On April 27th, 2013, Norbert Link will give the sermon, titled, “The Son of Man and of God.”
 
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

We almost missed the plane. After a three hour delay in San Diego, we arrived at the LAX airport, took a shuttle from the commuter terminal to the International Terminal, received assistance from an airport official who phoned the pilot and his crew to ask them to wait for two more passengers, presented our boarding passes to security (which Johanna had printed the previous evening), were given special and preferred treatment in the security line (even though a TSA employee had Johanna open her luggage for inspection), and ran to the departure gate (the most distant one of all the gates) to catch the plane to Germany. We had just about ten minutes to reach the gate after entering the International Terminal, and after boarding, the plane took off immediately.

We were initially told that if we had missed that flight, we could have taken a later flight that same night, but as it turned out, the Frankfurt airport closed down the next morning due to a snowstorm, so that we would not have been able to depart LAX or land in Frankfurt. We would have been stuck for at least a day, if not longer, and our prearranged meetings would have had to be cancelled. That would have not been a big deal, you might say, but these meetings included speaking to our German attorney about church registration, looking for a feast site and counseling with prospective church members. Obviously, someone did not want us to depart on time, and he would have been successful, if Johanna had not been inspired the previous night to print the boarding passes and if we had not received necessary help at the LAX airport.

We were almost not able to leave Colorado! The Church conference ended Tuesday morning, and we had planned to depart for California on Wednesday. However, an unexpected snowstorm was announced, so we decided to leave Tuesday afternoon with our two vans, using a southern instead of a western route to avoid a snow-covered pass.  After our departure, the snowstorm hit, and more and more snow fell for days in Denver and Fort Collins. Using the window of opportunity, we were able to leave Colorado and arrive in California unhindered. Well, almost.

Because on our trip, the Messiers’ van had a flat tire. Being stranded on the freeway, a crew-cab pickup truck stopped, and a friendly middle-aged man assisted us by replacing the tire with our temporary spare, while a young lady remained sitting in the truck. The man told us that we should use an exit in six miles and drive to a local town to get a new tire. He then took off. When entering the town, we could not find the repair shop. Suddenly, the truck showed up again, and the friendly man told us where to go and that he had already informed the owner not to close the shop as some customers would still arrive who needed help. The shop usually closed early and it was already 6:00 PM by the time we got there. As it turned out, the shop owner waited for us, but he could not repair the tire. He had no new tires of a size suitable for the van, but just one used tire which was exactly what we needed. There was no other repair shop around for at least 100 miles or so.

Delia Messier had asked the friendly man what his name and occupation were, when he changed the tire on the freeway, and he said his name was Douglas and he managed a ranch. After having arrived in California, I called the repair shop owner and asked him about the helpful individual, as we wanted to send him a thank-you note. He said he did not know who he was, where he lived or what his name was, but that he had been seen from time to time in town.

Obviously, someone wanted to make life difficult for us, and he would have been successful, if the friendly person had not shown up to help us and guide us to the only repair shop around for a hundred miles, which provided us with the only available used tire.

Before both trips, we prayed for God’s protection; that we would arrive safely at our places of destination; and that His angels would watch over us to help us in times of need. We are convinced that God heard and answered our prayers, and He will do the same for you if you place your trust and confidence in Him.

We report on the tendency of many to worship the creation rather than the Creator; to use wrong and dangerous methods and techniques to reach personal success; to embrace false and evil values and practices, calling them “good”; and to become complacent victims of the erosion of their privacy and far too tolerant in accepting torture and illegal governmental conduct as “necessary” procedures.

We continue with reporting on the Boston massacre and the many unanswered and disturbing questions; and in turning to Europe, we show that European unification is inevitable, while the lack of national sovereignty seems to be the price which is expected to be paid in the process. Focusing on Israel, we show that due to the new Israeli-US arms deal, the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran has now become grim reality; and we speak about the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria.

We report on German warnings directed at the UK; speak on same-sex marriages in France and the rise of killer robots; and we identify the mixed messages received from Pope Francis.

We conclude with reporting about natural disasters on earth and in the universe.

Pagan Earth Day Celebrations

Canada Free Press wrote on April 22:

“Today is being celebrated by modern pagans as ‘Earth Day.’ It is a date set aside to worship the earth (paganism). Today is also the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, (April 22nd 1870)… We agree with the folks at ‘TheBlogProf’ who say: ‘It is no coincidence that Earth Day, April 22, was chosen to coincide with the birthday of Vladimir Lenin. A day that celebrates communism as the gold standard of human civilization. Never mind that it has never worked as advertised, creating disorder rather than order. Environmentalism, the religion du jour of the 21st century, has very similar ends of government control under the guise of being good stewards of the planet.’…

“Environmentalism has become a full-fledged religion… If one believes in the divine creator, as I do, then one believes [that humans were] created by that divine creator referred to simply as God… Christians [believe] that Christ, God’s Son, came to this earth… 2,000 years ago. He was perceived by the corrupt government of his day as a threat and, as a result, he was executed. Christians believe that three days later he rose from the dead and returned home but not before promising to return to earth and clean up the mess we have made. As we said, that was around 2,000 years ago. Things have changed for the worst. In this century, and the last, so many have turned from the worship of the supreme being, we call God, to what we used to call ‘paganism’… the worship of nature, or the environment, or… more specifically… environmentalism. Yes, environmentalism HAS become a religion. Well, actually, it always was… nature is not God… GOD created nature…  Earth Day is a pagan celebration, and I want no part in it.”

The Bible condemns those who worship the creation, rather than the Creator (compare Romans 1).

Murdoch Takes Up Transcendental Meditation

The Huffington Post reported on April 22:

“Even at 82, Rupert Murdoch never fails to surprise us. The media mogul is taking up a surprising new hobby: meditation. He tweeted the news on Sunday, writing: ‘Trying to learn transcendental meditation. Everyone recommends, not that easy to get started, but said to improve everything!’ Maybe the stress of News Corp.’s scandals finally got to him.

“News Corp. has been roiled by revelations that some of its newspapers hacked the phones of public figures, and bribed public officials for information. Murdoch has survived relatively unscathed, though there have been over 100 other arrests related to the charges. Or maybe it’s all the heat The New York Post got over its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings that’s putting him on edge. In any case, we’ll consider his latest tweet about meditation another one of his gems, made possible only after he joined Twitter in 2011.”

It may be another of his gems, but getting involved in transcendental meditation or other Far Eastern philosophies is extremely dangerous. We wrote the following in our article on “Biblical Meditation—a Forgotten Art”:

“Biblical meditation, as focused on God, and prayer to God go hand in hand. Human meditation of and by itself, separate from God, is useless, and can even be counterproductive. In fact, if meditation is focused on the self or on anything else but God and His Word, whether in a positive or a negative way, then meditation becomes an idol, and it is carnal and even demonic. Some today repeat foreign or mystical words, called mantras, for long periods of time during their meditation exercises. They don’t understand the meaning of these mantras, but they do it because they have been told that these words have some kind of magical effects to clear their consciousness from stress.

“Scientific research has, in fact, revealed that something physical does occur within the body during the course of this kind of meditation. But what is not commonly understood is the origin of these words or mantras. They are derived from Indian mythology and religion, designating the names of Indian gods. Most Indian gods, according to Indian mythology and doctrine, are both good and evil. So, without realizing it, people are calling for the appearance of one of those ‘Indian gods,’ by repeating his name over and over again. Why are we surprised, then, that their calls may be answered?

“People engaging in this kind of meditation may find themselves in strange situations. Some have literally killed themselves, thinking that they were witches of the Middle Ages, or that they felt that invisible evil forces were pursuing them. Further, the [former] leader of one of these meditation methods, an Indian guru, claim[ed] that he [could] fly, walk on water, go through closed doors, etc., and he [was] reportedly in the process of teaching the inner circle of his disciples to do the same through this kind of meditation. But this is not the kind of meditation we should engage in, nor should it serve as an example as to how to conduct our meditation.”

Saturday Shooting at a Marijuana Celebration in Denver, CO

The Associated Press reported on April 21:

“Denver police on Sunday pointed to a YouTube video they say shows a possible suspect in the weekend shooting at a marijuana celebration that injured two people and scattered a crowd of thousands. The shooting on Saturday took place during the outdoor celebration of the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since Colorado legalized marijuana. Denver police spent much of Sunday scanning video taken at the event.

“Police spokesman Sonny Jackson told The Denver Post that the suspect is shown in the video walking in a crowd away from the scene of the shooting as sirens wailed in the background. The suspect, a black male who was wearing a brown and white checkered shirt, can be seen about six seconds into the video, he said. ‘We are seeking this individual as we believe he assisted the primary suspect after the shooting,’ Jackson said in an email to the newspaper…

“Witnesses on Saturday described a scene in which a jovial atmosphere quickly turned to one of panic at the downtown Civic Center Park just before 5 p.m. Several thought firecrackers were being set off, then a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot. Witnesses said as many as 10 shots could be heard…Police said they were also looking for a second black man–one who was dressed in a grey hoodie and light blue baseball cap.”

A Saturday shooting during a “jovial atmosphere” of a legalized “marijuana celebration” in Colorado… what more needs to be said? Truly, as the Bible prophesied, men call evil good. Even without the shooting, what business does anyone have to participate in such an ungodly gathering—and especially on God’s holy Sabbath day?

Google Fined in Germany for Violation of Personal Data Collection Law

On April 22, 2013, dpa reported:

“Internet search giant Google was fined 145,000 euros (189,230 dollars) by German authorities Monday for collecting large amounts of personal data from wireless networks through cameras installed on vehicles for its street view service. The data protection office in the northern German city of Hamburg imposed the fine for the violation of privacy during the years 2008 to 2010, when Google was preparing its cityscape service.

“‘In my estimation, this is one of the most serious cases of violation of data protection regulations that have come to light so far,’ said John Caspar, who heads up the protection office. ‘Among the information collected in the drive-bys were significant amounts of personal data of varying quality… For example emails, passwords, photos and logs of chats were collected,’ he said… He went on to say that, under German law, he was unable to impose a much larger fine, saying that the maximum penalty for violations of the negligent data rule was limited to 150,000 euros.”

We should realize that in this day and age, privacy is a thing of the past. George Orwell’s “1984” has become grim reality.

US Torture Methods Violate US Constitution, US Laws and International Treaties

The Oregonian wrote on April 20:

“… the U.S. government’s use of torture against suspected terrorists, and its failure to fully acknowledge and condemn it, has made the exercise of diplomacy far more daunting. By authorizing and permitting torture in response to a global terrorist threat, U.S. leaders committed a grave error that has undermined our values, principles and moral stature; eroded our global influence; and placed our soldiers, diplomats and intelligence officers in even greater jeopardy.

“It’s not just the Bush-Cheney administration that bears responsibility for diminished U.S. standing, although the worst abuses took place in the years immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration also has failed to be as open and accountable on such fundamental questions of law, morality and principle as a great power that widely supports human rights needs to be.

“What can be done to mitigate the damage and set this country on a better course? First and foremost, Americans need to confront the truth. Let’s stop resorting to euphemisms and call ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ — including but not limited to waterboarding — what they actually are: torture. Torturing detainees flies in the face of principles and practices established in the founding of our republic, and it violates U.S. law and international treaties to which we are a party. Subjecting detainees to torture, no matter how despicable their alleged crimes, runs counter to the values embodied in the U.S. Constitution.

“Too much information about the abuse of detainees remains hidden from the American people. Specifically, the Obama administration’s ongoing concealment of the details about our use of torture has made it impossible for the United States to comply with its legal obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture and has contributed to a disturbing level of public support for torturing suspected terrorists.

“President Barack Obama should direct relevant officials to declassify as many related documents as possible as quickly as possible — starting with the more than 6 million pages of classified documents that were the basis for the Senate intelligence committee’s recent report on the CIA’s interrogation program, and the still-secret report itself — so that the American people may finally learn what was done in our name. Admitting our mistakes is the only legitimate basis on which we can reassure the world that America remains committed to the rule of law and to upholding human rights and democratic values.

“…the United States must not transfer detainees to torture in other countries. Such transfers, known as ‘renditions,’ have occurred under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama — despite the fact that they violate the Convention Against Torture…

“Democracy and torture cannot peacefully coexist in the same body politic. Successful human rights diplomacy and torture can’t either. Our country and its place in the world — as well as the Americans bravely serving in military, intelligence and diplomatic posts around the globe — deserve nothing less.”

There can be no doubt that America’s use of torture has further increased anti-American feelings around the world. However, releasing all the grim details might not increase US popularity either.

Boston Lock-Down and Cover-Up?

NBC News reported on April 20 about a massive transportation lock-down in Boston during the man-hunt of two suspects subsequent to the bombing:

“Authorities are prohibiting some street traffic and cars having to pass through police roadblocks when entering and leaving the airport. Official taxi service was suspended for several hours this morning… All forms of transportation in and around Boston have been affected by the city-wide lock down. Amtrak announced it had suspended Acela Express and Northeast Regional service indefinitely in the Boston area.

“Regional bus lines, such as Megabus, Greyhound, Bolt Bus, and Peter Pan bus lines have also suspended service, with customers receiving options for refunds or rebooking, according to an AP report… The Federal Aviation Administration shut down airspace over a Boston neighborhood Friday morning to give police a ‘safe environment for law-enforcement activities.’

“The agency issued a 3.5 nautical-mile (roughly 4 miles) radius temporary flight restriction over Watertown early Friday up to 3,000 feet.”

Some of the restrictions have been lifted. However, the following Scriptures come to mind: Leviticus 26:36; Deuteronomy 28:25; 32:30; Isaiah 30:17.

In addition, some very disturbing unanswered questions remain, suggesting that the Boston Police Department might have received a bomb threat before the marathon, but decided not to intervene. For instance, Natural News reported on April 17:

“If you’re looking for actual journalism surrounding the Boston marathon bombings, don’t bother reading the mainstream media. The real breaking news is found in the alternative media, where Anthony Gucciardi of StoryLeak.com just nailed an on-the-record interview with Alastair Stevenson, the University of Alabama cross country track coach who heard law enforcement telling the crowd, ‘It’s just a drill’ immediately after the explosions…

“Alastair Stevenson is a veteran marathon runner who has competed in dozens of marathons around the world, including the London Marathon. He’s very familiar with the security typically found at marathons, and he immediately noticed something odd about the Boston marathon security. ‘They kept making announcements on the loud speaker that it was just a drill and there was nothing to worry about. It seemed like there was some sort of threat, but they kept telling us it was just a drill,’ he was quoted as saying by Local15TV.com.

“In the interview, you’ll hear Stevenson say:  ‘At the start at the event, at the Athlete’s Village, there were people on the roof looking down onto the Village at the start. There were dogs with their handlers going around sniffing for explosives, and we were told on a loud announcement that we shouldn’t be concerned and that it was just a drill. And maybe it was just a drill, but I’ve never seen anything like that — not at any marathon that I’ve ever been to. You know, that just concerned me that that’s the only race that I’ve seen in my life where they had dogs sniffing for explosions, and that’s the only place where there had been explosions.’

“Why is all this such a huge story? Because the Boston police department is on the record saying there was no drill! People who are writing about the reality of the bomb drill are being called ‘conspiracy theorists’ across the ‘net. Yet the real conspiracy is found in the bomb drill cover-up. The far more important question now is: Why would the Boston police LIE about the existence of a bomb drill?”

Boston Mishandled?

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 22:

“US media are awash with questions concerning the suspect in the Boston bombing. Observers wonder about his legal status, the media’s role in his pursuit and if shutting down a major city made sense. Was the bombing of the Boston Marathon a crime or an act of terror? The question of what kind of justice Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should face has set off a heated debate in the United States.

“If treated as a criminal, Tsarnaev would face charges in a civilian court. But as a US citizen, he could only be tried before a military court if he is declared an ‘enemy combatant,’ similar to the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. Enemy combatants also do not enjoy the right to due process…

“American media have also asked if authorities acted appropriately in their pursuit of the two brothers and later of Dzhokhar alone. Online magazine ‘Politico’ asked whether locking down a major city – forcing businesses to close, shutting down public transportation and telling the public to ‘shelter in place’ – was the ‘new normal’ when it comes to terrorism investigations. The website quoted Representative Dutch Ruppersberger who said allowing a single person to influence the lives of millions was not in line with American values. ‘When you have lives at stake, it’s up to law enforcement,’ Ruppersberger told Politico. ‘But it’s an accomplishment when someone shuts down an entire community and people can’t go outside and are told to stay away. We can’t allow these people to shut us down.’

“Media coverage of the manhunt was also criticized. Authorities called the media irresponsible after CNN, Fox News, the AP news agency and the Boston Globe incorrectly reported on Thursday that a suspect had been arrested. Authorities also used the media to get their messages to the public.”

Again, America has become the center of criticism.

EU Will Take Over Supervision of All Eurozone Banks in 2014

Reuters reported on April 20:

“The euro zone’s top project to boost economic growth – banking union – will not be delayed for now by a row over whether it needs EU law changed because most of the work can be done before this is settled, a senior euro zone official said on Saturday… The EU has already made the first step – it agreed the European Central Bank would take over the supervision of all banks in the euro zone from July 2014 in what is called the Single Supervisory Mechanism.

“… [The] 17 countries using the euro can also move ahead with further harmonizing deposit guarantee programs, and creating rules on when the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM, can buy a stake in a euro zone bank to boost its capital when no-one else can or wants to. The euro zone will also create a network of national authorities responsible for closing down failing banks that will operate under the same rules.

“It is the next step that becomes difficult. The euro zone wants to transform the network of national resolution authorities into a single European institution that would decide which euro zone banks will be closed… However, Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, faces elections in September. It believes that to create such an authority, which could order the closure of a German bank, or use German taxpayers’ money to pay for the closure of a bank elsewhere in the euro zone, EU laws have to be changed.

“The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, says existing law provides sufficient basis… A change of European Union treaties would substantially delay the launch of the banking union because apart from the time needed to negotiate the amendments it would also require time for parliaments of the 27 EU countries to ratify it. There would also be a risk that the ratification fails in one or more countries and that some EU governments would use the opportunity to trade their support for concessions in other areas, opening the door to long and difficult negotiations…”

It is highly likely that even such a “single European [banking] institution” will be created in Europe—without time-consuming EU law alterations.

In this context, The Local reported on April 22 that “German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday rejected the idea that her country was seeking ‘hegemony’ in the European Union, but insisted members needed to cede some national sovereignty for the greater good.”

Even though Germany may not be seeking hegemony, it WILL become the leading nation of ten core nations or groups of nations in Europe.

The Washington Times added on April 22:

“The 17 nations that make up the eurozone need to accept that Europe is in charge, and they need to toe that line when it comes to forging spending and debt deals, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. ‘We seem to find common solutions when we are staring over the abyss,’ she said at an event hosted by Deutsche Bank in Berlin, The Telegraph reported. ‘But as soon as the pressure eases, people say they want to go their own way.’

“Member states need to buck and respect Europe’s leadership, she said. ‘Europe has the last word in certain areas,’ she said, as The Telegraph reported. ‘Otherwise we won’t be able to continue to build Europe.’”

UK’s Military Standing in the World in Jeopardy

The Guardian wrote on April 22:

“Britain’s standing as a leading military power with the ability to influence events beyond its own borders will be jeopardised if the country leaves the European Union, the German minister of defence has warned… Thomas de Maizière insisted the defence implications for Britain, Europe and Nato would be profound… ‘If Great Britain leaves the EU, it would be a great disappointment to us. It would weaken Nato, it would weaken the British influence within Nato. I think from a military point of view the disadvantages for Great Britain would be bigger than the advantages.’

“De Maizière said he knew he was intervening in a domestic debate, but argued it was too important to stand to one side, particularly with the potential military consequences for the UK’s standing in the world…

“De Maizière said other European countries looked to Germany to take a lead in economic and military matters, but then balked at the way Berlin wanted to do things. ‘In the Euro [banking] crisis, when some countries call for German leadership, they mean Germany should pay more. They criticise us when we say leadership means we, Europe, shouldn’t spend so much raising debts. But when we say this, they say this perhaps is not good leadership. You can’t have the cake and eat it. When the leader only fulfils the wishes of the others, that is not leadership.’

“He made clear that Germany had been urging Nato to adopt a counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan long before it was finally adopted, but had been sneered at for suggesting the military approach could not work on its own. German soldiers, he said, had fought well in Afghanistan and proved they were not just ‘cake-eaters.’”

Germany will lead, but it won’t just try to please everyone.

Germans Would Like to See Monarchy Restored

The Local reported on April 25:

“One in five Germans would like to see the monarchy restored, according to a survey released on Thursday. Young Germans were even keener on replacing the president with a new Kaiser. With a British jubilee, a Dutch abdication and a Swedish royal birth, European royals have been regularly hitting headlines of late. More than half of the 1,012 Germans asked by polling company YouGov for news agency DPA said they were interested in other countries’ monarchies.

“In fact, 19 percent said that they would like to see one of their own be re-instated. Among people aged between 18 and 24 this figure jumped up to more than one in three, while just one in six over-55s were in favour of having a monarchy.”

Same-Sex Couples Can Marry in France—Violent Protests Are the Consequence

Reuters reported on April 23:

“French parliament approved a law allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children on Tuesday, a flagship reform pledge by President Francois Hollande which sparked often violent street protests and a rise in homophobic attacks. Hollande’s ‘marriage for all’ law is the biggest social reform in France since his left-wing mentor and predecessor Francois Mitterrand abolished the death penalty in 1981, a move which also split the nation.

“Lawmakers in the lower house National Assembly, where Hollande’s Socialists have an absolute majority, passed the bill by 331 votes for and 225 against, making France the 14th country in the world to allow same-sex couples to wed… Yet the episode has carried a political price for an already unpopular president…

“France, a mainly Catholic country, follows 13 others including Canada, Denmark, Sweden and most recently Uruguay and New Zealand in letting gay and lesbian couples tie the knot. In the United States, Washington D.C. and nine states have legalized same-sex marriage… The gay community greeted the news with fanfare, with some rights groups dubbing April 23 the ‘Day of Love’. But opponents gathered outside parliament for a new demonstration.”

The Times added on April 24:

“Christiane Taubira, the Justice Minister, said the first gay weddings would be held in June. They would be beautiful, she said, and bring joy after weeks of virulent debate. ‘Those who are opposed to them today will surely be confounded when they are overcome with the happiness of the newlyweds and the families,’ she said. Mrs Taubira said the Bill, which also authorises gay couples to adopt children, meant that they would enjoy the full rights due to all French citizens. ‘They will be able to construct marital and parental projects,’ she said… Valérie Trierweiler, partner of President Hollande, joined the celebrations as she ignored advice to adopt a low profile and declared the parliamentary vote ‘historic’ in a Twitter message.

“Wedding planners were also delighted as they prepared to capture a new market, with France’s first gay marriage show planned for Paris this weekend. Divorce lawyers began putting out feelers as well after reports that when Argentina legalised same-sex marriages in 2010, the first break-up occurred a month later. But the mood outside Parliament was sombre as opponents forecast a breakdown in social order, with many taking a lead from the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the Bishop of Paris, has accused the Socialist Government of ‘refusing all differences between the sexes’. He said that the refusal would ‘frustrate personal expression . . . That is how you prepare a society of violence.’…

“Opponents are planning a giant demonstration in the French capital on May 26 in an attempt to dissuade Mr Hollande from signing the Bill, which he must do to make it law. However, he has shown no sign of backing down.”

This might prove to become Mr. Hollande’s downfall.

Israeli Strike on Iran Becomes Real

The Times of Israel wrote on April 22:

“The importance of the new arms deal between Israel and the United States cannot be overstated. The arrival of an as yet undisclosed number of KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft will give the Israeli Air Force (IAF) the range to attack any target in Iran that it deems necessary in order to suppress the Iranian nuclear program. This is quite simply a game changer.

“Up until now just about every expert and pundit, not to mention former chief of staff of the IDF has known that Israel simply couldn’t launch an attack against Iran on its own and that all talk to the contrary was more bluster than threat. That is no longer the case or rather it will no longer be the case once the tankers arrive and our pilots have been trained in their use.

“Many of the challenges of attacking Iran remain, but distance is no longer one of them. The aerial refueling capability means that from now on when the Prime Minister of Israel talks about attacking Iran he needs to be taken seriously.

“In absolute terms the tankers on their own ensure that the IAF can reach every target in Iran that they need to, everything is in range. What they don’t do is increase the destructive power of the ordnance that their F-15s and F-16s can carry. Any strike that would be launched is likely to be launched at targets that were built with defense in mind. Essentially meaning that a large part of them is underground… no attack on Iran can take place without Israeli boots on the ground…”

Is Syria Using Chemical Weapons to Test the Waters?

The New York Times wrote on April 23:

“Israel declared Tuesday that it had found evidence that the Syrian government repeatedly used chemical weapons last month, arguing that President Bashar al-Assad was testing how the United States and others would react and that it was time for Washington to overcome its deep reluctance to intervene in the Syrian civil war.

“In making the declaration — which went somewhat beyond recent suspicions expressed by Britain and France — Israeli officials argued that President Assad had repeatedly crossed what President Obama said last summer would be a ‘red line.’ But Obama administration officials pushed back, saying they would not leap into the conflict on what they viewed as inconclusive evidence, even while working with allies on plans to secure the weapons if it appeared they were about to be used or handed to Hezbollah…

“Secretary of State John Kerry suggested there were mixed messages emerging from Israel, saying that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning and that the Israeli leader ‘was not in a position to confirm’ the intelligence assessment. Israeli officials said they would not try to explain the apparent difference between Mr. Netanyahu’s statement and that of his top military intelligence officials…

“The Israeli intelligence analyst, Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, told participants at a security conference in Tel Aviv that the Syrian government ‘has increasingly used chemical weapons.’ That echoed accusations that Britain and France made in a letter last week to the secretary general of the United Nations, calling for a deeper investigation…

“If the United States has been more reluctant than its allies to come to firm conclusions about chemical weapons, it may be because such proof could force Mr. Obama’s hand. In August, the president told reporters that any evidence that Mr. Assad was moving the weapons or making use of them could prompt the United States to act… Mr. Obama’s aides have since amended his statement, saying that he was referring to major use of chemical weapons — akin to what Saddam Hussein employed against the Kurds two decades ago — or the transfer of weapons to terrorist groups…”

CNN reported on April 25 that “The United States has evidence that the chemical weapon sarin has been used in Syria on a small scale, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday… When asked whether the intelligence community’s conclusion pushed the situation across President Barack Obama’s ‘red line’ that could trigger more U.S. involvement in the war, Hagel said it’s too soon to say.”

According to an article of April 25, by thecable.foreignpolicy.com, “Despite a new U.S. intelligence community assessment that the Syrian regime likely used chemical weapons on its own people, the White House is still waiting for more evidence before deciding whether Bashar al-Assad has crossed President Barack Obama’s ‘red line.’”

So it appears that the USA is not too anxious to find evidence for the major use of chemical weapons in Syria, while the civil war goes on…

Syria’s Chemical Weapons in Hezbollah’s Reach

The Times of Israel wrote on April 24:

“Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Monday warned the UN Security Council that Hezbollah was close to getting its hands on Syria’s massive stockpile of chemical weapons. ‘In Lebanon, Hezbollah is building an army equipped with 50,000 missiles — more than many NATO members. Now they might have access to one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world,’ said Prosor, a day after the IDF’s top intelligence analyst said that President Bashar Assad was in possession of more than 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons and had deployed sarin nerve gas against civilians. Prosor blamed the European Union for ignoring Hezbollah’s terrorist actions and stubbornly refusing to brand the group a terror organization…

“Prosor warned that Tehran was playing for time to keep the West at bay while it scrambles to reach atomic weapons capability. ‘The Iranian nuclear program continues to advance at the speed of an express train. The international community’s efforts to stop them are moving at the pace of the local train, pausing at every stop for some nations to get off and on.’”

Killer Robots on the Rise

The Telegraph reported on April 25:

“Autonomous robots with the power to make decisions about killing human beings are under development, and their use raises worrying questions about morality and accountability in war, human rights campaigners warn. A human rights agency has raised concerns about the advent of ‘killer robots’, capable of selecting and killing targets autonomously…

“Since the start of the ‘War on Terror’ following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, has increased dramatically. According to Human Rights Watch ‘rapid advances in technology are permitting the United States and other nations with high-tech militaries, including China, Israel, Russia, and the United Kingdom, to move toward systems that would provide greater combat autonomy to machines. If one or more country chooses to deploy fully autonomous weapons, others may feel compelled to abandon policies of restraint, leading to a robotic arms race.’”

Mixed Messages from the Pope

Reuters wrote on April 14:

“Pope Francis on Sunday said clergy and Christians must not betray the word of God with their actions or they undermine the credibility of the Catholic Church. Francis, elected a month ago, inherited a Church struggling to restore credibility after a series of scandals, including the sexual abuse of children by priests… In his first major decision on Saturday, Francis set up an advisory board of cardinals to help him govern the Church and reform its troubled central administration, which was riddled by infighting and alleged corruption under Pope Benedict.

“Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, known as the Curia, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope’s desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal.

“Since his election as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years, Francis has been laying out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church. He has favored humility and simplicity over pomp and grandeur. Francis has preferred to live in simple quarters in the Vatican instead of moving into the regal papal apartments, and he has said he wants ‘a poor Church, and for the poor.’”

The Los Angeles Times wrote on April 15:

“Pope Francis has backed the Vatican’s doctrinal crackdown on a major group of American nuns, reasserting the Roman Catholic Church’s conservative approach to various social issues in a move that could cool the warm reception he has received from some liberal Catholics since taking office last month.

“The Vatican said in a statement Monday that Francis had reaffirmed the doctrinal evaluation and criticism of U.S. nuns made last year by the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of women Religious, an organization that represents most U.S. female Catholic orders, of promoting ‘radical feminist themes’ and ignoring the Vatican’s hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion… The Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents about 57,000 sisters, or 80% of U.S. nuns.

“Since his election, Francis has won positive reviews for his informal style, his off-the-cuff homilies and his desire to reach out to the poor. But he has long been known for his conservative views on social issues.”

The concept of a “poor” Catholic Church will not be accepted by many Church leaders, and it will only happen at the time of Christ’s return, according to biblical prophecy. On the other hand, even though he might appear “progressive” in some of his views, Pope Francis still maintains the Church’s conservative doctrinal stance, and we should not expect any change in that regard.

Earthquake in China

BBC reported on April 20:

“A powerful earthquake has killed at least 160 people and injured at least 5,700 in China’s rural south-west, officials say. The 6.6-magnitude tremor sent people fleeing from buildings across Sichuan province, which was devastated by a massive quake five years ago… There have been at least 710 aftershocks, further damaging buildings and leaving them dangerous… The quake struck at 08:02 local time (00:02 GMT) on Saturday, with the China Earthquake Administration categorising it as a 7.0 magnitude, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) reporting it as 6.6… The quake was measured at 12km below the surface – a shallow depth that usually indicates extensive damage… Five years ago a massive quake hit Sichuan, killing tens of thousands. The 2008 disaster left some five million people homeless.”

As Christ foretold, we will be hearing more and more about powerful earthquakes “here and there”—that is, around the world in diverse places. Recently, a powerful earthquake struck Iran, and five earthquakes hit Oklahoma.

New Chinese Bird Flu Virus Found in Taiwan

The Washington Times wrote on April 25:

“Taiwan confirmed Wednesday the first case of the H7N9 bird flu outside of mainland China. The new strain of bird flu not otherwise known to humans has been found in more than 100 cases and has killed 22 people in China. Officials are looking into the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 strain, but have [not] yet drawn any conclusions.”

Theatlanticcities.com added on April 25:

“Only 4 of the 81 people with confirmed cases of bird flu in China have fully recovered… [A medical] report also confirms that human-to-human transmission of H7N9, which could cause a deadly global pandemic, can’t be ruled out.”

 

Solar Flares to Increase

The Science Recorder reported on April 13:

“Friday marked the biggest solar flare of the year when, at 3:16 a.m. EDT, a M6.5-class solar eruption took place on the surface of the sun, unleashing a wave of radioactive material into space. M-level flares are powerful enough to have effects on the Earth, but are also the weakest of the type that can do so (in comparison, the ominously labeled X-class flares are the most powerful and 10 times stronger than those in M-class)…
 
“The flare comes as the sun’s activity is currently expected to peak at some point this year… Alex Young, a NASA scientist… claimed that solar flares will likely increase both in frequency and magnitude near the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.”

Christ warned about signs from heaven in the last days.

The ninth, but short-lived revival of the ancient Roman Empire occurred under Mussolini and Hitler. In the previous installment, we concentrated on Mussolini. In this installment, we will discuss some little-known facts about his ally Adolf Hitler and his magical beliefs and demonic powers.

In our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy,” we list several incidents showing that Hitler was demon-possessed. Additional astonishing facts will be presented in this installment, quoting extensively from Paul Roland’s book, “The Nazis and the Occult.” When addressing the revival of the Roman Empire under Otto the Great, we discussed the “holy lance” and other insignias of the Holy Roman Empire. Hitler had a morbid and superstitious fascination with the lance, as the aforementioned book explains:

“The spearhead, known officially as the Sword of St Maurice, was rumored to be the Holy Lance or Spear of Longinus with which a Roman centurion had pierced the side of Jesus… Charlemagne…, the first Holy Roman Emperor, was said to have attributed his unbroken string of victories to his possession of the spear. He died shortly after it had fallen from his hand… A similar fate befell the 12th-century German conqueror Frederick Barbarossa who dropped the spear while crossing a river in Asia Minor and was immediately struck down and killed. In between, no fewer than 45 emperors had carried it before them ensuring victory on the battlefield and in the senate… The first written reference to the Hofburg spear appeared in the ancient Saxon Chronicle recording the battle of Leck in which Otto the Great triumphed over the Mongols…”

The book goes on to report about Hitler’s fascination with the spear which he visited twice in 1913, when it was kept in the library and treasury of the Hofburg Museum. He later wrote that “the spear appeared to be some sort of magical medium of revelation… I felt as though I myself had held it in my hands before in some earlier century of history—that I myself had once claimed it as my talisman of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands.”

This statement alone might point to Hitler’s possession with a demon that indeed would have lived in previous centuries.

Whether or not the “holy lance” can be traced back to the times of Jesus Christ, it would of course not have any magical powers. But those who believe in such “supernatural protection” can receive some temporary “protection” from demons, which was undoubtedly the case in many instances during the history of the revivals of the Holy Roman Empire.

While gazing at the spear, Hitler claimed that he had a vision, which many feel was “a vision of the future in which he saw himself entering Vienna in triumph on the day Austria was assimilated into the Reich on 12 March 1938… and it was on that day that he ordered the removal of the Hapsburg regalia [including the spear] to Germany aboard an armoured train…”

The book also claims that during a séance which was attended, among others, by the future editor-in-chief of the official Nazi newspaper, the “Voelkische Beobachter,” a “disembodied head of [a dead German] prince [that is, a demon] declared that the new leader of Germany would claim the Holy Lance and embark on a campaign of world conquest.” During the same seance, another “female spirit” [that is, another demon pretending to be the spirit of a dead female person] announced “the imminent arrival of the messiah for whom they had been waiting so long. But she added a warning that their new leader would be exposed as a false prophet and would drag the nation into the abyss.”

That all of this was of demonic origin, there is no doubt. Demons are lying spirits, who sometimes pretend to be the ghosts of dead persons, as was the case of a demon pretending to be Samuel, when he appeared to the witch of Endor who was visited by King Saul. But demons know the future, and sometimes they tell the truth [as the demon pretending to be Samuel accurately foretold Saul that he would die soon], but many times they lie or tell only portions of the truth, mingled with much error. The problem is, one never knows when which is which, and the Bible warns us, of course, not to conduct or attend séances or consult mediums or to have anything to do with the demonic world.

As mentioned, when Hitler declared the annexation or “Anschluss” of Austria, he had the “holy lance” and the other insignias removed from Austria to Germany. When the Americans discovered and claimed them in 1945, Hitler coincidentally killed himself less than two hours later. Some say he did so since the “magical spell” of the lance had left him. All of this superstition can be traced back to a belief that the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was himself holy.

An interesting episode is recorded, pertaining to Hitler’s desire to rescue Mussolini who had been imprisoned by rivals in Mussolini’s fascist party:

“Within days, Himmler ordered the SS Intelligence Service to locate Mussolini using every variety of ‘occult science’ at their disposal. This prompted the Gestapo to round up the most reliable astrologers and radiesthesists (pendulum diviners) in the Reich for a top secret summit at Wannsee, where they were plied with food and drink and ordered to identify the location within 24 hours—or face the consequences.”

This reminds us of Nebuchadnezzar’s demand of his astrologers to declare to him a dream and its meaning, but while the magicians at his time were unable to do this, the demon-inspired and possessed magicians at Hitler’s time were apparently successful, because they produced the required answer within hours, leading to the rescue of Mussolini through German paratroopers.

Before his death, Hitler had repeatedly denounced not only the Catholic Church, but also Christianity and the entire Bible, while announcing his intention to tear up Christianity and replace it with a pagan religion. “The new German religion would worship Wotan… and the congregation would accept Adolf Hitler as their messiah,” while rejecting Jesus Christ. He stated that the Bible is “the old Jewish swindle… one is either a German or a Christian. You cannot be both.” The purpose of his famous “Cathedral of Light” was to “create the illusion of a magical temple,” and the Nuremberg Rallies were actually “an invocation of Mars, the pagan God of War,” with Hitler being “the High Priest.”

Hitler’s and his Nazi followers’ beliefs in astrology, the occult and witchcraft is well-known. The Bible shows that the final revival of the ancient Roman Empire will be brought about by demonic forces. Both major leaders—the beast and the false prophet—will be demonically possessed. As legend has it that the holy lance and the other insignias of the Holy Roman Empire are waiting for another “Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation,” who is to say whether they will not play a “mystical” role again during the last resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire under German or Austrian leadership.

(To Be Continued)
Lead Writer: Norbert Link

The memorial service on Wednesday, April 24, for Mrs. Gertrude Sage (who died on March 23, 2013) began at 11 AM and was held at the VFW Pacific Beach, 853 Turquoise Street, San Diego, CA 92109-1127. Mrs. Sage was born October 13, 1927, and had been a baptized member of the Church of God for almost 19 years.

Mr. Sage’s children provided food after the morning memorial service. The afternoon funeral service (Internment) started at 2:30 pm and took place at 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Dr, San Diego, CA 92106.

Evangelist Norbert Link conducted both services, which were attended by Mr. Ralph Sage and many of Mr. and Mrs. Sage’s family members as well as members of the Church of the Eternal God and the United Church of God.

A new member letter has been written and is now posted on our site: www.eternalgod.org. In this letter, Norbert Link reports on our latest church conference. He also reminds us of the sobering truth of the meaning of world events–all of which are very clearly pointing to the imminent return of Jesus Christ!

Additional information about our new 2013 Feast of Tabernacles site in Germany has been posted. http://www.eternalgod.org/feasts

We have posted two new StandingWatch programs presented by Evangelist Norbert Link–here are the titles and summaries:

“Allies Forsaken and Angered by US?” – While the Middle East seems to be ready to explode, the US seems to be anxious to antagonize the world and its closest allies, including Germany, Israel and the United Kingdom. An independent Israeli attack on Iran seems to draw nearer, and while Germany is not about to be lectured by the US, the British Isles are angered by the Obama Administration’s and the four surviving ex-U.S. leaders’ refusal to attend Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. All of this is quite telling and important in the light of biblical prophecy.

“What You MUST Know About European Unification” – The Bible says that after the fall of Rome, the ancient Roman Empire would be revived ten times in Europe. Nine revivals have come and gone, and the last one is happening right now. This proves that Jesus Christ’s return is near. But what are the astonishing current facts about the unification of Europe, and what is still going to happen? You cannot afford to be without this knowledge!

“Jesus Christus—der Sohn Gottes,” is the title of a German sermon recorded last Friday. This is a sermon, discussing Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Trinity.

“Neu! Der Brief an die Hebräer,” is the title of this week’s new German sermon. It’s part of a new series and covers chapters 1 and 2 of the letter to the Hebrews. Title in English: “The Epistle to the Hebrews.”

On April 20th, 2013, Brian Gale will give the sermon, titled, “It’s Not My Fault!”
 
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.

Many of us, no doubt, have been inspired by many people over the years. These may be people we know, people we have heard about as well as many inspiring biblical examples. It is always an uplifting experience to read, see or experience those whose conduct and behaviour sets them well above the ordinary run of the mill behaviour so prevalent in society today.
 
We have become accustomed to the phrase good “role-models” indicating that such people are worth following and imitating. Unfortunately, many whom we are told fall into this category are anything but good role models. Public figures in the political world, in sports and entertainment are often those whose behaviour is copied but, many times, is not imitating or copying the right sort of examples.
 
Sometimes, something can happen to us personally that can be an inspiration. This happened to me (and others) recently. Mr Ralph Sage, a member of the Church of the Eternal God congregation in San Diego falls into this category. On the Sabbath of 23rd March this year, Mr Sage attended services with his wife Gertrude. Just a few hours later, he rang me to say that his wife had died unexpectedly an hour or so before. Mr Sage himself has cancer and has been given just a few months to live by the medical profession. But in this short phone call, he said that he would be at Passover services the following evening. There were no ifs and buts about this even though his wife of over 61 years had just been found dead at their home.
 
The following evening, Mr Sage was at Passover services along with some others who, themselves, had serious health and other concerns. The service was inspirational because of those who were determined to attend in spite of their personal situations which might have deflected those less dedicated.

Since that time, Mr Sage has still attended most church services and has been an inspiration to all of those in his local congregation, and beyond. In an age where so many bad examples are a daily occurrence, Mr Sage’s approach was truly inspirational.

We begin with the terrifying bombing in Boston along with the heart-breaking news of a terrible deadly explosion in Texas; we report on the seemingly unstoppable Iranian and Korean development of nuclear weapons and Israel’s warnings of a pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran; China’s investments in Europe surge while the U.S. and Germany hold differing economic views; President Obama once again snubs the U.K.; the new pope takes control; and we conclude with reporting about earthquakes–large and small–from diverse parts of the world.

Terror at the Boston Marathon!

CNN reported on April 18, 2013:

“Two bombs struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, turning a celebration into a bloody scene of destruction.
 
“Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Monday night that the death toll had risen to three. Scores were injured at the scene.
 
“One of the dead was an 8-year-old boy, according to a state law enforcement source.
 
“Hospitals reported at least 144 people are being treated, with at least 17 of them in critical condition and 25 in serious condition. At least eight of the patients are children.
 
“At least 10 people injured had limbs amputated, according to a terrorism expert briefed on the investigation.
 
“Several of the patients treated at Massachusetts General Hospital suffered injuries to lower limbs that will require ‘serial operations’ in the coming days, trauma surgeon Peter Fagenholz said Monday night. Some injuries were so severe amputations were necessary, Fagenholz added.

Some believe that this is the newest war with Al-Qaida, while others think that this is just the times in which we live! The fact remains that terror has now infiltrated into the daily lives of Americans in a way that seems much different! As the next article also shows, personal safety is at risk for everyone. Why? Why has terror become part of our daily lives? The Bible addresses these questions, and you can understand what prophecy reveals for our time–especially, the immediate future–please read our free booklet: “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

Terror Srikes Texas

The Wall Street Journal reported on April 18, 2013:

“Rescue workers on Thursday began scouring the blast zone of a massive fertilizer-plant explosion that has left up to 15 people dead or missing, including emergency workers who responded to the initial fire, officials said.

“Law-enforcement officials said the death toll could rise, even as they looked for people still trapped in debris. As a heavy rain fell in this small town north of Waco, fire crews combed through the adjacent neighborhood. ‘We’re still searching for survivors,’ Waco Police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said Thursday morning.

“The incident began with a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. that began around 6 p.m. Central time on Wednesday night. Volunteer firefighters in the town of about 2,800 people roughly 80 miles south of Dallas tried to extinguish the fire at the industrial facility.

“About two hours later, a thunderous explosion ripped through the plant, registering as strong as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake, according to federal seismologists. It sent a column of smoke hundreds of feet into the air and damaged more than 50 homes in a five-block radius of the facility.

“The facility stored and blended anhydrous ammonia that it distributed as fertilizer to local businesses, according to a 2011 safety plan filed with the federal government in 2011. According to this plan, it didn’t have an automatic shutoff system or firewalls installed. It was located across the street from a park and within 1,000 feet of a school, homes and an apartment complex, where many of the injuries occurred.

“More than 150 people have been treated for injuries relating to the fire and explosion, according to local hospitals. There is an assisted-living facility close by, but more than 130 people had been evacuated from it after the fire broke out but before the explosion, said Texas state police…

“A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D.L. Wilson, said the blast heavily damaged 50 to 75 homes, as well as an apartment building with roughly 50 units near the site.

“‘We have a tremendous number of injuries,’ Mr. Wilson said in a televised news briefing shortly after midnight. He described the scene at the West Fertilizer plant and nearby neighborhood as looking ‘just like Iraq, just like the Murrah building,’ referring to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, where 168 people died after a truck filled with fertilizer was detonated in a domestic terrorist attack in 1995.

Iran and North Korea’s Deadly Cooperation

Newsmax reported on April 12, 2013:

“Analysts fear a dramatic advance in North Korea’s nuclear missile technology, revealed inadvertently during a Congressional hearing Thursday, will quickly find its way to Iran — forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fast-track a long-contemplated attack against Tehran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities.

“Pentagon officials are playing down a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea probably has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and place it on an ICBM. U.S. officials say that miniaturization capability, if it exists, is untested and unreliable.

“In February, North Korea detonated what is described as a ‘lighter, miniaturized atomic bomb.’ At the time, there was speculation this could signal the Hermit Kingdom had developed a nuclear warhead that it could place on its long-range missiles. Pentagon officials, however, continued to insist North Korea was at least a year away from developing that capability.

“Jerusalem Post defense analyst Yaakov Katz, author of ‘Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War,’ tells Newsmax that U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials have generally agreed that it would take Iran six to 12 months to build a nuclear device once it tried to break out and enrich its material from the 20-percent to the 90-percent level required. Beyond that, intelligence experts have projected, it would then take Iran another year or two to produce a miniaturized warhead that could be installed on a missile.

“Now, Katz says, the time lag between reaching nuclear capability and Iran’s ability to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead appears to have vanished. That means Thursday’s revelation could reduce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nonmilitary options against Iran, forcing the Jewish state to step up its timetable for attacking the Persian nation should it acquire enough enriched uranium to be a significant threat.

“’If the North Koreans are much more advanced than we assumed, then that could mean that when the Iranians surge to move forward, that the whole time frame would change also,’ Katz tells Newsmax. ‘It would mean Israel and the West would have to revisit the time frames that they’ve put in for the Iranians, and that could be much shorter now — which means your window of opportunity [to attack] is also becoming smaller.’

“Experts say Israel would have to assume that any North Korean miniaturization technology would soon find its way into the hands of Iran’s mullahs. In fact, it is possible Iranian technology enabled North Korea’s push to miniaturize its warheads — the step that makes them capable of being installed on an ICBM. There is widespread agreement in the intelligence community that the two embattled nations routinely exchange technology, and sometimes military hardware as well…

“The news that one U.S. intelligence agency believes North Korea already has achieved the ability to design nuclear-missile warheads was inadvertently disclosed by GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado on Thursday during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. He was reading a portion of a classified document that had been erroneously marked declassified.

“That disclosure means Israeli leaders must now assume the window between the moment Iran acquires nuclear capability, and the horrific moment when it could launch an attack on a major Israeli city such as Tel Aviv, would be a matter of months or weeks rather than years, experts say.

“That North Korea has helped Iran bolster its missile technology is well established. In recent years, as Iranian technology surpassed that of North Korea, the technical assistance flowed the other way as well, sources say.”

Iran’s Nuclear Quest

The Washington Post wrote on April 15, 2013:
 
“For years, mystery surrounded an Iranian-­controlled factory tucked away in this town of 70,000 in Germany’s industrial west.

“The plant manufactured high-pressure gas tanks, but its managers seemed uninterested in making a profit. Potential investors were turned away. An expensive piece of machinery — precise enough to produce components for centrifuges and missiles — sat idle after a failed attempt to ship it to Iran. Finally, the factory, MCS Technologies, closed its doors late last month.

“Since then, the mystery has taken another turn. European security officials and former workers have raised questions about whether the high-tech equipment and material at MCS could have been part of a scheme to aid Iran’s rogue nuclear program…

“With the United States, Germany and other Western countries trying to tighten sanctions on Iran to slow its nuclear program, the MCS mystery demonstrates the difficulty of tracking the flow of technology and material that have civilian and military applications.”

Israel’s Military Prepares…

The Washington Times reported on April 16, 2013:

“Israeli military and political heads are holding intense discussions on how best to launch an independent attack on Iran, should the need arise, the nation’s defense force chief said Tuesday.
 
“’The Iranian challenge is very significant and we must approach it with a responsible long-term strategy,’ IDF chief Benny Gantz said, The Times of Israel reported. ‘We will do what is necessary when it is necessary.’
 
“Mr. Gantz specified that Israel had the ability to hit Iran’s nuclear targets on its own — absent aid from any other country, including the United States. And ongoing military-political talks were focusing on that scenario, he said, in The Times of Israel.”

A Warning From Prime Minister Netanyahu

The Jerusalem Post wrote on April 18, 2013:

“Iran needs only 80 kilograms more of 20% enriched uranium before it can produce a nuclear bomb, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Thursday afternoon.

“’It takes 250 kilos of 20% enriched uranium to manufacture a nuclear bomb. They [Iran] have gone up from 110 to 170 kilos,’ Netanyahu said…

“The threat of a North Korean nuclear strike has underscored the danger of Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu said.

“’The entire world is paralyzed, shattered, destabilized by this rogue state [North Korea] that has nuclear weapons,’ Netanyahu said.

“’Iran is many times fold stronger than North Korea both in GDP and aggressive tendencies and the world wide web of terror that they have,’ Netanyahu said.

“Tehran has armed terrorists with rockets and has the ability to shut down the world’s oil supply, he said. If they have a nuclear weapons, it would spark a nuclear arms race in the region.

“’The Middle East will become a tinderbox. The threat of Iran’s getting nuclear weapons is a direct threat to the existence of Israel, but I think that it is a supreme pivot of history. It threatens the peace of the world,’ Netanyahu said.”

China Invests in Europe

Spiegel Online International wrote on April 16, 2013:

“Europe has become the world’s largest recipient of foreign investment by Chinese firms. While North America largely views them with suspicion, China’s state-owned corporations have been largely welcomed in a continent plagued by recession and in desperate need of cash.

“Chinese state-owned companies are expanding their influence in Europe, investing more than $12.6 billion (€9.6 billion) in the Continent last year, according to a study by the Hong Kong-based private equity firm A Capital.

Germany Doesn’t Need U.S. Fix!

The euobserver.com reported on April 13, 2013:

“US treasury secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday (9 April) hinted that Germany should boost its internal demand to help Europe get out of the crisis.

“But German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Berlin has no need for US tutelage.

“‘We need to balance policies of growth and fiscal consolidation. The driving force behind any recovery is consumer demand, so any policies to help encourage consumer demand in countries that have the capacity would be helpful,’ Lew said during a joint press conference with Schaeuble in Berlin.

“Germany has a policy of keeping down wages in order to make it a more attractive location for manufacturers and exporters.

“But the low pay stymies growth in German domestic consumption.

“At the same time, its firm policy on avoiding inflation has kept the euro relatively strong on currency markets, hampering efforts by crisis-hit eurozone states, such as Greece or Spain, to export their way out of trouble.

“For his part, Schaeuble, while welcoming the new US minister on his first visit to Berlin, said there is no need for Germany or the US to give ‘lessons’ or ‘grades’ to each other.

“‘We need to understand each other. The situation in the US is completely different than the one in Europe and I was trying to explain that,’ he told press.

“‘I tried to explain to him the complicated structures we have here in Europe. We are on the right way [out of the crisis], but we have complex decision making structures,’ he added.

“Both officials tried to downplay their differences on how to balance austerity with growth-spurring measures.”

Obama’s Snub… Again!

MailOnline reported on April 15, 2013:

“Friends and allies of Baroness Thatcher expressed ‘surprise and disappointment’ last night as it emerged President Obama is not planning to send any serving member of his administration to her funeral.
 
“Whitehall sources have revealed that the US delegation at tomorrow’s service in St Paul’s Cathedral will be led by two Reagan era secretaries of state: James Baker and George Shultz.
 
“Though President Obama himself had not been expected to attend, there had been speculation that he would be represented either by Vice President Joe Biden or wife Michelle. However, the Obama administration had said it would not be attending Thatcher’s funeral before the Boston bombings

“The Queen’s decision to attend Lady Thatcher’s funeral has effectively elevated it to a state occasion unprecedented for a political figure in Britain since the death of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.
 
“Other world leaders, including Canada’s Stephen Harper, Mario Monti of Italy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, are attending the service in person.

“President Obama paid tribute to Lady Thatcher’s towering achievements when her death was announced last week.
 
“But a US embassy spokesman confirmed that no serving member of his administration would be present to pay their last respects, citing a busy week in US domestic politics.”

Newsmax also noted on April 18, 2013:

“President Barack Obama’s decision not to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday was blasted by a former Reagan administration official and Fox News analyst who called it shameful, ‘cheap, small and petty.’

“Writing on Fox News.com, Fox National Security Analyst Kathleen Troia ‘K.T.’ McFarland said the administration’s official excuse that the president and vice president were consumed with a busy week — which included the Boston Marathon bombing tragedy — rang hollow.

“It does — after all — take a mere 24 hours to fly to London and back for a state funeral, she noted.

“’It is standard operating procedure for the Vice President or First Lady or, at a minimum the Secretary of State, to attend funerals of foreign leaders, even those from lesser nations,’ McFarland wrote. ‘Shame on you, Mr. President. You and your administration look cheap, small and petty.

“’It goes without saying that when one of the longest serving leaders of America’s closest and most enduring ally dies, the United States should send a large and distinguished delegation of America’s leaders, past and present,’ added McFarland, who is a Distinguished Adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and served in national security posts in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations.

“She wasn’t the only one criticizing the president for his handling of the funeral. Obama was slammed in the British tabloids, as well.

“They reported that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron was incensed, especially since former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair was sitting in the front row of the service.

“'[Downing] Street is most angered by rejections from Obama, First Lady Michelle and Vice-President Joe Biden. And none of the four surviving ex-U.S. leaders — Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr — is coming either,’ The Sun reported, according to Politico.

“The Sun continued: ‘The response contrasts with glowing U.S. tributes on the day Lady Thatcher died. A No 10 source said last night: “We are a little surprised by the White House’s reaction as we were expecting a high-profile attendance.” The “snub” came ahead of the Boston marathon ‘bomb outrage.'”‘”

It appears that President Obama’s insensitivites toward the British are all too obvious. Early in his first term, the president removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the White House and had it returned to England. Now, his latest actions are drawing pointed criticism from our closest ally. Mr. Obama’s less than diplomatic treatment has eroded the bond so characterized by the former British Prime Minister Thatcher and U.S. President Reagan.

Hypocrisy of Catholic Priests at Issue

Reuters wrote on April 14, 2013:

“Pope Francis on Sunday said clergy and Christians must not betray the word of God with their actions or they undermine the credibility of the Catholic Church.

“Francis, elected a month ago, inherited a Church struggling to restore credibility after a series of scandals, including the sexual abuse of children by priests.

“The pope spoke at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where he celebrated Mass. He also greeted pilgrims and local Church members earlier in St. Peter’s square.

“‘Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s credibility,’ the pontiff said in his homily.

“‘Those who listen to us and observe us must be able to see in our actions what they hear from our lips, and so give glory to God!’

“In his first major decision on Saturday, Francis set up an advisory board of cardinals to help him govern the Church and reform its troubled central administration, which was riddled by infighting and alleged corruption under Pope Benedict.”

Vatican Remains Unyeilding

Los Angeles Times reported on April 15, 2013:

“Pope Francis has backed the Vatican’s doctrinal crackdown on a major group of American nuns, reasserting the Roman Catholic Church’s conservative approach to various social issues in a move that could cool the warm reception he has received from some liberal Catholics since taking office last month.

“The Vatican said in a statement Monday that Francis had reaffirmed the doctrinal evaluation and criticism of U.S. nuns made last year by the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents most U.S. female Catholic orders, of promoting “radical feminist themes” and ignoring the Vatican’s hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion.

“At the time, the Vatican dispatched an archbishop to rewrite the group’s statutes and set up reeducation programs to bring nuns back into line, alleging that leaders of U.S. orders had challenged the church’s teachings on women’s ordination and ministry to homosexuals.”

Earthquakes…

The Associated Press reported on April 18, 2013:

“Iran’s state TV says a moderate, magnitude 5.2 earthquake rattled a small town in the country’s northwest…

“It’s the third quake in Iran in the past 10 days. A magnitude 7.5 quake shook a sparsely populated area near the Pakistani border on Tuesday. A week before that, a magnitude 6.1 quake struck another part of the south, killing 37 people and injuring hundreds.
 
“Iran lies on seismic fault lines and experiences one slight quake a day on average.”

9News from Oklahoma City reported on April 16, 2013:

“Several earthquakes shook central Oklahoma in the early morning hours of Tuesday, including one that hit while News 9 was on the air.
 
“News 9 received hundreds of phone calls, emails, Facebook and Twitter messages soon after the first earthquake hit.
 
“The first quake was reported around 1:45 a.m. about three miles west of Chandler. The United State Geological Survey says it had a magnitude of 3.0.
 
“Fifteen minutes later, the strongest earthquake of the morning hit the Oklahoma City metro area. The 4.3 quake  was centered near Luther, 29 miles east and northeast of Oklahoma City. This earthquake awakened many residents and shook buildings from Oklahoma City to Stillwater.

“The USGS reported a third quake at 2:15 a.m. near Boley, Oklahoma. This one had a magnitude of 2.8. One minute later, a fourth early-morning quake shook the area of Luther and Choctaw.   The USGS says this one had a magnitude of 3.3.

“At 5:16 a.m., a fifth earthquake measuring 4.2 was recorded four miles east northeast of Luther. This one struck while News 9 Meteorologist Jed Castles was on the air sharing the forecast, but he was so focused Stan Miller and Bobbie Miller had to interrupt him and point out the lights in the studio were swinging because of the latest earthquake.”

The eighth resurrection of the Roman Empire under Napoleon had come and gone. According to the Bible, two more revivals would have to take place before Christ could come back. And so, the ninth, but short-lived revival occurred in the 20th century, over 100 years after Napoleon, under Mussolini and Hitler.

The Ninth Revival under Mussolini and Hitler

Technically, it was Benito Mussolini under whom the ninth revival of the Roman Empire took place, but he was of course greatly supported in this by Adolf Hitler.

The Living World of History states the following about Mussolini:

“Benito Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith, was a man of violent and boastful character, fiery patriotism and flaming ambition. Supported by the bludgeon of his blackshirted Fascist gangs (named after fasces, or rods, which in ancient Roman times had been carried before the chief magistrates), he seized power in 1922 and set himself up as dictator… He even entertained fantastic ideas about reviving the glory of the ancient Roman Empire. In 1935-6, cynically disregarding the solemn covenant of the League of Nations, he invaded and annexed Abyssinia [modern Ethiopia]…”

John Kirshon, a journalist/editor with more than 25 years of experience at the Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS News, wrote the following in March of 2010:

“With financial support from employers squeezed by trade unions and corrupt politicians, Mussolini developed a loyal following among disenchanted, angry, mostly lower-middle-class conservatives and veterans, as well as the military, the business elite, and the right wing. He promised them he would end disorder and corruption, and recreate the glory of the Roman Empire… Among his admirers was Adolf Hitler, who introduced the Roman salute to his Nazis and dressed his bodyguard in black shirts… [Mussolini’s] dream of a new Roman Empire led to the conquest of Ethiopia in 1935-36 in defiance of the League of Nations. In 1936, he sent troops to support General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, he invaded Albania. By the end of the 1930s, Mussolini had moved closer to Hitler and Nazi Germany.

“Although wary of German power, Mussolini agreed to the Rome-Berlin Axis, or Pact of Steel, and on June 10, 1940, led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis… King Victor Emmanuel discharged Mussolini as head of state on July 25, 1943. He was arrested and jailed, but rescued by German commandos. Then, he became head of the Hitler-installed Italian Social Republic in northern Italy…

“Grandeur for Mussolini meant empire building. In 1934 Mussolini said, ‘After the Rome of the Caesars, after that of the Popes, today there is a new Rome, Fascist Rome’… His dream was to be called Mare Nostrum or, ‘Our Mediterranean’, extending from Palestine to Egypt and throughout parts of Africa… Mussolini’s recreation of a Roman Empire was commemorated by the monumental construction of the Via dell’Impero.

“Mussolini attempted to turn monuments of Augustan Rome into symbols of the fascist doctrine. His goals in doing so were to validate his role as the founder of a new Roman empire … He recognized in himself a parallel to the Roman emperors, Augustus in particular… During the speech he delivered upon the installation of the first fascist governor of Rome on December 31st, 1925, he made his plans for a new Rome public: ‘Within five years Rome must strike all the nations of the world as a source of wonder: huge, well organized, powerful, as it was at the time of the Augustan Empire….’

“The Via dell’Impero was opened in 1932 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome. The overall point of the imperial boulevard was to establish and promote a relationship between the glory of ancient Rome and Mussolini’s Fascist Regime. The broad thoroughfare physically connects the most identifiable ancient symbol of the Coliseum with Mussolini’s Fascist headquarters in Piazza Venezia. More importantly it was a figurative symbol to seamlessly show the continuity of the Roman Empire.”

The following is stated in “The History of Europe and the Church” (Worldwide Church of God, ed. 1984):

“He perceived himself as a modern-day Caesar… He shaves his head to make himself look more like Caesar… He dreams of a modern Roman Empire, of repeating the great days of ancient Rome. The handshake is abolished and the old Roman salute with raised arm becomes the official greeting… Following the example of ancient Rome, some of Mussolini’s Fascist supporters even call him ‘divine Caesar.’ [As we will see, he even came to believe himself to be a god.]… [Following Italy’s defeat of Ethiopia] Mussolini now proclaims another resurrection of the Roman Empire.”

Turning to Mussolini’s beliefs and his collaboration with the Catholic Church, we are introduced to remarkable facts.

The Wikipedia Encyclopedia writes:

“Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father. His mother Rosa had him baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to services every Sunday… Mussolini would become anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he ‘proclaimed himself to be an atheist and several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead.’… He believed that science had proven there was no God, and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad… Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church… Despite making such attacks, Mussolini would try to win popular support by appeasing the Catholic majority in Italy. In 1924, Mussolini saw that three of his children were given communion. In 1925, he had a priest perform a religious marriage ceremony for himself and his wife Rachele, whom he had married in a civil ceremony 10 years earlier.

“On 11 February 1929, he signed a concordat and treaty with the Roman Catholic Church. Under the Lateran Pact, Vatican City was granted independent statehood and placed under Church law—rather than Italian law—and the Catholic religion was recognized as Italy’s state religion. The Church also regained authority over marriage, Catholicism could be taught in all secondary schools, birth control and freemasonry were banned, and the clergy received subsidies from the state, and was exempted from taxation. Pope Pius XI praised Mussolini, and the official Catholic newspaper pronounced ‘Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy’…

“After the concordat… Mussolini reportedly came close to being excommunicated from the Catholic Church… Mussolini publicly reconciled with… Pope Pius XI in 1932, but ‘took care to exclude from the newspapers any photography of himself kneeling or showing deference to the Pope.’ He wanted to persuade Catholics that ‘[f]ascism was Catholic and he himself a believer who spent some of each day in prayer …’ The Pope began referring to Mussolini as ‘a man sent by Providence.’ Despite Mussolini’s efforts to appear pious, by order of his party, pronouns referring to him ‘had to be capitalized like those referring to God …’

“After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking ‘more about God and the obligations of conscience’, although ‘he still had little use for the priests and sacraments of the Church.’ He also began drawing parallels between himself and Jesus Christ…”

“P.M. Biografie” wrote the following about Mussolini in March of 2008:

“As head of state, he reconciles with the Vatican, which increases his reputation among the people. Merely because of political reasons, he is married before the altar, and has his five children baptized. The pope… praises Mussolini as ‘the man whom Providence gave us’… Mussolini is worshipped as a god, his ministers are his high priests. He dreams of Rome as a metropolis as it existed during the times of Emperor Augustus… His headquarters is Rome and because of the immunity of the Vatican, he is safe from British bombs… Il Duce was during his glorious days more popular than anyone before or after him in the modern history of Italy.”

The book, “Kingdom of Europe,” added the following:

“The Lateran Pacts of 1929 consisted of a treaty between Italy and the Holy See and concordat regulating relations between the Italian state and the Catholic church. The treaty created the independent state of Vatican City and recognized the sovereignty of the pope there. In the concordat the church was assured of jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, and canon law was recognized as superseding the civil code in such areas as marriage. The church was restored to its role in education and allowed unencumbered operation of its press and communication facilities.”

In spite of his personal feelings towards the Catholic Church and his ambitions to be worshipped as a god and to restore the Roman Empire, we still see that he collaborated with the Church so much so that the pope praised him as a man sent by Providence—obviously a reference to God Himself. The competition between Church and State, which lasted throughout the history of the revivals of the Roman Empire, was also existent during the time of Mussolini and Hitler, and it will again be observable during the tenth and last revival.

Even though Mussolini actually declared publically the revival of the Roman Empire through him, this “revival” was short-lived and in no way comparable to the previous resurrections. This is the reason why the Bible describes it in Revelation 17:8-10 as the one which “is not, and yet is.” It says: “The beast… was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit… And those who dwell on the earth will marvel… when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is… The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five [previous Church-State resurrections of the Roman Empire] have fallen, one is [the one under Mussolini], and the other has not yet come [the last revival]…”

In our free booklet, “Is That In the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation,” we state that the ninth revival was the “comparatively insignificant Italian-German resurrection under Mussolini and Hitler (compare Revelation 17:10–11. Although this resurrection existed when God’s Church understood the meaning of this prophecy at the time of the late Herbert W. Armstrong [Revelation 17:10: “one IS”], it was very insignificant, so that it is also characterized as not existing [Revelation 17:11: “is NOT”].)

“Neither Mussolini nor Hitler were crowned by a Pope (as Justinian had not been, either); nevertheless, a close partnership existed between the Catholic Church under Pope Pius XII and Italy and Germany. This partnership can be seen by Mussolini’s signing the Lateran Treaty with the papacy in 1929, establishing papal sovereignty of the Vatican City, affirming Roman Catholicism as the only religion of Italy and, in turn, having the papacy officially recognize Mussolini as the rightful Italian governor. Further, the Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler in 1933, protecting the rights of the Church under Nazi regime and giving Hitler’s government an outward semblance of legitimacy.”

The ninth resurrection of the Roman Empire under Mussolini and Hitler had 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, as we will explain in future installments.

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

The yearly conference of the Church of the Eternal God, Global Church of God (United Kingdom) and Church of God a Christian Fellowship (Canada) was conducted starting April 12 and continued through April 16. Meetings and activities were held in Fort Collins, Colorado.

During the weekly Sabbath, three men were ordained, and we are pleased to announce that Kalon Mitchell of Ramona, California, was ordained to the office of deacon; Michael Link of Ramona, California, was ordained to the office of elder; and Robb Harris of Fort Collins, Colorado, was also ordained to the office of elder.

We will announce more details about our very successful conference in our next monthly member letter.

A recent AufPostenStehen program recored by Evangelist Norbert Link and titled “Deutschland und Amerika in der Prophezeiung,” has received an unusally high level of interest! This German language program has received more than 5,200 views on YouTube in just two weeks time.