On May 18th, 2013, Norbert Link will give the sermon, titled, “The Doctrine of the Laying on of Hands.”
 
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.

On Sunday, May 19, 2013, Pentecost will be observed. We will conduct live services from Ft. Collins, Colorado, in the morning, beginning at 10:00 am Pacific Time; we will also conduct live services from Ramona, California, in the afternoon, beginning at 2:00 pm Pacific Time.

Dave Harris will give the morning sermon, titled, “Day of Firstfruits”; Norbert Link will give the afternoon sermon, titled, “Real Change Through the Holy Spirit.”

Some two-thousand years ago, a group of followers of Christ were waiting patiently for Christ’s promise of a comforter. They were gathered in a room in Jerusalem when suddenly life-changing events occurred for them.

The events are recorded in the book of Acts.

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

These events established the beginning of the New Testament Church of God. Because of the great significance of this day, there were unique miracles associated with it—the sound of a rushing wind was heard and tongues of fire appeared over the heads of the disciples. In addition,  the miracle did not only include the speaking but also the hearing of those who were present that day.

“Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God’” (Acts 2:7-11).

Thus Christ fulfilled the promise of the comforter in the form of the Holy Spirit–the power that emanates from both God the Father and Christ. It was given to the disciples on the Festival of Pentecost–the same day, according to tradition, when Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

Through inspiration, Peter was able to inspire and help those present to repent of their sins and to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, and three thousand visitors were moved to do so.

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them (Acts 2:37-41).”

For us whom God has called in this day and age, our day of Pentecost, as it were, came after God had called us. We repented of our sins, and were baptized and had hands laid on us by a true minister of Jesus Christ. As a result of this, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit like many did on that Holy Day of Pentecost in 31 A.D.

For us it was a true beginning of a walk with God and of growth in grace and knowledge. We committed to help fulfill the Church’s great commission to preach the gospel to the world as a witness, to support the ministry in their task of baptizing others who would be called and of teaching and feeding the flock.

We must remain faithful to our calling until the return of Jesus Christ or, if we die prior to that, we must fall asleep “in the faith” as some have in recent years.

The comforter, in the form of the Holy Spirit, enables us to move forward in the responsibilities we have as God opens doors before us. To be able to fulfill these responsibilities is no less a miracle as were the miracles of speaking in tongues and giving an inspiring message that moved three thousand to be baptized in a single day.

Our work is ongoing, and we must, with God’s help, continue faithfully to move forward and to not look back. We must be waiting faithfully for our great reward in the future which is ruling with and under Christ in the Millennium and beyond. Then, mankind will come to the same spiritual understanding which we should today.

Let’s ensure we remain true to the course set before us.

We begin with explanations on this year’s correct date of the Holy Day of Pentecost (to be observed on Sunday, May 19, 2013).

We continue reporting on, what some have termed, the “trinity of scandals” –unanswered questions regarding the American response to the 9-11 attack on the Libyan embassy in Benghazi and the murder of four American citizens, including Ambassador Chris Stevens; alleged inappropriate conduct of the IRS in targeting certain nonprofit groups; and the Justice Department’s conduct against The Associated Press. Others include (and we address herein) additional scandals, such as the Obamacare debacle and the corresponding role given to the IRS in the context; or the President’s refusal to close Guantanamo Bay (Der Spiegel Online added on May 15 another scandal—the Obama Administration’s ongoing drone warfare).

Turning to events in the Middle East, we speak about the U.N.’s incredible decision regarding Iran; hypocritical reactions of the Arab world regarding Israel’s bombing of Syrian military facilities; an ensuing rift between Israel and Germany over Security Council membership; German feelings that the West needs to do something in Syria; and the perception that the actions of the EU toward Hezbollah are insufficient.

We speak on this year’s award of the Charlemagne Prize to an outstanding European; and we conclude with two articles about God’s dietary laws, which are, sadly, misunderstood and neglected by many in this day and age.

Why Do Many Jews Observe Pentecost on the Wrong Day?

This year, Pentecost or the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) is to be observed, according to the Bible, on Sunday, May 19, 2013. But many Jews observe this Festival on May 14 (if living in Israel) and/or on May 15 (if living outside the state of Israel). Why is this?

In our free booklet, “The Meaning of God’s Spring Holy Days,” we write the following:

“…the Church of God determines the correct date for Pentecost by counting 50 days from the Sunday [after the weekly Sabbath], which falls within the annual Holy Days of Unleavened Bread, as instructed in the Bible (Leviticus 23:11).

“The wave sheaf was offered on the Sunday during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The wave sheaf pictures Jesus Christ, who ascended to heaven on a Sunday, even though He was resurrected on Saturday evening, just around sunset. Exactly 50 days later, He poured out the Holy Spirit from God the Father on His New Testament Church. This was the Day of Pentecost.

“In other words, we are not to count 50 days from the weekly Sabbath that falls within the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, but from the SUNDAY on which the wave sheaf was offered—and it is that SUNDAY, that must fall within the seven Days of Unleavened Bread (compare Leviticus 23:14–15; Joshua 5:11).”

The following article from the website of karaite-korner.org/shavuot.shtml gives interesting information as to why many Jews are confused today on the issue:

“Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost) is the Biblical harvest-festival celebrated 50 days after the Sunday which falls out during Passover. These fifty days are called the Counting of the Omer. The Rabbis incorrectly celebrate Shavuoth on the 6th of Sivan… In late Second Temple times a debate arose between the Boethusians and the Pharisees about whether the ‘morrow after the Sabbath’ [Heb. Mimohorat Ha-Shabbat] refers to the Sunday during Hag HaMatzot [Feast of Unleavened Bread] or the second day of Hag HaMatzot (i.e. the 16th of Nissan). Like the Boethusians and Ancient Israelites before them [including the Sadducees], the Karaites [a movement within Judaism] count the 50 days of the Omer from the Sunday during Hag HaMatzot and consequentially always celebrate Shavuot on a Sunday.

“The Rabbanites claim that in the phrase ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ the ‘Sabbath’ referred to is the first day of Hag HaMatzot. In the Rabbanite reckoning the 50th day of the Omer (=Shavuot) would NOT be on ‘the morrow after the seventh Sabbath’ as commanded in Lev 23,16. Instead it would be on the morrow after the 7th Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday or whatever day it happened to fall out after… The only way for the 49th day of the Omer to be a Sabbath, thereby making the 50th day ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ as commanded in Lev 23,16, is if the 1st day of the Omer is on a Sunday.”

It will need to be said that most Jews not only observe Passover on the wrong day (they observe it one day too late, erroneously claiming that the Passover lamb was sacrificed at the end of the 14th day of Nisan, while it was actually sacrificed at the beginning of the 14th day of Nisan, “between the two evenings” of sunset and nightfall), but they also observe Pentecost on the wrong day(s) as well.

The Benghazi Affair—A Cover Up?

Newsmax reported on May 10:

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tells Newsmax that the Obama administration is guilty of disseminating ‘deliberate misinformation’ regarding the Benghazi attack and continues to ‘stonewall’ efforts to uncover the facts behind the tragedy. The 2008 Republican presidential candidate also reiterates his earlier prediction that the Benghazi affair could lead to President Barack Obama’s impeachment… ‘even members of the mainstream press who have done everything possible to ignore this story are having to pay attention, because as new information comes out and as the hearings really validated this week, there was deliberate misinformation that was given out by the White House and by the State Department as to what happened that night…’”

NBC News reported on May 12:

“House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman… Darrell Issa,  who heads a panel probing the assault on the diplomatic outpost that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, said [that the] interagency process of modifying talking points in the wake of the attack scrubbed the fact that the incident was ‘a terrorist attack from the get-go… The American people were effectively lied to for a period of about a month,’ he charged…”

World Net Daily added on May 12:

“House Republicans allege the U.S. government knew of a terrorist threat but ignored it. After the attack, critics charge, the administration blamed the deaths on reaction to an obscure anti-Muslim video, despite evidence from the beginning that it was a premeditated terrorist attack. Locked in a tight presidential race, a deliberate assault on American assets and the murder of Americans by al-Qaida on a date as significant as 9/11 would have damaged Obama’s campaign claim that his administration had al-Qaida under control.”

The Washington Times added on May 12:

“Sen. John McCain said the Obama administration is lying when it denies it scrubbed the official talking points regarding last year’s Benghazi assault. ‘I’d call it a cover-up,’ Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, said Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ ‘I would call it a cover-up to the extent that it was willful removal of information, which was obvious.’”

Fox News reported on May 13, 2013:

“President Obama delivered a defiant defense Monday of his administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack, calling the revived controversy over the matter a ‘sideshow’… [He] denied any suggestion that there was a cover-up, questioning recent reports that showed a State Department official trying to water down the administration’s initial story-line on what happened the night of Sept. 11…

“Despite claims that the White House and State Department were not heavily involved in editing the intelligence community’s narrative, emails show State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland pushed to remove references to Al Qaeda and to the intelligence community’s prior warnings about security in the region. Based on those talking points, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice went on five Sunday shows to claim the attack was prompted by a protest over an anti-Islam film.

“Further, three State Department whistle-blowers testified last week, with one claiming he was shocked and ‘embarrassed’ to hear Rice’s comments since he knew it was a terror attack all along.”

On May 14, The Washington Post gave President Obama four Pinocchios for his claim Monday, allegedly stating from the outset that Benghazi was an “act of terrorism.” The article stated:

“Notably, during a debate with Republican nominee Mitt Romney, President Obama said that he immediately told the American people that the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya ‘was an act of terror.’ But now he says he called it ‘an act of terrorism.’… Whatever the reason, when given repeated opportunities to forthrightly declare this was an ‘act of terrorism,’ the president ducked the question… In fact, as far as we can tell from combing through databases, Monday was the first time the president himself referred to Benghazi as an ‘act of terrorism.’”

This entire affair is becoming more and more a huge problem with perceptions of veracity and truthfulness. Trust of many US citizens in their government is almost totally gone, and the President’s unconvincing and contradictory “explanations” regarding the mishandling of Benghazi did not help to restore trust. Combine this with the incredible IRS mess, the Justice Department’s conduct towards The Associated Press, and the Obamacare debacle, as reported below, and America’s failure to send a clear message to Syria, and you can see why this nation is in such terrible shape, and why it is felt by many commentators that the President and his Administration are becoming more and more a “lame duck” for the remainder of the second term. During a time when we would need to see American leadership domestically and in the world, we are seeing a country being dragged down and paralyzed by its own, self-made problems.

Jewish Groups Targeted by IRS in Addition to Political Groups?

National Review wrote on May 11:

“Along with targeting tea-party groups, the IRS may also have given extra-special attention to the tax-exempt status of some Jewish groups for political reasons.”

Quoting from the Jewish Press, the article continued:

“The passionately pro-Israel organization Z STREET filed a lawsuit against the IRS, claiming it had been told by an IRS agent that because the organization was ‘connected to Israel,’ its application for tax-exempt status would receive additional scrutiny.  This admission was made in response to a query about the lengthy review of Z STREET’s tax exempt status application. In addition, the IRS agent told a Z STREET representative that the applications of some of those Israel-related organizations have been assigned to ‘a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.’ . . .

“And at least one purely religious Jewish organization, one not focused on Israel, was the recipient of bizarre and highly inappropriate questions about Israel.  Those questions also came from the same non-profit division of the IRS at issue for inappropriately targeting politically conservative groups. The IRS required that Jewish organization… state ‘whether [it] supports the existence of the land of Israel,’ and also demanded the organization ‘[d]escribe [its] religious belief system toward the land of Israel.’”

Did the IRS Go After Billy Graham?

Politico wrote on May 14:

“The IRS came after Billy Graham, too, his son charged Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama. Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a ‘review’ of their activities for tax year 2010… With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of ‘targeting and attempting to intimidate us.’

“The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association urging of voters to back ‘candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel’ during last year’s presidential race was the reason why IRS agents visited the North Carolina offices of both Graham groups, the letter accuses. ‘While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,’ Graham wrote in the letter… ‘I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it “un-American.”’ Graham said that ‘in light’ of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, ‘I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.’…

“Graham, who last week attended a White House meeting for religious leaders to discuss gun control, said the IRS story threatens to engulf all manner of non-profit organizations. ‘Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,’ Graham wrote. ‘We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?’

“The IRS review, which Graham wrote involved an IRS agent visiting the two agencies last October, followed the Billy Graham ministry publishing newspaper ads in North Carolina backing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment passed in May.”

High-Ranking IRS Officials Knew

The Associated Press reported on May 14:

“Congress was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, even after acting agency Chief Steven Miller had been briefed on the matter. Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny, the IRS said Monday. Also… IRS officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed.

“The Post reported that IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups. At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny — despite being asked about it…”

Did the President Know?

Newsmax wrote on May 14:

“Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington’s most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency’s campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials.  And she thinks the president knew about the practice, too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense… Mitchell said she doesn’t believe the president or the White House was uninvolved in the IRS activities, as the administration has claimed. ‘I’ve thought for some time that this is politically motivated and that’s the reason it was happening. And, as I said, I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this until 2009, 2010… We know the White House used the Department of Health and Human Services to try to silence critics about Obamacare. So if we know they used HHS, why wouldn’t they also use the IRS or other federal agencies to try to silence political critics?’…

“Mitchell said the IRS practices are in violation of federal law. She said it’s ‘a criminal offense to misuse information submitted by a taxpayer or an entity, anybody who submits anything to the IRS. The IRS agents are limited in what they can do with it, the scope of what they can say and do with it. So, clearly, the federal law has been broken.’

“Asked whether it would be an impeachable offense if it emerged that the president or his officials were behind the IRS’ practices, Mitchell said, ‘Well, it certainly was for Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week.’ She added, ‘Isn’t that ironic? The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week on May 18, and one of those was misuse of the IRS to go after political enemies.’”

These developments are indeed reasons of great concern. Due to mounting pressure, CNN reported on May 16 that “President Barack Obama named Danny Werfel, an official in his budget office, as the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Thursday. Obama demanded the previous acting commissioner resign Wednesday after revelations the tax agency was applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups asking the government for tax exempt status.” At the same time, President Obama “rejected calls for a special counsel to investigate [the] Internal Revenue Service.”

The Unrecognized Curse of Obamacare

National Review wrote on May 10:

“Democratic senator Max Baucus is retiring because he is ‘fed up’ with the Affordable Care Act, according to his Republican colleague Chuck Grassley. Speaking at Friday night’s Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa, Grassley told the audience the Montana senator is leaving office ‘because he’s so fed up with the possibility of the implementation of Obamacare being a train wreck.’ Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, played a key role in writing the 2010 law.

“Grassley said that dissatisfaction with the health-care bill exists across party lines, describing a ‘bipartisan coalition in Washington’ that considers the implementation of the law a disaster.”

In this context, we are quoting here excerpts from a revealing article which was already published in early April of 2013. Forbes wrote on April 7:

“The biggest political problem faced by so-called ‘liberals’ and so-called ‘progressives’ in President Obama’s second term is how to prevent voters from holding them politically responsible as the public comes to realize how badly they were lied to during the first Obama term to win passage of Obamacare. Most supporters of Obamacare embraced it because of a principled belief that everyone should have access to essential healthcare. But even the establishment, still Democrat dominated, CBO admits that after 10 years of implementation, Obamacare will still leave 30 million uninsured…  that is a woeful underestimate…

“Just wait until the broad realization dawns that the harsh reality of Obamacare is that tens of millions will lose their employer provided insurance because of the perverse incentives under the program. Even the establishment CBO admits that at least 7 million, and as many as 20 million, will lose their employer coverage…

“The Obamacare employer mandate requires all employers of 50 or more full time workers to purchase the expensive insurance… Moreover, workers who do not receive employer provided coverage are eligible to purchase their health insurance on the state Exchanges with extensive taxpayer subsidies to help cover the cost. Indeed, in the Exchanges, low and moderate income workers can even get subsidies covering their out-of-pocket expenses. Employers can terminate their employee coverage, give their workers a raise with part of the savings, and let the taxpayers bear the cost of subsidizing their coverage in the Exchanges…

“Obama campaigned in 2008 on a promise that Obamacare would reduce the cost of health insurance by $2,500 for average families. But since Obamacare passed, the cost of an average family policy has already increased by $3,000.

“… individuals… could just skip the insurance and pay the penalty at a savings of at least 50% to 75% or more… So millions, including myself, will pursue this strategy next year to avert the costs of Obamacare, which will mean millions more uninsured. And that will mean more costly, sicker and older folks left covered in the insurance pool, which will cause premiums to soar further, which will cause still more individuals and employers to drop coverage, which means still more uninsured, and the chaos of a financial death spiral for private insurers…

“All of this health insurance cost chaos will just further feed the labor market chaos that is already starting as the darkening cloud of Obamacare approaches. Already employers are replacing full time employment with part time employment paying lower wages and no benefits. Already small businesses with less than 50 employees are freezing hiring, and those with just above 50 workers have begun layoffs. Moreover, under the Obamacare law, the employer mandate does not require employers to cover the family dependents of their workers. So the trend towards losing that coverage is already beginning as well…

“Obamacare is going to be causing chaos for seniors as well… almost half of Obamacare is paid for over the next decade by draining $716 billion out of Medicare… That leaves Medicare growing at only about half the rate of health care in the rest of the country…”

Gullible and uninformed people have failed to recognize that Obamacare is just one of the many avenues and inventions through which this country is nearing its prophesied downfall. God is withdrawing His blessings from this nation because of our many sins and our self-righteous attitudes and our unwillingness to repent. Rather, we proclaim with pride our liberal concepts and transgressions, following the example of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. Please also note the next article.

Gingrich: “Almost Madness” to Entrust the IRS with Obamacare Fines

Newsmax reported on May 13:

“The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups raises serious questions about how it plans to handle the taxes and penalties associated with Obamacare, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says… Gingrich raised the issue because the IRS will be responsible for administering the mandate on health insurance by tracking taxes and fees associated with the law and levying penalties on Americans who don’t purchase coverage…

“The former speaker, who ran for president last year, insisted it would be ‘almost madness’ to put the responsibility for enforcing the requirements of Obamacare under the IRS, given the circumstances now… Gingrich said that one of the most disturbing aspects of the IRS scandal is that agency heads apparently knew about the targeting of conservative groups in 2011 and lied about it during testimony to Congress in March 2012…

“Gingrich also sought to compare the IRS scandal with developments in recent days concerning changes that were made in administration talking points about the terrorist attack in September 2012 on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. ‘The parallel between Benghazi and the IRS story is amazing,’ he said. ‘Lying, then lying about lying, and then hiding from the fact that they’re lying. Then seeking to apologize for the lies they claim they didn’t tell.’”

The Latest Scandal—AP Spied On By Justice Department

Newsmax reported on May 14:

“Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called the scandal involving the Department of Justice securing telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors a ‘nuclear event.’ ‘This is outrageous,’ Bernstein said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’ ‘It is totally inexcusable. This administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning. The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters,’ he said. ‘This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event, and now it’s happened.’

“The AP reported late Monday afternoon that the ‘Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press.’ The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggest they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the CIA’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner, The New York Times reported.

“The development represents the latest collision of news organizations and federal investigators over government efforts to prevent the disclosure of national security information, and it comes against a backdrop of an aggressive policy by the Obama administration to rein in leaks, according to The New York Times. Under President Barack Obama, six current and former government officials have been indicted in leak-related cases, twice the number brought under all previous administrations combined. ‘The numerical thing doesn’t matter,’ said Bernstein, a former Washington Post reporter who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. ‘What matters is, this is a matter of policy. It is known to the president of the United States that this is the policy. To say that there was no knowledge, in quotes, specifically about this in the White House is nonsense.’…

“That the Justice Department sought records of phone calls made over congressional phone lines could also raise a separation of powers issue between the administration and legislative branches of government…”

President Obama “Being Drunk on Power”?

Infowars.com (as linked by The Drudge Report) wrote on May 14:

“[Kentucky] Senator Rand Paul responded to the barrage of scandals to hit the Obama administration, from Benghazi, to the IRS targeting conservatives, to the Justice Department spying on Associated Press reporters, by accusing President Obama of being ‘drunk on power’… Paul said the President was ‘using the power of his government to investigate his enemies, he’s tapping the phones of the press, and it turns out last year he signed legislation that allows him to detain an American without a trial and send them to Guantanamo Bay…

“With the White House already reeling from its complicity in the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS controversy, it emerged last night that the so-called ‘most transparent administration’ in history had, via the US Department of Justice, ‘secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.’…

“After the Justice Department responded by claiming it valued ‘the freedom of the press’ and was ‘always careful and deliberative’ in its actions, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa reacted by remarking, ‘This is obviously disturbing. Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone…’”

Obama’s Fight With the Press

Fox News reported on May 14:

“Brushfire season has come early to Washington. The Obama administration had been trying to stamp out persistent complaints over Benghazi. On Friday, a second fire broke out as we found the IRS lied and deliberately targeted conservative groups for special investigation… Then, a third blaze caught everyone – especially the media – off guard. The poorly named Justice Department ‘used a secret subpoena to obtain two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors without notifying the news organization’… such ‘subpoenas of records from news organizations must be approved personally by the attorney general.’ In other words, this attack on press freedom goes all the way to Eric Holder…

“The Obama administration has been at war with the media since before it was elected the first time… The administration went after Fox News, Drudge, Tea Party inspiration Rick Santelli and even liberal CNBC host Jim Cramer… The federal government locked out the press from the disastrous BP oil spill – so much so that CBS, Associated Press, Mother Jones and The Times-Picayune all complained… The press can no longer say the Obama scandals are a case of smoke but no fire because they are getting burned, too… If Obama can’t contain it, the fires will merge into one mighty conflagration – and light up just how awful his administration has been to the press and opponents.”

Did the White House Know?

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 15:

“The US Department of Justice secretly seized two months of telephone records from the Associated Press (AP) in 2012. This comes amid a crackdown by the Obama administration on whistleblowers and leaks. AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt has accused the Justice Department of infringing on the freedom of the press, after the department revealed that it had seized records from more than 20 separate AP phone lines… Pruitt said the Justice Department informed the AP of the seizures in a letter received on Friday. But the notification came after the subpoena had already been issued and the phone records seized. That means the AP had no chance to challenge the Justice Department’s move.

“‘To be secretly seizing two months of phone records for reporters and editors at the AP is a[s] just a serious interference with First Amendment, freedom of the press, and constitutional rights that are enshrined in our constitution,’ Jesselyn Radack, the national security and human rights director at the Government Accountability Project, told DW…

“The Obama administration, for its part, has denied that it had any prior knowledge that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed AP phone records… But Radack said it’s hard to believe that the White House had no prior knowledge of the case. She represented Thomas Drake, a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who was accused of leaking classified information to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. While the Justice Department does in theory operate independently, Radack said that President Obama knew about the details of the Drake case. At the very least, the attorney general had to sign off on the subpoena of AP phone records, she said. ‘If Obama did not know, then he should fire Eric Holder as attorney general and the Justice Department should destroy all the materials that it collected from the AP,’ Radack said…”

The Washington Times reported on May 15 that “Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday described the leak about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen to The Associated Press as a ‘very, very serious’ matter that ‘put the American people at risk,’ but he did not remember when he recused himself from the investigation into it, did not put his recusal in writing and never told the White House.” President Obama subsequently expressed his confidence in Mr. Holder and stated in vague terms that America’s security must be protected, while conceding that the freedom of the press must not be violated.  This position on the matter will not satisfy either side.

Iran to Chair U.N. Arms Control Forum

The Washington Free Beacon wrote on May 13:

“Iran will preside over the United Nations arms control forum this month, despite the fact that it is under U.N. sanctions for illicit nuclear activities and routinely supplies arms to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in violation of international law. The U.N.’s annual Conference on Disarmament, which Iran is slated to lead from May 27 to June 23, is the organization’s primary multilateral forum for negotiating arms control agreements. The forum has given way to major international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation, prohibitions on chemical weapons, and bans on nuclear tests.

“UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group, blasted the decision to allow Iran to chair the conference. ‘This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,’ said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer in a statement. ‘Iran is an international outlaw state that illegally supplies rockets to Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, aiding and abetting mass murder and terrorism. To make this rogue regime head of world arms control is simply an outrage. Abusers of international norms should not be the public face of the U.N.’…

“Neuer called on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and EU High Commissioner Catherine Ashton to ‘make clear that when the United Nations imposes four rounds of sanctions on Iran for illicit nuclear activities, condemns it for illegally arming the murderous Syrian regime, and denounces Tehran’s massive abuse of human rights, this kind of appointment just defies common sense and harms the U.N.’s credibility.’

“U.N. officials say Iran is simply the next country in rotation for the conference chair slot, according to UN Watch. The U.N. Secretary-General’s office and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

“Iran has not halted its nuclear weapons efforts despite international sanctions and condemnation. The country is a top benefactor of the Syrian regime, which is suspected of using chemical weapons against rebel forces. Iran also supplies rockets and other arms to its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah.

“The United Nations has previously hosted the Holocaust-denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at its World Conference Against Racism, where he has equated Zionism with racism and claimed Israel exploits the Holocaust to persecute Palestinians…”

Is there no limit to the UN’s foolishness?

“Hypocrisy over Israel”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote on May 13:

“It didn’t take long after news that Israel had bombed military facilities inside Syria for the Arab League to demand that the U.N. Security Council ‘act immediately to end Israeli attacks on Syria’ over what the League called a ‘dangerous violation of an Arab state’s sovereignty.’ By contrast, the group – still made up mostly of dictators – hasn’t found time in its presumably busy schedule to say anything about the massacres in Syria of 77 mostly civilians, including scores of women and children in the coastal city of Banyas and scores more in al-Bayda, which sent thousands of people fleeing in the last few days, adding to the millions displaced by the civil war and the tens of thousands already killed…

“Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rightly raised the alarm, saying Assad has launched ‘Plan B,’ a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’… This, of course, garnered little interest from other Arab regimes, occupied with accusing Israel of violating Syria’s ‘sovereignty.’…”

Israel will never receive approval from Arab nations for any actions directed against any Arab country.

Israel Unhappy with Germany

The Times of Israel wrote on May 14:

“Israeli officials are reportedly raising hackles with Germany over the fact that the two countries are competing for a spot on the United Nations Security Council. The fact that Berlin is throwing its hat in the ring complicates Jerusalem’s chances of ascending to the two-year non-permanent rotation on the council for the first time. Although Israel has been planning its opportunity to get the seat for several years, Germany only just recently announced its candidacy, which means that three countries — Belgium, Israel, and Germany — are competing for two possible slots.

“Germany ended a two-year stint as a non-veto-wielding member of the panel in December. Channel 2 news, citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Jerusalem was ‘critical’ and ‘upset’ by Germany’s decision… An unnamed Israeli source was quoted by the channel saying Germany, of all countries, shouldn’t try to deny Israel a spot…

“Candidacy to the body requires approval from two-thirds of the UN General Assembly, or 128 countries. Israel, which has repeatedly faced censure from the international body, would have to wage an uphill battle to garner enough support. In 2010, Canada lost a bid for one of the seats, which some blamed on Ottawa’s friendly stance toward Israel, among other things. Germany ultimately won that seat, gaining its fifth term on the panel.

“Germany is also seeking a permanent seat on the council, along with India, Brazil and Japan. Five countries are currently permanent members: the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain.”

Syria—Time for the West to Act

Der Spiegel Online wrote on May 13:

“Turkish officials announced Sunday that nine people had been arrested in connection with a double car bombing in Reyhanli, a town near the Syrian border. The attack, which killed at least 46 and injured 100, has increased fears that the conflict in Syria is spreading into neighboring countries… Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that those allegedly responsible for the attacks — all of them Turkish citizens — belong to an ‘old Marxist terrorist organization’ with ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s administration…

“On Monday, German commentators decried the bombing, as well as the failure of the West to take a unified position on the worsening situation in Syria… Left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘… the attack is primarily a consequence of the shameful inability of the international community to pacify the Syrian drama…’ Leftist daily Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘The bombing attacks also show that no scruples remain in the war over Syria. It is possible that those who have been arrested and presented by the government actually are guilty. But it’s just as possible that Islamist opposition fighters laid the bombs.’”

EU’s Response to Hezbollah Falls Short

The Jerusalem Post wrote on May 12:

“The EU plans to endorse the UK’s model of proscribing Hezbollah’s military wing as a terror entity while permitting the Shi’ite Lebanese group’s political arm to operate as a legal organization, sources well-versed in the inner workings of EU discussions on the matter told The Jerusalem Post last week. British Labor MP Michael McCann, however, said in a House of Commons debate last week that this falls short of the necessary punitive response to Hezbollah and its chief sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“‘And they retain a clear and present military danger to millions of Israeli men, women and children, with tens of thousands of missiles pointed at major population centers,’ McCann told Parliament in a debate on Thursday. ‘Missiles which could be launched with one word from their venal, anti-Semitic paymasters in Tehran…’

“Dividing Hezbollah into military and political wings prompted McCann… to vehemently oppose the partial listing. The MP… called on the British government to proscribe the ‘whole of Hezbollah’ as a terrorist organization.”

It is doubtful that Europe will prohibit Hezbollah in their entirety. This would mean that they can continue, through their “political wing,” to launch or finance terror attacks without hindrance from Europe.

Iron Lady Wins Charlemagne Prize

The EUObserver wrote on May 10:

“Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Thursday (9 May) was awarded the Charlemagne Prize for her ‘oustanding’ merits in European politics, just as her country prepares to take over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July. Coinciding with Europe Day, the award ceremony took place in the German city of Aachen and was dubbed the ‘EU Oscar’ by Lithuanian media. It was attended by top EU officials such as council chief Herman Van Rompuy and European Parliament chief Martin Schulz, as well as German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who won the prize last year.

“Grybauskaite, 57 years old, is a former EU budget commissioner and minister of finance in her country before being elected the first female president of Lithuania, in 2009. She has a black belt in judo and has been nicknamed the ‘Iron lady’ for her tough negotiating style and the harsh austerity measures her government imposed to get Lithuania out of the economic crisis, without external assistance…

“Often compared to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also won the Charlemagne Prize in 2008, Grybauskaite praised Germany for its leadership on European level. ‘Today Germany plays the leading role in ensuring European stability and does not allow us to wander from the path of trust in Europe. That is why it is Germany which gets the strongest criticism – and also our deepest respect,’ she said.”

The news agency published the following astute comments to the article from one of their readers:

“The Charlemagne Prize; that sounds familiar. Oh yes, I know, what is being referred to here is the Aachen Charlemagne Prize, not just that ‘the award ceremony took place in the German city of Aachen’ – no, no. It is called the Aachen Charlemagne Prize to be absolutely correct… Who was Charlemagne? Called the ‘Father of Europe’ Charlemagne’s empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. He was protector of the papacy, put Saxon pagans to death (for not converting to RC) and was crowned as ‘Emperor’ by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800AD. He issued a pan-European coinage and monetary systems… He was laid to rest in his capital which was today’s Aachen in Germany.”

Brazil’s Deutschland-Year

Deutsche Welle reported on May 14:

“Joachim Gauck is in Brazil seeking to strengthen trade ties with a key German partner; he and President Dilma Rousseff have officially opened a special Germany-themed year in Brazil. German President Joachim Gauck and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff started Brazil’s ‘Deutschland-Jahr’ year-long schedule that incorporates as many as 400 cultural, economic and scientific appointments in the coming months. Gauck and Rousseff appeared at the opening of a German-Brazilian trade conference in Sao Paolo late on Monday.

“The German president praised long-standing and stable bilateral trade ties. Gauck said that Volkswagen’s partnership with Brazil had proved so successful over the years that many in Brazil considered VW a ‘domestic legacy brand.’ He also lamented that too few Germans knew that author Thomas Mann should dedicate ‘his artistic streak to his mother who was born in Brazil.’

“Brazil is Germany’s seventh-largest trading partner by volume and is soon set to overtake Britain and France. Trade figures have roughly tripled in the past decade, hitting $21.5 billion (16.6 billion euros) in 2012. Gauck said further progress could be made, with ‘our shared values the foundation for this.’ He also issued a carefully-worded appeal to ‘continue to improve the conditions for free trade and exchange’ in Brazil, saying that Brazilian companies operating in the EU already profit from the bloc’s open trading policies.

“Rousseff referred to trade ties between the two countries as among the ‘most successful’ in the world… Prior to his trip to Brazil, Gauck visited Colombia.”

Germany—and Europe—are getting more and more involved in South American countries…

Don’t Eat Pork

The Jewish Daily Forward wrote on May 9:

“… pigs are remarkable. They are extremely intelligent… Physiologically they are also extraordinary; they convert carbohydrates into protein faster than any other mammal, often going from infant to ready-to-slaughter in about six months. They can even subsist on food scraps, making them nature’s composter… There is no clear answer for why we avoid swine, just a couple of lines in the Torah about split hooves and cud chewing that are further expounded upon in the Talmud and a whole slew of theories that span disciplines from social anthropology to medicine to theology.

“The question of why pigs are taboo isn’t relevant here. The prohibition is tied up in the complicated historical relationship between pigs and Jews and has helped define Jewish identity over the course of millennia. When Greeks invaded ancient Judea, they desecrated the holy altar by sacrificing the forbidden animal. Spanish inquisitors tested Catholic loyalty by forcing Jews to eat pork… the very term for crypto-Jews, Marranos, means pig. The list of historical associations and humiliations goes on and on, but it’s this context that helped make avoiding pork more than just a kosher rule and, instead, the kosher rule…

“I just think eating pork, if one chooses to do so while also identifying as a Jew, should be a transgressive act… Some Jews will continue to eat pork, as many have done throughout Jewish history… [but the] suggestion that we shed the guilt that comes with eating pork — the guilt that, whether we like it or not, is a critical component to the Jewish experience — would make for… a less meaningful Judaism.”

As Christians, we are spiritual Jews. The dietary laws are still in force and effect today. Many years after his conversion, Peter still refused to eat pork or any other unclean food. Even though the author in the article above does not understand the reason for the dietary laws, it is clear to us that these are health laws given by God for the benefit of mankind. But people—Christians, Jews and others—are confused on the issue, as the next article shows as well.

Don’t Eat Unclean Insects—Never Mind the U.N.

The Associated Press reported on May 13:

“The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilized food for people, livestock and pets.

“A 200-page report, released at a news conference at the U.N. agency’s Rome headquarters, says 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diets with insects, which are high in protein and minerals, and have environmental benefits. Insects are ‘extremely efficient’ in converting feed into edible meat, the agency said…

“The agency noted that its Edible Insect Program is also examining the potential of arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions, although they are not strictly speaking insects. University biologists have analyzed the nutritional value of edible insects, and some of them, such as certain beetles, ants, crickets and grasshoppers, come close to lean red meat or broiled fish in terms of protein per gram (ounce)… The report noted that some caterpillars in southern Africa and weaver ant eggs in Southeast Asia are considered delicacies and command high prices.”

Even though some grasshoppers and perhaps some crickets are considered clean and can be eaten, none of the other insects are. The consumption of spiders and scorpions are of course also forbidden by God. The U.N. is simply ignorant and wrong, and it is deceiving people.

In the last installment, we began discussing some of the characteristics of the beast (a future charismatic political and military leader ruling ten nations or groups of nations in Europe, compare Revelation 17:12-13, 17) and important aspects associated with him. We saw that he will be worshipped as a god; that he will blaspheme God and that he will persecute the saints who do not accept his mark, his name and the number of his name, which is 666.

In this installment, we will continue pointing out some interesting facts which will identify the coming beast.

In Revelation 16:10, 13-14, we are specifically told that the beast has a throne and a kingdom, and that he will be demon-possessed. It is also revealed that a demon possessing the beast will perform signs. We also read in verse 14 that the false prophet, a religious leader, will likewise be possessed by a demon who performs signs. Furthermore, the dragon, Satan the devil, will send forth a powerful demon who will work lying signs and wonders. Revelation 19:19-20 adds that the beast, in collaboration with the false prophet, will lead the armies of the world to fight against the returning Jesus Christ and His angels.

Prior to Christ’s return, the beast and his armies will invade the Middle East and Jerusalem to take away the daily sacrifices. We read a prophecy in Daniel 8:9-12, which very well may be dual in nature. It first speaks about the ancient leader, Antiochus Epiphanes, who is described in that passage as a little horn (not to be confused with the little horn in Daniel 7, which describes a religious power).  According to Daniel 8:9-12, that “little horn” persecutes God’s people, invades and casts down the “sanctuary” and opposes the daily sacrifices which are “taken away.”

Antiochus did all of that. He was born in 215 BC and died in 163 BC.

According to 2 Maccabees, “Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery…

“Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by the laws of God; also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as the inhabitants of the place requested… They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws. A man could not keep the sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew.”

We read in Daniel 8:23-25 that a fierce king or a king “having fierce features” (verse 23), i.e. Antiochus, would arise with sinister schemes and cunning and deceit; and that he would be broken without human means. Antiochus died suddenly of a disease, but if this is a dual prophecy, it would also refer to the death of the beast by the hand of Jesus Christ, when he is thrown alive into a burning lake of fire (Revelation 19:20). To point out a parallel with the king having fierce features in Daniel 8:23, we read in Deuteronomy 28:50 that the end-time army which will occupy the Middle East is described as a “nation of fierce countenance.”

Scofield’s Concordance states that “Antiochus is a remarkable type of the Beast.” In fact, much of what Antiochus did, the end-time beast will repeat to do, and worse.

Daniel 11:21-23 describes that Antiochus Epiphanes supplanted the ruler and that he came to power through intrigue. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia tells us: “After King Seleucus was assassinated by Heliodorus, an usurper, in 175 BC, Antiochus in turn ousted him. Since Seleucus’ legitimate heir, Demetrius I Soter, was still a hostage in Rome, Antiochus, with the help of King Eumenes II of Pergamum, seized the throne for himself, proclaiming himself co-regent for another son of Seleucus, an infant named Antiochus (whom he then murdered a few years later).”

The end-time beast might also obtain his rule over the ten nations or groups of nations through “intrigue” or “flattery.” Jesus Christ confirmed that the acts of Antiochus may be dual in nature, and that the abomination of desolation, which Antiochus set up in the temple (Daniel 11:31), will be set up again (Matthew 24:15). The abomination of desolation has been understood as describing both a devastating army occupying Jerusalem as well as the erection of an idol, a statue or an “image,” an ungodly presence or pagan worship services in the Temple.

In Matthew 24:15, Christ refers to the abomination of desolation in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem through Titus’ devastating and abominable army in 70 AD, but He also speaks of a future military occupation of the Holy Land and of Jerusalem (Luke 21:20-21) and the desecration of the “holy place”  just prior to His return. Daniel 12:11 contains an end-time prophecy and establishes that another prophetic “abomination of desolation” will be set up at the holy place (“where it ought not,” compare Mark 13:14) at the same time when the future Jewish daily sacrifices will be taken away.

Judging from the past and also from several passages in the Bible, the Jews will indeed build another Temple in Jerusalem, but it will be desecrated. Actually, something similar did occur in 131-133 BC, even though at that time, the Romans built the Temple “for the Jews,” while in the future, the Jews will do so themselves. As Michael Kerrigan writes in “Dark History of the Roman Emperors, “In 131 C.E… [emperor] Hadrian had work on the Temple site commence… The Romans’ inauguration ceremony started with the ritual breaking of the ground, itself an act of sacrilege in Jewish law. Unperturbed, the emperor decided that this was a good moment to prohibit the practice of circumcision… “

In 133 C.E. the Romans marched on Judea to quench a Jewish “rebellion” under the followers of Simon Bar Kokhba (who was perceived to be the Messiah). His followers had taken control of Jerusalem and had established an independent Jewish state under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Akiva. The Romans, under general Sextus Julius Severus, massacred at least half a million Jews (other estimates give the number as “millions”) and destroyed almost a thousand villages.

Kerrigan states that “Hadrian redoubled his efforts to stamp out Jewish religious practices. Sacred scrolls were burned, rabbis executed and the Torah… was banned. The temple was turned over to the worship of Jupiter, and of Hadrian himself… Judea became ‘Palestinae.’”

Commentaries agree that the events of the past, especially under Antiochus and, to a lesser degree, Titus and Hadrian, were just forerunners of end-time events.

We read in Daniel 11:31-39 that the “king of the north” will take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation; that he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God [or “god”] of gods; and that he “shall regard neither the God [better “god”] of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver”; and that he will “act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory…”

Even though this passage has been applied to Antiochus (as he did perform some of those prophesied events), it is also recognized that it cannot refer to him exclusively. The Ryrie Study Bible writes that “the scope [of this section] also requires reference to some details of Israel’s last days.”

The New Bible Commentary: Revised adds:

“Antiochus who persecuted the [Old Testament] church shortly before the first advent of Christ may be regarded as typical of the antichrist [the beast] who will persecute the church before the second advent of Christ… [Verse] 36 states that the king will ‘magnify himself above every god,’ a description which does not well apply to Antiochus… likewise it is difficult to see how Antiochus showed disrespect for the gods of his fathers…”

However, it is not difficult to see how it would apply to the end-time beast. He will worship a foreign god for a while, that is, the false prophet, who is described in places such as 2 Thessalonians 2 as the “man of sin” who will sit in the “Temple of God,” claiming to be God (verse 4).  We can appreciate that the “abomination of desolation,” set up at a holy place, also applies to the false prophet sitting in God’s very Temple, claiming to be “God.” Also, he may be instrumental in persuading the beast to invade militarily the Middle East and Jerusalem and to initiate the erection of a great “image to the beast,” which will be given the power to speak and to cause the murder of Christians (Revelation 13:14-15); hence, the beast will honor a “god of fortresses,” murder and war. He will make that “god” rich. His fathers did not know that “god,” because the false prophet had not yet existed during their time.

Another statement about the king of the north needs consideration. We have read that he “does not regard the desire of women” (Daniel 11: 37). Some say, the “desire of women” is a reference to the god whom the women worshipped, i.e. Tammuz (compare Ezekiel 8:14). Others claim, this means, he does not love what women love, or, that he lives in licentiousness with women and does not want to get married (since many women have the desire to get married).

However, a much more obvious explanation needs to be brought out. The Elberfelder Bible translates that he does not care for the love of or towards women (“Frauenliebe”). This could be a reference to other than normal sexual preferences. The commentary of Henry speaks of “unnatural lust” in the context. This might indicate that the beast will be homosexual (compare Romans 1:24-28). There is no indication that Antiochus was homosexual (nor, that he had illicit affairs with other women, nor, that he did not want to get married. In fact, Antiochus was married). If the reference is to the homosexual nature of the end-time beast, we could think, as a forerunner, of emperor Hadrian who massacred the Jews. He was married, but he was also homosexual. When his male lover died by drowning in the sea, a heart-broken Hadrian gave orders for his deification. So, judging by these examples, the beast could very well be married and still be homosexual. For instance, Austria’s former leader, the late Joerg Haider, was married and had a daughter, and it only became known after his death that he was homosexual.

In Daniel 11:44-45, we read that the end-time king of the north (verse 40) or the beast will act with great fury. He is identified in Hosea 5:13 as the Assyrian King “Jareb,” which word means, “a fighter.” He is also identified as the end-time king of Assyria in Isaiah 10:5-7,12, who has an arrogant heart and the will to destroy others. Isaiah 14:24-25 tells us that the king of Assyria will enslave the nations of Israel and Judah; and Isaiah 30:30-33 adds that he will be thrown into Tophet—the lake of fire and brimstone (compare Isaiah 31:8-9). This shows, then, that the beast will be of Assyrian descent. The modern Assyrians can be found today in Germany and Austria. (For more information, please read our free booklets, “Germany in Prophecy” and “Europe in Prophecy”).

Another interesting reference to the beast can be found in the book of Habakkuk which deals with the modern Chaldeans or Assyrians.

Isaiah 23:13 tells us that the ancient Assyrians founded the land of the Chaldeans. And so, it will be the modern Assyrians—mainly the German-speaking peoples—who will lead the final resurrection of the “Holy Roman Empire” (For instance, as we have seen, the German Otto the Great and the Austrian Charles V. were previous emperors of the “Holy Roman Empire” or “the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.” Arguably this is also true for Charlemagne or Charles the Great, who was crowned as Emperor in the German city of Aachen and who is viewed by the Germans as a German, by the French as a Frenchman, and by the Belgians as a Belgian. In addition, the collaboration of the Austrian Hitler and the Italian Mussolini with several popes constituted the sixth revival of the “Holy Roman Empire”).

In ancient times, the Chaldeans were Babylon’s religious leaders, astrologers and magicians. John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible says about the ancient Chaldeans:

“A people still of late mean and low, famous only for their soothsaying, divination, and judicial astrology; but now become a powerful and warlike people, rising up under the permission of Providence to universal monarchy, and who would quickly add Judea to the rest of their dominions…”

Even though a partial fulfillment of Habakkuk’s entire prophecy can be seen in ancient Judah’s captivity through the Babylonians, due to Judah’s transgressions (compare verse 4), Habakkuk’s prophecy of Babylonian warfare is clearly awaiting an end-time fulfillment. As we will see, this will COINCIDE with the powerful, but short, revival of the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Habakkuk 1:5-10 reads as follows: “Look among the nations and watch–Be utterly astonished! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful… They all come for violence… They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings…”

Paul later quoted these words and applied them as a warning to the people in his time and age who would reject the gospel message. We read in Acts 13:32-41: “And we declare to you glad tidings–that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He raised up Jesus… David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. BEWARE therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets COME UPON YOU: ‘Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, A work which you will by no means believe, Though one were to declare it to you.’”

God said through Habakkuk that His work–the end-time preaching of the gospel–would be powerful, but short. Romans 9:28 confirms this, saying: “For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a SHORT WORK upon the earth.”

The Bible prophesies that at the time when the powerful preaching of the gospel message is being revived, modern Babylon will rise once again in Europe as the seventh and very SHORT-lived resurrection of the ancient “Holy Roman Empire”—a combination of church and state—when the (religious) fallen woman will be once more riding the (political and military) beast (compare Revelation 17, especially verses 10 and 12).

God will use modern Babylon in a literal SWIFT blitzkrieg to punish the modern houses of Israel and Judah for their transgressions (compare also Isaiah 29:13-14). But God will then punish modern Babylon (Habakkuk 2:8)–a system less righteous than modern Israel and Judah (compare Habakkuk 1:12-13).

In this context, we read in Habakkuk 1:11 that after the modern Babylonian/Assyrian leader—the beast—has come to power, his mind will change. This term could be a reference to demonic possession; Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says it could describe the invisible presence of a spirit (compare Job 4:15; the word for “passed” in that passage is the same word as for “change” in Habakkuk). We know, of course, from passages such as Revelation 16:13-14, that the beast will be demonically possessed, but this passage in Habakkuk seems to indicate that the possession will occur after he has received his authority and power from the ten core nations or groups of nations.

In the next installment, we will discuss the biblical prophecies about the religious system which has been riding the last seven revivals of the ancient Roman Empire.

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

“Antiochus Epiphanes and the End-Time Beast,” is the title of our new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: The book of Daniel speaks about an ancient ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, who is to be viewed as a forerunner of the end-time beast, mentioned in the book of Revelation. When reviewing the brutal and blasphemous acts of Antiochus, we should be able to see what the future military leader of Europe will do.

“Neu! Der Brief an die Hebräer, Teil 3,” is a new German sermon, continuing our series on the letter to the Hebrews. It covers chapters 6 and 7. Title in English: “New! The Letter to the Hebrews, Part 3.”

“Neu! Der Brief an die Hebräer, Teil 4,” is the newest German sermon, for Pentecost, continuing our series on the letter to the Hebrews. It covers chapters 8 and 9. Title in English: “New! The Letter to the Hebrews, Part 4.”

We have purchased translation equipment for the Feast of Tabernacles in Germany, and we have also ordered a banner in German. In addition, hard copies of our German booklet on the Gospel of the Kingdom of God are being printed. Live services will be conducted in Germany on the Sabbath and on Pentecost. Sermonettes will be given by Christoph Sperzel and Thilo Hanstein, and video-recorded sermons by Norbert Link on the letter to the Hebrews, Parts 3 and 4, will be played.  Those unable to attend will participate via Skype.

On May 11th, 2013, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “Israel Does Exist!”
 
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.

Looking at what has been happening to most of us, we would have to confess to living in very difficult circumstances. Far beyond the news of distant troubles, we are all more than able to tell of things that affect us very, very personally.

Sicknesses that continue to linger; financial challenges that too often appear to be insurmountable; disagreements with family and friends; a growing sense of fear for the worsening events we read about in the news; personal doubt about whether or not we, individually, are really fulfilling God’s calling; wondering if our prayers are being heard and will be answered—the list is long, and not many items are being resolved, or so it might seem.

More than likely, you’ve heard this response before when you were suffering, “Well, just look on the bright side…”  That, in and of itself, is hard to do, but it is truly the very action we should be taking throughout our lives—both in good and in bad times!

King David certainly lived his life walking before God and is even called a man after God’s own heart; however, he stumbled in his conduct, and he sinned greatly. The consequences for his actions brought about very heavy penalties for himself and his family. For David to have found a bright side in all of this is quite remarkable.

How he handled things is summarized in Psalm 51. David repented deeply and completely for his grievous sins—which went beyond adultery to even include the murder of Uriah. David faced what he had done and yielded himself to God’s mercy.

But that isn’t all that he did! In this most remarkable account, we find that David picked up the pieces and returned to serving God—he did not quit or give up:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise”
(Psalm 51:10-15).

For us, as well as it was for David and other of God’s servants, the lesson is that we must never turn away from God—no matter what we have to face!

When life seems nearly unbearable, remember the truth that time-and-again resounds throughout the written Word of God—Paul puts it this way: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Something to consider when we are looking for the bright side of things!

We begin with reporting on events pertaining to the Middle East, especially focusing on Egypt, Israel, Syria and Palestine.

Turning to the UK and Europe, we report on changes in the Commonwealth and more and more voices in the UK to leave the EU. We speak about a new EU note and the desire to revive the Weimar Triangle, and address Hungary’s far right and Berlusconi’s conviction.

We conclude with surprising or disturbing claims and allegations regarding President Obama, the US Air Force and members of the US Congress.

Muslim Brotherhood Strengthened in Egypt

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 7, 2013:

“Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi swore in new cabinet ministers Tuesday in a reshuffle of his government that strengthened the position of the Muslim Brotherhood in key ministries and provoked complaints from the nation’s disparate opposition.

“Members of the opposition had demanded that Mr. Morsi form a more inclusive government—one including liberals, moderates, Coptic Christians and women—ahead of parliamentary elections due to take place later this year. They also sought the removal of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, who is viewed by his critics as lacking political experience and charisma.

“But Mr. Qandil retained his post in the reshuffle, helping to form the new cabinet that includes 10 officials belonging to the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Eight of 35 ministers in the previous government were FJP members. Many of the cabinet’s non-FJP ministers are also seen as allied with the president and the Brotherhood.

“No opposition members were named to the cabinet. The ministers of information and education, both Muslim Brotherhood members, retained their posts, as did the controversial interior minister, whose ouster had been sought by opponents…”

While Egypt’s Brotherhood infiltrates and exerts its control, the nation’s economy is draining away. More rioting looms unless substantial financial help comes from outside of Egypt. Like so many countries following the ‘Arab Spring,’ Egypt’s circumstances have grown more uncertain. “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy” is our free booklet explaining in great detail the meaning of events now taking place in Egypt and other surrounding nations–you may download this by clicking on the title or write for your own copy. 

Israeli Warplanes Strike Syria

JTA wrote on May 6:

“Twice in three days, Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace and fired on suspected weapons caches bound for Hezbollah — and nothing has happened in response. Some experts are predicting that will continue to be the case following airstrikes near Damascus on Friday and Sunday that are widely believed to be the work of the Israel Defense Forces. According to reports, the strikes targeted shipments of long-range, Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles capable of striking deep into Israel…

“Syria’s foreign minister told CNN on Sunday that the strikes amounted to a ‘declaration of war.’ But such gestures, analysts say, are merely symbolic. Torn by a civil war now in its third year, the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is too beleaguered to fight back. And Hezbollah, the Lebanese party considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, is considered too preoccupied propping up its Syrian patron to respond…

“Syria’s civil war augurs a major strategic shift for Israel. The two countries have technically have been in a state of war since the Yom Kippur War ended in 1973. And though the border since then has been largely quiet, Syria was Israel’s only neighbor to pose a threat of conventional attack. But the weakening of the Syrian regime has raised the frightening prospect that its stocks of chemical weapons may fall into the hands of Hezbollah. Israeli officials have said for months that they would take action should Syria transport unconventional weapons to Hezbollah. In January, Israel bombed a Syrian weapons convoy near the Syria-Lebanon border.”

Israel Doing It Alone…

The Washington Post wrote on May 5:

“Israeli forces have carried out an airstrike against a shipment of sophisticated missiles bound for the Lebanese political and military organization Hezbollah, officials in Washington, Lebanon and Israel told reporters Saturday….  It seems someone in the Israeli government took a not-too-subtle swipe at the Obama administration’s equivocating on Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. ‘Israeli officials described the missiles targeted in the Friday strike as “game-changing” weapons, according to the Associated Press. They said they were not chemical weapons, but advanced, long-range, ground-to-ground missiles…

“Not only does the Israeli action contrast with the U.S. government’s fecklessness, but it also raises the issue of whether the United States would prefer Israel police the Middle East. It is unbecoming for a superpower to let little Israel take on the Iranian surrogates… when a U.S. president is this passive and unwilling to act in accord with its words, the West and the Sunni states can take comfort in knowing that Israel is there to rein in the mullahs and their surrogates…

“The United States is obviously unwilling to back up its rhetoric with action. Syria is a dress rehearsal  for the bigger conflict between Iran and the West. There, too, one suspects, Israel will be forced to act. For what Israeli prime minister could rely on this administration to act? If Obama won’t take on Syria, there is little chance he’ll make good on his threats to Iran.”

No US Plans to Send Ground Troops to Syria

Deutsche Welle stated on May 6:

“International reaction to Israel’s latest airstrikes on Syria has been quick to come… Nabil al-Arabi, leader of the 22-member Arab League… condemned the attacks… On Sunday, senior US Senator John McCain said that the air strikes could add pressure on the United States to intervene in Syria, although Barack Obama has said he has no plans to send ground troops. The US president defended Israel’s right to block ‘terrorist organisations like Hezbollah’ from acquiring weapons after Friday’s raid…

“The United States had no prior knowledge of the attacks, according to officials. Still, the [Obama Administration’s] spokesman said, ‘the close coordination between the Obama administration, the United States of America, is ongoing with the Israeli government.’”

Palestinian President Travels to China, Consolidating China-Palestine Friendship

Xinhua reported on May 6, 2013:

“Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday reaffirmed the country’s support for the just cause of the Palestinian people. While meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing, Li noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of China-Palestine diplomatic relations, and reviewed a profound friendship between the two countries.

“Li said the new Chinese government has placed great importance on consolidating China-Palestine relations and firmly supports the just cause of the Palestinian people. ‘China will continue its own way and make use of its influence to boost Palestine-Israel peace negotiations, which will work for regional and world peace and stability,’ he said.”

Israeli PM Travels to China, Thanking Shanghai for Being a Haven for Jewish Refugees Fleeing Nazi Persecution

Xinhua reported on May 9, 2013:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Beijing, as part of his 5-day trip to China. He was welcomed by Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday afternoon at the Great Hall of the People. He’s also scheduled to meet with President Xi Jinping. Chinese leaders will hold talks with Netanyahu on trade and regional issues such as Iran, Syria and Egypt. Netanyahu arrived in Shanghai on Monday. He addressed business leaders from both Israel and China. He said Israeli technology and Chinese manufacturing and global marketing capabilities can form a winning combination.

“Later, he toured the city’s former Jewish quarter. There he lauded Shanghai for its past role as a haven for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution during World War Two. On Tuesday, Netanyahu met Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong to boost economic and trade cooperation. Netanyahu is the first Israeli leader to visit China in six years.”

It is noteworthy that both Abbas and Netanyahu are seeking help from China. What is significant is that the leadership vacuum being created by an ineffective United States is being filled!

Now Google Recognizes Palestine!

The Guardian reported on May 3, 2013:

“On Friday, the search engine changed the tagline on its home page in the occupied territories from ‘Palestinian territories’ to, simply, ‘Palestine’. ‘We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries,’ a Google spokesman, Nathan Tyler, told the BBC. ‘In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations.’

“What to call the area south of Lebanon and Syria, west of Jordan and north of Sinai that isn’t Israel is a matter of fierce debate. Before 1948 the entire area, including present-day Israel, was called Palestine. In 1988, leaders of the remaining territory declared a state of Palestine, but the state has had trouble gaining recognition. In November’s UN vote, 138 nations voted to recognize a state of Palestine, nine voted against and 41 abstained. Google’s homeland, the United States, is currently the most powerful opponent of recognizing Palestine.”

Preparing for Change in the Commonwealth

Mail Online wrote on May 8, 2013:

“The Queen plans to scale back her public duties and give Prince Charles a bigger role as ‘co-head’ of the royal family, well-placed sources have revealed. Buckingham Palace and  senior figures in Whitehall began discussing how to deal with the monarch’s advancing years several months ago, the Mail understands. They concluded that her 64-year-old son – the longest-serving heir apparent in British history – should take a more prominent position representing the sovereign at key events, particularly those abroad.

“In a sign of things to come, for the first time in 17 years the Queen will be accompanied by her eldest son at the State Opening of Parliament, which takes place today. The Duchess of Cornwall will also join them. It follows the surprise announcement by Buckingham Palace yesterday that, in a 40-year first, the Queen will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. Instead, Charles will take her place at the two-day event in Sri Lanka in November.

“Aides reluctantly admitted what has been suspected for some time: that the monarch, who reached the age of 87 last month, was not up to making frequent long-haul trips. But Charles’ presence at Parliament today suggests it is also part of the carefully-choreographed plan to share the burden of responsibility.”

Great change is already rumbling in the Commonwealth realms once so dominated by this Queen, and it will coincide with Britain’s growing isolation as the European Union soon completely rejects Britain’s membership within the E.U. “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America” reveals what really lies ahead for the Commonwealth–and for its monarchy!

U.K. Going Non-Traditional!

The Washington Post wrote on May 3, 2013:

“The Conservative-led coalition of Prime Minister David Cameron just got served. The anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party staged a dramatic surge Thursday in local elections in England and Wales, with results on Friday showing voters delivering a brutal whipping to the Conservatives and their junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

“Political pundits said the results represented one of the strongest showings by a non­traditional party in Britain since World War II, with the gains underscoring the rise of populist and nationalist parties across Europe. At the core of the party’s platform are aspirations to withdraw Britain from the European Union and impose new curbs on immigration, and the powerful showing sets U.K. Independence up to be an increasingly influential force in British politics. In recent months, its growing support in national polls had already sparked Britain’s three major parties — the Conservatives, Labor and the Liberal Democrats — to float increasingly strict proposals aimed at stemming the tide of foreigners…

“’This is a jolt against the entire political establishment,’ said Tony Travers, a political analyst at the London School of Economics. ‘What we don’t know is whether they will disappear like snow in hot weather by the next elections or whether they become an important force.’”

Britain will not be a member of Europe’s final revival under ten core nations or groups of nations, as we have stated for decades.

The Woman Is Riding the Beast…

The EUObserver wrote the following on May 3 about the introduction of a new Euro Note:

“The ECB chief unveiled the new note in the Slovak capital, Bratislava. It marks the official launch of a second-generation bill with new security features aimed to help stamp out counterfeiting. The series’ central figure is Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted and then raped by Zeus disguised as a white bull. The story inspired the ancient Greeks to use ‘Europe’ to name the continent. The princess is often depicted sitting on the bull but the note carries only her profile in a watermark and in a hologram…

“The notes also now take into account the countries that have joined the EU since 2002.  The map on the bill shows Malta and Cyprus with ‘euro’ written in Cyrillic, Latin and Greek alphabets. ECB will also appear in nine linguistic variants instead of the previous five.

“The old-€5 notes will continue to circulate with the new series for the next several months. The ECB expects the new generation note to outnumber the old by autumn. The old notes will eventually no longer be legal tender but will always retain their value and can be exchanged for an unlimited period of time at any national central bank in the eurozone. The ECB will continue with the new series in ascending order of €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500 over the coming years.”

The euro will not be abandoned, and the connection with the woman riding the beast (compare Revelation 17) is unmistakable.

“Revive the Weimar Triangle”

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 8:

“French President Francois Hollande was joined by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski for the 68th annual Victory in Europe (VE) Day celebrations in Paris. Hollande spoke about compromise with Germany.

“After the ceremonies on Wednesday, Hollande spoke of the need to find a compromise between Paris and Berlin for the good of Europe. Standing with the Polish president, Hollande said: ‘In 1963, General de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, after experiencing the horrors of two world wars, were able to unite France and Germany in a treaty of friendship. In the last 50 years, many things have happened; there has been reconciliation. Today, what we have to do is to come together for a Europe of growth and employment. This is the sense of the discussion that we have and I continue to say: there is a debate and in the end, it’s always with a compromise between France and Germany. This will be the case for the major issues we have to resolve’…

“Hollande said it was the wish of Paris and Warsaw to ‘revive the Weimar Triangle, that is the friendship between France, Germany and Poland together for Europe.’ VE Day was first celebrated on May 8, 1945 to mark the date when the World War II allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Germany, thus ending the war in Europe.”

Hungary’s Far-Right…

BBC News wrote on May 4, 2013:

“Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party has staged a rally in central Budapest in protest at the capital’s hosting of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Sunday. Several hundred supporters took part, despite attempts by the government to prevent it going ahead. Jobbik said the rally was a protest against what it said was a Jewish attempt to buy up Hungary. The party, which says it aims to protect Hungarian values and interests, is the third largest in parliament. It regularly issues anti-Semitic statements.

“The event in Budapest on Saturday was billed as a tribute to what organisers called the victims of Bolshevism and Zionism.”

Anti-Semitism is on the rise… again…

Berlusconi Convicted

The Associated Press reported on May 8:

“An appeals court has upheld the tax fraud conviction against ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi and sentenced him to four years in prison. But the former Italian leader could appeal this verdict to a higher court, the Court of Cassation.

“In October, a court convicted Berlusconi in a scheme that involved inflating the price his Mediaset media empire paid for TV rights to U.S. movies and pocketing the difference. Berlusconi denied the charges and says he’s a victim of politically motivated prosecutors. That verdict was upheld Wednesday by the appeals court in Milan.

“The lower court, which began hearing the case in 2006, also said Berlusconi could not hold public office for five years or manage any company for three years, penalties that would take force only if the conviction is upheld on two levels of appeal.”

Any Truth to This?– President Obama’s Hidden Past?

World Net Daily wrote on May 5:

“A prominent member of Chicago’s homosexual community claims Barack Obama’s participation in the ‘gay’ bar and bathhouse scene was so well known that many who were aware of his lifestyle were shocked when he ran for president and finally won the White House. ‘It was preposterous to the people I knew then to think Obama was going to keep his gay life secret,’ said Kevin DuJan, who was a gossip columnist in Chicago for various blogs when Obama was living in the city as a community organizer and later a state senator. ‘Nobody who knew Obama in the gay bar scene thought he could possibly be president,’ said DuJan.

“DuJan, founder and editor of the Hillary Clinton-supporting website HillBuzz.org, told WND he has first-hand information from two different sources that ‘Obama was personally involved in the gay bar scene. If you just hang out at these bars, the older guys who have been frequenting these gay bars for 25 years will tell you these stories,’ DuJan said. ‘Obama used to go to the gay bars during the week, most often on Wednesday, and they said he was very much into older white guys.’ Obama, DuJan said, is ‘not heterosexual and he’s not bisexual. He’s homosexual.’

“Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, who worked with the National Security Agency from 1984 to 1988 as a Navy intelligence analyst, confirmed DuJan’s claims. ‘It is common knowledge in the Chicago gay community that Obama actively visited the gay bars and bathhouses in Chicago while he was an Illinois state senator,’ Madsen told WND.

“WND also spoke with a member of the East Bank Club in Chicago, who confirmed Obama was a member there and was known to be a homosexual. The upscale fitness club, which has some 10,000 members, is not a ‘gay’ facility. But it’s one of a number of places identified by the Chicago homosexual community as a ‘gay gym,’ where homosexuals meet and engage in sexual activity.

“In April, WND reported a federal judge dismissed a libel case against Larry Sinclair, a homosexual who claimed Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign had paid to rig a polygraph test regarding Sinclair’s sensational charge that he had sex and used cocaine twice with Obama while Obama was an Illinois state senator… WND also reported former radical activist John Drew has said that when he met Obama when Obama was a student at Occidental College, he thought Obama and his then-Pakistani roommate were ‘gay’ lovers.

“In addition, rumors have swirled around Obama’s relationship with his personal aide and former ‘body man,’ Reggie Love, who resurfaced on the eve of the Republican National Convention to support his old boss. Love resigned from the White House in November 2011 after compromising photographs of him as a college student received wide circulation…

“DuJan said that during Obama’s first presidential campaign, ‘there was fear in the gay community’ about talking openly about Obama being homosexual, particularly after the murder in December 2007 of Donald Young, the openly gay choir director at Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, who was known to be a close friend of Obama…”

US Air Force in Crisis

The Guardian wrote on May 8:

“The US Air Force has stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to oversee nuclear missiles, after a string of failings that the group’s deputy commander said stemmed from ‘rot’ within the ranks… ‘We are, in fact, in a crisis right now,’ the group’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email that was obtained by the Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force…

“The news follows a series of incidents in recent years that have uncovered major problems with the oversight of the US’s nuclear arsenal. In 2007, airmen at Minot accidentally loaded a B-52 with six nuclear weapons. The aircraft then flew to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In another incident, nuclear weapons parts were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan. The defense department learned of the error in 2008, 18 months after the fuses for nuclear warheads were shipped…

“The 17 officers were part of a team standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force’s most powerful nuclear missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can strike targets across the globe. They were removed from duty in April…

“The suspensions are believed to be the most extensive ever… Minot’s latest crisis follows a 2008 Pentagon report that found a ‘dramatic and unacceptable decline’ in the Air Force’s commitment to the mission…”

It is indeed frightening to learn about a crisis within the US Air Force pertaining to the oversight of nuclear missiles.

Hypocritical US Congress?

The Huffington Post wrote on May 5:

“Only hypocrisy and demagoguery can explain Republican opposition to gun regulation, alleging potential infringement of constitutional freedoms — alongside Republican support for monitoring American citizens based solely on religion and empowering the government to deprive citizens of their rights, by deeming them enemy combatants… We don’t even know how many Americans own firearms because Congress prevented collection of this information — since the government can’t be trusted with a national firearms database.

“Surprisingly, these same politicians now demand that Americans trust the government to conduct surveillance of citizens based on their religion and to decide when citizens can be detained indefinitely as enemy combatants without a right to counsel. These rights (according to the GOP) are privileges, allowed at the government’s discretion. By contrast, the right to buy a private arsenal of automatic weapons without submitting to a background check is sacrosanct…

“Since 2002, about 19 Americans have died in domestic terrorism-related incidents (this includes the three people killed in the recent Boston Marathon bombing). Over the same period, about 300,000 Americans have died from gun violence…”

These are indeed highly disturbing developments…

In the last installment, we showed that the final resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire has already begun in Europe. We saw that core member states of Europe—ten nations or groups of nations—will unify and become militarily strong (Daniel 2:42). They will only rule for a short time and give their power and authority to a charismatic political personage—the “beast”—(Revelation 17:12-13). That short-lived unification under the beast will be hostile towards Jesus Christ (verse 14). Other passages show us that the “beast” will work together with a religious figure, called “the false prophet.”
 
In this and the next installment, we will discuss some of the characteristics of the beast and important concepts associated with him, as revealed in Scripture. We need to realize that the Bible uses the word “beast” for both the entire Roman system (the ancient Roman Empire and its revivals, including the final resurrection) as well as the final leader of that system. The passages which we will discuss below seem to indicate that the word “beast” refers—at least in part—to the end-time leader himself.
 
In Revelation 13:1-4, 8, 11-12, we are told that it is Satan who will give power to the beast (the system as well as the end-time leader), and that the false prophet, who deceives the nations, causes the nations to worship the beast (Revelation 14:9; compare 20:4). This reminds us of past Greek, Roman and European leaders who were literally worshipped and looked upon as God or a god, and this will also be true for the final leader. For instance, as was pointed out before, it is well-known that Hitler was perceived by many as a or the  “Messiah,” and other leaders such as Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Napoleon or Mussolini saw themselves as successors of the ancient Roman emperors (who, as we will see, were deified). Mussolini in particular was worshipped as a god by many Italians.
 
In the book, “Dark History of the Roman Emperors,” by Michael Kerrigan, the following is pointed out about the deification of several of the Roman emperors:
 
“The Second Triumvirate had the Senate acknowledge the late Julius Caesar as a god… It also had the consequence that, as ‘Divi Filius’ (‘son of god’), Octavian could claim to be ruling by divine right… After his death, Augustus was quite genuinely worshipped as a deity, as was his Empress, Livia Augusta… Caligula proclaimed himself a god in his own lifetime… Hadrian died in 138 C.E. As Emperor, his successor became known as Antonius Pius… because of his efforts to have his adoptive father deified… He adored his wife Faustina and was devastated by her death in 141 C.E.; he had her deified and built her a temple in the Forum.”
 
As will be explained subsequently, ancient Antiochus Epiphanes was a forerunner of the end-time beast. As the Wikipedia Encyclopedia points out, “He assumed divine epithets… such as Theos Epiphanes (… ‘God Manifest’).”
 
In the future, people will worship the beast during his lifetime. They will be deceived to do so by Satan and the signs of the false prophet (who will also be worshipped as God or a god).
 
In Revelation 13:6, we read that the beast will blaspheme God, His name, His tabernacle and the angels—in other words, everything which stands for the true worship of God and what is associated with God. We note Ephesians 3:14-15, pointing out that God’s people belong to the Family of God, and that “from the Father” God’s children “are named.” This shows, as it is confirmed in other passages, that the beast will become very hostile towards the true children of God and that he will severely persecute them.
 
Note the contrast in Revelation 13:16-18, which tells us that those who are not called by God and who do not understand the truth will accept the mark of the beast; the name of the beast, and the number of his name, which is 666. In following and worshipping the beast who will blaspheme God’s name, they will accept the name of the beast and his mark. 
 
Regarding the mark, the commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown states that “The mark may be, as in the case of the sealing of the saints in the forehead, not a visible mark, but symbolical of allegiance. So the sign of the cross in Popery. The Pope’s interdict has often shut out the excommunicate from social and commercial intercourse. Under the final Antichrist [the beast] this shall come to pass in its most violent form.”
 
In chapter 15 of our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation,” we state:
 
“Revelation 13:16–17 explains that ‘the image’ of the second (religious) beast will cause people to accept ‘a mark’ of the first beast ‘on their right hand’ or ‘on their foreheads.’ Without it, they cannot buy or sell (compare Revelation 14:9).
 
“This mark of the first beast is clearly associated in Scripture with the violation of God’s Sabbath commandment [the time from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset] (compare Exodus 31:13; Ezekiel 20:20; Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 58:13; Amos 8: 5; Exodus 16:23, 26; Exodus 31:15). In the Bible, the ‘right hand’ is associated with work (Psalm 90:17; 137:5). The ‘forehead’ is the seat of thoughts (Ezekiel 3:8; 9:4; Revelation 7:3).”
 
In our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy,” we state the following under the headline, “HOW WILL YOU BE IDENTIFIED?”:

“… the mark of the Beast apparently means general participation in the worship system of the revived Roman Empire…
 
“The little horn (in Daniel 7:25, referring to a religious power) intended to change times and laws—indeed, to change the law regarding holy times—and persecuted God’s people who did not accept its change. God has commanded His people to keep certain times holy and, during these holy times, His people are not to engage in commerce…
 
“The Bible is very clear about which days GOD has made holy—the weekly Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) and certain annual Holy Days, which are also called Sabbaths in the Bible (cf. Lev. 23). God commands His people in Exodus 31:13-17, ‘Surely My Sabbaths [plural—the weekly Sabbath and the seven annual Sabbaths] you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you…. You shall keep the Sabbath… for it is holy to you…. Whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.’ So, in contrast to the mark of the Beast, we have a sign of God and His people—the observance of His Sabbaths.
 
“The Sabbath command, it must be understood, is not just for the Jewish people, as many today will argue. Rather, the Sabbath was made, as Christ said, ‘for man’ (Mark 2:27) at the very time when man was created—when there was no distinction between Jews and non-Jews. It was clearly made for both Israelites and Gentiles (Is. 56:6-7).”
 
It is also important to note that in Europe, the weekly calendar was changed in 1976 to the effect that Sunday is designated as the last day of the week. Most people have been misled and deceived to think that Sunday is the “weekly Sabbath”—not Saturday. Indeed, the “little horn” has been heavily involved in changing the law regarding holy times.
 
We were also told in Revelation 13:17 that the nations will accept the name of the beast and the number of his name.
 
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary states that the “‘number of his name’ [implies] that the name has some numerical meaning.” The name can refer to a literal name, to an adopted name, or to a well-known- expression associated with or describing the beast (such as “Heil Hitler” or “Il Duce”). In addition, when people accept his name, they accept what he stands for and what he does.
 
In chapter 16 of our free booklet, “Is That in the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation,” we state:
 
“Verse 18 reveals that the famous ‘number of the beast’ is the ‘number of a man.’ We are told to ‘calculate’ the number, which is 666. King Lateinos was the founder of Rome. In the Greek, every letter has a numerical value. The numerical value for ‘Lateinos’ is 666. Therefore, the… beast is… clearly identified as the Roman Empire—the number 666 identifying the founder of the Roman Empire—Lateinos.
 
“Although the designation ‘beast’ in Revelation 13 describes the Roman Empire, it can also refer to the representative or ruler of the final revival or resurrection of that Empire (compare Revelation 16:13; 19:20). It is likely that the numerical value of the name of that final human leader of the revived Roman Empire—referred to as a MAN (compare again Revelation 13:18)—will also be 666.”
 
Many commentaries agree that the number of the beast—666—refers to Lateinos, the founder of Rome. In the Greek, L stands for 30, A for 1, T for 300, E for 5, I for 10, N for 50, O for 70, and S for 200. The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary states that the beast “may have a close connection with Rome, and so the name ‘Lateinos’ (666) may apply to him.”
 
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible explains that it is indeed the Greek language and the numerical value of its letters that need to be consulted to determine the number, as John wrote in Greek; the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet are expressly selected to denote Christ’s eternity, i.e. Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8, 11); and “the numerals by which the enigma is expressed… are Greek.” The commentary also explains that the number is indeed 666, and not 616, as sometimes proposed, as 616 is only contained in some falsified and corrupted versions.
 
The Ryrie Study Bible states that “Somehow, unknown to us, the number will play an important part in the identification of the Antichrist [the beast] in a future day.” And J.H. Blunt’s commentary writes that “the true and full application of it is not likely to be discovered until the personal Antichrist [the beast] himself has arisen, and then it may prove to be one of the signs by which he is to be readily identified.”
 
However, it won’t be a sign that will be readily discernable by most, since we specifically read in Revelation 13:18: “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast…”
 
One will need to have godly wisdom and understanding to figure out the number of his name. Most people will not be able to do so, and they will not believe it when it is revealed, because they will be deceived by Satan and the false prophet to believe a lie.
 
(To Be Continued)
 
Lead Writer Norbert Link

As a reminder, our publications presenting detailed biblical explanations includes hundreds of Question and Answer topics along with dozens of in-depth booklets–all of this is available at eternalgod.org.

A complete presentation of arrangements for observing the 2013 Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day can be found under the “Feasts” drop down on our homepage–eternalgod.org.

On May 4th, 2013, Eric Rank will give the sermon, titled, “Profit.”
 
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.

After reading about the events that occurred during the Boston Marathon bomb explosion in April, I was horrified like so many others. However, something I found very intriguing were the allegations that the bombing had been threatened ahead of time. The fact that people witnessed bomb sniffing dogs searching the grounds for explosives offers evidence that a bomb threat may have actually been called in. While the facts may remain a mystery, I could not help but reflect on the moral conundrum that the race officials would have been in, if in fact a bomb threat was received. In such an event a choice must be made to respond. Choosing to publicize the bomb threat may result in public panic, putting spectators in danger, potential humiliation if the threat was a fake, and a failed race event if cancelation was required. Choosing to keep the threat a secret, places the lives of spectators in danger, adds pressure to find the threatened explosives, and incriminates the race officials if the effort to find the explosives fails. One could make an argument that either choice is right, depending on the circumstances.

We may be fortunate enough not to be in the position to have to make life and death decisions right now, but we still have to make moral choices every day. When faced with a decision to make, especially when it involves a moral judgment, the clarity can blur between what is right and what is not. Fortunately, we have the Bible as our guide and rule book to help us judge righteously. Yet even then, the right decisions are not always obvious. In fact, we have proof that our moral judgment sometimes fails. As Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 7:20, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.” If our judgment and our actions based on such judgment were always righteous, we would not sin. While this is true, we cannot go through life refraining from making decisions just because it is difficult and we may fail. Moral paralysis is not an option for a Christian.

What we have to remember is the faith of Jesus Christ must guide our choices if we want to work towards becoming righteous. Any righteous decision that we may attempt on our own is doomed to failure without relying on God’s guidance. The carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7), and therefore cannot be relied upon to guide us down the path of moral righteousness. Paul understood this with clarity, teaching in Philippians 3:8-9, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…” The righteousness that we work to attain originates with God.

It is reassuring to know that we have the resources at our disposal to be right according to the standards of God. The difficult challenge that we must take to heart is to remove from the equation our own human and carnal assessment of what is right. Only God can inspire us to act righteously, through the faith of Jesus Christ working within us.

Israel’s request to Pope Francis for help begins our reporting; we continue with reports about Syria’s denial of its use of chemical weapons and the curse of chemical warfare in general; and we speak on the abortions conducted by Planned Parenthood; the American Jewish support of same-sex marriages; and the scandalous behavior of the Child Protective Services in collaboration with certain hospitals and the police in their endeavor to take away children from conscientious parents.

We speak about Germany’s leadership role in Europe and the perceived need to see the Eurozone develop into a fully-fledged political union; we present a report on Italy’s new government, which is not that “new” after all, and conclude with an announcement of the coronation of the new king of the Netherlands.

Israeli Government Seeks Papal Help for Peace

Newsmax reported on April 30, 2013:

“Israeli President Shimon Peres warned Pope Francis Tuesday that the Middle East is ‘disintegrating’ and that the pontiff ‘has an important role’ to play in bringing peace to the region and the world.

“During their half-hour conversation, Peres said the Middle East is in ‘real existential danger’ and cited the severe lack of employment, of food and water. He warned that if these problems are not resolved, ‘violence and terror will gain a central place, as dangerous weapons fall into the hands of extremists.’

“An Israeli government statement said Peres spoke of the danger of Iran’s nuclear-weapons program and Syria’s ‘huge quantities of chemical weapons.’ He told the Pope that Iran ‘must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons and that Syrian chemical weapons must not fall into irresponsible hands’…

“In its statement, the Vatican said Pope Francis and Peres expressed hopes for a speedy resumption of peace talks and an agreement that draws on ‘courageous decisions’ and the support of the international community. A resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would contribute to peace and stability throughout the region, the Vatican said.

“The Israeli statement said Pope Francis suggested creating ‘a global meeting of hope with the heads of all the world’s faiths and to come out against violence and terror.’ The Pope also condemned anti-Semitism, saying it goes against the beliefs of Christianity and that it ‘must be opposed in every country in the world and every corner of the globe,’ the Israeli statement continued…

“’You have an important role in progressing peace and the belief in it,’ Peres said. ‘I turn to you and ask that within your sermons in front of millions of believers in the world you include the hope for peace in the Middle East and the whole world.’

“He said the Pope’s leadership ‘creates a new spirit of hope for peace, of dialogue between nations and of the promotion of a solution to global poverty and illiteracy.’

“’Sadly, there are many religious leaders in the Middle East and across the world who advocate terror and bloodshed and do so in the name of the Lord,’ he said. ‘We all have an obligation to stand up and say, in a loud and clear voice, that the Lord did not give anyone the authority to murder and carry out bloodshed. Your voice has a great impact in this matter.”

Peace will certainly come to the Middle East and to the whole world, but it will be brought about by the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of God’s government over all people–not by this or any future pope! However, there is great prophetic significance in the attention now being given to Rome’s possible role in Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Please watch: “The Beast, His Mark, His Name and His Number,” available at StandingWatch.org, for in-depth analysis of what the Bible reveals about the meaning of today’s news and what you must do to be prepared for events that lie ahead!

Syria Denies Use of Chemical Weapons—Of Course It Would…

AFP wrote on April 27:

“US and British accusations that the regime in Damascus may have used chemical weapons are a ‘barefaced lie,’ Syria’s information minister told Russian television Saturday. ‘First of all, I want to confirm that statements by the US Secretary of State and British government are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie,’ Omran al-Zohbi said in an interview published on the Kremlin-funded RT’s website. ‘I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it — not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues,’ Zohbi said in comments that were published in English on the website.

“US President Barack Obama on Friday warned Syria that using chemical weapons would be a ‘game changer,’ after the US, Israel and Britain all cited signs that the regime attacked with the deadly agent sarin.

“United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon has called on Syria to approve a UN mission of inspectors to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the spiralling two-year conflict. But Zohbi told RT that the Syrian government could not trust UN inspectors from Britain and the US… He added that the Syrian government would accept Russian inspectors…Along with China, Russia has blocked several UN Security Council draft resolutions threatening sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

This reminds us of Hitler’s denial of losing World War II when it was obvious that Germany had already lost. Even when Germany had to flee from the Russians, the Nazi propaganda spoke about “victorious retreat.” We are also reminded of Iraq’s lying propaganda spokesman during the US invasion. The fact that Syria vehemently denies any use of chemical weapons seems to confirm that they did use them. And to invite in Russian inspectors, while rejecting inspectors from the UN, the US and GB, does not give us much confidence in the veracity of Syria’s claims.

The Curse of Chemical Warfare

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 27:

“The use of chemical weapons is nothing new. Already in ancient times, the Persians ignited bitumen and sulfur crystals to produce gases to poison Roman soldiers. During the First World War, the use of chlorine gas was widespread, marking the start of the modern era of warfare involving weapons of mass destruction. Altogether, around 124,000 metric tons (137,000 tons) of chemical weapons were utilized during World War I, killing 90,000 people and affecting the health of one million others. German chemist and Nobel Prize-winner Fritz Haber was the key figure in the development of poisonous gases for usage in warfare.

“Chemical weapons have been controversial from the start. Already in 1925, the Geneva Protocol prohibited their use. Despite this, they continued to be employed in World War II, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Their destructive force was particularly evident during an attack on the Iraqi city of Halabja on March 16, 1988, in which around 5,000 people were killed.

“Efforts to ban chemical warfare continued, however, achieving success in April 1997 with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which has to this day been signed by 188 states. Not party to the agreement are Angola, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria. The convention obliges members to destroy existing chemical weapons…

“Chemical weapons are typically lethal chemicals housed in munitions such as mines, hand grenades, bombs, spray tanks and rockets. They either suffocate, paralyze, or poison the victim. Initially, they consisted of poisonous gases, such as chlorine, or hydrogen cyanide; however, these proved to be too volatile. The industry then began producing liquid poisons, which not only affected the lungs but could enter the body through the skin and spread quickly. Particularly potent is mustard gas, which was first produced by a Belgian chemist in 1822 and used to maim and kill thousands of people during World War I.

“Sarin, whose use has been suspected in the current Syrian conflict, is classified as a nerve agent. Developed during World War II, it is fatal even in small doses. It can be inhaled, or can enter the body through skin contact…

“Although not always lethal, exposure to chemical weapons often has devastating health consequences, such as blindness, skin damage and birth defects. Some chemical weapons cause long-lasting environmental contamination. One of these is Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War. An estimated two to four million people are suffering its after-effects today in the Southeast Asian country…

“The production of chemical weapons is relatively simple. More difficult is the acquisition of the necessary ingredients. The Chemical Weapons Convention also applies to the production and sale of substances which might be converted into chemical weapons. Experts believe that such substances are traded on the international black market.

“In addition to everything else, chemical weapons tend to be highly durable. This is why chemical munitions from the First World War that are still sometimes found today in the German-French border region need to be disposed of with great care. Meanwhile, both the US and Russia are believed to still possess large stockpiles – going against the international convention.”

In Revelation 9:5-6, we read that weapons will be used to torment people for six months, but not to kill them. Apparently, the effect will be so painful that victims will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, but death will flee from them. Apparently, this describes the use and effect of some modern chemical and biological weapons.

Bird-Flu Virus Spreads

Reuters reported on April 27:

“China on Saturday reported its first case of H7N9 bird flu in the southern province of Hunan, the latest sign the virus that has killed 23 people in the country is continuing to spread… This week, the World Health Organization called the virus ‘one of the most lethal’, and said it is more easily transmitted than an earlier strain that has killed hundreds around the world since 2003… Chinese scientists confirmed on Thursday that chickens had transmitted the flu to humans.”

In these end times, more and more untreatable diseases will plague mankind.

God to Bless Planned Parenthood Abortionists?

The Washington Times wrote on April 26:

“President Obama offered a defiant defense of government funding for Planned Parenthood Friday and urged the group’s members to help his administration sign up more women for benefits under his besieged health-care law. The first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, Mr. Obama accused conservative politicians of trying to ‘roll back the clock’ on abortion rights and health-care services for women.”

CNS News added on April 26:

“President Barack Obama praised the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for saving lives and helping women and families in a 12-minute, 3-second speech on Friday, which was enough time for 7.6 abortions to take place at Planned Parenthood clinics, based upon the abortion data in their latest annual report. According to that annual report for 2011-2012, Planned Parenthood and its affiliated clinics performed 333,964 abortions in fiscal 2011. That averages one abortion every 94 seconds…

“The 2011-2012 report states that Planned Parenthood received $542.4 million in ‘government health services grants and reimbursements,’ which it states includes ‘payments from Medicaid managed care plans.’ The report also shows that Planned Parenthood’s total assets top $1 billion dollars, specifically $1,244.7 billion…”

The Daily Caller added on April 26:

“President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to deliver a speech to Planned Parenthood on Friday. The organization is America’s leading abortion provider… USA Today reports that President Obama never once mentioned the word ‘abortion’ during his remarks, only the ‘right to choose.’… ‘Thank you Planned Parenthood. God bless you. God bless you,’ Obama concluded.”

We take note of the fact that the leader of the United States vainly calls upon God to bless those whose sole purpose is to murder unwanted babies!

Isn’t It Just Lovely?

The Times of Israel wrote on April 27:

“American Jews show among the highest levels of support for gay marriage, from all American subgroups measured in recent polls, according to figures published this week by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. According to five polls of Americans in 2012 and 2013, with the most recent conducted in March 2013, 76 percent of US Jews support legalizing same-sex marriage, while 18% oppose and 8% did not express an opinion… The figure is remarkably high, particularly when compared to the number of Protestants (34%) and Catholics (53%) who support same-sex marriage.

“Jewish support is higher than the support among Democrats (61%), self-described ‘liberals’ (72%), and even among Americans without religious affiliation (75%)…

“The youngest adult Americans are twice as likely to support gay marriage as the oldest. Some 66% of Americans aged 18-29 support it, while just 33% of those over 65 expressed support. All religious groups and political subdivisions saw much higher support for gay marriage among the young. For example, 39% of Republicans aged 29 or younger support legalizing gay marriage, compared to just 16% of Republicans over 65. Among Catholics, support is twice as high (72%) among those aged 18 to 34 as it is among those over 65 (36%).

“Women were also more likely to support gay marriage (52%) than men (44%). The rate of attendance of religious services also has an effect on views on gay marriage… Those with lower attendance were twice as likely, at 60%, to support legalizing gay marriage, compared to the [lower] levels of support, 28%, from those with higher attendance.”

That American Jews should be at the forefront of fighting for ungodly conduct is surprising and telling at the same time.

Scandal—“CPS Takes Baby After Parents Seek Second Medical Opinion”

The Healthy Home Economist wrote on April 27:

“A Sacramento couple is without their 5 month old baby after Child Protective Services sent in the police to forcibly remove the child from their care. A hearing is scheduled for Monday, April 29, 2013 on the incident which was triggered when Anna Nikolayev and her husband Alex took baby Sammy out of Sutter Memorial Hospital and sought a second opinion at Kaiser Permanente, a rival hospital, for Sammy’s flu-like symptoms.

“Anna and Alex were concerned about the quality of care baby Sammy was receiving at Sutter where he was admitted nearly two weeks ago. At one point, Anna questioned the antibiotics Sammy was being given and was alarmed that the nurse administering the treatment didn’t know why the child was receiving them. Anna claims that a doctor later said that Sammy should not have been receiving the medication.

“When doctors began discussing the possibility of heart surgery, the parents decided to leave without a proper discharge in order to have the child examined elsewhere… While at Kaiser Permanente, the police showed up at the request of Sutter. The police told the parents that staff at Sutter had told them that the child was in such a bad state that, as Anna put it, ‘they thought that this baby is dying on our arms.’

“After the police saw that baby Sammy was fine and examined medical records that clearly stated that Sammy was clinically safe to go home, they left. The attending doctor at Kaiser said, ‘I do not have concern for the safety of the child at home with his parents.’

“The next day, police came to Alex and Anna’s home. Alex met them outside and was slammed against the wall and pushed to the ground. His keys to the home were forcibly removed from him and the police entered the house to take the baby… News10 of Sacramento spoke with police on the situation and were told to talk to Child Protective Services. CPS said little about the case, only saying on Thursday, April 27 that the child was taken due to severe neglect…

“Sammy is currently in ‘protective custody’ at Sutter Memorial Hospital. Hospital officials refused to comment saying the case was with CPS and law enforcement and they would have to deliver a statement. Alex sums up the situation well. ‘It seems like parents have no right whatsoever,’ he said.

“Indeed. Parents are increasingly becoming irrelevant when it comes to decisions regarding their children’s medical care. Jodi and Scott Ferris experienced a similar traumatic event when they questioned the Hep B vaccination for their baby at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Their baby was also taken by CPS.

“The moral of this story? Tick off doctors and nurses at a hospital and they could very well sic CPS on you – with police breaking down your door in short order. Think long and hard before taking your children to the hospital my friends. Once you go through that door, the medical decisions about your child are no longer within your control.”

This scandalous report about incredible conduct of the police and CPS, as well as the staff of the Sutter Memorial Hospital, did not address a situation in communist Russia or China—it is happening in the so-called free United States. Obviously, our freedom to train our children is systematically being taken away from us. But the murder of innocent children through abortion is condoned and supported by governmental agencies. What incredible hypocrisy and a total reversal of right values!

Merkel’s Germany the Master of Europe

Mail on Line wrote on April 27:

“Angela Merkel does not look like a conqueror… Yet according to one of Germany’s most distinguished intellectuals, Mrs Merkel is ‘the uncrowned Queen of Europe’. In the European power stakes, no one comes close to competing with the German Chancellor… in just a few years, using the European Union as her vehicle, she has succeeded where Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Hitler failed – turning an entire continent into a greater German empire… this is the implication of a devastating new book by the eminent sociologist Ulrich Beck, who teaches at the University of Munich and the London School of Economics.

“According to Professor Beck, one of the most respected scholars of his generation, Germany is now the undisputed master of Europe. And at its head is Angela Merkel…

“Angela Merkel’s Germany is the biggest economy in Europe and the fourth biggest in the world. It is the world’s second largest exporter, raking in some £915 billion every year. And while Britain’s budget deficit in 2012/3 is forecast to be a whopping £120 bn – or eight per cent of our gross domestic product – the Germans are expected to run a small surplus in 2013 and 2014, as they have done so often in recent years.

“All of that has left Mrs Merkel in an extraordinarily strong position. Uniquely amid the shattered economies of the eurozone, Germany stands relatively unscarred from the great financial crisis…

“In much of Europe, she inspires more fear than any other leader for decades. Yet in her native Germany, Mrs Merkel is hugely popular… The Germans have worked hard to become Europe’s top dogs, and unlike their neighbours they have managed their finances with scrupulous responsibility… Angela Merkel has succeeded where so many of her predecessors, with their strutting militarism, peaked helmets and soaring rhetoric, failed. She has made Germany the undisputed master of Europe.

“Not bad for a pastor’s daughter from rural Brandenburg. But as her career has shown, [she] always has the last laugh…”

As we have said for decades, Germany will lead Europe. But as we explain in our ongoing Q&A series on the ten revivals of the ancient Roman Empire, Mrs. Merkel is not the one who will be leading core Europe, consisting of ten nations or groups of nations. Another leader of German or Austrian decent is still going to arise on the world scene.

Eurozone Must Become a Fully-Fledged Political Union

The Guardian wrote on April 28:

“One of Germany’s most influential political thinkers has delivered a stark warning that its post-second world war liberal democracy cannot be taken for granted and its dominant role in managing Europe’s debt crisis could lead to disaster. Jürgen Habermas, the Frankfurt professor whose political thinking has helped shape Germany over the past 50 years, called for the EU to be turned into a supranational democracy and the eurozone to become a fully fledged political union, while lambasting the ‘technocratic’ handling of the crisis by Brussels and European leaders…

“‘The German government holds the key to the fate of the European Union in its hands. The main question is whether Germany is not only in a position to take the initiative, but also whether it could have an interest in doing so,’ he said. ‘The leadership role that falls to Germany today is not only awakening historical ghosts all around us, but also tempts us to choose a unilateral national course or even to succumb to power fantasies of a “German Europe”. ‘We Germans should have learned from the catastrophes of the first half of the 20th century that it is in our national interest to avoid permanently the dilemma of a semi-hegemonic status that can hardly hold up without sliding into conflicts.’

“Habermas’s wakeup call came at the end of a week of similar alarms being sounded on both sides of the country’s borders. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, in the presence of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin last week, said there were worries about German domination of the EU ‘everywhere, without exception’”.

And it will happen—a fully-fledged political (and military) union of the Eurozone under German leadership.

Return to Deutschmark Would Cause Serious Damage

The Local wrote on April 30:

“Ditching the euro would cost Germany at least 200,000 jobs and half a percentage point in growth, according to a new study which concluded that Europe’s biggest economy benefited from being within the eurozone.

“Even if Germany were to have to write off the majority of the money it has put into the various euro rescue packages, the study from the Bertelsmann Foundation concluded, it would still be better off sticking with the currency than bailing out. It is not only the large economic figures which benefit from Germany being in the eurozone, the study suggested – the average benefit from having the euro for individuals worked out at around €1,100 a year between 2013 and 2025…

“The Bertelsmann Foundation… did not take into consideration the fact that if Germany were actually to leave the euro, it would probably lead to the collapse of the currency union and a global economic crisis. ‘Germany’s membership of the currency union reduces the cost of international trade and protects against severe currency exchange fluctuations,’ said Aart De Geus, head of the foundation. ‘A return to the Deutschmark would cause significant damage. The Germans would lose income and jobs.’”

Core Policy of Anti-European Party “Insane”

Reuters wrote on April 28:

“A core policy of a new anti-euro party was criticized as ‘economically insane’ by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in an interview published on Sunday. Support for the Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), which wants Germany to quit the euro and reintroduce the deutsche mark, is at 2 percent, according to a survey by Emnid pollsters also released on Sunday. ‘For Germany, it would be economically insane to exit the euro,’ Schaeuble told German weekly Focus, adding that Switzerland’s struggle with its soaring franc proved how problematic it could be to have a stronger currency.

“Schaeuble warned support for the AfD could still cost the ruling coalition crucial votes in September’s elections. Political analysts say it would be difficult for the AfD, launched a few months ago by a group of renegade academics, journalists and businessmen, to get above the five percent threshold needed to enter parliament in September…

“A majority of Germans continue to back the euro, opinion surveys regularly show, but the AfD is trying to tap into concerns about the mounting costs of bailouts for heavily indebted countries in the southern euro zone… Schaeuble told Focus that even thinkers who had been critical of his government’s bailout policy, such as Germany’s best-known economist Hans-Werner Sinn, believed in the euro. Sinn distanced himself from the AfD in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published on Sunday. ‘I believe that it is worth fighting for the euro as such,’ Sinn said. ‘But I believe it is a big error to keep weak southern European countries in the euro at all costs. You do not thereby help these countries and you reduce the probability that the euro will survive,’ he said, adding that struggling economies such as Cyprus and Greece should temporarily leave the euro.

“Schaeuble said the AfD was merely a protest party, feeding on voters’ fears about the crisis. ‘A party, that is only against something, cannot be taken seriously. And it will not be successful in Germany,’ he said.”

Schaeuble is correct with his assessment that the AfD will not be successful in Germany, and that Germany will not abandon the Euro.

Italy’s New Government

Deutsche Welle reported on April 28:

“The cabinet formed by Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta is a combination of left- and right-leaning party stalwarts, independents and newcomers. But, the mix could also be a recipe for power struggles…

“Italy’s new head of government managed to combine old and new when forming his government. New faces can be seen in the 21-person team, which includes seven women. One of them is newcomer Cecile Kyenge, a Congolese-born doctor and human rights activist and Italy’s first black minister. She was given the post of integration minister. Another newcomer is German-born Josefa Idem, a former canoeist and winner of multiple Olympic medals. She is now sports and equal opportunities minister…

“But sharing the bench with the new arrivals are members of the old government, who hold some of the most important posts. Infrastructure and Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi hails from former Prime Minister Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, as does the new interior minister, Angelino Alfano, who is also assuming the position of deputy prime minister. The particularly high standing of the latter should help relieve Berlusconi’s disappointment over not being able to fill the justice minister post with one of his people. The new justice minister is Anna Maria Cancellieri, an independent left over from the interim government of Prime Minister Mario Monti…

“Berlusconi is pleased with the current political constellation. Although only a quarter of the population voted for his party alliance, he still gets a say in the new government…”

Berlusconi is just not going away…

The New King of The Netherlands

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 30:

“The rather reserved queen Beatrix of the Netherlands hands over her crown to her son Willem-Alexander. He’s somewhat closer to the people, and people across the country are celebrating their new king… Polls suggest that outgoing queen Beatrix (75) and her son, the new king Willem-Alexander (46), are very popular with the people. Almost 75 percent of the population thinks their parliamentary monarchy is the right form of government for the country…

“In a television interview, the new king said he wants to continue in the same vein in which his mother held office. ‘I want to be a king who builds on the traditions of his predecessors. I’m standing for continuity and stability in the country, but I also will be a king who will bring people together and mediate between them.’

“The Dutch constitution is very precise in defining the role of the monarch as head of state. The king can contribute to the formation of the government, since he can name the mediator in the coalition talks…

“The Dutch parliament was hesitant in 2002 when it had to give its legally required consent to Willem-Alexander’s marriage to the non-aristocratic Argentinian Maxima. Her father is controversial because of his role in the Argentinian military dictatorship and because of that he will not be allowed to attend the coronation ceremony. The three predecessors of Willem-Alexander on the throne all had German partners. The Dutch monarchy of Orange-Nassau traditionally has close ties to German aristocracy….”

The ninth resurrection of the Roman Empire under Mussolini and Hitler has ended, and one more revival is prophesied to occur. That last revival of the ancient Roman Empire has been in the making for quite some time, and its final configuration is not that far off.
 
According to the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation, the last European revival of the ancient Roman Empire will be a unification of ten nations or groups of nations, which will give their power to the “beast”—a charismatic political and military leader. This political power bloc will be collaborating with a mighty Church organization claiming to be Christian, but it is a fallen church which has rejected the truth of God and has aligned itself with the political powers of this present evil world.
 
The last resurrection of the Roman Empire has already begun. And politicians KNOW that they are resurrecting the ancient Roman Empire.
 
On October 29, 2004, the member states of the EU signed the EU Constitution. Even though it was not ratified by all member states and therefore did not become law (it was later replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon, which became effective on December 1, 2009, and which included many of the provisions of the EU Constitution), it is still interesting where the EU Constitution was signed.
 
The EuObserver wrote on October 29, 2004: “Symbolically, the ceremony [took] place in the same room as the signing of the original Treaty of Rome by the then six member states – France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg – in 1957.”
 
The original Treaty of Rome in 1957 gave birth to the unification of Europe. Der Stern Online wrote that that First Roman Treaty signalized “the beginning of the success story of Europe.”
 
The idea of a united Europe is very much alive. European politicians want it—it is the people who are concerned. But the time will come when the European politicians will have their say. Europe is destined to become a super power. The dream of a united Europe has been around for some time. According to Der Stern Online of March 25, 2004, ‘Voltaire said in 1767 that Europe will become a great republic of cultivated spirits. Shortly thereafter, Immanuel Kant spoke of a European House. In 1849, Victor Hugo coined enthusiastically the phrase, ‘United States of Europe’ – a slogan that was later used by Winston Churchill during a speech in 1943.”
 
But things really began to shape up with the introduction of the euro. On January 1, 1999, the euro was introduced. Today, it is one of the most powerful currencies in the world.
 
Business Week wrote on May 4, 1998: “The Euro will turn Europe into a Superpower.”
 
National Review wrote on October 26, 1998: “That monetary union is first and foremost a political project… French officials cite the Euro as a means by which to develop a global political counterweight to the world’s only superpower [the US]. Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt says, ‘the arrival of the euro will… change the whole world situation so that the United States can no longer call all the shots.’”
 
Newsweek wrote in late 1998: “In January, the world will start getting used to a new currency. Whether you love the Euro or hate it, know this; nothing so big has ever happened before.”
 
Even though some European eurozone member states had and have to fight with economic hardship, it should have been clear to those who understand biblical prophecy that the euro was and is destined to survive—as it is the glue which binds together the Eurozone members politically.
 
On May 1, 2004, the (then) 25 member states of Europe celebrated the coming unification of Europe. Der Stern stated: “Great Europe is to become a world power – economically, culturally and perhaps even militarily.”
 
Mark Leonard wrote in “Why Europe Will Run the 21th Century (ed. 2005, page 7): “By creating the largest single internal market in the world, Europe has become an economic giant that, according to some calculations, is already the biggest in the world.”
 
The EUObserver wrote on July 16, 2008: “In 2005, the US was supplanted as the world’s largest single market by the EU… Many American firms suddenly had this new beast to deal with—the EU.”
 
And a beast it is—biblically speaking.
 
Very soon, ten core nations or groups of nations will rule continental Europe.  Although presently 27 member states exist, there is already much talk about a Europe of two speeds, or of the necessity to establish powerful core nations to rule the rest of Europe. Remember, the Bible speaks about 10 nations or groups of nations—not 27 or more members.
 
Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 16, 2008:
 
“Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said… that it was time for a ‘Club of the Few.’ Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer likewise wrote… that ‘those who want political integration should move forward and those who are happy with just a common market should be left behind.’”
 
According to The Local, dated June 7, 2012, “Chancellor Angela Merkel said… that she would work towards a European political union even if that meant a two-speed approach.”
 
The EUObserver wrote on June 29, 2012: “… the phenomenon of a two-speed Europe not only becomes a fact of increased likelihood, but it is more and more politically acknowledged and approved.”
 
In fact, a core Europe already exists.
 
Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 19, 2005: “When EU finance ministers meet, the 12 ministers from the euro zone hold talks among themselves before they meet the [other] colleagues whose countries haven’t adopted the euro. In that pre-meeting, the most important decisions for the euro zone are made.”
 
Mark Leonard wrote in 2005 in “Why Europe Will Run the 21th Century,” on page 108: “There are already three ambitious projects that do not include all of the EU’s… members: the eurozone…; the Schengen agreement, which allows passport free travel…; and the Western European Union, Europe’s defence identity…”
 
Notice this statement, which was published in The Berliner Zeitung, dated July 2, 2008: “The idea of a core Europe or a two-speed Europe is not at all the heresy that some make it out to be. It has long been reality: Many states do not participate in one of the key issues of European integration: the single currency.”
 
There is strong historical and biblical indication that Britain will not be part of the final unification of Europe. The EUObserver hinted at this development, when it wrote on March 10, 2007: “The EU should go ahead and further integrate without the UK… Belgium’s prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has said. He added that [under certain circumstances], ‘the European Union must progress without Great Britain.’”
 
The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 24, 2007, that “Ms. Merkel’s team considers Britain one of the biggest obstacles to any agreement.”
 
According to a statement by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 2004, core Europe might NOT include Britain, but he felt that it would include countries like France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However, this assessment might not be entirely correct. Certainly, countries like Germany, Italy France, Spain and Austria will be part of the core European configuration, and it is very likely that countries such as Poland and Hungary will be part of it. Whether Greece will be a part of it is not certain at all, but it is virtually assured that Britain won’t be a part of it.
 
In regard to Poland, Der Spiegel Online wrote on May 25, 2012: “Poland… has become the most astonishing success story in Eastern Europe. Relations between Berlin and Warsaw have never been better…  Berlin is already Warsaw’s biggest [trading] partner.”
 
Regarding Italy, the EUObserver wrote on March 4, 2013: “Italy indeed is a difficult beast to understand—let alone tame—for the other European countries, but it is an anchor, not an iceberg, for the European integration process.”
 
Regarding Britain, The Associated Press wrote on January 24, 2013:
 
“British Prime minister David Cameron wants nothing to do with a United States of Europe… Many in the EU, particularly among the 17 countries that use the euro, are on a drive for closer political unification, and that’s raised particular concerns recently in Britain… Britain’s relations with Europe have been strained since the end of World War II… It has stood against many efforts to forge closer ties, notably the creation of the euro…” Mail Online added on January 18, 2013: “… the EU’s mission for ‘ever closer union’ has always meant ultimately creating a federal superstate, something that is unacceptable to most Britons.”
 
And so, while Italy—a “beast”—will be part of the core nations of Europe, it is highly unlikely that Britain will be part of it. In fact, more and more voices are being heard insisting that the UK should leave the EU voluntarily or involuntarily. A vast majority of the British people are against the idea that their country should even stay in the EU.  In fact, Britain is not part of the 17 European states presently in the Eurozone, and it is virtually certain that it will not adopt the euro. This is of great biblical significance, because the Bible says that in the very end, the European power bloc, under the leadership of the “beast,” will fight a war against Britain.
 
Europe, under its core member states, will also become a strong and powerful military union. Europe’s leaders realize that a strong political union necessitates a unified European army. We have seen Europe—and Germany—getting more and more involved militarily in non-European countries. As America’s influence diminishes, Europe sees the need to fill the vacuum.
 
Under the headline, “German Chancellor Favors Creation of European Army,” Deutsche Welle reported on March 23, 2007:
 
“The European Union should move towards forming a common army, Germany’s Angela Merkel said in an interview focusing on the chancellor’s vision for the future of the bloc. Just ahead of weekend celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the foundations of the European Union, Chancellor Merkel said she envisioned a single European army for the future of the 27-member bloc in the next decades. ‘We need to get closer to a common army for Europe,’ she told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper… The call for a European armed forces is not new. Last year, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country wanted a new 100,000-strong European army created to work with NATO in trouble spots in the world or to defend Europe.”
 
Under the headline, “European Army Backed,” The Sydney Morning Herald wrote the following on September 20, 2012:
 
“Germany, France and nine of Europe’s most powerful countries have called for an elected European Union president and an end to Britain’s veto over defence policy, in a radical blueprint for the continent’s future… As well as calling for a single, elected head of state for Europe, the bloc demanded a new defence policy, under the control of a pan-EU foreign ministry commanded by Baroness Ashton, which ‘could eventually involve a European army’. In order to ‘prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives’, a reference to British opposition to a European army, the German-led group demanded an end to existing national vetoes over foreign and defence policy… The plan, which has the backing of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Holland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal, is likely to increase calls for a British referendum on EU membership.”
 
The core member states of Europe will become militarily strong (Daniel 2:42), but at first, they will not be totally unified. The Bible says that their unification will be “fragile” (same verse). It will take the arrival of the “beast” to create a short-lived military unification “of one mind” (Revelation 17:12-13), which will be hostile towards Jesus Christ (verse 14).
 
As we will explain in much detail in subsequent installments, the European political unification will be closely connected with the Roman Catholic Church. In a sense, the Roman Church has been influencing the European unification process to a certain degree all along. As The Telegraph wrote in 1991: “The Common Market itself started under the inspiration of Catholic politicians—such as Adenauer of Germany, Paul-Henri Spaak, Jean Monnet and Robert Schumann… They were all deeply influenced by Catholic social teaching.”
 
Monnet believed in the Catholic vision that Europe should become a federal superstate. The Financial Times wrote on May 22, 1995, that the “idea of a united Europe” has been viewed as “essentially a Catholic concept.”
 
In the next installment, we will discuss the characteristics of and other interesting facts about the future political and military European leader, called “the beast” in biblical prophecy.
 
(To Be Continued)
 
Lead Writer: Norbert Link

“The Beast, His Mark, His Name and His Number” is the title of a new StandingWatch program recorded by evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: Is the beast alive? What is his mark? What is his name and his number? Will he be worshipped? Will he persecute the saints? Will he arise in Europe? Does the Bible tell us?
 
“Das Tier, sein Zeichen, sein Name und seine Zahl” is the title of the German language version of this program. It is available on AufPostenStehen.de.

“The Son of Man and of God,” is the title of the sermon given by Norbert Link this past Sabbath–here is a summary: Who was Jesus Christ when He was here on earth? Was He a Man? What He God? Was He the Son of Man and the Son of God? Was He fully God and fully Man? Was Jesus really dead? Did the Son of God die? Did Jesus overcome sin in the flesh? Was He God before He came to this earth? Is He God today? Is He our only Mediator between God the Father and man? Why was all judgment given to Him? Is it man’s potential to become God? Is the Trinity doctrine wrong—both the Greek Orthodox as well as the Roman Catholic version? What is the teaching of antichrist? 

“Neu! Der Brief an die Hebräer, Teil 2,” is this week’s German sermon. It is part 2 of the new series on Hebrews and covers chapters 3-5. The title in English is: “The Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 2.”

by Laura Harris

No. It’s one of the smallest words in the English language, yet one of the most powerful. It has negative connotations, from expressing dissent to denial. But the word can also be self-preserving and liberating.

In my 20’s and well into my 30’s, I had difficulty saying “no” for fear of disappointing my co-workers, family and friends. I would begrudgingly agree and then complain about the task at hand. As a result, I would often neglect my needs and responsibilities. As I’ve matured in age and spirituality, I’ve realized saying “no” is an acceptable and accountable response in certain situations.

Early in my calling, prior to baptism, I worked for an organization that hosted many weekend events. In attempting to be a good employee, I rationalized that I could attend these functions to show support without working. Inevitably, I would field work-related questions and run errands during these activities. After several months of breaking the Sabbath, I felt confident enough in my faith to tell my supervisor I would no longer attend Saturday events. He was very understanding and supportive of my religious beliefs.

In his 9/1/12 sermon, entitled “Your Servant,” Dave Harris states that serving others is commanded by God, but like all things, it needs to be tempered with balance. How can we take care of our neighbor if we are not taking care of ourselves? Henry Cloud, in his book “Boundaries,” discusses how many people take on extra responsibilities in order to avoid conflict. This “fearful niceness” results in burnout, resentment and a sense of being out of control.

When considering a request for help, I need to ask myself:

Is there a genuine need?
Would I or my family be adversely impacted?
Would I be compromising my relationship with God?
 
By saying no to one thing, I am actually saying yes to another.