his Christian faith…

“A similar is pending in Washington state, where a florist is accused of refusing service for a same-sex wedding. In New Mexico, the state Supreme Court ruled in August that an Albuquerque business was wrong to decline to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony…”

Courts want to stop discrimination against minorities and become guilty of discriminating against religious convictions.

Ukraine in Uproar

The Local wrote on December 8:

“At least 100,000 people were reported to have gathered in Kyiv on Sunday for renewed demonstrations against President Viktor Yanukovych… Members of the crowd waved European Union and Ukrainian flags, as well as the red-and-black banner of the anti-communist wartime Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

“Yevgenia Tymoshenko, the daughter of jailed ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, delivered a message from her mother in prison, calling for Yanukovych’s ‘immediate’ resignation… The decision of Yanukovych to abandon planned political and free trade agreements with the European Union have prompted a wave of protests from government opponents. The president on Friday further angered the opposition when he discussed the signing of a strategic partnership treaty with Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is eager for Ukraine to join a Customs Union that some Ukrainians complain would be the first step to a rebuilding of a new Soviet Union.”

BBC News added on December 8:

“Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Ukrainian capital Kiev seeking the resignation of the government for refusing a deal on closer ties with the European Union. Protesters, who oppose a customs union with Russia, toppled a statue of Lenin and smashed it with hammers… Correspondents say the statue has symbolic importance as it underlines Ukraine’s shared history with Russia… The BBC’s David Stern says the attack on the statue has heightened tension in Kiev.”

The Bible indicates that Ukraine will turn away from Europe and Germany in support of Russia—which actually did occur before, during World War II.

The Battle in Ukraine—Germany Helpless

Der Spiegel wrote on December 9:

“Every sentence German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle utters in the lobby of Kiev’s five-star Hyatt Hotel betrays a sense of helplessness. He says that the ‘gateway to Europe is open’ for the country, that there are ‘shared European values,’ that Germans are ‘not indifferent to Ukraine,’ and that it is in fact ‘culturally and historically’ part of the old continent. Then he says ‘thank you so much’ to the Ukrainians and walks out into the street…

“The Ukrainian leadership has sharpened its tone, a sign that Yanukovych and his supporters already consider themselves victors…”

Ukrainian Government Uses Force

The New York Times wrote on December 10:

“Battalions of Ukrainian security forces early Wednesday stormed Independence Square, the central plaza in Kiev where protesters had been rallying against the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich for more than two weeks… Hours after senior Western diplomats arrived here for meetings with Mr. Yanukovich in an effort to defuse both the country’s slide into political chaos as well as a deepening financial crisis, thousands of riot police officers and internal ministry troops fanned across Kiev, putting the Ukrainian capital in a virtual lockdown in the cold predawn darkness… The crackdown by the authorities came hours after a three and a half-hour meeting between Mr. Yanukovich and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

“Secretary of State John Kerry, in an unusually strong statement late Tuesday, expressed the United States’ ‘disgust’ with the authorities’ decision to use force. ‘This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy,’ he said. ‘As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kiev, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better.’ Western leaders, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who spoke by telephone with Mr. Yanukovich on Monday, had sternly warned the government against the use of force on peaceful protests.

“The enforcement effort was likely to have serious diplomatic consequences, especially because there was no apparent provocation for the sudden and aggressive police advance. The storming of the plaza was especially surprising because Tuesday had largely been a day of consultations and discussions among senior officials. The talks with Western diplomats had focused heavily on Ukraine’s acute financial troubles; a deepening cash crunch could leave the country broke within months…

“Ukraine remains caught in a tug of war between Europe and Russia, which are vying for political sway over the country’s future…”

Russia vs. Canada – Who Owns the North Pole?

The Globe and Mail wrote on December 10:

“President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s armed forces to expand their presence in the Arctic region, one day after Canada confirmed its intent to lay claim to the sea bed under the North Pole… He emphasized the importance of the Soviet-era base at the New Siberian Islands, which the military started to overhaul this year. Putin also said that Russia will restore a number of Arctic military air bases that fell into neglect after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Putin said that a massive effort to modernize military arsenals will continue next year, when the military will commission 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than 200 military aircraft and two nuclear submarines…

“On Monday Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada will gather more underwater mapping information before submitting a claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. But he made it clear that Ottawa has no intention of forfeiting the geographic North Pole, a stand that will put Canada at odds with Russia and Denmark – two countries expected to stake an interest in the region. It was the first time the Conservative government has publicly declared its intention to claim the Pole.

“To support a stake that lays claim as far as the North Pole, Canada would have to establish that underwater mountain ridges including the Lomonosov Ridge are linked to Canada’s continental shelf. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal countries are entitled to economic control over the waters that stretch as far as 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from their shores. If a country can prove its continental shelf extends even farther, it may be granted control of a greater expanse. Countries such as Canada have conducted aerial and ship-borne mapping of the Arctic seabed for years to support their claims.”

Putin’s Dictatorial Measures

Reuters reported on December 9:

“President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia’s media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow’s image abroad. The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin’s hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule.

“Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin’s concern about the president’s ratings and image.”

German President Boycotts Winter Olympics in Russia

The Guardian wrote on December 8:

“The German president has become the first major political figure to boycott the Sochi Winter Olympics in February. According to German weekly Der Spiegel, Joachim Gauck last week told the Kremlin of his decision, which is understood to be a response to the Russian government’s violations of human rights and harassment of the opposition. Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor who played a key part in the East German protest movement before the fall of the Berlin Wall, has declined any official visits to Russia since coming to office in March 2012 and repeatedly criticised the country’s ‘deficit of rule of law’ and ‘air of imperialism.’

“In June, a scheduled meeting between Gauck and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was cancelled – supposedly because of clashing schedules… The head of the Russian parliament’s foreign delegation on Sunday criticised Gauck’s decision. Alexey Pushkov tweeted: ‘The German president Gauck has not criticised the killing of children and women in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But he is so critical of Russia that he doesn’t even want to travel to Sochi.’

“While Germany under chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Merkel has traditionally been keen to tread carefully in diplomatic exchanges with Russia, a standoff between Gauck and Putin has seemed only a matter of time. Gauck, in his post-1989 role as special representative for Stasi archives, has come to represent a systematic investigation into the crimes of East Germany’s surveillance state, while former KGB agent Putin has overseen the rehabilitation of secret service personnel during his time in power. In German political circles, it is no secret that there is little love lost between the two presidents.”

The relationship between Russia and Europe is bound to deteriorate.

The German President’s Boycott

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 9:

“German President Joachim Gauck’s office has informed the Kremlin he will not be attending the Sochi Olympics in February. German newspapers view his protest of Russian human rights violations as a moral decision by the German head of state…

“The issue of boycotting the games has been controversial [one] in Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel recently spoke out against taking such action. She said the world would be paying close attention to the situation in Russia during the games and that this could be more effective in implementing change than a boycott — a move she said would hurt athletes more than anyone else.

“Gauck’s decision not to travel is being widely interpreted as criticism of Russia’s treatment of opposition politicians and minorities in the country… Gauck’s father had served time in a Soviet prison camp. And as a citizen of former East Germany, Gauck was a civil rights activist…”

EU Commissioner Joins Gauck in Anti-Russian Protest

Reuters reported on December 10:

“European Union commissioner Viviane Reding said she would not be attending the Sochi 2014 Olympics in February over what she said was Russia’s treatment of minorities, joining German President Joachim Gauck in an open snub to the host nation…

“Russia has been under mounting criticism over its human rights record especially after passing an anti-gay propaganda law earlier this year that critics say curtails the rights of homosexuals… Preparations for Russia’s first winter Olympics that expected to cost more than $50-billion have been overshadowed by the controversy triggered by the law as well as the arrests of Greenpeace members and members of punk protest band Pussy Riot.”

German Economy Growing

Der Spiegel wrote on December 9:

“Total German exports in October rose to €99.1 billion ($136 billion), a new all-time high… imports rose at an even greater rate than exports — at a surprising 2.9 percent… The growth in exports in October was mainly due to strong demand from European Union countries that don’t belong to the euro zone, with exports to Poland increasing by around 6.2 percent, for example…”

Did President Obama Lie to the American People About Syria?

Rt.com wrote on December 9:

“Washington knew Syrian rebels could produce sarin gas but ‘cherry-picked’ intel to blame President Assad for the Aug. 21 attack on Ghouta, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed, citing senior US security sources… Hersh, whose Pulitzers were for his exposes on American military misconduct in the Iraq and Vietnam wars, got his information on Syria from whistle-blowing acting and former intelligence and military officers, who for security reasons were not identified in the report.

“Following the release of the report, the spokesman for Director of National Intelligence, Shawn Turner, denied the report’s major point – that the US knew of the rebel group being capable of creating sarin… Hersh has remained unconvinced by the denial…”

The German press, including Der Stern, picked up the story, describing Seymour Hersh as one of the best-known journalists in the USA. Der Stern provided this link to the entire report http://www.lrb.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin .

Here are excerpts from the report (which was also published by the Huffington Post, dated December 8):

“Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports… citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.

“In his nationally televised speech about Syria on 10 September, Obama laid the blame for the nerve gas attack on the rebel-held suburb of Eastern Ghouta firmly on Assad’s government, and made it clear he was prepared to back up his earlier public warnings that any use of chemical weapons would cross a ‘red line’: ‘Assad’s government gassed to death over a thousand people,’ he said. ‘We know the Assad regime was responsible … And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike.’ Obama was going to war to back up a public threat, but he was doing so without knowing for sure who did what in the early morning of 21 August.

“He cited a list of what appeared to be hard-won evidence of Assad’s culpability… But in recent interviews with intelligence and military officers and consultants past and present, I found intense concern, and on occasion anger, over what was repeatedly seen as the deliberate manipulation of intelligence. One high-level intelligence officer, in an email to a colleague, called the administration’s assurances of Assad’s responsibility a ‘ruse’. The attack ‘was not the result of the current regime’, he wrote. A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’…

“Already by late May, the senior intelligence consultant told me, the CIA had briefed the Obama administration on al-Nusra and its work with sarin, and had sent alarming reports that another Sunni fundamentalist group active in Syria, al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), also understood the science of producing sarin. At the time, al-Nusra was operating in areas close to Damascus, including Eastern Ghouta. An intelligence document issued in mid-summer dealt extensively with Ziyaad Tariq Ahmed, a chemical weapons expert formerly of the Iraqi military, who was said to have moved into Syria and to be operating in Eastern Ghouta. The consultant told me that Tariq had been identified ‘as an al-Nusra guy with a track record of making mustard gas in Iraq and someone who is implicated in making and using sarin’. He is regarded as a high-profile target by the American military…

“In both its public and private briefings after 21 August, the administration disregarded the available intelligence about al-Nusra’s potential access to sarin and continued to claim that the Assad government was in sole possession of chemical weapons. This was the message conveyed in the various secret briefings that members of Congress received in the days after the attack, when Obama was seeking support for his planned missile offensive against Syrian military installations. One legislator with more than two decades of experience in military affairs told me that he came away from one such briefing persuaded that ‘only the Assad government had sarin and the rebels did not.’ Similarly, following the release of the UN report on 16 September confirming that sarin was used on 21 August, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’…

“The proposed American missile attack on Syria never won public support and Obama turned quickly to the UN and the Russian proposal for dismantling the Syrian chemical warfare complex. Any possibility of military action was definitively averted on 26 September when the administration joined Russia in approving a draft UN resolution calling on the Assad government to get rid of its chemical arsenal. Obama’s retreat brought relief to many senior military officers. (One high-level special operations adviser told me that the ill-conceived American missile attack on Syrian military airfields and missile emplacements, as initially envisaged by the White House, would have been ‘like providing close air support for al-Nusra’.)

“The administration’s distortion of the facts surrounding the sarin attack raises an unavoidable question: do we have the whole story of Obama’s willingness to walk away from his ‘red line’ threat to bomb Syria? He had claimed to have an iron-clad case but suddenly agreed to take the issue to Congress, and later to accept Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical weapons…

“The UN resolution, which was adopted on 27 September by the Security Council, dealt indirectly with the notion that rebel forces such as al-Nusra would also be obliged to disarm: ‘no party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer [chemical] weapons.’ The resolution also calls for the immediate notification of the Security Council in the event that any ‘non-state actors’ acquire chemical weapons. No group was cited by name. While the Syrian regime continues the process of eliminating its chemical arsenal, the irony is that, after Assad’s stockpile of precursor agents is destroyed, al-Nusra and its Islamist allies could end up as the only faction inside Syria with access to the ingredients that can create sarin, a strategic weapon that would be unlike any other in the war zone…”

Obama’s Approval Ratings at an All-Time Low

Mail On Line reported on December 10:

“Barack Obama is facing poll numbers that are now in the same territory as President George W. Bush’s following Hurricane Katrina. The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute released numbers on Tuesday showing that just 38 per cent of registered voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president, with a whopping 56 per cent saying they disapprove.

“The president has lost his landslide electoral edge among young voters, too, with a negative 41–49 per cent rating among 18- to 29-year-old voters. His once formidable support among Hispanics has also evaporated: They now support him by an historically small 50–43 per cent margin.

“Worse for Obama’s fast-approaching legacy-building years, the public believes he is not ‘honest and trustworthy,’ by a 52–44 per cent score. A smaller majority, 51 per cent, said he lacks ‘strong leadership qualities.’”

Pope Francis Person of the Year

The Website of poy.time.com explained on December 10, why Pope Francis was chosen by Time magazine as the person of the year—those who have ears, let them hear:

“At a time when the limits of leadership are being tested in so many places, along comes a man with no army or weapons, no kingdom beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome but with the immense wealth and weight of history behind him, to throw down a challenge. The world is getting smaller; individual voices are getting louder; technology is turning virtue viral, so his pulpit is visible to the ends of the earth. When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.

“The skeptics will point to the obstacles Francis faces in accomplishing much of anything beyond making casual believers feel better about the softer tone coming out of Rome while feeling free to ignore the harder substance. The Catholic Church is one of the oldest, largest and richest institutions on earth, with a following 1.2 billion strong, and change does not come naturally. At its best it inspires and instructs, helps and heals and calls the faithful to heed their better angels. But it has been weakened worldwide by scandal, corruption, a shortage of priests and a challenge, especially across the fertile mission fields of the southern hemisphere, from evangelical and Pentecostal rivals. In some quarters, core teachings on divorce and contraception are widely ignored and orthodoxy derided as obsolete. Vatican bureaucrats and clergy stand accused of infighting, graft, blackmail and an obsession with ‘small-minded rules,’ as Francis puts it, rather than the vast possibilities of grace.

“… it is a mistake to dismiss any Pope’s symbolic choices­ as gestures empty of the force of law… This focus on compassion, along with a general aura of merriment not always associated with princes of the church, has made Francis something of a rock star. More than 3 million people turned out to see him on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro last summer, the crowds in St. Peter’s Square are ecstatic, and the souvenirs are selling fast. Francesco is the most popular male baby name in Italy. Churches report a ‘Francis effect’ of lapsed Catholics returning to Mass and confession… the fascination with Francis even outside his flock gives him an opportunity that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, never had—to magnify the message of the church and its power…

“Now liberals and conservatives alike face a choice as they listen to a new voice of conscience: Which matters more, that this charismatic leader is saying things they think need to be said or that he is also saying things they’d rather not hear?…”

German Nicholas–Pagan God Odin

The Local wrote on December 6:

“Each year on December 6, Germans remember the death of Nicholas of Myra (now the Anatolia region of modern Turkey), who died on that day in 346. He was a Greek Christian bishop known for miracles and giving gifts secretly, and is now the patron saint of little children, sailors, merchants and students. Known as Nicholas the Wonderworker for his miracles, he is also identified with Santa Claus. Beliefs and traditions about Nikolaus were probably combined with German mythology, particularly regarding stories about the bearded pagan god Odin, who also had a beard and a bag to capture naughty children… According to the legend, Nikolaus comes in the middle of the night on a donkey or a horse and leaves little treats – like coins, chocolate, oranges and toys – for good children.

“What do naughty children get? This depends on different family traditions. Sometimes Nikolaus only leaves a switch [of wood] in the boot, ostensibly for spankings, to show that the child doesn’t deserve a treat. In other families, a man disguised as St. Nicholas will visit the family or the child’s school alone or with his with his sinister-looking alter ego Knecht Ruprecht to question the children about their behavior… Children were often quite frightened of being questioned about their behaviour because they’ve been told that St. Nicholas will hurt them with his rod or even put them in a sack and take them away.

“Though the custom is in decline, in more Catholic regions, parents inform a local priest of naughty behaviour. The priest then pays a personal visit wearing the traditional Christian garb to threaten the little rugrats with a beating… He is usually pictured with a long white beard, a bishop’s mitre and a red cloak, sometimes with a sack over his shoulder and a rod in his hand.”

As we point out in our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas,” it is highly doubtful that a bishop with the name of Nicholas of Myra ever existed. At the same time, it is certain that ancient myths about Odon or Wotan helped to create the modern Nicholas.

The Krampus—Nicholas’ Dark Alter Ego

The Local wrote on December 5:

“The legendary Krampus, usually described as a beast-like, demonic figure with long goats’ horns and straggly hair, comes to capture naughty children and carries them off in a sack to his mountain lair, according to Alpine tradition. Stories of the Krampus talk of him coming out to punish bad children around the eve of St. Nicholas’ day.

“Traditionally young men across south Bavaria, as well as south Tyrol and Austria [wear] big hairy costumes and horned masks during the first week of December [during the night of December 5] to act the part of the fearsome creature in an especially scary pre-Christmas celebration of Germanic folklore. Dressing up as the Krampus, or his fellow monster the noisy, gnarly-faced Perchten, has been part of southern German tradition for centuries…They are St. Nicholas’ dark alter ego.”

Christmas and its customs are not only based on pagan myths—they are in fact based on demonic activities and concepts.

Drones Replace People

Salon wrote on December 6:

“It’s inescapable: We’ll be replaced by robots or turn into them. What happens to waitresses and taxi drivers then?…

“Nobody knows how it will play out, but one thing seems certain: We won’t have to wait too long to find out whether a robot apocalypse is going to ravage society. The sense of increasing momentum toward a more robot-infested future is undeniable. No matter what the regulators say, I find it impossible to imagine that there won’t be more drones in our skies, more tablet menus replacing human beings, more jobs accomplished by automation. Whether this transition is driven because it delivers true convenience for consumers, or whether it simply makes economic sense for the masters of capital, the logic of this technological evolution is inexorable…

“If it makes economic sense to automate the food-ordering process in an airport, what point is there in having a human waiter to take your order at any dining establishment that isn’t already charging a premium for high-class flesh-and-blood service… If it turns out there is money to be made by automating package delivery, I can guarantee you that regulatory barriers will fall. Drones have already been used in attempts to deliver drugs and tobacco across prison walls. We’re going to find lots of things to do with them…

“Similarly, if insurance companies determine from their number crunching that Google’s self-driving cars are safer than human-operated cars, they will write the insurance policies that put those cars on the street. They’d be crazy not to. And so Google’s robot armies will march everywhere…

“As I sat in the Minneapolis airport watching waiters and waitresses scurry about the concourse delivering food and drink, it occurred to me that they didn’t actually need to be replaced by drones — because they had already become drones. Their job requirements had been reduced to the bare minimum. From the kitchen to the customer and back again they went. And that was it. But the customers themselves had also become drones. Each staring into their own iPad, alone, even if traveling as a family or a group…”

The story has an interesting point. Apart from the danger of using more and more drones to replace humans, the question arises whether humans have already become more and more “drones” themselves—automatons without individual will, conviction or self-direction? Apart from the examples given in the article, we might think of soldiers who are trained to become will-less automatons in their armies with the only goal to kill their enemy.

We might consider drug addicts or alcoholics who act like mindless “drones”; or a domineering and tyrannical husband who may control every action of his frightened and “submissive” wife. More and more people become demon-possessed or will-less victims in the clutches of dangerous cults. Parents may abuse their children and transform them into helpless “drones,” and children may tyrannize their old and dependent “drone-like” parents.

Sadly, we observe that the respect for freedom and dignity is being lost—one of the end-time developments which have long ago been foretold in the pages of the Bible. In the near future, a political leader—the beast—and a religious leader—the false prophet—will arise on the world scene and through their demonic powers, they will mesmerize, brain-wash and “hypnotize” the vast majority of people. Our free booklet, “The Ten Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire”, explains in much detail how most people will become “drones” in the power of Satan.

Modern Neanderthals

The Huffington Post wrote on December 5:

“New research suggests that Neanderthals kept a tidy home… In recent years, researchers have discovered that Neanderthals made tools, buried their dead, used fire and maybe even adorned themselves with feathers, bucking our ancient cousins’ reputation as stocky brutes. The new findings add to that growing list of intelligent behaviors similar to those of humans…

“Riel-Salvatore and colleagues discovered that Neanderthals may have been rather domestically inclined… ‘When you make stone tools there is a lot of debris that you don’t want in high-traffic areas or you risk injuring yourself,’ Riel-Salvatore said… ‘This is still more evidence that they were more sophisticated than many have given them credit for. If we are going to identify modern human behavior on the basis of organized spatial patterns, then you have to extend it to Neanderthals as well.’

“Neanderthals roamed Eurasia from at least 200,000 years ago until they went extinct 30,000 years ago. For a period of time, they overlapped with humans, and some studies suggest the two even interbred.”

That Neanderthals lived 200,000 years ago and were extinct 30,000 years ago is total nonsense. Those measurements of Neanderthal remains and fossils are all based on the faulty radio-carbon 14 method, or methods which are connected with it. Scientists admit that these methods are totally unreliable for numerous reasons. Our German booklet, “EVOLUTION – ein MÄRCHEN für Erwachsene?” explains in great detail why these scientific methods are faulty. The truth is that Neanderthals were created about 6,000 years ago, as modern human beings  (homo sapiens) with the human spirit within them. In fact, “Neanderthals” still live today.

In the Authorized Version (old King James Bible), John 20:17 is rendered as follows: “Jesus saith unto her [Mary], Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, and He made these comments to Mary when she met Him after she had discovered that His tomb was empty.

One explanation given in times past was that Christ did not want  Mary to touch Him because He was not yet glorified and had not gone to heaven to be glorified and presented as a weave sheaf offering before God. Although this  explanation may sound feasible at first sight, it doesn’t stand the test of scriptural  application.

We read in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44:

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 

When Christ was resurrected, He was already glorified according to the above Scripture–so another explanation must be put forth.

It is true, of course, that Christ ascended Sunday morning to the Father in heaven to be accepted as the wave sheaf offering—but not for the purpose of being glorified then.

Some have said that John 20:17 teaches that Christ was resurrected Sunday morning, before dark, and did not allow Mary to touch Him, because by that time, He had not ascended to heaven, but that later, on Sunday morning, when it was already light, He allowed the women to touch Him, because He had  gone to and returned from heaven. This conclusion is drawn from a comparison between John 20:17 and Matthew 28:9. However, both conclusions are erroneous, because the Bible does not teach a Sunday morning resurrection; nor, that the women in Matthew 28:9 met Christ Sunday morning. Rather, it teaches that Christ was resurrected on Saturday afternoon, just before sunset, and that the women in Matthew 28 appeared at the grave late Saturday afternoon—not Sunday morning.

Our free booklet, “Jesus Christ, a Great Mystery,” explains these facts in great detail.

“We read in Matthew 28:1–6 (Authorized Version): ‘In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it… And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for HE IS RISEN, AS HE SAID.’

“We note from the passage that Christ was already resurrected by the time the women came to the grave. We are told that they appeared ‘in the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.’ Many commentaries point out that this phrase discusses the END of the SABBATH, that is, Saturday evening or late afternoon, and NOT Sunday morning.

“The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament renders this verse in this way: ‘Now late on Sabbath, as it was getting dusk toward (the) first (day) of (the) week, came Mary the Magdalene…’ A.T. Robertson’s Harmony of the Gospel comments: ‘This phrase once gave much trouble, but the usage of the vernacular Koine Greek amply justifies the translation. The visit of the women to inspect the tomb was thus made before the Sabbath was over (before 6 p.m. on Saturday).’

“Cockrell states: ‘When does the Bible say that Jesus rose from the dead? The two Marys came to the tomb “in the end of the Sabbath” (Matth. 28:1). The Sabbath always ended at sunset: “From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath” (Lev. 23:32). Then they went to the tomb before sunset on Saturday. Jesus had risen from the dead before their arrival (Matth. 28:1–8)…’

“The Moffat Bible translates: ‘At the close of the Sabbath, when the first day was dawning…’… The Elberfelder Bibel reads: ‘But late at the Sabbath, in the dawn of the first day.’ It comments: ‘Days started at sunset.’

“This fact is also established, when considering the meaning of the Greek word, translated in Matthew 28:1, as ‘in the end of the Sabbath’. The Greek for ‘in the end of ‘ is ‘opse.’ It is defined as ‘late in the evening.’ It is not a reference to ‘early in the morning.’ Compare Mark 13:35 and Mark 11:19, where the word ‘opse’ is correctly rendered as ‘even’ or ‘evening.’”

More evidence is given in our booklet for the fact that Jesus was not resurrected on Sunday morning, but on Saturday, just before sunset.

But, what is meant, exactly, in John 20:17?

The original Greek words, more properly rendered, mean, “attach oneself to,” and this is how they are rendered in other versions of the Bible.

For instance, the New King James Bible states as follows: “Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”’”

This rendition gives the more accurate meaning of the original Greek. This is what some of the commentaries say about this verse:

Clarke’s Commentary says: “‘Cling not to me’. [The Greek] has this sense in Job 31:7, where the Septuagint use it for the Hebrew… dabak, which signifies to cleave, cling, stick, or be glued to… our Lord seems to have spoken to her to this effect: ‘Spend no longer time with me now… but go and tell my disciples, that I am… to ascend to my Father and God, who is your Father and God also. Therefore, let them take courage.’”

The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge agrees, saying this: “Touch: Or rather, ‘embrace me not,’ or, ‘cling not to me,’…  ‘Spend no more time with me now in joyful gratulations…’”

Westley states: “Touch me not – Or rather, Do not cling to me (for she held him by the feet)… Detain me not now. You will have other opportunities of conversing with me. For I am not ascended to my Father…”

In our free booklet, “Jesus Christ, a Great Mystery,” we state the following about John 20:17:

“Christ was resurrected long before Sunday morning. We read that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb on the first day of the week, when it was still dark, and Jesus was already resurrected by that time (John 20:1). This means, Christ was not resurrected on Sunday morning, at sunrise, but He had already been resurrected, ‘while it was still dark.’ In addition, John 20:1 might not even be talking about events that occurred Sunday morning, ‘while it was still dark,’ but it might be talking about events on Saturday evening, when it was getting darker. In the Greek, the word translated as ‘still’ [or ‘yet’ in other translations] is ‘eti.’ It can also be translated as ‘more,’ ‘yet more,’ or, ‘still more,’ as was done in Revelation 9:12 (‘Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.’ Compare New International Version: ‘two other woes are yet to come’; and New Jerusalem Bible: ‘there are still two more to come’). In addition, Hebrews 11:32 states: “‘What more shall I say?’” This could mean that John’s account is telling us that the women came to the grave when it was getting ‘even more’ dark—or ‘darker,’ after they had begun their walk to the grave when it was getting dark, at sunset. This would then also refer to events on Saturday night, not on Sunday morning…

“Some… point out an apparent discrepancy between Matthew 28:9 and John 20:17. While Christ does not allow Mary to touch Him in the book of John, as He had not yet ascended to heaven, He is touched by certain women in Matthew’s account. The rationale given is that in the meantime, He had ascended to heaven and returned to earth, and could now be touched. Therefore, so the argument goes, the account in Matthew must follow the account in John.

“But as we saw, John’s account may not be talking about events that occurred on Sunday morning, but on Saturday evening, when it was getting darker. In this case, there would be no contradiction between the two accounts. In addition, we might want to note that Matthew and John are using different words in referring to ‘touching’ Christ. In Matthew 28:9, we are told that they held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. In John’s account, the concept is conveyed that the women, in their joy, were trying to seize Him. The Ryrie Study Bible comments: ‘Touch Me not—More accurately the command was, “Do not continue holding or clinging to Me” (in order to restrain Him).’ The NIV translates: ‘Do not hold on to me.’ The New King James Bible says: ‘Do not cling to Me.’ The RSV says: ‘Do not hold me.’

“The difference in Christ’s reaction toward certain ones of the women was this: Mary Magdalene wanted to cling on to Him, refusing to let Him go (John 20:17). The women in Matthew’s account were afraid (Matthew 28:8, 10). They needed to touch Him to be given comfort and reassurance that it was He (compare Luke 24:36–39; John 20:25). In any event, John’s account cannot be used to support a Sunday morning resurrection!”

So we can conclude that the verse in John 20:17 is more properly rendered as, “Don’t cling to me,” in the sense that “you don’t have to hold on to me as if I am going to be gone forever, but rather don’t cling to me because I have to go to My Father and I will be back.  I will only be gone for a short while so you don’t have to cling to me as if to prevent me from going to My Father.”

Lead Writers: Rene Messier (Canada) and Norbert Link

“Coming—Animal Sacrifices and the Third Temple,” is the title of our new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Will the Jews begin soon to bring animal sacrifices and burnt offerings in Jerusalem? Will they build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount, prior to Christ’s return? According to the Bible, the answers to both questions are yes, as fully explained in our free booklet, “The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.” But what will result from these activities? Do the Holy Scriptures and current events tell us what is going to happen in the not-too-distant future? Our weekly free Updates discuss this and other news in the light of biblical prophecies. The time for Christ’s return is truly at hand.

“Neu! Verliere Deine Krone Nicht!,” is the German sermon to be presented this coming Sabbath to the German audience. This is dealing with the possibility of losing our crown. Title in English: “Don’t Lose Your Crown!”

A new Global Trailer with Brian Gale was posted, titled, “Don’t Keep Christmas.”

A new Member Letter for the month of December has been written and will be mailed next week. In it, Dave Harris reminds us of the understanding and promises God has given to His faithful people in order for us to face the tumultuous events that are now signaling the end of this age.

by Delia Messier (Canada)

Many of my spring, summer and fall daylight hours are spent working outside in the vegetable and berry gardens and flower beds, as well as tending to the fruit trees—and watering is one of my daily chores.

One early summer day, several years ago, I was having a hard time getting it done as my health was bad, and handling the hose was difficult. Like the canary that had been accidentally sucked into the vacuum cleaner hose and spit back out again—that was me—only a few feathers left with a broken chicken heart! 

A serious time in my life! 

As I was snailing along on the job,  I noticed a beautiful all-powder blue bird, then another and another. They were happily flying around in and out of the cat tail pond, singing to each other, fearless of me being so close. They stayed and played and bathed for several long minutes—what a treat to watch. I decided to count them. There were nine of them. Finding this an odd number, I counted them again a few times.

These little birds lifted my spirit and brought me joy. It was like getting a hug! It wasn’t till much time and some years had passed that I realized what a blessing it was to have seen those blue birds at that crucial time for me.

Now, when I might begin to get discouraged, I think of my nine powder blue birds—and remember that My Father knows what I need and comforts me and doesn’t let me have more than I can handle; and that He is giving me the nine character traits of the fruit of His Holy Spirit. Nothing in this world can compare with this, no matter the losses or the hardships.

We have lived here for over 18 years, and I have never seen these little powder blue birds before or since that day. 

On December 7, 2013, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “Something To Pray About.”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

We are told that many people have a calling in this life when they feel the call to the clergy, the medical profession, the sciences or many other careers.  However, the greatest calling of all is afforded to those called and chosen by God.   It is a privilege, not to be underestimated in any way. Being a true Christian carries many duties, obligations and requirements.

The Church of God should be a homogenous group, all pulling in the same direction, with the same goal of growing and overcoming, so that we “may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).   In order to achieve that goal, we must pull together as the people of God, not pull apart.  

I have noted over my 40 years in the church that some members are too quick to spot what they see as a problem, use it as an excuse to disappear to another Church of God group and then it can happen all over again in their new place.   And, the same can be said of a minister who wants to be in charge – he just finds a reason to leave and set up his own group – and the number of groups proliferate!   I don’t believe for a minute that it’s a practice that is pleasing in God’s sight.   We will all have to answer for what we do – and don’t do – and we had better be very careful.   The problem with people not getting on together is not a new one – in fact such problems are as old as the hills.

In his paper, “Neuropsychology of Conflict: Implications for peacemaking,” Douglas E. Noll makes these observations:   “Foreign policy was based on the assumption that rational beings could sit together and work through international disputes and conflicts. Economists built an entire field of study on the assumption that consumers acted ‘rationally’ in maximizing their utility. People engaged in peacemaking, from the interpersonal to the international level, assumed that despite the emotions of conflict, people fundamentally were rational.

“The truth is that we are 98 percent emotional and about two percent rational. Thus, the assumptions underlying many disciplines and practices, especially peacemaking, need significant revisions. By being reactive, we might reject the problem, give up, or feel inadequate to deal with the problem. If the problem is persistent, we might struggle or exit. As the conflict develops, we perceive it as a threat, and we may blame, attack or withdraw. These behaviours constitute our fear reaction system.”

These comments, whilst mainly addressing a secular viewpoint, are nevertheless equally important in the lives of those of us engaged in the Christian way of life.

When there is such an eclectic mix within a church group, it should be easy to see that if our conversion leaves something to be desired, then there is quite a capacity or possibility of potential problems with others.   But it should not be so.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).   Getting on together means seeking peace at every opportunity!    Do we try and make peace or are we always right in our own minds, irrespective of the other viewpoint?   In other words, can we be entreated and sort out, quietly and patiently, whatever stands in our way of being unified with other brethren?

Let us never forget that Satan is in the mix, stirring people up whenever and wherever he can, and he is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).   If we think that none of this applies to us, then we had better be careful because anyone who thinks that he stands should “take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

And if we can’t get on together, then we are hardly in the business of letting our lights shine (compare Matthew 5:16).  

We see world events coming to a climax with seemingly little time left before Christ’s return, and it is futile to concentrate on anything that will detract us from looking forward to that wonderful event and all that it means.   We simply don’t have time to waste our energy on unfruitful exercises, unnecessary conflicts and ungodly practices.   If we do get involved in such action, then we will be playing straight into Satan’s hands.   He is angry and “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).   We are told to be sober and vigilant but often fall prey to the adversary’s clever tactics.   We haven’t any time for that; all of our time should be spent on living God’s way and doing as His Word instructs us.

But none of what I’ve written today should be news to us.   We know what we should do, but how much do we practice it?  

The answer may be a matter of life and death!

We begin with more revelations about the “historic deal” between “super powers” and Iran, which cannot be described as anything else but “outrageous.” At the same time, Israel finds itself within the midst of criticism about its “relocation policy” of 400,000 Arab Bedouins, and the USA is facing criticism from Afghanistan and Iraq, while startling facts are revealed about America’s past incompetency regarding its “safeguarding” policy of its nuclear missiles. One can only hope that these past actions are indeed things of the past, and that America has learned from its mistakes.

The relationship between the UK and Europe has reached an unparalleled low point, and many voices are heard from both sides of the channel, pleading for the UK’s exit from the EU. The incredible liberty-defying actions of Britain’s social workers, which kind of unconscionable conduct is, sadly, by no means restricted to Britain, is not helping much, either.

We publish a more balanced opinion on the late Nelson Mandela; and events in Ukraine make one wonder whether Putin’s autocratic and dictatorial Russia will again resort to violent military means.

We conclude with reporting on events related to the Temple Mount; terrible weather conditions in Europe and the USA; a massive hailstorm in South Africa—with hailstones the size of golf balls and apples; a conservative Catholic’s opinion on Pope Francis; and the custom of many to wear crosses as fashion statements or for religious reasons.

Outrageous Iranian “Deal”

On November 29, the Times of Israel published an article with the following headline:

“How Sloppy US Diplomacy Is Empowering Iran!”

The article continued:

“After all the hype about an interim agreement between Iran and world powers on Sunday, it became clear on Wednesday that the deal is not actually finalized. Not only has the six-month interim agreement not come into effect yet, but also Iran is free to proceed with its military program at full speed until the deal’s final ‘technical’ details have been worked out, as US State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki put it…

“Psaki was speaking on Tuesday, just a few hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that his country’s interim agreement with the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany — does not obligate it to stop construction of the heavy-water production plant in Arak, which could be used in the production of weapons-grade plutonium. Zarif said the agreement only required Iran to cease heavy water production at the site.

“Various experts have also said that the agreement published by the White House leaves the Iranians the ability to manufacture crucial components for their nuclear program outside the Arak facility and install them if the site is reopened. The highlight came later on Tuesday when the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that the agreement Washington published was not the one it had agreed to. If it weren’t so sad, it might almost be funny.

“In her earlier announcement, Psaki explained that there is no clear timetable for implementing the signed interim agreement with Iran. If that is really the case, someone on the American negotiating team in Geneva deserves a prize for incompetence – or possibly for misleading the public. Leaving aside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contempt for the interim accord, and his now openly problematic relationship with President Barack Obama over this most acute of crisis, certain Arab countries, particularly those belonging to the Saudi-Egyptian camp, see the handling of the negotiations with Iran and the resulting agreement as part of [a] trend. The White House, they say, is reliably amateurish and clumsy when attempting to intervene in the Middle East…

“The nuclear issue is not the only one that worries various countries in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia. ‘The [Persian] Gulf countries are now concerned that the US is essentially supporting Iranian hegemony in the region… According to Susser, if these processes continue, the Arab countries will have no choice but to tighten bonds with Iran. ‘They won’t like it but they may not have any other alternative,’ he said.”

It remains doubtful whether Sunni and Shia countries will indeed form a tight confederation. It is more likely that certain Arab countries will seek support from Europe. But the article’s description of American politics in the Middle East is stunning: “sloppy diplomacy,” “incompetence,” “reliably amateurish and clumsy,” “possibly… misleading the public.”

Outrage Over Israel’s “Relocation Plan”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on November 30:

“Thousands of Israelis took to the streets across the country Saturday over a government plan to displace some 40,000 Arab Bedouins from their lands… The demonstrations are part of an ‘International Day of Rage’ against the Prawer Plan, which is expected to be approved by the Israeli parliament in its final reading by the end of this year. Demonstrations also took place in the West Bank, Gaza and about two dozen countries, including Britain, Germany and Egypt…

“On Friday, musicians Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno, along with more than 50 public figures, published a letter opposing the Bedouin relocation plan in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, calling on the British government to link its relationship with Israel conditional to ‘respect for human rights and international law.’

“The Bedouins, some 192,000, are indigenous residents of the Negev. Half of them live in some 40 ‘unrecognized’ villages, for which the Israeli government does not provide public services. Israeli National Insurance defines these villages as the poorest in Israel, which suffer from overpopulation and lack of infrastructure. According to the relocation plan, most of these villages will be dismantled and the villagers will be relocated to seven towns set up by the government in the 1950s and 1970s.”

One is, sadly, reminded of America’s policy of forcibly “relocating” American Indians and placing them in reservations—a terrible procedure which has caused and is still causing, to this day, enormous suffering for those affected by it.

Iraq’s Grim Future

The Independent wrote on November 28:

“The future of Iraq as a united and independent country is endangered by sectarian Shia-Sunni hostility says Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious leader whose Mehdi Army militia fought the US and British armies and who remains a powerful figure in Iraqi politics. He warns of the danger that ‘the Iraqi people will disintegrate, its government will disintegrate, and it will be easy for external powers to control the country’… he expressed pessimism about the immediate prospects for Iraq, saying: ‘The near future is dark.’…

“As Mr Sadr sees it, the problem in Iraq is that Iraqis as a whole are traumatised by almost half a century in which there has been a ‘constant cycle of violence: Saddam, occupation, war after war, first Gulf war, then second Gulf war, then the occupation war, then the resistance – this would lead to a change in the psychology of Iraqis’. He explained that Iraqis make the mistake of trying to solve one problem by creating a worse one, such as getting the Americans to topple Saddam Hussein but then having the problem of the US occupation. He compared Iraqis to ‘somebody who found a mouse in his house, then he kept a cat, then he wanted to get the cat out of the house so he kept a dog, then to get the dog out of his house he bought an elephant, so he bought a mouse again’…

“A main theme of Mr Sadr’s approach is to bolster Iraq as an independent nation state, able to make decisions in its own interests. Hence his abiding hostility to the American and British occupation, holding this responsible for many of Iraq’s present ills. To this day, neither he nor anybody from his movement will meet American or British officials. But he is equally hostile to intervention by Iran in Iraqi affairs…

“Why are Iraqi government members so ineffective and corrupt? Mr Sadr believes that ‘they compete to take a share of the cake, rather than competing to serve their people’… At the end of the interview Mr Sadr asked me if I was not frightened of interviewing him and would not this make the British Government consider me a terrorist? Secondly, he wondered if the British Government still considered that it had liberated the Iraqi people, and wondered if he should sue the Government on behalf of the casualties caused by the British occupation.”

To summarize, American and British intervention in Iraq is perceived by Iraqis as a colossal mistake. The stated goal of bringing democracy to the country has been a miserable failure.

Afghan President Condemns US Air Strike

BBC News wrote on November 29:

“Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a US air strike that killed a small child and injured two women in the southern province of Helmand. Mr Karzai’s spokesman said the raid on a house was another sign of America’s disregard for civilian life. Nato has said it will investigate the strike.

“It comes as Washington and Kabul are finalising a deal allowing US troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Mr Karzai refuses to sign the pact, seeking further assurances from the US… Earlier this week his office demanded guarantees that American troops would not raid Afghan homes and that Washington would help start stalled peace talks with the Taliban… Also among his conditions was the return of Afghan nationals held in Guantanamo Bay, according to reports.”

In the midst of “negotiations” regarding American presence in Afghanistan, the USA allegedly engaged in an attack on civilians. Even though the attack was purportedly meant to kill a terrorist, the fact remains that it could not have come at a more inappropriate time. Truly, American conduct overseas seems to be cursed.

Incredible American Incompetency

Mail Online wrote on November 29:

“For nearly 20 years, the secret code to authorize launching U.S. nuclear missiles, and starting World War III, was terrifyingly simple and even noted down on a checklist. From 1962, when John F Kennedy instituted PAL encoding on nuclear weapons, until 1977, the combination to fire the devastating missiles at the height of the Cold War was just 00000000. This was chosen by Strategic Air Command in an effort to make the weapons as quick and as easy to launch as possible…

“The Permissive Action Link (PAL) is a security device for nuclear weapons that it is supposed to prevent unauthorized arming or detonation of the nuclear weapon. JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160 in 1962 that required all nuclear missiles to be fitted with a PAL system… But nuclear experts claim the military was worried about the possibility of command centers or communication lines being destroyed in real nuclear war, stopping soldiers getting the codes or authorization to launch missiles when they were actually needed. So they simply left the security code for the weapons as eight zeros, getting around the security safeguards.

“Dr. Bruce G. Blair worked as a Minuteman launch officer between 1970 and 1974. He has written several articles about nuclear command and control systems… he wrote that Strategic Air Command ‘remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders.’

“Incredibly, he also writes that the vital combination for America’s nuclear deterrent was even helpfully noted down for the officers. ‘Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel,’ Dr Blair wrote…

“Blair wrote an article in 1977 entitled The Terrorist Threat to World Nuclear Programs. This claimed that it would take just four people working together to launch nuclear missiles from the silos he had worked in. That very same year all the PAL systems were activated, and the nuclear codes were changed. Hopefully to something more complicated than 00000000.”

One can always hope, but must wonder…

EU Upset With Britain

Deutsche Welle reported on November 29:

“Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron wants to restrict access for immigrants to the welfare system. EU officials have harshly criticized the proposals. With his campaign, Cameron is attacking a pillar of the EU. In Brussels, Laszlo Andor is not exactly known for his explosive nature. So the interview the EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs gave the BBC on Wednesday (27.11.2013) bordered on an outburst of fury. ‘The unilateral action, unilateral rhetoric, especially as it is happening at this time, is not really helpful. It risks presenting the UK as a kind of nasty country in the European Union. We don’t want that. We have to look into the situation collectively and if there are real problems react accordingly.’

“The Commissioner’s resentment was caused – yet again – by proposals put forward by British Prime Minister David Cameron. In an article for the ‘Financial Times’ he announced plans to curb benefits for immigrants from the European Union for three months and ‘remove’ those who don’t have a job after nine months… EU law, in theory, allows for the expulsion also of EU nationals. But they can come back the following day. That has to stop, says Cameron. He has long called for a ‘re-entry ban’ – 12 months are planned for Romanians and Bulgarians.

“That will be difficult to do under existing law, policy analyst Alex Lazarowicz… believes. ‘That’s a red line under EU law.’ EU citizens can only be banned from entering another EU state under limited conditions – if they’ve committed a crime, for instance. The basic idea behind the freedom of movement is to give EU citizens the option of moving about as freely in the EU as they do in their country of origin (with certain limitations). Restrictions on the free movement of workers may apply to workers from new EU member states for a transitional period of up to seven years. That period runs out for Romania and Bulgaria in January…

“Cameron, therefore, is launching an attack against one of the EU’s fundamental freedoms, without which the internal market is not worth much, say his critics. That’s why the criticism from Brussels was instant and brusque. ‘The freedom of movement for citizens in Europe is a fundamental right which the Commission defends,’ snapped EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, in charge of EU internal affairs. Her colleague Viviane Reding topped it in an interview with news agency Reuters: ‘Free movement is non-negotiable,’ the Justice Commissioner said. ‘If Britain wants to leave the single market, you should say so. But if Britain wants to stay a part of the single market, free movement applies. You cannot have your cake and eat it, Mr Cameron!’”

We are not taking political sides. However, what is interesting to note is the ongoing rift and deepening gulf between Great Britain and continental Europe. The Bible strongly indicates that Great Britain will exit the EU.

Europeans Find UK to Be Hostile to the EU

The Guardian wrote on November 30:

“… a new four-nation poll suggests the UK could be heading out of the EU. The landmark survey of more than 5,000 voters in the UK, Germany, France and Poland finds British people far more hostile to the EU and its policies than those in the other EU states, and strikingly low support for British membership among people on the continent.

“… just 26% of British voters regard the EU as, overall, a ‘good thing’ compared with 42% who say it is a ‘bad thing’. In Poland 62% say it is a good thing and 13% bad; in Germany 55% good and 17% bad, and in France 36% good and 34% bad… Just 9% of Germans and 15% of French people think the UK is a positive influence on the EU, with more Poles, 33%, taking that view.

“Only 16% of Germans and 26% of French people back the idea of a special deal being struck for the UK… The idea of Britain leaving the EU does not appear to worry our European partners unduly. Just 24% of French voters said a UK exit would have a negative effect, compared with 36% of Germans and 51% of Poles…”

The German press, including Der Spiegel and the Local, have picked up the story, saying that the “gulf widens between UK and EU nations.”

Scottish Independence Would Mean Exit from EU

The Telegraph wrote on November 27:

“[Spanish Prime Minister] Mariano Rajoy said it was important that Scots were ‘realistic’ about the consequences of a ‘yes’ vote next year and warned against ‘regions’ of member states embarking on ‘solo adventures’… it would mean Scotland having to apply from scratch for EU membership, a process that would take years, and having to negotiate its own opt-out from the euro. The Spanish Prime Minister confirmed a separate Scotland would require the consent of all 28 existing member states, including his country, to join the EU…

“His comments, made in a joint press conference in Madrid with Francois Hollande, the French President, directly contradicted this week’s Scottish Government White Paper on independence. Published on Tuesday, the document said Scotland ‘will continue as a member of the EU’ by completing accession talks in the 18 months between a ‘yes’ vote in September next year and leaving the UK in March 2016.”

Whatever Scotland may decide regarding independence from the UK, it is expected, based on biblical prophecy, that it will not remain a member in the EU.

Outrageous Conduct by Britain’s Social Workers and High Court

The Telegraph wrote on December 1:

“A pregnant woman has had her baby forcibly removed by caesarean section by social workers. Essex social services obtained a High Court order against the woman that allowed her to be forcibly sedated and her child to be taken from her womb. The council said it was acting in the best interests of the woman, an Italian who was in Britain on a work trip, because she had suffered a mental breakdown. The baby girl, now 15 months old, is still in the care of social services, who are refusing to give her back to the mother, even though she claims to have made a full recovery.

“The case has developed into an international legal row, with lawyers for the woman describing it as ‘unprecedented’. They claim that even if the council had been acting in the woman’s best interests, officials should have consulted her family beforehand and also involved Italian social services, who would be better-placed to look after the child…

“The case… raises fresh questions about the extent of social workers’ powers. It will be raised in Parliament this week by John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP… He said: ‘I have seen a number of cases of abuses of people’s rights in the family courts, but this has to be one of the more extreme. It involves the Court of Protection authorising a caesarean section without the person concerned being made aware of what was proposed. I worry about the way these decisions about a person’s mental capacity are being taken without any apparent concern as to the effect on the individual being affected.’

“The woman… suffered a panic attack, which her relations believe was due to her failure to take regular medication for an existing bipolar condition. She called the police, who became concerned for her well-being and took her to a hospital, which she then realised was a psychiatric facility. She has told her lawyers that when she said she wanted to return to her hotel, she was restrained and sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

“Meanwhile, Essex social services obtained a High Court order in August 2012 for the birth ‘to be enforced by way of caesarean section’, according to legal documents seen by this newspaper. The woman, who says she was kept in the dark about the proceedings, says that after five weeks in the ward she was forcibly sedated. When she woke up she was told that the child had been delivered by C-section and taken into care. In February, the mother, who had gone back to Italy, returned to Britain to request the return of her daughter at a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court.

“Her lawyers say that she had since resumed taking her medication, and that the judge formed a favourable opinion of her. But he ruled that the child should be placed for adoption because of the risk that she might suffer a relapse…”

This is a truly outrageous example of authoritarian and dictatorial conduct of alleged democratic governments. We should note the ongoing restrictions of personal liberties and freedoms imposed by totalitarian measures of governmental, medical and judicial officials.

Nelson Mandela Died at 95 – the Myths and Reality

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 5:

“Media and politicians are vying to outdo one another with their tributes to Nelson Mandela who himself disliked the personality cult… Nelson Mandela was no saint, even though that is how the media are now portraying him. Every headline makes him appear more superhuman and much of the admiration is close to idolatry…

“He repeatedly pointed to the collective achievements of the resistance movement, to figures who preceded him in the fight against injustice… When Prisoner Number 46664 was released after 27 years behind bars, he had become a brand, a worldwide idol, the target of projected hopes and wishes that no human being could fulfil alone…

“Who would dare scratch the shining surface of such a man, list his youthful misdemeanors, his illegitimate children? Who would mention his weakness for women, for models, pop starlets and female journalists with whom he flirted in a politically incorrect way when already a respected elder statesman? Who would speak out critically against the attacks he planned when he headed the ANC armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)? And who would criticize the way he would often explode in anger or dismiss any opinions other than his own?…

“His record as head of government from 1994 to 1999 is also not above reproach… Overdue decisions were not taken, day to day matters were left to others. When choosing his political friends his judgment was not always perfect. A Mandela grandchild is named after Libyan dictator Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. Seen from today’s perspective, not everything fits the generally accepted picture of visionary and genius.

“But Mandela can be excused these lapses because, despite everything, he achieved more than ordinary human beings. His long period of imprisonment played a significant role here. It did not break him, it formed him… His youthful anger dissolved, he mellowed and acquired the wisdom of age. When he was at last released Mandela was no longer burning with rage, he was no longer a revolutionary. This is what some of his fellow freedom fighters now hold against him, although not in public. They wanted a full-blown revolution.

“Mandela wanted reconciliation, at almost any price. His own transformation was his greatest strength; the ability to break free from ideological thought processes and to be able to see the greater whole, the realisation that those who think differently are not necessarily enemies, the ability to listen, to spread the message of reconciliation…

“When Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the old world order of the Cold War era was collapsing. Mandela stood at the crossroads and set off in the right direction. How easily he could have played with fire, sought revenge, or simply failed. He could have withdrawn from public life or, like other companions in arms, earned millions. Two marriages failed because of the political circumstances. His sons died tragically long before him. It was only when he was 80 and met his third wife, Graca Machel, that he again found warmth, partnership and private happiness.

“Setbacks did not leave him bitter, because he regarded his own life as being less important than the cause he believed in. He served the community humbly, with a sense of responsibility, of duty and willingness to make sacrifices, qualities that are today only rarely encountered…

“How small and pathetic his successors now seem. Their battles for power will probably now be fought even more unscrupulously than in the past…”

Will the Events of the “Prague Spring” Be Repeated in Ukraine?

The Associated Press reported on December 1:

“More than 100,000 demonstrators chased away police to rally in the center of Ukraine’s capital on Sunday, defying a government ban on protests on Independence Square, in the biggest show of anger over the president’s refusal to sign an agreement with the European Union. Thousands of demonstrators tried to storm the nearby presidential administration building, but were driven back by riot police using tear gas and flash grenades, which produce a loud bang but are not intended to cause injury. The standoff continued, with more demonstrators arriving.

“The protest was led by prominent opposition politicians, who demanded that President Viktor Yanukovych and his government resign. They also called for a nationwide strike and for tents to be set up to allow demonstrators to remain on the square around the clock… Chants of ‘revolution’ resounded across a sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian and EU flags on the square, where the government had prohibited rallies starting Sunday.

“The crowd was by far the largest since the protests began more than a week ago. Many of the demonstrators had traveled to Kiev from western Ukraine, where pro-EU sentiment is particularly strong… The EU agreement had been eagerly anticipated by Ukrainians who want their country of 45 million people to break out of Moscow’s orbit. Opinion surveys in recent months showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU and a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia.

“Moscow tried to block the deal with the EU by banning some Ukrainian imports and threatening more trade sanctions. A 2009 dispute between Kiev and Moscow on gas prices resulted in a three-week cutoff of gas to Ukraine.”

If these protests continue, will Russia militarily intervene as it did in the past, during the “Prague Spring,” when it brutally suppressed the attempts in Czechoslovakia to free themselves from the clutches of the Russian regime? How will Europe act or react? The next article gives different reasons as to why the demonstrations in Ukraine are taking place.

What Is Behind the Protests in Ukraine?

The EUObserver wrote on December 2:

“Watching hundreds of thousands of people flock to the streets of Ukrainian cities, Western audiences may have a feeling of deja vu and think that a second Orange Revolution is in the making. Hundreds of EU flags on Ukraine’s squares have prompted many to think the protest is about the country’s relations with the EU. The violent dispersal of the ‘Euromaidan’ over the weekend has led many others to believe that Ukraine is turning into another Belarus.

“The answer is much simpler. What is driving Ukrainians to the streets is the desire to change the way their country is run… What they are revolting against is the entire political system… Ukraine faces very turbulent times.  Neither the opposition nor the President seem to be in control of the situation… If the Ukrainian political elites do not find a peaceful solution, the situation may get even worse and people’s appetite for radical solutions might increase…”

Jews Demand Right to Pray on Temple Mount

The Washington Post wrote on December 2:

“A small but growing movement by Jewish activists demanding the right to pray at the site of their destroyed temple, in the heart of this disputed capital’s Old City, is creating a potentially explosive clash with the Muslim world, which considers the spot holy and bans Jews from public worship there.

“Each week, hundreds of Jews ascend the creaky wooden ramp built above the Western Wall and enter what is often called the most contested real estate on Earth. Many then embark upon a game of hide-and-seek with their police escorts — whispering forbidden prayers while pretending to talk into cellphones, and getting in quick but banned bows by dropping coins and then bending to pick them up.

“Their proposals, long dismissed as extremist, are now being debated in the Israeli parliament and embraced by an expansionist wing in the ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.These political leaders, many in Netanyahu’s party, want Israel to assert more, not less, control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City, including the place known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary…

“Two millenniums ago, this place was the site of the Jews’ Second Temple, destroyed in A.D. 70 by Roman legions under Titus, who cast the Jews into exile. The Western Wall, visited by 10 million people a year, is part of the remaining rampart built around the raised temple complex. Together, the wall and the site of the destroyed temple are the holiest landmarks in Judaism.

“The same courtyard is home to al-Aqsa mosque, one of the oldest in Islam, and the Dome of the Rock, the golden landmark where tradition says the prophet Mohammad made his night journey to heaven. For Palestinians and much of the Muslim world, any mention of changing the status quo at the site, the third-holiest in Islam, is incendiary…

“Non-Muslim tourists are welcome to wander freely around the grounds. But non-Muslim prayer is forbidden. Jews in religious garb are taken aside at the entrance by Israeli security officers, screened more closely and sternly warned not to pray, bow, sing, tear their clothes in mourning or display any religious items.

“Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has ruled that Jews should not enter the Temple Mount esplanade, for fear they will accidentally walk upon ground that is part of the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and only the high priest was permitted to enter. But political leaders are urging that this stance be reexamined. Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, deputy minister of religious affairs, has proposed giving Jews an hour a day to pray there…

“A frequent visitor to the site is Rabbi Chaim Richman, a director of the Temple Institute, whose mission is to prepare for the building of the Third Temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands. He says he envisions a new temple rising toward the clouds, with underground parking, Internet connectivity, radiant heating for the sanctified floors (the priests, in accordance with Jewish law, will be barefoot), and a return of burnt offerings and animal sacrifice.

“In April, Richman’s Temple Institute moved to a large, renovated space in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, overlooking the Western Wall. The project was funded by Henry Swieca, the billionaire American investor, and his wife, Estee.

“Inside, researchers and artisans have created silver trumpets, wooden lyres and three-pronged forks that would turn over burnt offerings. They sewed a priest’s robe with a breastplate of golden thread and 12 precious stones, as described in the Bible and representing the 12 tribes of Israel. There is a golden menorah and an ark for the covenants. And there are architectural plans. Evidence, Muslim leaders say, that proves that the Jews have literal designs on the mount…”

Did Jesus Travel To Britain?

The Daily Mail wrote on December 3:

“A theory dating back to the Middle Ages suggests that Jesus of Nazareth traveled to Britain in his youth, settling in Priddy, Somerset, and building the first wattle cabin in Glastonbury.

“During the late 12th century, Joseph of Arimathea, the man who donated his own tomb for the burial of Jesus after crucifixion, became connected with the Arthurian cycle… Legend has it that Joseph supposedly took Christ under his wing years earlier when his mother Mary was widowed.”

Storm Hits England and Continental Europe

The Local wrote on December 5:

“Hurricane Xaver hit northern German late Thursday morning and its strength surpassed expectations. Water levels are expected to rise far high than initially thought, putting cities like Hamburg in danger of flooding… The DWD issued an extreme weather warning for the states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bremen. Travelling from Greenland – Xaver has already hit Scotland, leaving large areas without electricity and killed one person… The storm is expected to hit at high tide leading to fears of a repeat of the floods which devastated Hamburg in 1962.”

 

AFP wrote on December 5:

“A fierce storm battered northern Europe with hurricane force winds Thursday, leaving five people dead or missing, disrupting travel and forcing thousands to flee their homes over fears of the worst tidal surge in decades. British authorities evacuated 15,000 homes as flooding started on the North Sea coast while Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden all boosted their flood defences.

“Winds of up to 142 miles per hour (228 kilometres per hour) were recorded in Scotland and Britain’s environment agency said the ‘surge along the east coast of England is expected to be the worst for more than 60 years.’

“Hundreds of flights were cancelled across northern Europe while rail and ferry services were shut down and one of Europe’s longest bridges — connecting Sweden to Denmark — was closed… The biggest fear across Europe was from a potentially devastating storm surge which will coincide with high tides in many areas late Thursday and early Friday.

“Police and council officials said they were evacuating 9,000 homes in the county of Norfolk, eastern England, and 1,000 in Essex, southeastern England, before three high tides over the next 36 hours… There was travel chaos as the storm barrelled across the North Sea from Britain towards Germany and northwest Europe…”

The Times added on December 5:

“The waves hit like a ‘mini-tsunami’, a rolling tidal surge that swept down the east coast of England leaving flooding and devastation in its wake. Coastal communities were left battered and underwater last night by the biggest storm surge to hit the country in 60 years – causing ten thousand homes to be evacuated and leaving tens of thousands more without power.”

Ice Storm Hits USA

AccuWeather.com wrote on December 5:

“An ice storm will affect millions of people into Friday and threaten to cut power for hundreds of thousands from northern Texas to western Kentucky… The storm is similar in size and may be similar in magnitude to a storm just several years ago… According to Jesse Ferrell, weather expert and storm chaser for AccuWeather.com, ‘This will be the worst ice storm for the United States since January 2009 and will affect many of the same areas as that storm.’

“The New York Times reported that 1.4 million homes and businesses lost power in that late January storm. Lingering, and in some cases intensifying, cold air in the wake of the storm will prevent the ice from melting quickly and can make immediate cleanup difficult, if not impossible. Many road crews have limited ice-melting compounds at their disposal.

“Adding to potential damage or complicating cleanup further, a second round of ice will follow in some areas over the weekend, as a second large storm rolls in from the Southwestern states…”

Hailstorms and Darkness in South Africa

News24 wrote on November 28:

“A massive hailstorm has hit Krugersdorp in the West Rand in Gauteng on Thursday afternoon. The area was pelted with hailstones that were reportedly as large as golf balls.”

News 24 added on November 29:

“A heavy hailstorm hit parts of Pretoria and the Witwatersrand on Thursday afternoon… During the storm motorists had to turn into petrol stations for cover. By 4pm, the sky had turned a dark grey and the rain started to pour as darkness fell… The hailstorm lasted less than half an hour, with hailstones the size of apples.”

All of this reminds us of what the book of Revelation predicts to occur in the near future on a much wider and more serious scale.

“Pope Francis Is the Catholic Church’s Obama – God Help Us”

Fox News wrote on December 4:

“Pope Francis is undergoing a popularity surge comparable to the way Barack Obama was greeted by the world in 2008. And just as President Obama has been a disappointment for America, Pope Francis will prove a disaster for the Catholic Church… Just like President Obama loved apologizing for America, Pope Francis likes to apologize for the Catholic Church, thinking that the Church is at its best when it is passive and not offending anyone’s sensibilities.

“In his interviews with those in the left-wing media he seeks to impress, Francis has said that the Church needs to stop being ‘obsessed’ with abortion and gay marriage, and instead of seeking to convert people, ‘we need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.’…

“Just like Obama thought he’d won over Putin by promising a reset, Francis thinks by talking vacuously about the poor, he will be respected…Francis not only panders to enemies and professional grievance mongers, but also attacks his allies. Just as Obama snubs Britain and Israel, Pope Francis swipes at practicing Catholics…

“On world matters, Francis’ statements are embarrassing. About communism, a destructive ideology that slaughtered millions of Catholics, he said: ‘Learning about it through a courageous and honest person was helpful. I realized…an aspect of the social, which I then found in the social doctrine of the Church.’

“Apart from the fact that there is no major nation practicing unfettered capitalism (like Obama, Francis loves attacking straw men) there is more real tyranny in socialist cesspools like Francis’ home of Argentina than in places where capitalism is predominant… Like Obama, Francis is unable to see the problems that are really endangering his people. Like Obama he mistakes the faithful for the enemy, the enemy for his friend, condescension for respect, socialism for justice and capitalism for tyranny…”

Wearing a Cross…

Mail On Line wrote on November 30:

“Wearing the Crucifix is now a fashion statement with no religious meaning, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury… Justin Welby said the Cross has been trivialised and ceases to shock or challenge people… ‘As a friend of mine used to say, you might as well hang a tiny golden gallows or an electric chair around your neck.’…

“Archbishop Welby wrote… that the fact that the early church stuck to the story of the crucifixion – despite attacks on it – proves that it is true.  He added: ‘For God to be fully human, and then to die an ignominious death reserved for a criminal, seems so extraordinary and pointless as to be inexplicable. Indeed in the early centuries of Christianity many of the accusations against the church started with the assumption that you could not seriously believe in a God who undertook such a terrible and dishonourable death.’…

“Crucifixion was used by the Romans to execute robbers and other common criminals. Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, abolished the practice in the Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. The Cross became the symbol of Christianity early in the history of the Church, but it had also been used… as a symbol by other religions and cultures… After a legal battle, the European Court of Human Rights issued a landmark ruling earlier this year saying that Christians may wear a cross at work.”

The article contains some truth and much error. That the cross is being worn today by many as a fashion statement, without any religious significance, cannot be denied. At the same time, wearing a cross is not anything a Christian should do, under any circumstances and for whatever reason. As it is remarked in the article, we might as well wear a golden gallows around our necks. The symbol of the cross is pagan, and as the article points out, it was worn or worshipped long before Jesus Christ’s death: “it had also been used… as a symbol by other religions and cultures.” Further, the cross, as being used and “adored” today, was in all likelihood not the instrument of Christ’s death—rather, the Bible speaks of a tree (1 Peter 2:24).

In casually reading passages dealing with the staff of Moses and the staff of Aaron, we might perhaps not think that any important significance should be attached to them. However, upon careful scrutiny, some amazing revelations may come to light.

The Hebrew word for the staffs of Moses and Aaron, is “mattheh.” It can mean staff or rod, and it can also mean “tribe,” showing the connection between the staff and the person and even the tribe which is represented by the person. Of course, both Aaron and Moses were of the tribe of Levi.

We are introduced to Moses’ staff in the early chapters of the book of Exodus. We read in the episode with the burning bush, that Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1). (The Midianites were descendants of Abraham and his second wife, Keturah (Genesis 25:2).) Moses had a staff or a rod in his hand (Exodus 4:2), and God told Moses to throw it to the ground, and it became a serpent. When taking it by the tail, it became a rod in his hand (verses 3-4).  This was one of the signs which Moses was to perform in front of his people in Egypt, so that they would believe that God had sent him.

Commentaries are divided as to the exact nature of the staff. Some say that it was the baton or long stick commonly carried by Egyptians of good position and especially by persons in authority. But it is correctly pointed out that Moses had been in Midian for forty years, and it is therefore not likely that he possessed such an article; nor, if he had possessed it, that he would have taken it with him when shepherding. It is therefore to be concluded that it was a shepherd’s crook (compare Leviticus 27:32)—perhaps a long staff, with a curved head, varying from three to six feet in length.

We later read that his staff is called “the rod of God” (Exodus 4:20), and that he used it to perform the miracle in Egypt in front of the Israelites (verses 17, 30-31).

However, if we do not read the story carefully, we may conclude that Moses used his staff to perform all the miracles in front of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but this is not true. Moses was accompanied by Aaron, his elder brother, who would become Moses’ spokesman, while Moses would be to him “as God” (Exodus 4:15-16). Aaron had his own staff. And it was Aaron’s staff which became a “serpent” before Pharaoh and which swallowed up the “serpents” of the magicians (Exodus 7:9-12). We should note that the “serpent” in the episode with the burning bush is NOT the same kind of creature as the “serpent” in the episode with Aaron and Pharaoh.

As Friedman, Commentary on the Torah points out on page 11, the word used in the latter episode is “tannin” and describes “some giant serpentlike creatures that were formed at (re-)creation… Later, Aaron’s staff (and the Egyptian magicians’ staffs) turns into such a creature (not merely a snake!) at the Egyptian court.”

In fact, the meaning of the word “tannin” is “dragon.”  Friedman adds on page 192 that Aaron’s staff turned into a serpent. “Not a snake. This is different from the snake (Hebrew nahas or nachash) that Moses’ staff  became in Exodus 4:3. Moses performed the miracle for the Israelite elders (4:30). Now, in front of Pharaoh, Aaron’s staff becomes a ‘tannin.’ This is the term that is used for the big sea serpents that God makes on the fifth day of [re-]creation (Gen. 1:21). They are not merely snakes, as people have often pictured them. They are extraordinary creatures…”

As the story in Egypt unfolds, we see that sometimes Moses uses his staff (which had turned into a snake) in connection with the performance of a miracle (Exodus 7:15; note that here the word “nahas” is used, which should be translated as “snake”—not the word “tannin”, which describes a “serpent” or a “dragon”; compare also Exodus 9:23; 10:13). In addition, Aaron’s staff is also being used in the context of the performance of miracles in Egypt (Exodus 7:19; compare also Exodus 8:5-6, 16-17).

Subsequently, Moses is told to lift up HIS staff and divide the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16). It was indeed the Red Sea and not a “Sea of Reeds,” which the Israelites crossed. Friedman explains on page 214 that “there is no such body of water,” called the Sea of Reeds. He continues that the Tanak refers to the eastern arm of the sea—the body of water [in Hebrew “yam sup”] known as the Gulf of Eilat or the Gulf of Aqaba. He states on page 498, in discussing Numbers 21:4, which again refers to “yam sup” or the “Red Sea”: “… the reference to yam sup here, when the Israelites are no longer anywhere near Egypt, must refer to the eastern arm of the Red Sea, which is the only body of water that extends both up into Egypt and to a location far away in the Sinai.”

We also read that Moses was to strike the rock with his staff, with which he struck the river (Nile), and when he did, water came out from the rock in the desert (Exodus 17:5-6), Further, Moses stood on the top of the hill with the “rod of God” in his hand, while the Israelites fought against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16; in regard to Amalek, a descendant of Esau, see Genesis 36:9-12).

However, Aaron’s rod would also continue to play a significant role as well. We read about Korah’s, Dathan’s and Abiram’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16. While Korah, a descendant of Levi, wanted to receive the priesthood from Aaron (verses 8-11), Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, were after Moses’ function as Israel’s leader (compare Friedman, pages 481-482). But God intervened, and fire devoured those 250 men from Korah’s company who offered incense (a task strictly reserved for Aaron and his descendant (verses 35, 40)), and the earth “opened its mouth and swallowed” up those who participated in the rebellion, including Korah, Dathan, Abiram and their followers.

On the next day, the entire congregation of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, accusing them of having killed “the people of the LORD” (Exodus 16:41). God commanded that the leaders of each tribe should provide a rod, and each name was to be written on his rod. Exodus 17:3-10 states that God said: “‘And you shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi… And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom’… [E]ach of the leaders gave (Moses) a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods… [O]n the next day… Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds… And the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign  against the rebels, that you may put their murmurings away from Me, lest they die.’”

In Hebrews 9:2-5, we find a reference to Aaron’s rod that budded which was later “in” or “near” the tabernacle. (See Q&A in Update #574, dated 25/01/13, on Hebrews 9:4 and 1 Kings 8:9.)  As the story continues, the Israelites complained again when there was no water at Kadesh, where Miriam died. They gathered against Moses and Aaron, who went to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and God told Moses: “‘Take the rod… Speak to the rod before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock.’ So Moses took the rod from before the LORD…” (Exodus 20:8-9).

Which rod is God addressing? It appears that it is AARON’S ROD which had blossomed, which was “before” or “in front of” the Testimony (Numbers 17:10). It was placed there “as a sign against the rebels.” Moses took it “from before the LORD”—that is, from before the Tabernacle. God told Moses and Aaron to take the rod and SPEAK to the rod in front of the people (Exodus 20:8)—the word “speak” is in the plural, addressing both Moses and Aaron. But Moses struck the rock twice—apparently with Aaron’s consent. In doing so, they “rebelled” against God (Exodus 20:24) and did not hallow Him (verse 12). The staff of Aaron, which should have been a sign against the rebellious people, was misused by Moses and Aaron and became a sign of rebellion against them.

Friedman has these pointed comments:

“God tells them that they themselves did exactly what they were supposed to stop the people from doing. It is especially painful for Moses, who said, ‘Listen, rebels,’ to hear his God apply that word now to him. Leaders of a congregation cannot violate the very instruction that they uphold and teach to others.”

And so, neither Aaron nor Moses were allowed to enter the Promised Land, but because they repented, they will be in the Kingdom of God. At the same time, all the rebellious people of Israel were likewise prohibited from entering the Promised Land—only their children would be allowed to do so.

From a physical standpoint, Moses’ and Aaron’s staffs (in Hebrew mattheh) signified power (Psalm 110:2, same word)—but they also included a warning against pride (Ezekiel 7:10, same word). And we need to realize that a staff or rod can always be broken (Jeremiah 48:17, same word).

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Norbert and Johanna Link will travel to Germany on April 7th of next year. Plans are being made for counseling brethren as well as conducting services for Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread along with finalizing organizational arrangements for the Church in Germany. The Links will return to the US on May 5, 2014. Also, a new German Member Letter has been sent in which plans for the 2014 Feast of Tabernacles are announced. We will again keep the Feast (from October 8 until October 16, departure date October 17) at the same hotel in the Black Forest (Hotel Birkenhof, Freudenstadt) as we did in 2013.

“True Origin of Christmas Customs,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link—here is a summary:

Why do we sing Christmas carols? Why did the Catholic Church ban them in the past? Why do we exchange gifts on Christmas? Who is the real Santa Claus? Why do we use Christmas candles? What is the origin of the Christmas tree? What do pagan beliefs in tree spirits have to do with Christmas? Our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas,” answers these and many more questions. It shows you what God, in His Bible, has to say about all of this.

“Demons On the Loose,” last week’s Sabbath sermon by Norbert Link, is now posted for viewing–here is a summary:

God did not create Satan and demons. And still, they exist! How is this possible? In what way do they influence man? What powers do they have? Could they affect and deceive you? Why is it so dangerous to dabble in the occult? How can we conquer demons?

“Die Herrschaft der Dämonen” is this week’s German sermon, and it covers much of the same material presented in Mr. Link’s sermon noted above. The title in English is, “The Rule of Demons.”

by Laura Harris

Last year, my older son returned from school with a “wish list” project.  The only thing he wrote on his sheet of paper was, “I wish I had a friend.”  As his mother, my heart broke to read those words.  Although he was well liked by all his classmates, he found it difficult to make a meaningful connection to any of his peers.  I want my son to reap the benefits of healthy friendships, which include an increased sense of belonging and purpose, boost in happiness, ability to cope with trauma and better physical and psychological health.

I know that as humans, we crave genuine contact with others in this world.  Friendships are vital for our well-being, but they take time to develop.  I also had to explain to my son that as with all relationships, friendships go through different stages and cycles, and that in some cases, friendships end. 

I am well aware that with the advent of Facebook and other social media tools, the term “friend” has taken on a new meaning.  I need to ask myself, what makes a good friend?  According to Dr. Lissa Rankin, a true friend can be characterized as:  wanting the best for the other person, showing sympathy and empathy, being honest, having understanding and compassion, enjoying each other’s company, being trustworthy, and having equal reciprocity.  I told my son that in order to keep our friends, we must nurture these relationships by respecting boundaries, not becoming jealous or envious, avoiding gossip and complaining, listening, reserving judgment and respecting privacy.

I am reminded of the many stories in the Bible about friendships, which are meant to inspire me.  I am also warned by God through His Holy Book to be careful whom I choose for friends, as their attitudes and behaviors can impact me.  With guidance from God and His ministers, I can surround myself with positive and uplifting influences in this world.