On January 12, 2008, Bill Grams will give the sermon, titled, “Answered Prayer.”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at 12:30 pm Pacific Time (which is 2:30 pm Central Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

Christ gave the disciples of His time the admonition to watch  (Mark 13:33), and He subsequently expanded this command to all of His disciples at all times  (Mark 13:37). Yet, what we see today is an array of people not following His instruction. Rather, they are focusing on peripheral areas, and not on the crucial aspects of what is happening in the world. 

Some are caught up in conspiracy theories; the Illuminati; a future world government originating with the United Nations; or the twenty richest people in the world who are believed to have some unrevealed plot to establish a world government. Even if there was an element of truth to some of the plans or plots of certain groups or organizations in this regard, this is not where events are going to eventually transpire. All of these theories are basically distractions to keep one’s mind away from the areas where prophecy will occur. Satan is doing a good job of keeping people’s minds–including the minds of some converted Christians–off from those critical areas.

Where many fail to watch and where the Bible clearly points to, is the development of a United  Europe. A strong political leader of German ancestry will emerge from within a United Europe, and a strong religious leader will arise in Rome. They comprise the “beast” and the “false prophet,” as they are called in Revelation 13:4-6, 11-16. They will be working together with the goal to dominate the world. They will be influenced and inspired to act by the powerful god of this world, Satan the devil. 

Another area where all these theories take one’s mind off, deals with future events in the Middle East. Europe and the Middle East are two of the predominant areas where prophecy will be fulfilled. World government truly is coming, but not in the form most believe. It is coming when Christ returns and when He establishes the Kingdom of God on this earth.

True Christians are told not only to watch, but they have the added responsibility of being involved. The Church of God has been given mainly two commissions–or two aspects of the Great Commission. First, it is to preach and publish the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world, but only as a witness (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10, Authorized Version); that is, it is not to try to proselytize, browbeat, coerce, or use threats, but rather, it is to make the truth available. The Church’s second responsibility is to feed the flock or the sheep, as Christ told  Peter in John 21:15-17. These are the criteria by which the Church as a whole is judged.

Our individual responsibility is to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), and to support the efforts of the Church through our prayers, tithes and offerings, and through whatever physical help we might be able to give. Anything that distracts us from these clearly defined goals will only lead to our downfall as individual members of the Church. And if a Church organization was to fall into the trap of being distracted from its commission by ignoring parts of it, or by substituting it with something else, then it, too, will ultimately cease to be a tool in God’s hands, in furtherance of His plan–even though the organization itself might thrive and become increased in wealth, riches and prestige.

That’s why it is so important to focus on the task at hand and to watch with understanding and consider the signs of the time, rather than being distracted by the conspiracy theories offered by Satan. The key question is, are we watching and being involved, or are we focusing our attention in wrong areas, which will only diminish our abilities to remain focused on the important things and remain effective in what we are doing?

Worldwide Catastrophe Coming–The Fight For Food

The Financial Post wrote on January 4:

“A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said… ‘It’s not a matter of if, but when,’ he warned investors. ‘It’s going to hit this year hard.’

“Mr. Coxe said the sharp rise in raw food prices in the past year will intensify in the next few years amid increased demand for meat and dairy products from the growing middle classes of countries such as China and India as well as heavy demand from the biofuels industry… The impact of tighter food supply is already evident in raw food prices, which have risen 22% in the past year…

“At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn – the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months… This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing… 54% of the world’s corn supply [are] grown in America’s mid-west… The amount of U.S. grain currently stored for following seasons was the lowest on record, relative to consumption, he said.”

Scientists Fear Threat to Their Holy Cow of Evolution

AFP wrote on January 4:

“A day after ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee finished first in the opening round [in Iowa] to choose a Republican candidate for the White House, scientists warned Americans against electing a leader who doubts evolution. ‘The logic that convinces us that evolution is a fact is the same logic we use to say smoking is hazardous to your health or we have serious energy policy issues because of global warming,’ University of Michigan professor Gilbert Omenn told reporters at the launch of a book on evolution by the National Academy of Sciences… ‘I would worry that a president who didn’t believe in the evolution arguments wouldn’t believe in those other arguments either. This is a way of leading our country to ruin,’ added Omenn…”

We are not in politics; we are not endorsing a political candidate; and we are not commenting on the qualifications of Mike Huckabee or Barack Obama (the two winners in the Iowa caucus), or of John McCain and Hillary Clinton (the two winners in the New Hampshire caucus) or of any of the other candidates for president. In fact, we don’t vote in governmental elections, as this would be violating our conscience. But we ARE commissioned to uphold God’s Word, and so, we WILL comment on the incredible allegations of Prof. Omenn. All we can say is this:

Professor Omenn and all of his colleagues who CLAIM that evolution is a FACT, SHOULD KNOW THAT IT IS NOT! To make such an outrageous statement is in clear VIOLATION OF THE TRUTH. For more information as to how other SCIENTISTS ADMIT that evolution is NOT a fact–and by the very nature of the theory, it NEVER CAN BE CONSIDERED A FACT– please read our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution–a Fairy Tale for Adults.”

The above-mentioned article continued:

“A poll conducted last year showed that two-thirds of Americans believe in creationism, or the theory that God created humans at a single point in time, while 53 percent believe that humans developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life — the theory of evolution. Around a quarter of Americans said they believe in both.”

We’d like to add this additional comment: As a Christian, who believes in the inspiration of the Bible, one CANNOT believe in BOTH EVOLUTION AND CREATION. The theory of evolution, which is the atheist’s attempt to explain a creation without a Creator, is diametrically opposite to the Biblical account of man’s creation. Why do Christians think they must compromise with God’s Word, in order to appear “intellectual” and “intelligent,” by following the “foolishness” of this world and adopting the inventions of carnal minds which are hostile toward God?

Again, if you want to learn the plain truth on this matter, please read our aforementioned free booklet on the “Fairy Tale” of Evolution.

“America Is Confused About Its Own Course”

On January 10, 2008, Der Spiegel Online reported:

“Commentators writing in Germany’s main newspapers Thursday speculate about what the results [in New Hampshire] mean and Obama’s and McCain’s chances. The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘The double comeback of the political veterans Clinton and McCain in New Hampshire reveals just one thing: America is confused about its own course. The nation wants to get away from George W. Bush, who continually divided not only the world but also his own people into good and evil and into left and right. But voters are still uncertainly groping for a balance between change and stability — in both parties. Hillary Clinton promises a break with Bush, but her person symbolizes a return to the 1990s. And the Republican John McCain, who would be 72 in January 2009 when he entered office as the oldest president in US history, is regarded by his fellow countrymen as a reliable hand at the wheel.”

“‘The question is where to go now: Back to the future, or forward into the past? But such phrases misjudge just how much Barack Obama, the loser of New Hampshire, has up until now been the winner of this election campaign. He articulates passionately the longing for fundamental change in Washington. … No matter what becomes of his ambition, the longer he survives, the easier it will be for the next president to liberate Washington from its sordid reflexes and its paralyzing self-blockade.’

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘The lesson of the New Hampshire primary … is that nothing is decided… Democratic voters want change — in style, content and personnel. The Republicans expect strong leadership and integrity from their standard-bearer. What both sides have in common — at least partially — is a dissatisfaction with the Bush administration. … Could McCain win against Obama or Clinton? Against the wife of the former president he would certainly have a chance. She polarizes voters — even with tears in her eyes.’

“The right-leaning Die Welt writes: ‘It wasn’t just her hesitant tears that helped Hillary Clinton to win in New Hampshire. Her success was also helped by distrust in the supposed savior Obama. Fresh-faced youth did not succeed against a hardened career woman this time — life experience, scars included, clearly count… Obama’s radical anti-Iraq card is not so successful in the end. While Obama would be unbeatable almost anywhere in Europe, it seems that things are a bit different in once-isolationist America: Here, ideas about change for the better and living in peace do not automatically stand in opposition to democracy’s expansive impulse.’ …

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes: ‘… Both Democratic candidates are becoming better and better through this head-to-head race — and increasing their chances of winning the actual election in November. And that is ultimately what it’s all about. Because after eight years of Bush, the idea of now having four years of the Mormon minister Romney, the Baptist preacher Huckabee or the Iraq warrior McCain is too terrible a prospect.'”

Does the Second Amendment Protect the Rights of Individuals to Bear Arms?

The Associated Press reported on January 4:

“[The] District of Columbia…  is seeking to preserve its three-decade ban on handgun possession after a federal appeals court ruled in March that the ban is an unconstitutional infringement on an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take the case, setting up what could be a landmark ruling on the scope of the Second Amendment. The court has not addressed the issue in a significant way for nearly 70 years…

“The primary issue is whether the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right or a collective right belonging to state militias. A majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the founding fathers intended the right apply to individuals and struck down the D.C. law, though it remains in effect while the case is on appeal. The district argues that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms only in the context of an organized militia…

“The Supreme Court may hear arguments in the case in March. Because the case addresses not only the Second Amendment but also the peculiar status of the District of Columbia as a federal enclave, it is unclear whether the Supreme Court ruling will have a direct impact on the national gun-control issue.”

Will America Recover?

On January 6, 2008, the Washington Post published an editorial by George McGovern, former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee. We are bringing you the following excerpts:

“The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians… [The war against Iraq] has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis… and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion — by far the highest in our national history…

“How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?…

“When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others. Today… Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife…

“I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century… At age 85, I won’t be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I’d like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin. There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.”

Unfortunately, it does not appear, from Biblical prophecy, that the United States will greatly recover this time. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

U.S. Economy–“Not Just That Good”…?

The New York Times wrote on January 7:

“Dampening the administration’s customary upbeat tone on the economy, President Bush acknowledged Monday that the economic signs were ‘increasingly mixed,’ but he also suggested he would oppose Democratic initiatives to increase spending to head off a recession…

“Mr. Bush’s comments insured that the economy would become an even more central issue in the campaign and Washington as Democrats and Republicans scramble to figure out how to address rising oil prices, the home mortgage crisis, a weakening job market and recession fears. Mr. Bush, in his speech, told business leaders that… the nation faces economic uncertainty. Though Mr. Bush did not warn of a recession — as some economists have — his speech, coupled with a separate address in New York by the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., was a marked shift from their most recent optimistic assessments… polls showing Americans are now more concerned with the economy than the war in Iraq…”

… Or REALLY Bad?

USA Today wrote on January 9:

“The economic news continues to get bleaker. Oil is near $100 a barrel, housing is weak, major employers such as Citigroup are eyeing big layoffs, and the stock market dropped again Tuesday. The whiff of recession is in the air. This being an election year, calls for government rescue plans are growing louder. The details are skeletal, but they’re taking predictable forms.

“Republicans are talking about new tax cuts and extension of President Bush’s earlier ones. Democrats are discussing spending increases, including grants to states and aid to homeowners. Voters should be wary of such proposals… This is not to say that the current downturn should be ignored. But the best weapon is the Federal Reserve’s ability to cut interest rates. Such monetary policy, as it’s called, is more effective and precise than the fiscal policies wielded by politicians.”

Close Call Between USA and Iran

ABC News reported on January 7:

“The standoff between three U.S. Navy ships and five Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday was one step away from turning violent. ‘They were a heartbeat from being blown up,’ a Pentagon official, speaking of the Iranians, told ABC News. According to the Navy intelligence report on the incident, the Iranians radioed, ‘I am coming at you. You will blow up in a couple of minutes.’ The Navy ships radioed back, presumably transmitting a warning.

“All three ships also engaged in ‘evasive action,’ and according to senior Pentagon officials, the ‘prepare-to-fire’ order had been given and the gun stations manned. Pentagon officials today expressed surprise the Navy ships allowed at least one of the Iranian speedboats to get so close — just 200 yards away — without firing… A Navy official told ABC News that while there have been similar incidents in the Gulf, Sunday’s differed because of the ‘aggressive actions’ taken by the Iranians. ‘I’ve never seen a provocation like this… in international waters,’ another military official who has served for more than 25 years said. The White House seconded that notion.”

President Bush Warns Iran

AFP wrote on January 9:

“US President George W. Bush issued a new warning to regional archfoe Iran on Wednesday as he began a Middle East tour under the shadow of a weekend naval face-off between the two countries. Bush threatened Iran with ‘serious consequences’ if it attacked US warships, saying ‘all options’ were on the table to protect US assets after Sunday’s standoff in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Speaking in Jerusalem after talks with Israeli leaders, Bush also said that he remained convinced like them that Iran’s nuclear programme made it a threat to world peace, despite a recent US intelligent report that said Tehran abandoned an atomic weapons drive in 2003.”

Middle East Peace Treaty Within a Year?

The Associated Press reported on January 10, 2008:

“President Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said Thursday that a peace accord will require ‘painful political concessions’ by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the ‘occupation’ of Arab land by the Israeli military… Bush is in the Mideast for eight days, trying to bolster his goal of achieving a long-elusive peace agreement by the end of his presidency in a year. Speaking at his hotel in Jerusalem, he said again that he thinks that is possible…

“Bush gave his most detailed summation yet of what a final peace should include, including U.S. expectations for the resolution of some of the hardest issues in the violent conflict, one of the world’s longest-running and most intractable… In his set of U.S. bottom lines were security for Israel, a ‘contiguous’ state for the Palestinians and the expectation that final borders will be negotiated to accommodate territorial changes since Israel’s formation 60 years ago… On borders, Bush said ‘any agreement will require adjustments’ to the lines drawn for Israel in the late 1940s. He was referring to Israeli neighborhoods on disputed lands that Israel would keep when an independent Palestinian state is formed…  ‘The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear,’ he said. ‘There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.’

“He offered no specifics to resolve the fact of disputed Jerusalem, but urged both sides to work toward a solution in what he said could be the most difficult issue to settle in a long list of difficult issues.”

AFP added on January 10:

“Underscoring scepticism about the prospects for peace, an opinion poll published in a Hebrew newspaper found that 77 percent of Israelis doubted that Bush’s visit would advance the negotiations.”

Cooling Off Between Poland and the USA

The Associated Press reported on January 7:

“Poland’s new prime minister broke from the staunchly pro-American stance of his predecessor, saying in comments published Monday he will not rush a decision on hosting a U.S. missile defense base. The tough line suggests the Bush administration’s clout with allies is weakening… Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the Polish edition of Newsweek… ‘Remember, the shield is supposed to defend America, not Poland.'”

German Immigrants Have Had Enough

On January 10, 2008, Der Spiegel Online reported the following:

“It was bound to happen. After weeks of being portrayed by Hesse Governor Roland Koch as being little better than uncivilized savages, Germany’s immigrants on Thursday struck back. In an open letter addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel and to Koch — both of the conservative Christian Democrats — an association representing some 100 immigrant groups in Germany expressed its frustration at the populist tones coming from Koch, as he campaigns for re-election in a Jan. 27 state vote.

“‘Instead of open, constructive debate coupled with sober proposals based on the facts,’ the letter reads, ‘you are causing serious damage with your campaign polemic. A short-term success in a state election cannot be so valuable that it is worth feeding prejudice … with the effect of a further social split.’

“Koch began demanding that more action be taken against ‘criminal young foreigners’ after a Dec. 20 attack, perpetrated by a 20-year-old Turkish man born in Germany and a young immigrant from Greece, on an elderly man in the Munich subway. But many of his comments have seemed to veer away from the problem of youth violence in Germany and taken on racist overtones.

“He said ‘it must be clear that the slaughtering (of animals) in the kitchen … runs counter to our principles.’ He also said: ‘People who live in Germany must behave properly and refrain from using their fists. That’s how one behaves in a civilized country.’

“Those with foreign backgrounds in Germany have felt under attack by the blast of rhetoric and accuse Koch in Thursday’s letter of ‘tactical populism.’ The treatise also points out that many of those Koch has lumped together grew up in Germany…

“The left-leaning Social Democrats aren’t the only politicians to have mounted a counter-offensive — even members of Koch’s own party are less than impressed with his aggressive rhetoric… In Munich, meanwhile, anger is exploding over a campaign poster on display showing images of the Dec. 20 subway attack. The poster, displayed in support of the Christian Social Union — a sister party to the CDU that exists only in Bavaria — reads ‘No clemency for violent criminals’ across the top. In small print on a silhouette of the attack’s victim, it reads ‘so that you won’t be next.’ Munich Mayor Christian Ude, a Social Democrat, called the ad a ‘low point in democratic culture.'”

Fair Elections in Georgia?

The EUObserver wrote on January 7:

“Georgia president Mikhail Saakashvili was re-elected Sunday (6 January) in a move set to keep the country on its pro-EU and NATO course. But opposition leaders and Russia say the poll was fixed… The snap elections were held after street protests in November complaining about government corruption, which ended in a police crackdown that undermined Mr Saakashvili’s democratic credentials.

“European democracy watchdog [the OSCE] said Sunday’s poll was imperfect but ‘consistent with most international standards’ and ‘genuinely competitive.’ It also warned that Georgia faces ‘immense challenges’ in terms of future stability…

“‘Reports from mass media, NGOs and opposition representatives have been coming in on numerous violations of election laws by the authorities,’ the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. ‘Assessments by western observers [the OSCE]…appear superficial.’ Mr Saakashvili took power in the 2003 Rose Revolution, which overthrew the country’s post-Soviet regime and saw it steer toward future EU and NATO membership in the teeth of Russian opposition.”

Der Spiegel Online added on January 7:

“The elections in Georgia came out well for President Saakashvili, as expected. Even without immediate evidence of fraud, though, trust in his government has eroded, and people are marching in the streets… German papers on Monday point out that Saakashvili — who cracked down violently on street protests last November, and managed to deny his opponents time on Georgian TV — may have found other ways besides vote-rigging to arrange a victory; and they worry that an ally of Washington may be slipping into totalitarianism.”

Strong Earthquake in Greece

AFP reported on January 6:

“An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale jolted Greeks in the southern Peloponnese region from their beds Sunday but experts warned it could have spelt disaster if it had not been so deep. The powerful quake was felt throughout the country and even as far away as Rome, but there were no reports of casualties or major damage.

“‘We were very lucky… Greece escaped the worst because it was a medium depth earthquake,’ said Georges Stavrakakis, director of the geodynamics institute of the Athens observatory… Observatory spokesman Yannis Drakatos had said earlier: ‘The tremor occurred at a depth of more than 70 kilometres (45 miles) and that is why there have been no casualties.’… Stavrakakis said Greece’s last serious earthquake, which occurred near Athens on September 7, 1999, registered 5.9 on the Richter scale and left 143 people dead. Its epicentre was less than 30 km below the Earth’s surface. Greece is the European country most prone to earthquakes, with seismic activity here accounting for half of the continent’s tremors.”

Pakistan–From Bad to Worse

On January 10, 2008, Der Spiegel Online wrote:

“As Pakistan prepares to go to the polls in February, the tensions in the country are mounting. A new suicide attack on police officers on Thursday is the latest in a wave of bomb attacks in recent months while the country endures an ongoing political crisis. The assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto two weeks ago forced a delay in parliamentary elections, now the opposition is voicing concerns that the poll will be rigged.

“Thursday’s blast in the city of Lahore killed at least 22 people, all but two of whom were part of a group of police officers gathered outside of the city’s High Court ahead of an anti-government protest rally by lawyers. The suicide attacker arrived at the court on a motorbike, then walked up to the police and blew himself up, the police reported. The explosion also injured around 60 people.

“The security forces had been braced for violence in Pakistan as Muharram, a month-long Islamic period of mourning, commences on Thursday — a time that has become a lightening rod for sectarian violence in recent years. However, the authorities had been mainly expecting attacks in the northwestern part of the country, where Sunni sectarian militants are active and where Shiite processions have been attacked in previous years. Lahore, on the other hand, is a city that is home to many of the country’s elite, particularly army officers, and it is in Punjab, the country’s most populous and richest province…

“On Tuesday Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told reporters in London that only a United Nations investigation [of his mother’s death] would satisfy him. ‘We do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistani government has the necessary transparency,’ said Zardari, who was chosen as chairman of his mother’s party after her death, despite the fact that he is a 19-year-old student. ‘I fear for my country,’ he said at the press conference.”

Ongoing Violence in Kenya

Der Spiegel Online wrote on January 7:

“The outbreak of violence in Kenya during the past few days is not just the result of election fraud. Tribal rivalries, the social marginalization of entire ethnic groups and the shameless abuse of power are the root causes for the bloody tragedy. [President] Kibaki heads a highly corrupt cabinet, with almost all ministerial posts held by members of the Kikuyu people. Though the country’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu still make up only about 20 percent of the population. They have dominated Kenya for decades, which has translated into their receiving the best jobs, the best roads in the regions where they live and the best health care. Kenya’s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, was a Kikuyu, as is Mwai Kibaki, the country’s third president since Kenyan independence.

“The European Union election monitoring group, headed by German politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, also confirmed that the presidential election was a farce. ‘The 2007 general elections have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections,’ he said. Voter turnout was reported at an impossible 115 percent in at least one polling location. And in at least two districts there were wide disparities between the results of the local vote count and those later announced by the Kenyan election commission in the capital Nairobi. The changes were in the president’s favor in each case.

“Challenger Odinga soon accused Kibaki of election fraud, arguing that his Orange Democratic Movement’s (ODM) landslide victory in the parliamentary election that took place on the same day supported his claims… Odinga is a member of the Luo ethnic group, which represents roughly one-tenth of Kenya’s population. The Kikuyu live in the center of the country, in the region surrounding Mount Kenya, while the Luo are concentrated along the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. They have felt discriminated against by the Kikuyu for decades. In 1969, a Kikuyu murdered Tom Mboya, a prominent Luo politician, and the Luo have never forgotten his assassination.

“Odinga is a tall, charismatic man. He studied in the eastern German cities of Leipzig and Magdeburg in the 1960s and speaks fluent German. His father was the country’s vice-president under Kenyatta. After Kibaki had himself sworn in at a hastily staged ceremony in the garden of the official presidential residence, the Nairobi State House, Odinga also proclaimed himself president. The dispute led to clashes between anti-government protestors and the police in the streets of Nairobi, where barricades were set up and businesses looted. Dozens died in the unrest…

“It is unlikely that Kibaki will be able to ignore international pressure for long. Even the Americans, who prematurely congratulated him on his election victory, were quick to withdraw their statement. Although Washington sees Kibaki as a loyal ally in the war against terrorism, it distanced itself from the autocratic ruler in the wake of growing protests against the president…”

Rampant Smuggling of Radioactive Material

ABC News reported on January 4:

“In a troubling disclosure, the Russian Federal Customs Service has revealed that authorities thwarted more than 850 attempts to smuggle highly radioactive materials in and out of Russia in 2007. Eighty-five percent of these smuggling attempts were going into the country, and 15 percent were going out. The figures are likely to fuel fears about how many illegal exports were not detected, and what the potential dangers of such radioactive materials can be.”

Britain’s Jack Straw Under Religious Fire

The Daily Mail wrote on January 9:

“Church leaders yesterday warned that new gay hate laws threaten to stop Christians speaking of their beliefs. Both Church of England and Roman Catholic bishops [said that] Christians should be allowed to hold open discussions about sexuality and they must be permitted to criticise homosexual behaviour and lifestyles… The bishops also said that the new law which will make it a crime to harass or bully anyone because of their sexuality will also have a general chilling effect on free speech. Police are already ‘over-zealous’ in cracking down on Christians who stand up for their traditional views, they said…

“The move from two biggest and most influential churches came amid a Cabinet split over the hate crime amendment proposed by Justice Minister Jack Straw to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which goes before Parliament next month… Mr Straw’s law would make it a crime to stir up hatred on grounds of sexual orientation. It would carry a maximum penalty of seven years in jail for those found guilty – a longer sentence than the five years handed down to a typical rapist… Leaders of the gay pressure group Stonewall, which has been highly influential in drawing up the new law, have said that it will permit religious leaders to continue to express their views on homosexuality provided they are ‘temperate’ and ‘polite.'”

666 and the Church of England

AFP wrote on January 10:

“Eyebrows were raised in the House of Commons on Thursday when a motion calling for the Church of England to be disestablished was listed with the number 666, symbol of the AntiChrist. ‘This number is supposed to be the mark of the Devil. It looks as though God or the Devil have been moving in mysterious ways,’ said Bob Russell, a Liberal Democrat MP among those proposing the motion for debate. ‘What is even stranger is that this motion was tabled last night when MPs were debating blasphemy,’ he added.

“The motion calls for an end to the formal link between Church and State in England — embodied in the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is both head of state and head of the Church of England. The number 666 is referred to in the Book of [Revelation] in the Bible: ‘Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, three score and six.’

“‘It is… incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number,’ said Russell. Under the rules of the House of Commons the motion by backbenchers has little chance of actually being debated in parliament.”

The Russian Orthodox Church and the West

On January 10, 2008, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with Metropolitan Kyrill, foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church and the possible successor to Patriarch Alexy II. We are bringing you the following excerpts from his statements, especially as they relate to homosexuality, the evolution theory, and the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church:

“[The West] distorts the boundary between good and evil, between sin and sanctity. Even adultery is apparently no longer considered a sin, despite the fact that every adulterer senses that he has done something wrong. But human beings have a conscience. That’s something even the Marxists were unable to eliminate. They had an explanation for everything, a self-contained philosophy [which determined conscience] — just as your philosophers in Germany say, the conscience is the result of cultural development. But whether you are in Papua New Guinea, Munich or Novosibirsk in Siberia, the principles are the same everywhere: Thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill… The Bible calls it [homosexuality] a sin. But we do not condemn these people. The church is opposed to these people being persecuted or offended. But why should sin be propagated? The gay parade is a blatant display of sodomy. In that case, we might as well promote other sins, as has long been the case on television. This degenerates public morality. It is the church’s job to call a sin a sin. Otherwise it no longer serves a purpose. Unfortunately, the tendency in today’s world is to champion the freedom of choice, while freedom from evil is virtually forgotten…

“We are talking about morals. They want us to believe that morality is relative. But that’s completely untrue. The communists said that good is what is good for the working class. That was relative morality — and 60 million people were exterminated. Hitler claimed that what is good is what is good for greater Germany. That too cost millions of lives. Morality is either absolute or it doesn’t exist at all. If you can justify homosexuality, why not pedophilia?… In a few years, they’ll tell you that 12-year-old girls used to be children, but that they are now much further developed. Twenty years ago, no one would have dreamed that Germany would pass a law one day that recognizes homosexual marriages. But now that too has been accepted… Nowadays many pursue the logic that everything they want ought to be good and justified. We are too quick to treat emotions that ultimately harm us as natural needs. When moral foundations are shaken, we unleash our instincts… The difference between men and animals is that men can control their drives…

“[Regarding Darwin and the evolution theory] no one has provided precise proof of the transition from one species to another. It would be wrong to treat Darwin’s theory as the only correct one. It is the leading theory today, but it could be replaced by another theory tomorrow. There was also a time when Marxism considered itself the only correct and scientifically justified theory…

“The division [between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church]  is a consequence of human sin. In this respect it resembles a divorce. The Christian West and the Christian East parted ways because they believed that they didn’t need each other anymore. Reunification can only [be] achieved through spiritual rapprochement. It doesn’t matter how many documents we sign. Unless we have the feeling that we love each other, that we are one family, and that each member needs the other, it will not materialize… Our relations have improved since Benedict became pope. He has removed the issue of a visit to Moscow from the agenda. This sort of visit would not have solved any problems, but it would have provoked new ones. Many of the faithful in Russia mistrust Catholics. This is a legacy of the wars and of proselytization efforts in the 17th and 18th centuries.”

Many have been confused about the scroll with seven seals (compare Revelation 5:1), and they have tried to attach human interpretations to them. But John saw, in a vision, that no one was able to break and explain the seven seals, except for the Lamb, Jesus Christ (compare Revelation 5:3, 5-7, 9; 6:1). We therefore need to turn to Jesus Christ’s Words in order to understand the seven seals. And IF we accept the explanations of Jesus, as written, then the meaning becomes very clear.

The first six of the seven seals are all recorded in Revelation 6. When Christ opens the first four seals, described in Revelation 6:2-8, John sees in the vision the famous four horsemen of the Apocalypse which kill “a fourth of the earth” with “sword, hunger, death and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8). When comparing Revelation 6:2-8 with Matthew 24:4-7 and Luke 21:8-11, then the meaning of the four horsemen or the first four seals becomes clear:

(1) The FIRST SEAL (Revelation 6:2) — RELIGIOUS DECEPTION (compare Matthew 24:3-5; Luke 21:8).

(2) The SECOND SEAL (Revelation 6:3-4) — WAR (compare Matthew 24:6-7; Luke 21:9).

(3) The THIRD SEAL (Revelation 6:5-6) — FAMINE (compare Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11)

(4) The FOURTH SEAL (Revelation 6:7-8) — PESTILENCE (compare Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11).

Oftentimes religious deception leads to wars, directly or indirectly. Wars, in turn, lead to famine and diseases. Historically, the Black Death alone killed upwards of one third of the people living in Europe in the 14th century. The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from March, 1918, to June, 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. While older estimates put the number of killed at 40–50 million people, current estimates are that 50 million to 100 million people worldwide died, possibly more than that taken by the Black Death.

(5) The FIFTH SEAL (Revelation 6:9-11) — THE GREAT TRIBULATION

After the four horsemen have begun their terrible ride, organized and worldwide martyrdom of true Christians will occur next, depicted by the fifth seal (compare Matthew 24:9-12; Mark 13:11-13; Luke 21:12-19). The fifth seal describes a vision, as do the other seals. The four horsemen do not REALLY ride–they REPRESENT certain events, which will take place on this earth. In the same way, the “souls under the altar” are not really alive and do not really cry to God with a loud voice—as the “dry bones” in Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 37:11 did not really speak either, neither did Abel’s shed blood (Genesis 4:10).

At the same time of this religious persecution, the modern nations and peoples of Judah and of the house of Israel (the English-speaking nations of the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and others) will be attacked and destroyed in war, mainly by a European power bloc, during the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:15-28; Mark 13:14-20; Luke 21:20-24; Daniel 12:1; Jeremiah 30:10; Hosea 9:3; 13: 16; Amos 6:7; 7:17).

The Great Tribulation is Satan’s wrath directed against true Christians–spiritual Israelites–and the modern houses of Israel and Judah.

(6) The SIXTH SEAL (Revelation 6:12-14) — COSMIC DISTURBANCES or HEAVENLY SIGNS

After the Great Tribulation has begun, the sixth seal is opened—picturing “heavenly signs” or cosmic disturbances which are introduced by a great earthquake (Revelation 6:12-14; Luke 21:25-26; Matthew 24:29).

These cosmic disturbances PRECEDE and will be followed by the “Day of the Lord,” the seventh seal. Revelation 6:17 refers to it as the “great day of His wrath.” Compare Joel 2:30-31; 3: 14-15. This time span, which will begin prior to Christ’s return, is described as a time of Godly retribution (Isaiah 2:10-21; 13:6-16; Zephaniah 1:14-18).

Before God pours out His wrath on unrepentant mankind during the Day of the Lord, God’s servants will be sealed to be protected from the time to come (Revelation 7:1-3; compare Ezekiel 9:4; see also Revelation 9:4). First 144,000 will be sealed—12,000 out of each tribe of Israel (Revelation 7:4-8; compare Revelation 14:1-5), excluding Dan (compare Judges 18:30; Deuteronomy 29:17-20; Genesis 49:18). After that, John sees a great multitude which “no one could number,” from “all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues,” standing before the Lamb with white garments (Revelation 7:9). They “came out of the great tribulation… and washed their robes and made them white” (Revelation 7:14). If they CAME OUT of THE Great Tribulation (as it says in the Greek), then they must have been in it.

While some Christians will be protected here on earth–not in heaven–from the Great Tribulation (compare Revelation 3:10; Revelation 12:14; see also Luke 21:36; Proverbs 14:26), others will have to go through it, to be purified (Revelation 12:17; compare 1. Corinthians 11:32). But all true Christians who survive that time of trouble will be protected from God’s wrath to come.

(7) The SEVENTH SEAL:

The SEVENTH seal consists of SEVEN TRUMPETS, which are blown by seven angels (Revelation 8:2, 6). The first FOUR trumpets are described in Revelation 8:7-12.

(7.1) The FIRST TRUMPET

It describes, what appears to be, a firestorm destroying one third of all trees and of the grass (compare Revelation 8:7)

(7.2) The SECOND TRUMPET

It depicts, what appears to be, a huge burning meteorite falling into the sea, destroying one third of all sea creatures and one third of all the ocean ships (Revelation 8:8-9).

(7.3) The THIRD TRUMPET

It describes, what appears to be, another huge fiery comet or asteroid, destroying or poisoning one third of all the sweet drinking water (Revelation 8:10-11).

(7.4) The FOURTH TRUMPET

It brings further cosmic disturbances, blocking one third of the light of the sun, moon and stars (Revelation 8:12-13).

Revelation 8:13 speaks of the last three remaining trumpets as the last “three woes”—because of their great and extreme severity.

(7.5) The FIFTH TRUMPET (the “first woe”)

The first of the last three woes—or the fifth trumpet—is described in Revelation 9:1-12. It identifies the final resurrection of the Roman Empire, coming out of a “bottomless pit” (Revelation 9:1-3, compare Revelation 11:7; 17:8), an end-time European power bloc, referred to as the “beast” elsewhere. It is depicted to be at war with other nations. Its instruments of war are symbolically portrayed as “locusts” (Revelation 9:3) or helicopters, causing pain and harm on humans for five months, without killing them (Revelation 9:4-5, 10). The real ruler of this power bloc is “the angel of the bottomless pit” (Revelation 9:11)–Satan the devil. This war occurs after the Great Tribulation—after the time of war between Europe and the modern nations of the houses of Israel and Judah. By that time, the modern nations of the houses of Israel and Judah will already be destroyed, and their surviving people will have become captives of this European power. The war depicted in Revelation 9 is alluded to more fully in Daniel 11, commencing with verse 41.

(7.6) The SIXTH TRUMPET (the “second woe”)

Revelation 9:13-21 describes the second woe or the sixth trumpet—the appearance of an invading army of 200 million soldiers (Revelation 9:16) from the east (Revelation 9:14)–shortly after Europe’s invasion of the Middle East (Daniel 11:41-43, 45)–to kill “a third of mankind” (Revelation 9:15). Apparently, this is the second stage of a total world war between, at that time, mainly the European power bloc and a power bloc of eastern nations (compare Revelation 9:17 with Joel 2: 4). This second stage is also alluded to in Daniel 11:44.

(7.7) The SEVENTH TRUMPET (the “third woe”)

The third woe or the seventh trumpet is not described until Revelation 16. Previous chapters are interludes—flashbacks—setting the stage for the climax of the last or seventh trumpet, as identified in Revelation 16 (compare Revelation 10:7).

The seventh trumpet of the seventh seal consists of SEVEN LAST PLAGUES, which are described in Revelation 16:1-21. Seven angels pour out these seven last plagues, also referred to as the seven bowls of the wrath of God (Revelation 15:7; 16:1).

(7.7.1) The FIRST OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It causes “a foul and loathsome sore” on those who worship the beast and its image, and who have accepted the mark of the beast (Revelation 16:2).

(7.7.2) The SECOND OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It causes every living creature in the sea to die (Revelation 16:3).

(7.7.3) The THIRD OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It causes the sweet water supply to become “blood”—that is, undrinkable (Revelation 16:4-7).

(7.7.4) The FOURTH OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It brings about increased solar radiation which horribly scorches mankind. Despite this punishment from God for their sins, man will not repent, but rather blaspheme God (Revelation 16:8-9).

(7.7.5) The FIFTH OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It causes total darkness to cover the Headquarters of the beast—again, people will blaspheme God and will refuse to repent even then (Revelation 16:10-11).

(7.7.6) The SIXTH OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It will dry up the waters of the “great river Euphrates” (Revelation 16:12) to enable the “kings from the east” to advance to the place of “Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16) to “gather” there in preparation for “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14, 16). These kings from the east, as well as all the other kings of the earth, will be influenced by Satan and the demonically possessed beast and the false prophet (Revelation 16:13-14). All of them will gather at “Armageddon” or the “hill of Megiddo” (“har” meaning “hill” in Hebrew), about 55 miles or 90 kilometers north of Jerusalem, and about 15 miles or 25 kilometers inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Megiddo is a huge mound with a commanding view of the long and fertile valley of Jezreel—an ideal place for armies gathering there. Then, they will converge from there on Jerusalem to fight the returning Christ. We don’t read that there will be a battle at Armageddon—the battle will be fought farther south in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is called today the “Kidron Valley,” bordering Jerusalem on the east.

(7.7.7) The SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES or bowls:

It causes a tremendous earthquake to shake the earth “as had not occurred since men were on the earth” (Revelation 16:17-18; compare Isaiah 2:12-19; 13:6-13; 24:1-20), causing the “great city” of Jerusalem to be “divided into three parts” and “all the cities of the nations” to fall (Revelation 16:19). Further, every island disappears, and mountains are leveled (Revelation 16:20). A great hail of tremendous size destroys everything in its path. Again, man will not repent, but blaspheme God because of the hail (Revelation 16:21).

To obtain the entire picture of the events at the time of Christ’s return, we need to consider additional passages.

The battle in the valley of Jehoshaphat and the mighty earthquake are more fully described in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, which describes the return of Jesus Christ (Chapters 17 and 18 are again interludes—flashbacks—setting the stage for the climax of the destruction of this world’s civilization–called “Babylon”–which is being dominated or influenced by a military-economic and religious power).

Chapter 19 describes the returning Jesus Christ, riding on a white horse, to establish the government of God here on earth (Revelation 19:6, 11, 14-15).

When the seventh angel sounds and when Christ returns, the saints–converted Christians–will be resurrected to immortality, if they have died, or they will be changed to immortality, if they are still alive (1 Corinthians 15:50-56; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). They will at that time be born again and inherit salvation, by entering the Kingdom or very Family of God. They will meet Christ in the air and descend with Him on that same day on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14:3-5 indicates that, apparently due to the great earthquake of the seventh bowl, mentioned in Revelation 16:17-18, the Mount of Olives shall split in two, making a very large valley, where the final battle of God Almighty will take place.

Christ will overcome the armies which will be trying to fight Him, as well as the modern leaders of modern “Babylon”–the military ruler (“the beast”) and the religious leader (“the false prophet”) (compare Revelation 19:19-21). The destruction of the armies is more fully described in Zechariah 14:12, 15. The beast and the false prophet will be cast into “the lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20).

Revelation 19:7-9 also states that Christ will come to “marry” His “wife”—His Church—and that those are blessed “who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Other passages shed more light on this marriage and the marriage supper, compare Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13; Luke 12:35-38; 13: 25-30.

Beginning with Revelation 20, further events are described, which will occur after Christ has returned to this earth. An angel will bind and imprison Satan and his demons for 1000 years or a “millennium,” so that Satan cannot deceive mankind during that period (Revelation 20:1-4; compare also Revelation 12:9). The immortal saints will rule with and under Christ on and over this earth for those thousand years (Revelation 20: 5-6; Daniel 7: 22, 27). The results of this rulership will be peace, prosperity and a correct understanding of God and His ways (Isaiah 2:2-4; 9: 6-7; 11:1-10; 35:1-10; Amos 9:13-15; Micah 4:1-5). Ultimately, the saints will reign under God “for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

To summarize, here are the seven seals of the book of Revelation, as follows:

(1) The FIRST SEAL (Revelation 6:2) — RELIGIOUS DECEPTION

(2) The SECOND SEAL (Revelation 6:3-4) — WAR

(3) The THIRD SEAL (Revelation 6:5-6) — FAMINE

(4) The FOURTH SEAL (Revelation 6:7-8) — PESTILENCE

(5) The FIFTH SEAL (Revelation 6:9-11) — THE GREAT TRIBULATION of spiritual and physical Israel

(6) The SIXTH SEAL (Revelation 6:12-14) — COSMIC DISTURBANCES or HEAVENLY SIGNS

(7) The SEVENTH SEAL consists of SEVEN TRUMPETS (Revelation 8:2, 6)

(7.1) The FIRST TRUMPET destroys one third of all trees and of the grass (compare Revelation 8:7)

(7.2) The SECOND TRUMPET destroys one third of all sea creatures and of all the ocean ships (Revelation 8:8-9)

(7.3) The THIRD TRUMPET poisons one third of all the sweet drinking water (Revelation 8:10-11)

(7.4) The FOURTH TRUMPET blocks one third of the light of the sun, moon and stars (Revelation 8:12-13)

(7.5) The FIFTH TRUMPET (the “first woe”) depicts a war caused by Europe (Revelation 9:1-12)

(7.6) The SIXTH TRUMPET (the “second woe”) depicts retaliating Asian powers (Revelation 9:16)

(7.7) The SEVENTH TRUMPET (the “third woe”) consists of SEVEN LAST PLAGUES (Revelation 16:1)

(7.7.1) The FIRST PLAGUE causes “a foul and loathsome sore” (Revelation 16: 2)

(7.7.2) The SECOND PLAGUE causes every living creature in the sea to die (Revelation 16:3)

(7.7.3) The THIRD PLAGUE causes the sweet water supply to become “blood” (Revelation 16:4-7)

(7.7.4) The FOURTH PLAGUE scorches mankind (Revelation 16:8-9)

(7.7.5) The FIFTH PLAGUE causes total darkness (Revelation 16:10-11)

(7.7.6) The SIXTH PLAGUE prepares for “Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16)

(7.7.7) The SEVENTH PLAGUE causes the greatest earthquake of all time (Revelation 16:17-18)

We do not know the exact time of Christ’s return, and it is unbiblical to try to figure out the year of His Second Coming; but we can say that, based on world conditions in the light of Biblical prophecy, Christ’s return is near (Please listen to Norbert Link’s recent sermon on this topic, which is dated December 29, 2007, titled, “Do You Know the Year of Christ’s Return?”) The events connected with the seven seals, as described in the Book of Revelation, will take place very shortly. Once these prophetic events begin, they will be fulfilled in just a few years. Here is what Jesus stated: “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till ALL THESE THINGS TAKE PLACE” (Matthew 24:34).

Also, to the generation who lives to face these horrific times, Jesus Christ warns: “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory… Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:27, 36).

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Michael Link and Noelle Jacobs would like to announce that they plan to get married in Ramona, California, on June 29, 2008.

The draft of the new booklet on “Man’s Holidays and God’s Holy Days” has entered the second review cycle.

A new StandingWatch program (#151) was posted on StandingWatch, Google Video and YouTube. It is titled, “What IS the Kingdom of God?, Part 2.” In the program, Norbert Link is asking the following questions: Is the gospel message just about Jesus Christ, or is it Christ’s message about the Kingdom of God? IS God a Family, or does He just HAVE a family? Is it the potential of man to become God or just a spirit being, higher than angels, but lower than God? What DOES your BIBLE say about these questions?

The following video recordings of Norbert Link’s recent sermons have been posted on Google Video:

“Was the California Wild Fire Caused by God?,” dated November 3, 2007
“Image Which Speaks,” dated September 13, 2007
“The Tabernacle in the Wilderness, Part 3,” dated September 1, 2007

Set forth below are statistics of recent viewings and downloads of several of our video-recorded sermons (plus one video-ad), which were placed on Google Video:

Bible Study — The Books of Ezra & Nehemiah, Part 1 — 1584 viewings, 66 downloads
Bible Study — Christian Suffering — 1573 viewings, 62 downloads
Bible Study — The Books of Ezra & Nehemiah, Part 2 — 708 viewings,  23 downloads
Bible Study — Sin, a powerful enemy — 450 viewings,  32 downloads
Bible Study — The Life of Gideon — 392 viewings, 21 downloads
Bible Study — Jonah Speaks to Us  — 387 viewings, 18 downloads
Bible Study — How to Have a Successful Lasting Marriage — 376 viewings, 44 downloads
Bible Study — Day of Atonement : Mystery of the Atonement Rituals — 261 viewings
Bible Study — Flee Idolatry! — 203 viewings, 13 downloads
Bible Study — How to Be Truly Successful! — 131 viewings, 18 downloads
Bible Study — Why the Sacrifices? — 115 viewings, 3 downloads
Bible Study — Sin: How Do You Look At It? — 102 viewings, 10 downloads
Bible Study — Human Suffering: (FREE Booklet)– 78 viewings, 5 downloads
Bible Study — What the Sacrifices May Teach You – Part 3 — 41 viewings, 7 downloads
Bible Study — The Tabernacle in the Wilderness, Part 2 — 12 viewings

Total: 6413 viewings,  322 downloads

We are in the planning stages of our annual conference, which will be held in California and begin on Friday, March 28, 2008, and which will last until and including Wednesday, April 2, 2008 (with Sunday, March 30, 2008, being set aside for a church outing/activity). Please feel free to send us any questions or suggestions for discussion during the conference, which might be helpful for the furtherance of our overall two-fold commission to preach the gospel and to feed the flock.

by Manuela Mitchell

While growing up, I could never deny the fact that I was always a little more different than the rest of the general public. My best friends consisted of various creatures with fur, feathers and scales.  Just about everyone thought I was weird for having such a fascination with animals. Some considered me strange for claiming that I could communicate with them, but they could never justify why animals bonded with me so much.  (For those of you wondering…, I can communicate with animals; and they can communicate with me. It’s because I’ve spent so much time with them that I am able to read their body language and behavior–as they read mine on a daily basis).

I was made fun of a lot; and I missed out on quite a few people and social activities with people. At times, I wanted to change so much that I told myself I would try to like animals less and pay less attention to them. I would try hard to fit in and be like “normal” people. Then I realized that nobody was or is normal. I realized that change is ok as long as there is a valid reason. Trying to change a God-given gift is impossible. Being young, I never asked for the ability to help animals, or read them, or even like them. I was born with the basics and, growing up with those tools and God’s gift, I have become someone who cares for animals and educates people about them as a hobby and profession.

In this physical lifetime, God has given us special talents that help us for the near future. I believe that these talents or gifts which we have received now, will somehow be used later in much greater ways. Even though I can’t communicate now with animals verbally, it’s because of who I am that God may grant me that opportunity.

On January 5, 2008, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “To Be Spiritually Minded.”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at 12:30 pm Pacific Time (which is 2:30 pm Central Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

Paul asked the question in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7: “…Do you not know that a little leaven [notice the word “little”] leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven…” From this and other Scriptures we see that at times, leaven pictures sin. Purging out is of necessity a daily process of change—of persistent commitment to the responsibilities of our calling, including repentance from sin. Just a little leaven is all it takes to manifest sin. Paul tells us further in Romans 12:2 that we should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind; i.e., by focusing on change. That transformation is the process of turning away from what is not acceptable in God’s eyes. It is an ongoing aspect of our everyday life. This can only be done through the help of the Holy Spirit.

This act of change starts in our mind. Aside from repenting of sin, there are other areas we may need to focus on, including our attitude, our prayer life, endurance in the face of trials, and faith. There should be no question that the outcome of our lives over the next few years depends on our willingness to continue to change—to shift our attitude and our actions in line with God’s ways. Unfortunately, it seems so easy to do otherwise. However, we either accept God’s ways and adhere to them, or we are on the road to failure. It is that serious.

Man’s value systems are geared around a kind of trinity of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (compare 1 John 2:16). That pretty well sums up the scope of man’s sins, doesn’t it? Lust and pride. While converted Christians are changing, they are still in that process of perfecting their lives.

Can we think of anything in our life that might well be holding us back from complete harmony with God? We need to think hard about that. It will take some honest self-examination as we match our life against God’s Word.

Paul congratulated the Church at Corinth on their conduct of change by stressing their diligence, their clearing of themselves, their fear, vehement desire, zeal, and their vindication  (compare 2 Corinthians 7:11). If Paul was alive today, could he say that about all of us?

We need to focus on positive change, of turning around from this world’s ways, from unrighteousness, and from obsession with physical things, to unconditional surrender of our life and of our will to God. Nothing else will work to guarantee our future. God knows our frame, and He has given us His Holy Spirit to help us along the way. He wants us to succeed. Dare we let Him down?  Dare we let ourselves down? There really is no other acceptable alternative, is there?

It has been said correctly that when our reason becomes sufficient we can change. What greater reason could we have to focus on change than what lies up ahead for us?

2007–A Year of Failure For the West

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 28, 2007:

“Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps… The Thursday assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a huge, shocking and possibly even historic triumph for the enemies of democracy. Even worse, the attack was the gruesome culmination of what has been a successful year for them.

“It is also not reaching too far to say that the shots that fatally wounded Bhutto in Rawalpindi Thursday also killed off any hope that the Islamic world could find peace of its own accord in the foreseeable future.

“The West, too, is more troubled than it has been for a long time. The dismay in the corridors of government is genuine. US President George W. Bush’s statement, which lasted little more than a minute, was eloquent testimony to his speechlessness. This world power has rarely looked so powerless — and Bush has rarely looked so helpless…

“Bush will not be in a position to do much to end this conflict. He is a war president and an unsuccessful one at that. Even if he talks about diplomacy, it sounds like preparation for war. His partners in Berlin, Paris and London will have to act cleverly in this difficult situation. Any belligerence or crowing must be avoided so as to not damage the Western position as a whole. As strange as it might sound, this beleaguered president must be ushered into retirement with dignity and civility… The classic military intervention — Bush’s formula against the danger of terrorism — has not been successful up to now and will not be so in the future. And the situation in nuclear-armed Pakistan is clearly not one where any sort of military operation should be considered…

“But does that mean we should capitulate? Should the West sit on the sidelines sipping tea? Absolutely not.

“The West has to protect itself and its people with everything modern technology has placed at its disposal… And perhaps it is once again time for European diplomacy to open up a new way of seeing things to the Americans. In the altercation with the Soviet Union and the communist bloc, Europe found success. Many in the US were set on a confrontational course while Europeans preferred an easing of tensions. It was the English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, just eight years after World War II ended, who voiced his conviction that, wherever possible, a measured, more patient and less aggressive foreign policy was the way to go.”

Bhutto’s Assassination–the “Coup De Grace” to American Policy

The New York Times wrote on December 31, 2007:

“The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has given the coup de grâce to the botched American attempt to manage a nuclear-armed Islamic state. In recent years, Pakistan has been the home of banks that wired money for the 9/11 plot, been the chief source of illicit nuclear proliferation, offered a tribal-area haven for planners of worldwide terrorism, abetted the reconstitution of the Taliban and educated many a suicide bomber in Islamic religious schools. At the same time, President Pervez Musharraf, in power since a 1999 coup, has received about $10 billion in U.S. aid, much of it to reinforce the Pakistani military in fighting Al Qaeda, the Taliban and global jihadism in South Waziristan and other tribal areas. If a U.S. policy was ever broken, this is it.

“… the United States, out of misplaced deference to Musharraf, failed to secure Bhutto the protection she was demanding. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, visited the United States shortly before her death to plead for help, but was denied the meetings he sought at the top levels of the State Department… Bhutto’s loss is devastating, comparable with Yitzhak Rabin’s. Her Kennedylike family tragedy leaves the fathomless void of what might have been.”

Who Caused Bhutto’s Death?

The Telegraph wrote on December 28, 2007:

“The burial of Benzair Bhutto was today marred by heavy violence across Pakistan as a bitter row broke out over how she died… As hundreds of thousands mourned the murdered opposition leader, the country’s Interior Ministry claimed she had died from hitting her vehicle’s sunroof when she tried to duck after a suicide attack… But the explanation was ridiculed by Farooq Naik, Miss Bhutto’s top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People’s Party. ‘It is baseless. It is a pack of lies,’ he said. ‘Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. It was a serious security lapse.'”

More Unrest in Pakistan

Der Spiegel Online wrote on January 2, 2008:

“The unrest that followed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has prompted Pakistan’s electoral commission to delay elections until Feb. 18. Opposition parties had demanded the poll go ahead on Jan. 8 and now warn that there could be more riots.

“Opposition parties in Pakistan cried foul on Wednesday after it was announced that parliamentary elections will be postponed until Feb. 18. The official line is that the delay was necessary following the unrest that erupted after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last Thursday… The opposition accused the authorities of using delaying tactics to avoid a defeat for the ruling party, which is closely allied to President Pervez Musharraf. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had been hoping to reap a strong sympathy vote in the wake of her murder… “The government had initially blamed the killing on radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida but many Pakistanis suspect the security forces of having had a hand in the assassination. The government insistence that Bhutto died by hitting her head on the lever of the sunroof of her car was widely derided. The PPP insists she died from gunshot wounds.”

Der Spiegel Online added in a related article on January 2:

“Al-Qaida, the secret service or a contract killer sent by President Musharraf? A gun shot, bomb shrapnel or a fatal blow to the head? Wild theories about the death of Benazir Bhutto are making the rounds in Pakistan — and are becoming levers of political power. The news from the United States caused quite a stir: Hillary Clinton, a Democratic candidate for the US presidency, hinted on Sunday that the Pakistani military could be behind last week’s assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Previously, she said in an interview that ‘there was no reason to trust the Pakistani government.'”

China–the World’s New Economic and Military Superpower

The Independent wrote on January 1, 2008:

“Here comes the world’s newest superpower. The rest of the world is gloomily contemplating economic slowdown and even recession. Not in Beijing. China is set to make 2008 the year it asserts its status as a global colossus by flexing frightening economic muscle on international markets, enjoying unprecedented levels of domestic consumption and showcasing itself to a watching world with a glittering £20bn Olympic Games…
 
“Britain will feel the full power of the new superpower’s confidence. This month, for the first time, China’s state-controlled banks will begin spending some of its $1.33trn (£670bn) in foreign currency reserves on London’s financial markets… But while some may question Beijing’s political motives, there is no doubt that China has arrived as serious power-broker. Last year, it surpassed America as the greatest driver of global economic demand. It is also widely predicted to overtake Germany as the world’s third largest economy this year.”

The Wall Street Journal added on January 2, 2008:

“Beijing’s military has also started to boast about its new weapons and war-fighting capabilities. Peace Mission 2007, cooperative military exercises in Central Asia in August, was China’s first large-scale foreign military deployment, and recent military maneuvers, apparently rehearsals to take Taiwan and disputed islands in the South China Sea, were remarkable in scope and sophistication… China’s military assertiveness has been matched by tougher diplomacy. Last year, a series of high-level meetings showed that Beijing has moved closer to Moscow to cement their ‘friendship for generations’ and confirm their opposition to American initiatives, especially to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

“China’s sustained campaign against German Chancellor Angela Merkel for meeting the Dalai Lama in September is also notably intense. China even threatened military and political responses over economic disputes… at last month’s session of the ‘Strategic Economic Dialogue,’ the high-level talks between the U.S. and China.”

For China’s prophetic role in the near future, please read the Q&A in this Update.

Unrest in Kenya

Der Spiegel Online wrote on January 2, 2008:

“The unrest in Kenya following the disputed election victory of President Mwai Kibaki is escalating into a tribal war. On Tuesday more than 40 people, many of them children, burned to death in a church after seeking refuge from machete-wielding members of another tribe. The carnage is starting to remind observers of the Rwandan genocide of 1994… Ever since President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, had himself declared the winner in an election that was obviously manipulated, the tribes of this east African country are at war.

“… the German head of the European Union’s election monitoring mission, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, is about to hold a news conference. Some 150 observers monitored this election debacle. The Kenyans have been eagerly awaiting the Europeans’ verdict on the election for days… Lambsdorff’s assessment is devastating. ‘The elections did not meet international standards of democracy,’ says Lambsdorff. He said EU monitors detected irregularities in two electoral districts where Kibaki won. In each of those two districts, the governing PNU ended up with 20,000 more votes than it received at the first count, said Lambsdorff.  In five electoral districts, members of the EU mission were barred from the vote count, and in some regions the voter turnout was unusually high. ‘We have doubts about these elections,’ Lambsdorff concluded.

“Mwai Kibaki now looks isolated. On Sunday evening… he was hastily sworn in for a second term in a televised ceremony… But the United States, Kenya’s partner in the war on terror, has now distanced itself from him. After the US had initially congratulated Kibaki on his victory, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Washington had serious concerns about the vote count.”

Germany’s Immigration Problems

Der Spiegel Online wrote on January 2, 2008:

“An assault by two foreign youths on a German pensioner has triggered conservative calls for a crackdown on ‘criminal young foreigners’ and exposed deeply entrenched xenophobia that casts doubt on this country’s ability ever to fully integrate its 15 million inhabitants with an immigrant background. The 76-year-old pensioner suffered a fractured skull when he was beaten by a 20-year-old Turkish man born in Germany and a 17-year-old immigrant from Greece on December 20 after he asked them to stop smoking on a subway train in Munich, where smoking is forbidden. The pensioner recovered after a spell in hospital and recalls how they spat at him and called him a ‘… German’ before kicking him in the head. Police arrested the attackers shortly afterwards…

“[Hesse state premier Roland Koch stated] that Germany wasn’t a classic country of immigration such as Canada or Australia. ‘In our country we don’t get many cultures meeting to form a new one. Germany has had a Christian-Occidental culture for centuries. Foreigners who don’t stick to our rules don’t belong here.’ His quote ‘We have too many criminal young foreigners’ made a banner front-page headline in Bild on Friday. The paper praised him in an editorial on Wednesday, writing: ‘At last our politicians are quarrelling about the really important issues — the safety of our citizens! Fear of crime and violence by foreign criminals [have] been accompanying us on bus and subway journeys for a long time.’

“Koch’s comments fuelled conservative calls for ‘foreign’ criminals to be expelled from Germany and were echoed by Volker Kauder, head of the conservative parliamentary group in the federal parliament and a close ally of [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. Kauder told ‘Bild am Sonntag’ that crime by foreigners had ‘been a taboo in Germany’ for too long. ‘We need education camps for hard cases, closed institutions with an overall concept for therapy. Foreigners aren’t our enemies, but criminals are — and we can no longer afford to accept their mocking laughter’…

“Representatives from ethnic minorities say Koch’s comments reveal a key obstacle to integration in Germany. People living here are still widely labelled ‘foreigners’ even if they were born in Germany, even if they have German passports, and especially if they are dark-skinned…

“Criticizing immigration can be a vote-winner in Germany. Koch has successfully tapped the issue before, winning a 1999 state election after he launched a petition against government plans to introduce dual citizenship for foreign citizens living in Germany. The current conservative premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, launched a campaign in 2000 against proposed ‘green cards’ for Indian software engineers. The slogan of his campaign to give precedence to homegrown talent over skilled foreign workers was ‘Kinder Statt Inder’ — ‘Children Instead of Indians.’ In many other Western countries, a slogan like that from a mainstream politician would have killed off his career. Yet Rüttgers now runs Germany’s most populous state.

“Merkel herself suggested in a party conference speech last month that mosque minarets should be no higher than church steeples, following local resistance in several German cities to the construction of new mosques.”

Political Crisis Between France and Syria

AFP reported on January 2, 2008:

“Foreign Minister Walid Muallem announced on Wednesday that Syria was breaking off contacts with France on the political crisis in Lebanon, responding to a similar gesture by Paris three days ago. ‘Syria has decided to cease Franco-Syrian cooperation on the Lebanese crisis,’ the minister told a press conference in Damascus. He said Syria had been surprised by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s announcement on Sunday that France was cutting contacts, as it came just two days after Damascus had reached agreement with Paris on a comprehensive deal to end the crisis…

“Sarkozy accused Syria on Sunday of failing to match its words about wanting a settlement to the crisis in Lebanon with deeds on the ground. France ‘will have no more contact with Syria … until we have proof of Syrian willingness to let Lebanon appoint a president by consensus,’ he said. The French foreign ministry reiterated that position on Wednesday.”

Cyprus and Malta Adopt the Euro

The EUObserver wrote on January 1, 2008:

“The European currency is today replacing the national currencies of the two Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus, bringing the number of EU states using the euro to 15 out of the 27 member states… They will add around 1.2 million people to the euro zone – some 800,000 Cypriots and around 400,000 Maltese – bringing the number of those EU citizens using the euro as a national currency to 320 million out of the EU’s total 495-million large population… Of the remaining 12 countries currently not in the euro zone, only the UK and Denmark have chosen not to adopt the European currency for reasons of economic sovereignty [while the other 10 countries have not made yet a final decision on that issue].”

Further Decline of the U.S. Dollar in the Future?

Bloomberg.com wrote on January 1, 2008:

“The dollar may extend a two-year decline against the euro on speculation a slowing economy will make U.S. assets less attractive to investors… The unemployment rate probably increased last month to the highest since July 2006…

“‘The U.S. economy will be pushed close to the recession level,” said Greg Salvaggio, vice president of capital markets in Washington… ‘There will be further dollar weakness in early 2008.” The dollar lost 9.5 percent against the euro in 2007, dropping to $1.4588, following a 10.2 percent drop in 2006…”

In addition, The Financial Times reported that Wall Street had the worst start to a New Year in 25 years. It wrote on January 2, 2008: “US blue-chip stocks on Wednesday suffered the worst start to a new year in 25 years after an index of manufacturing fell sharply, raising fears that the US economy is slowing more than expected.”

“Prosperity Gospel” Under Attack

The Associated Press reported on December 28, 2007:

“The probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles — the ‘Gospel of Prosperity,’ or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches. All six ministries under investigation preach the prosperity gospel to varying degrees.

“Proponents call it a biblically sound message of hope. Others say it is a distortion that makes evangelists rich and preys on the vulnerable…

“Grassley is asking the ministries for financial records on salaries, spending practices, private jets and other perks. The investigation… has some wondering whether the prosperity gospel is facing a day of reckoning… Prosperity preachers say that it isn’t all about money — that God’s blessings extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others. They have Bible verses at the ready to make their case… Critics acknowledge the idea that God wants to bless his followers has a Biblical basis, but say prosperity preachers take verses out of context…”

Even though we are not going to comment on the accuracy or inaccuracy of the “Prosperity Gospel”–whatever that (unbiblical) term may mean–it cannot be denied that God promises physical blessings to those who obey Him (compare, for example, Malachi 3:8-10). But generally speaking, governmental investigations of any Christian church, which might be conducted because of ulterior motives and/or which might attack or question Biblical truth, should be of great concern to all Christians.

Mary–the Mother of God and of the Church?

VIS wrote on January 2, 2008:

“At the first general audience of 2008… the Pope dedicated his catechesis to the Virgin Mary’s title of Mother of God… [He] recalled that ‘Theotokos’ or ‘Mother of God’ was ‘the title officially attributed to Mary in the fifth century, at the Council of Ephesus of 431’…. Following the Council of Ephesus, ‘Marian devotion underwent an enormous expansion, and many churches dedicated to the Mother of God were built… ‘All the other titles attributed to the Virgin Mary have their foundation in her vocation as Mother of the Redeemer’, he said: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, and Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church. ‘It was right, then, that on 21 November 1964, during Vatican Council II, Paul VI solemnly attributed to Mary the title of “Mother of the Church.”‘”

These chapters describe an attack of Gentile countries against “Israel.” Some have concluded that this attack will occur PRIOR to the return of Jesus Christ. Others believe that it is the same attack which is described in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation; that is, at the END of the Millennium or about 1,000 years AFTER Christ’s return.

The truth is, however, that the events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will occur AT THE VERY BEGINNING of the Millennium–shortly AFTER Christ has returned. The attack mentioned in the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation is a different attack, which will occur approximately 1,000 years later. In fact, as we will see, the Bible records that there will be at least THREE future attacks on Jerusalem–the first one at the time of Christ’s return; the second one at the beginning of the Millennium; and the third one at the end of the Millennium.

Let us carefully review the context of Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Ezekiel 38:8, 16, tells us that the events will occur “in the latter years” or in the “latter days.” Verse 8 emphasizes that it will happen at the time when those living in the land have been “brought back from the sword and gathered from among many people.” We are also told that “they were brought out of the nations” and led to “the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate.” It is emphasized that they are NOW dwelling “safely.” Verse 12 also reiterates that these former “waste places” are “again inhabited,” and that the people of Israel, who were gathered from the nations, “have acquired livestock and goods.”

Since there will be no desolate mountains of Israel throughout the Millennium, and since the people of Israel have been living in safety during the Millennium, and since they were gathered out of the nations and brought to the Promised Land at the time of Christ’s return, it is clear that the events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 do not occur 1,000 years AFTER Christ’s return.

Other passages confirm this conclusion:

Ezekiel 38:10, 14, 19 and Ezekiel 39:11 refer to the time in question as “in that day.” Normally, this phrase refers to the time just prior to or just subsequent to Christ’s return.

We read in Ezekiel 38:11 that the people of Israel will live in “unwalled villages”; that they are a “peaceful people, who dwell safely,” “without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” This shows that the events will not occur PRIOR to Christ’s return, as the modern descendants of the houses of Israel and Judah — mainly the USA, Great Britain, Canada and the state of Israel–do not live in peace today, and they will not live in peace, without walls, bars or gates, prior to Christ’s return (For proof, please read our free booklets, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America,” and “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”). Christ said that at the time of His return, there would be great tribulation–so great that no human being would be saved alive, unless He was to return to shorten those terrible days (Matthew 24:21). Also, Ezekiel 38:8 refers to the “mountains of Israel” where the modern houses of Israel and Judah will live at that time–but the modern house of Israel does not presently reside there at all, nor will they live there prior to Christ’s return.

Ezekiel 39 emphasizes in numerous places that God will destroy the invading army, and that because of God’s intervention, the nations, and especially the nation of Israel, will know that He is the Lord. Verse 22 states: “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward.” This is clearly a reference to the BEGINNING of the Millennium– not to the END when God has ruled over the world and Israel for 1,000 years. Verses 23-29 add that the Gentiles will know by then that “the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity”–a reference to the coming slavery of the modern house of Israel, prior to Christ’s return. Christ will free the modern nations of Israel and Judah out of their slavery when He returns–not 1,000 years later (compare verses 25, 27-28). It is THEN that God will begin to convert the survivors of the modern houses of Israel and Judah (verse 29)–not 1,000 years later.

Let us also briefly discuss the identity of the nations that will try to conquer and destroy the modern peoples of Israel and Judah. Ezekiel 38:2-3, 5, 6 lists “Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” as well as “Persia, Ethiopia and Libya,” and “Gomer and… the house of Togormah.”

“Gog” means “mountain” or “high” and seems to be a reference to a commander (compare also verse 7). Magog has been understood as a reference to the Mongols–or more generally, China; and “Rosh,” meaning “blond,” to the White Russians. “Meshech” is another designation for the city of Moscow, and “Tubal” for the city of Tobolsk. Meshech and Tubal, being sons of Japheth–the father of the Eurasian peoples–and brothers of Gomer and Magog (compare Genesis 10:2), seem to refer here to the Great Russians. Included in this entire description are the vast regions in northern Eurasia extending from the Baltic to the Pacific.

Persia designates modern Iran; and Ethiopia (“Cush” in Hebrew) includes the people of the state of Ethiopia, but also peoples in Central and Southern India and parts of Sri Lanka. Cush’s sons, Seba and Raamah (Genesis 10:7), and Raamah’s son Sheba (same verse), were later worshipped by Hindus as the gods Shiva and Ramah. Libya (“Put” in Hebrew) includes the people of the state of Libya, as well as people from Northern and Central India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Gomer seems to designate the peoples from Asian steppes and deserts, including people from the region of Mongolia. Finally, the reference to “Togarmah from the far north” (Ezekiel 38:6) has been understood as a reference to the people living in Siberia.

For more information on the Biblical origin and identity of modern nations and peoples, please see the Q&A in Update #126 (“Identity of Biblical Nations”).

What we find described, then, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, is an attack by a huge army composed of many Eurasian peoples at the beginning of the Millennium. This army will try to conquer and destroy the nations of the modern houses of Israel and Judah who will by then live in the Promised Land. At that time, the Eurasian army under the leadership of “Gog,” will “ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you” (Ezekiel 38:9). This power bloc is beginning to form in front of our very eyes right now.

But when they attack, GOD will do the fighting for His people. Remember, the nations of this world who will be taught by God will not WANT to learn war any more, but desire to live in peace (Isaiah 2:1-4). And so, GOD will do the fighting for them (Ezekiel 38:21-22). He would do the same for our peoples today, if we would only let Him do so, submit to HIM and be obedient to His commands.

It is true that “kings from the east” and their armies will fight against Christ AT His return, but they will be defeated. Some have wondered how the Eurasian peoples could muster another great army shortly AFTER Christ destroyed their army. They claim that the army which Christ will destroy at His return will consist of “two hundred million.” However, this is not what the Bible says.

We read in Revelation 9:14, 16, that “four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates” were released, and that the number of the army, which will at THAT time be fighting against a resurrected or revived Roman Empire in EUROPE, will be two hundred million. That war is also alluded to in Daniel 11:44-45. (For further information, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”).

However, we read in Revelation 16:12, that SUBSEQUENTLY, an angel will pour out “his bowl on the great river Euphrates,” and that its water will be “dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.” We are informed, in verses 13-14, that Satan and his demons will “gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty,” in addition to “the kings of the earth and of the whole world.” That place, where the armies will be gathered, is called Armageddon (verse 16). However, we do not read here that the kings from the east will appear at Armageddon with an army of two hundred million. We are not told how big their army is going to be AT THAT TIME.

In addition, no war will take place at Armageddon. The reference to the proverbial WAR at Armageddon is unbiblical. Armageddon (meaning Har Megiddo, and describing a great valley several miles away from Jerusalem) is just the place where the armies will meet. They will then move towards Jerusalem. The actual battle will take place just outside the city.

That battle is described in Revelation 19:19-21: “And I saw the beast [a military European leader], the kings of the earth [including the kings from the east], and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse [Jesus Christ] and against His army [His angels]. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet [a European religious leader]… And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse…”

Another reference to that great battle can be found in the book of Joel. We read there that God will “GATHER all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat” (Joel 3:2). We read in Joel 3:16 that at that time, “The LORD also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem.”

A reference to that battle is also contained in Revelation 14:19-20, where we read: “So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the wine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs [Lit., stadia, about 184 miles in all].” The same terminology is used in Revelation 19:15, describing the return of Jesus Christ: “… He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

In addition, Zechariah 14:2 says that Christ will GATHER all the nations to battle against Jerusalem, and verse 3 adds that He will fight against those nations, when His feet stand on the Mount of Olives. Verse 12 tells us about the plague with which God will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem–their flesh, their eyes and their tongue will dissolve while they stand on their feet. We don’t know how many people will be fighting against Christ. In any event, there will be people LEFT who will not be destroyed at that time (compare verse 16).

Regardless of HOW it is possible that the Eurasian peoples will be able to attack Jerusalem at the beginning of the Millennium–after a previous battle involving them and destroying their army had taken place at the time of Christ’s return–it is clear that they will do so. At that time, God will again supernaturally intervene and destroy those nations, as we read in the 38th and 39th chapters of the book of Ezekiel.

A similar [third] attack on Jerusalem will occur about 1,000 years later, after Satan has been “released from his prison.” While Satan was imprisoned, unable to deceive the nations, this world enjoyed 1,000 years of peace. But with Satan being released for a short while, things will change. He will “go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:7-8). As they did 1,000 years earlier, they will try to conquer Jerusalem, but God will destroy them (verse 9). Again, no human being will fight against those warring and attacking nations–it will be GOD who will do the fighting for His people.

This is the last time that we read that humans–deceived by Satan the devil–will fight. Satan will be removed forever, unable to deceive humans anymore to fight and kill in war. Ultimately, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

A new member letter has been written. In the letter, Brian Gale contrasts the present terrible conditions of this world with the wonderful future which awaits us.

The text for our new booklet on the Sacrifices and the Tabernacle in the Wilderness has been sent to Shelly Bruno for finalization.

A new StandingWatch program (#150) has been posted on StandingWatch, Google Video and YouTube. It is titled, “What IS the Kingdom of God?, Part 1.”

In the program, Norbert Link explains that Christ said the blessed of His Father were to inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world. What did He mean by that? WHAT are we to inherit? HOW has it been PREPARED for us? WHY was MAN created in the first place? And WHO, exactly, created man?

Since we posted our StandingWatch programs on Google Video a few months ago, we are pleased to announce the following statistics: Our program, “America’s Illegal Aliens” was viewed 5,849 times; followed by “666, the Beast and Antichrist” (viewed 4,313 times); “Is Nuclear War Coming?” (viewed 3,404 times); “American Hiroshima” (2,295 times); “America’s Latest Phone Scandal” (1,637 times); “To Spank or Not to Spank” (1,620 views); “Ghosts of Departed Ones” (1,618 views); and “USA–The Fading Superpower” (1,581 views). Additional programs were viewed on Google Video from 1,505 times on downward.

As of December 28, the program, “Are You An Alcoholic?” received the most views (72) on You Tube (we began posting our programs on You Tube about two weeks ago).

Since October 13, 2007, the programs on “Britain and America”; “Why Keep Sunday?”; “The Law of God”; “Christmas”; “Mystery of Revelation”; and “Halloween” received the most views on our StandingWatch Website (from 163 to 83).

On December 29, 2007, Norbert Link will give the sermon, titled, “Do You Know the Year of Christ’s Return?”

The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org at 12:30 pm Pacific Time (which is 2:30 pm Central Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

You could just quit! Among our options is to give up, to throw in the towel or to weakly accept defeat.

Being called by God leads us into a very challenging way of living. We are instructed to seek  the perfection of God; that is, we are to live our lives overcoming imperfection (compare Matthew 5:48).

This is not easy! In fact, the struggle is, as we say, 24/7–night and day, every day! Jesus stated this concept a little bit differently, but the impact of what He said is also all-consuming: “‘Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it'” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Don’t expect it to be easy, but at the same time, don’t expect to fail–do not approach life with a defeatist attitude. That mind-set is the ultimate tool of Satan!

Paul reassured himself and us with this inspiring truth:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39).

Can you do this–can you believe that God has called you with His personal conviction that you can be a part of His Family and that His limitless power is available to assure that you will have a place in His Kingdom?

Finally, let me ask, “What can you do?” Let us all answer as Paul answered: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Benazir Bhutto Murdered

Recently, nothing but bad news has surfaced from Pakistan, one of the world’s nuclear powers. But on Thursday, December 27, the announcement that former premier and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated during a campaign rally has topped it all.

Pakistan–the world’s “most dangerous” country–is in turmoil. January elections in Pakistan are “as good as dead.” These are some of the comments from Der Spiegel Online, dated December 27.

The world is alarmed and in shock. Strong condemnations against the cowardly act of a suicide assassin were heard from almost every corner. But depending on who was really behind this murderous attack, the repercussions for Pakistan and the world might far exceed the imaginable. The Bible strongly suggests that Pakistan will not remain for long an ally of the USA. Momentous events are beginning to take shape, which will lead to a world quite different from the one we know today.

AFP wrote on December 27:

“Pakistani opposition leader and former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on Thursday, plunging the nation into turmoil less than two weeks before elections. She had just addressed a campaign rally for the parliamentary vote when an attacker shot her in the neck before blowing himself up at a park in the northern city of Rawalpindi…

“President Pervez Musharraf called on the country to stay peaceful ‘so that the evil designs of terrorists can be defeated,’ state television reported… There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Bhutto had accused elements in the intelligence services of trying to kill her. She also said she had received death threats from Islamic militant groups including Al-Qaeda.”

The Associated Press added on December 27:

“Her death threw the campaign for critical Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos and stoked fears of mass protests and violence across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. At least 20 others were also killed in the attack…”

The British tabloid, The Sun, added:

“Next to President Pervez Musharraf, Bhutto, 54, was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996.”

USA Today reported on December 27:

“Violence also hit another top opposition leader on Thursday. Four workers in former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League were shot dead at a rally in Rawalpindi and eight others were injured…”

Really Bad News for the USA

The Associated Press stated on December 27:

“[President Bush’s] appearance [expressing his condolences and his outrage over the assassination] came as U.S. officials here struggled to cope with the immense policy implications of the assassination on relations with a nuclear-armed country that has received billions of dollars in American financial assistance and is an ally in the war on terrorism…

“The United States had been at the forefront of foreign powers trying to arrange reconciliation between Bhutto and Musharraf, who under heavy U.S. pressure resigned as army chief and earlier this month lifted a state of emergency, in the hope it would put Pakistan back on the road to democracy. Bhutto’s return to the country after years in exile and the ability of her party to contest free and fair elections had been a cornerstone of Bush’s policy in Pakistan, where U.S. officials had watched Musharraf’s growing authoritarianism with increasing unease.

“Those concerns were compounded by the rising threat from al-Qaida and Taliban extremists, particularly in Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal areas bordering Afghanistan despite the fact that Washington had pumped nearly $10 billion in aid into the country since Musharraf became an indispensable counterterrorism ally after Sept. 11, 2001…

“Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, ‘I am convinced Ms. Bhutto would have won free and fair elections next week… This fall… I twice urged President Musharraf to provide better security for Ms. Bhutto and other political leaders.’ He said ‘the failure to protect Ms. Bhutto raises a lot of hard questions for the government and security services that must be answered.'”

Who Killed Benazir Bhutto?

On December 27, Times On Line discussed the prime suspects in Bhutto’s assassination. The paper stated:

“The main suspects in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination are the Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who saw her as a heretic and an American stooge and had repeatedly threatened to kill her. But fingers will also be pointed at Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] , the agency that has had close ties to the Islamists since the 1970s and has been used by successive Pakistani leaders to suppress political opposition.

“Ms Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in October, when a suicide bomber killed about 140 people at a rally in the port city of Karachi to welcome her back from eight years in exile. Earlier that month, two militant warlords based in Pakistan’s lawless northwestern areas, near the border with Afghanistan, had threatened to kill her on her return.

“One was Baitullah Mehsud, a top commander fighting the Pakistani army in the tribal region of South Waziristan. He has close ties to al Qaeda and the Afghan Taleban. The other was Haji Omar, the ‘amir’ or leader of the Pakistani Taleban, who is also from South Waziristan and fought against the Soviets with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan…

“[Bhutto] accused Pakistani authorities of not providing her with sufficient security and hinted that they may have been complicit in the bomb attack [in October]. Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, directly accused the ISI of being involved in that attempt on her life. Mrs Bhutto stopped short of blaming the Government directly, saying that she had more to fear from unidentified members of a power structure that she described as allies of the ‘forces of militancy’.

“Analysts say that President Musharraf himself is unlikely to have ordered her assassination, but that elements of the army and intelligence service would have stood to lose money and power if she had become Prime Minister. The ISI, in particular, includes some Islamists who became radicalised while running the American-funded campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan and remained fiercely opposed to Ms Bhutto on principle. Saudi Arabia, which has strong influence in Pakistan, is also thought to frown on Ms Bhutto as being too secular and Westernised…”

“Europe Just Got Bigger”

Der Spiegel Online reported on December 21:

“Europe just got bigger. At one minute after midnight local time on early Friday morning, border controls vanished for nine more European Union members, many of them former members of the Soviet Bloc. Fireworks, cheers, music and speeches throughout the morning welcomed the expansion, which means that travelers can move from the far corners of Estonia all the way to the Atlantic coast in Portugal without once encountering a border guard. ‘This is an especially beautiful moment,’ said German Chancellor Angela Merkel… ‘It is a source of great pleasure that coming generations will experience open borders as the European normalcy.’…

“Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Malta all joined the so-called Schengen zone, as the open-border area is known… There are now 24 countries — including two non-EU states, Norway and Iceland — populated by 400 million people in the border-free travel zone… Most of those countries entering Schengen on Friday were behind the Iron Curtain just 20 years ago. The opening of the border between Germany and Poland — one of the most contested in the past centuries of European history — was of particularly symbolic importance.”

… But Is it All Good News?

The EUObserver added on December 21:

“Land and sea border checks… are now abolished, while air borders are set to follow on 30 March 2008. Practically it means that as of today, ‘people can travel hassle-free between 24 countries of the Schengen area without internal land and sea border controls- from Portugal to Poland and from Greece to Finland’, EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini said in a statement. ‘An area of 24 countries without internal borders is a unique and historical achievement. I feel very proud and privileged to have been involved in making it happen’, he added…

“However, some were more enthusiastic than others. While Slovaks were celebrating until late in the night on Friday at the country’s border with ‘old’ member state Austria, no celebrations could be noted on the Austrian side. A recent poll carried out in Austria showed 75% of its citizens opposed the lifting of barriers, according to the BBC…

“European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: ‘Together we have overcome border controls as man-made obstacles to peace, freedom and unity in Europe’…

“The Schengen area was established in 1985 and named after the small Luxembourg village where it was signed by Germany, the Benelux countries and France. The nine new countries joined the 15 others already in Schengen – thirteen EU states excluding the UK and Ireland which preferred to stay out, but including Norway and Iceland.

“Non-EU member Switzerland is also to become a member of the Schengen area next year, while three EU states – Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania — have still to meet the necessary requirements. It is not yet known when they will join the EU’s borderless zone, but Cyprus is expected to do so around 2009, while Bulgaria and Romania are hoping to follow suit by 2011.”

It’s not all good news–by any means. For further information as to what IS prophesied to happen soon in Europe, please read our free booklet, “Europe in Prophecy.”

The Ever-Shrinking U.S. Dollar

The Washington Post wrote on December 24:

“The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000… marks a shift for Americans in the global economy. In times of strength, a mightier dollar allowed Americans to feed their insatiable appetite for foreign goods at cheap prices while providing Yankees abroad with virtually unrivaled economic clout. But now, as the United States struggles to fend off a recession, observers say the less lofty dollar is having both a tangible and intangible diminishing effect.

“‘The dollar was the dominant force in world economics for 100 years — we had no competition,’ said C. Fred Bergsten, an American economist… ‘There was no other economy close to the size of the United States. But all that is now changing.’ The dollar is down more than 40 percent against the euro over the past seven years, taking a particularly sharp drop last month.

“… for untold millions worldwide, the weak dollar has emerged as a troubling dark spot… some countries have begun to diversify their dollar holdings… In May, Kuwait dropped its currency peg to the dollar and other oil-rich Gulf states have threatened to follow. Perhaps most telling: In recent months, the euro surpassed the dollar as the currency with the largest global circulation…

“The chink in the dollar’s armor has dealt a blow to American pride — at least to the kind of pride that comes with buying power. Nowhere is that more visible than with Americans overseas… ‘Every time the euro increases by 10 cents towards the dollar we lose $1 billion in our operations,’ said an Airbus official at the company’s headquarters in Toulouse, France. ‘Aircraft are sold in U.S. dollars, but most of our production costs are paid in euros.’…

“The dramatic surge in oil revenue along with the weakening dollar has sparked a rise in inflation in the Gulf states — hurting most those who have the least. In recent months, it has wiped out much of the gains from years of hard labor for the thousands of South Asian workers who moved to Dubai for a piece of its multibillion-dollar construction boom… some in China are turning their noses up at the dollar. Lin Jing, a sales manager… said [his] company has begun to demand euros from its overseas customers instead of dollars. ‘The use of euros enables us to shy away from losses caused by the conversion between the [Chinese currency] and the weakened dollar,’ he said.”

America’s Housing Saga Worst Since Great Depression

The Washington Times wrote on December 26:

“This year’s housing bust is shaping up to be one of historic proportions. Sales and construction have sunk to levels not seen since the 1990 savings and loan crisis, while foreclosures and price drops are the largest since the Great Depression — and expected to get worse next year. Many parallels can be seen with earlier housing debacles. Each episode had some combination of easy money, loose lending, greed and fraud that turned a housing boom into a speculative bubble. But few housing bubbles have ended so badly as the one today, when the nation is confronting the prospect of mass foreclosures and family dislocations…

“The whole mess threatens to sink the broader economy the longer it wreaks havoc on consumer confidence and spending power… The housing saga is far from over, many analysts say. With millions more mortgages resetting in the next two years, many more people could lose their homes. Banks, securities firms and investors could foot another $300 billion in losses, by some estimates. If consumers are daunted by bleak housing news and their loss of wealth and spending power, they could capitulate and send the economy into a recession, economists say…”

How Europe Views the American Presidential Election

Der Spiegel Online wrote on December 24:

“The United States is a country that likes to explain democracy to other nations. It is also a country that starts wars to bring democracy to the world. It allows the candidates for its highest office, the presidency, to spend a year and a half campaigning, leaving no stone unturned as it delves into their past…

“And then there is Iowa. Iowa — a flat state of corn, cows and the occasional small town. Iowa, a sparsely populated state in the US Midwest, is home to 2,982,000 people, 94 percent of them white. Astonishing things have been happening in Iowa in recent weeks: Hillary Clinton knocking on the doors of hog farmers and smiling timidly; Rudy Giuliani helping an elderly woman cross the street; Mitt Romney telling a joke; Barack Obama standing in the lobby of a Des Moines hotel whistling a tune; Fred Thompson looking awake.

“The American presidential election campaign is heating up. Although the general election isn’t until November 2008, Iowa residents of both major political parties will be the first, on Jan. 3, to cast their votes to determine which Democrat and which Republican will make the final run for the White House. Voters in New Hampshire, South Carolina and the rest of the 50 states will follow suit in the days and months ahead…

“Of course, it is by no means certain that the Democrats will still be ahead when the general election rolls around in just under a year. But it looks that way for the moment, at least, partly because current President George W. Bush is so unpopular and partly because American voters are confronted with an unusually weak collection of candidates for the Republican nomination…

“A preliminary decision — nothing more, nothing less — will be made here in Iowa on Jan. 3. The real race begins after that.”

However, the magazine added:

“It could snow on Jan. 3, a Thursday. And there will be football on TV — both could reduce voter turnout. No more than 100,000 votes are up for grabs for each party in Iowa, and only 3,000 to 4,000 votes will decide whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, the two leading Democratic candidates, will win the state’s important first-in-the-nation primary election. Winning in Iowa is… traditionally a tremendous boost for a candidate. Conversely, candidates who fail to place a strong second or third in the state are often finished.”

Putin Person of the Year? — Get Real!

Time Magazine chose Vladimir Putin as the person of the year. An odd choice–to put it mildly. On December 20, U.S. News and World Report published the following commentary by senior writer Michael Barone. Although we do not agree with all of his comments, they nevertheless make interesting reading:

“Time magazine has chosen Vladimir Putin as the person of the year. This strikes me as an odd choice. Yes, Putin has been an important player on the international stage; yes, he has frustrated American efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; yes, he has been more intransigent on asserting Russian power on the ‘near abroad,’ the former Soviet republics, which, like Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltics, seek to take a different course. But he has been doing these things for years, and he has made no important advances, at best incremental progress, in calendar year 2007…

“To be sure, Time did not always name those admired by its founder, Henry Luce, a liberal Republican and interventionist in the run-up to World War II. For 1942, it named Joseph Stalin for the Soviets’ successful resistance to the Nazi invasion that began in 1941, but it had also… named Stalin as the man of the year in 1939, because the Hitler-Stalin pact agreed to in August 1939 enabled Adolf Hitler to invade Poland without serious opposition. Indeed, Time also named Hitler man of the year for 1938, when he got Britain and France to appease him by destroying the power of Czechoslovakia to resist conquest…

“It hailed Richard Nixon as the man of the year for 1971, for the opening to China, which is hard to quarrel with, whatever your ideological orientation. Nixon set a new policy for China that has been followed, more or less, by every administration since (though denounced by most presidential nominees since). The post-Luce Time was quick to notice the turn in China policy made by Teng Hsiao-P’ing (as he was then transliterated), man of the year for 1978, and gave him the honor again, this time as Deng Xiao Ping, in 1985. Time has often honored winning presidential candidates who had not seemed such likely winners the year before, bestowing the man of the year designation on Ronald Reagan for 1980, for example. But, oddly, it honored him and Soviet leader Yuri Andropov as co-men of the year for 1983, though they never met and never negotiated…

“Time left no doubt of where it stood. Mikhail Gorbachev was the man of the year for 1987, an eminently defensible choice, but he was also 1989 declared man of the decade for 1989—an echo of Time’s declaration for 1950 that Winston Churchill was the man of the half-century. There’s just a tad bit of difference here: Churchill won, and Gorbachev lost. The man of the decade of the 1980s who prevailed and triumphed was Ronald Reagan…

“When I started off in journalism, at the Harvard Crimson in 1963, Henry Luce and Time were considered a prime example of slanted journalism, tilted toward Republicans and against Democrats, toward liberal Republicans and against conservative Republicans, tilted toward Catholics (Luce’s wife Claire Boothe Luce was a Catholic convert, and Luce produced hugely favorable coverage of his friend Joseph Kennedy’s children and of the Catholic Diems in Vietnam; it turns out the coverage of the Kennedys was inflated…)

“Now Time is slanted to the left… The men of the year for 1993 were the ‘peacemakers’ Nelson Mandela, F. W. de Klerk, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat. Quiz question: Which name doesn’t belong on this list? Or 1998 men of the year Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr, as odd and ill-assorted a pair as Andropov and Reagan…

“Which brings us back to the person of the year for 2007, Vladimir Putin. Yes, he’s a consequential figure, who has just nominated a successor who looks like his pawn… But Russia ain’t what it was when Time saw Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov as a dynamic duo. And who are Time’s runners-up? Al Gore, who exaggerated the IPCC climate forecast by a factor of 20 to say that New York and London would be flooded by global warming (they weren’t in the 13th century, when the weather was a lot warmer than it is now). J. K. Rowling, who has made millions writing books that children and adults love to read; all power to her, but she’s not exerting the kind of influence over human affairs that Hitler did in 1938 and Stalin did in 1939…”

“Defense” Cooperation Between Russian and Iran

The Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune reported on December 24:

“Iran and Russia discussed defense cooperation… as ties between the two countries have been increasingly flourishing… In early 2007, Iran received advanced Russian air defense missile system under a US$700 million contract signed in 2005. Russia has provided Iran with military products such Kilo-Class submarines, MIG and Sukhoi military planes and bombers in the past decades. Relations between Iran and Russia have been growing closer in recent months, climaxed by a historical visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran in October. Russia is also putting the finishing touches on a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr, located in southern Iran. Iran received the first shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia last week, paving the way for the startup of its reactor in 2008.”

Tony Blair’s “Conversion” to Catholicism

The Associated Press reported on December 23:

“Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has left the Church of England and converted to Catholicism, the faith of his wife and children. Blair converted during a Mass Friday night at the private London chapel of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales… Blair had been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months had been following a program leading to his reception into the church… In England’s last census, 72 percent of people identified themselves as Christian. Many are Anglicans affiliated with the Church of England, which was created by royal proclamation during the 16th century after King Henry VIII — who married six times — broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church in a dispute over divorce.”

Tony Blair–How Catholics Are “Made”

The Daily Mail wrote on December 23:

“Tony Blair was challenged yesterday to explain his record on abortion, embryo testing and gay rights after announcing that he had converted to Catholicism. Some Catholics condemned his previous support for causes which were apparently inconsistent with Church doctrine. But they drew a rebuke from senior figures in the Church, who said the Pope’s welcome for the new recruit was the final word. Sources said Mr Blair’s conversion ‘is not retrospective’ and that he does not have to account for his actions and beliefs in the past…

“John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: ‘During his premiership Tony Blair became one of the world’s most significant architects of the culture of death, promoting abortion, experimentation on unborn embryos, including cloned embryos, and euthanasia by neglect. SPUC is writing to Tony Blair to ask him whether he has repented of the anti-life positions he has so openly advocated.’

“Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe, herself a convert, raised Mr Blair’s previous support for embryo research, gay ‘marriage’ and abortion, saying: ‘My question would be, has he changed his mind?’ Former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle, a Catholic, said: ‘If he showed just one ounce of contrition over Iraq, then he would be closer to the body of morality that is the Catholic Church.'”

Roman Catholic Church Dominant Religious Group in Britain

The Sunday Telegraph wrote on December 23:

“Roman Catholics have overtaken Anglicans as the country’s dominant religious group. More people attend Mass every Sunday than worship with the Church of England, figures seen by The Sunday Telegraph show… The rise of Catholicism has been bolstered by an influx of immigrants from eastern Europe [especially Poland] and Africa.”

The Daily Mail added on December 23:

“The arrival of more than 600,000 Poles since their country joined the EU in 2004 appears to have dramatically slowed the long-term decline in congregations at Catholic churches. Roman Catholics who attend Mass have outnumbered Church of England congregations on Sunday mornings for some years…”

Sarkozy–a “Cultural Catholic”

The International Herald Tribune reported on December 21:

“President Nicolas Sarkozy has broken a French taboo by urging a more active role for religion in public life, but stopped well short of the American-style mix of faith and politics his critics say he wants to copy. A twice-divorced ‘cultural Catholic’, Sarkozy used a visit to the Vatican on Thursday to declare France was rooted in Christianity and needed Catholics to be more active in public life because faith helped give meaning to life…

“In its front-page cartoon on Friday, the Paris daily Le Monde showed Sarkozy dressed as a bishop, with President George Bush shouldering a cross and an American flag and confessing to Pope Benedict: ‘I think this guy is stealing my job.’…

“In his speech accepting the canon’s title, an honour given to French leaders since the 17th century, Sarkozy made repeated references to France’s Christian roots — a link that Paris refused to have mentioned in Europe’s planned constitution… Sarkozy said France needed ‘convinced Catholics who are not afraid to say who they are and what they believe.’

“RTL radio commentator Serge July noted the Catholic Church in France has criticised Sarkozy’s crackdown on immigration and plans to drop most restrictions on Sunday shopping.”

Christmas–“Christianized” Paganism

The Associated Press reported on December 22, 2007:

“The church where the tradition of celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 may have begun was built near a pagan shrine as part of an effort to spread Christianity, a leading Italian scholar says… In 325, [Constantine] convened the Council of Nicaea, which fixed the dates of important Christian festivals. It opted to mark Christmas… on Dec. 25 to coincide with the Roman festival celebrating the birth of the sun god, Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome’s La Sapienza University, told reporters Friday… ‘The church was built to Christianize these pagan places of worship,’ he said… Rome’s archaeological superintendent Angelo Bottini, who did not take part in Carandini’s research, said that hypothesis was ‘evocative and coherent’ and ‘helps us understand the mechanisms of the passage from paganism to Christianity.'”

How New York Invented Modern-Day Christmas

The Daily News reported on December 23:

“Christmas was originally a combination of the day of worship of the birth of Christ and the Roman winter solstice festival called the Saturnalia. The latter was a very raucous, townwide affair, and its raunchy and riotous ways persisted until nearly modern times. Then the Puritans outlawed Christmas altogether…

“It was New York City that changed all that, pioneering the family — and very child-centered — holiday that has since spread around the world. This is not surprising, perhaps, seeing that Santa Claus is New York’s patron saint. No, really. The Dutch ship that brought the first settlers to Manhattan was named for St. Nicholas, the patron saint of old Amsterdam as well as children.  It was long a Dutch tradition for children to get presents on St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 6, often put in their shoes or stockings for them to find in the morning… Often these presents came on Christmas instead of St. Nicholas Day.

“Then, around the turn of the 19th century, New York’s emerging literary establishment created much of the folklore of the modern Christmas. Washington Irving wrote about St. Nicholas (‘Sinterklaes’ in one Dutch form of the name, soon anglicized to ‘Santa Claus’)… In 1821, an American children’s book called ‘The Children’s Friend’ changed Santa’s horse and wagon to a reindeer and sleigh… At first, there was no single, standard image of Santa Claus. But in the 1860s, the great American political cartoonist Thomas Nast contributed drawings… to Harper’s Weekly — a New York publication, of course — that fixed to the present day the image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded, fat man in a fur-trimmed cap…

“By the 20th century, the New York-inspired American Christmas traditions were hallowed ones. But New Yorkers kept adding to them anyway. In 1940, Irving Berlin wrote what has become the most popular Christmas song of all time, ‘White Christmas.’ Nine years later, Robert May and his New Yorker brother-in-law, the composer Johnny Marks, added a ninth reindeer to Santa’s sleigh, Rudolph.

“It is, perhaps, a sign of New York City’s incomparable multiethnic synergy, which reaches right back to the present-seeking children of Dutch days, that both Marks and Berlin were, of course, Jewish.”

Where Do Santa’s Elves Come From?

On December 22, Yahoo published the following as the best answer to the question where Santa’s elves come from. It stated:

“The Santa Claus story is of MIXED background–combining Germanic mythology and folktales with Christian stories about one or more church leaders (the source of the name Saint Nicholas). The elves appear to come from a Germanic folktale that was brought into the mix. Here is the story, according to Wikipedia:

“‘Another early folk tale, originating among the Germanic tribes, tells of a holy man (sometimes Saint Nicholas), and a demon (sometimes the Devil, Krampus, or a troll). The story states that the land was terrorized by a monster who at night would slither down the chimneys and slaughter children (disembowelling them or stuffing them up the flue, or keeping them in a sack to eat later). The holy man sought out the demon, and tricked it with blessed or magical shackles (in some versions the same shackles that imprisoned Christ prior to the crucifixion, in other versions the shackles were those used to hold St. Peter or Paul of Tarsus); the demon was trapped and forced to obey the saint’s orders. The saint ordered him to go to each house and make amends, by delivering gifts to the children. Depending on the version, the saint either made the demon fulfil this task every year, or the demon was so disgusted by the act of good will that it chose to be sent back to Hell. Yet other versions have the demon reform under the saint’s orders, and go on to recruit other elves and imps into helping him, thus becoming Santa Claus.'”

A “holy man” commands a demon to do good deeds? Very unlikely–unless the “holy man” is a “demon” himself… In any event, this story shows that the gifts for children were made by demons… and that Santa Claus was originally a demon… AND, that also the elves were apparently demons as well…

When the Wise Men Visited Jesus

The Grayson County News Gazette re-told the “Christmas story” in one of its articles, published on December 24. The following admission is quite striking:

“After Jesus’ birth, Herod was king of Judea. At this time wise men (Magi) from the east saw a star, they came in search, knowing the star signified the birth of the king of the Jews. The wise men came to the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem and asked where the Christ was to be born. The rulers explained, “In Bethlehem in Judea,” referring to Micah 5:2. Herod secretly met with the Magi and asked them to report back after they had found the child. Herod told the Magi that he too wanted to go and worship the babe. But secretly Herod was plotting to kill the child. So the wise men continued to follow the star in search of the new born king and found Jesus with his mother in Bethlehem. (Most likely Jesus was already two years of age by this time.).”

Christmas and the “Child Jesus”

The Associated Press reported on December 25:

“Pope Benedict XVI issued a Christmas Day appeal Tuesday to political leaders around the globe to find the ‘wisdom and courage’ to end bloody conflicts in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Congo… Wearing gold-embroidered vestments and a bejeweled bishops’ hat, or miter, Benedict urged the crowd to rejoice over the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth, which he said he hoped would bring consolation to all people ‘who live in the darkness of poverty, injustice and war.’… ‘May the child Jesus bring relief to those who are suffering and may he bestow upon political leaders the wisdom and courage to seek and find humane, just and lasting solutions,’ he said… He said he hoped Christmas would bring consolation to ‘those who are still denied their legitimate aspirations for a more secure existence, for health, education, stable employment, for fuller participation in civil and political responsibilities, free from oppression and protected from conditions that offend human dignity.'”

What is striking is, among other things, the plea that the “Child Jesus” would bring relief. Jesus Christ is NOT a Child anymore–He is an all-powerful GOD being–the LIVING KING of kings and the LORD of lords–our mighty High priest and Savior. But this is exactly one of the problems with Christmas and its traditions–to think of our Maker and Creator (compare John 1:1-3, 14) as a helpless young little child in a manger. For more information about the REAL Jesus, please read our free booklet, “Jesus Christ–A Great Mystery.”

Christ–The “Sun” Rising From the East?

The Catholic News Services (CNS) reported on December 27:

“The newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, asked Msgr. Marini to explain why the crucifix, the symbol of Christ’s death, was being given such prominence even at midnight Mass when the church was celebrating Christ’s birth.

“‘The position of the cross at the center of the altar indicates the centrality of the crucifix in the Eucharistic celebration and the exact orientation the entire assembly is called to have during the eucharistic liturgy… Salvation comes from the Lord. He is the east, the sun that rises, the one whom we all must watch,’ Msgr. Marini said. In his 2000 book, ‘The Spirit of the Liturgy,’ Pope Benedict argued that facing the east while praying is a physical expression of turning toward God, toward the sun that rises for the salvation of all men and women.

“‘Where a direct, common turning toward the east is not possible, the cross can serve as the interior “east” of the faith. It should stand in the middle of the altar and be the common point of focus for both priest and praying community,’ he wrote.”

The Bible has some strong words to say about those who worship the sun (or Jesus “as” the sun) rising from the east. Ezekiel 8:15-17 reads:

“Then He said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.’ So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD  and THEIR FACES TOWARD THE EAST, and they were WORSHIPPING THE SUN TOWARD THE EAST.”

Matthew 22:23-30 reads:

“The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.’ And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.”

It is important to realize that Jesus answered the Sadducees and that He responded to their wrong concepts pertaining to the resurrection. We might say, Jesus answered a fool according to his folly (compare Proverbs 26:5).

Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible explains that the “Sadducees had their origin and name from one Sadoc, a disciple of Antigonus of Socho, president of the Sanhedrin, and teacher of the law in one of the great divinity schools in Jerusalem, about 264 years before the incarnation… Sadoc [taught that] there was no resurrection of the dead, nor angel, nor spirit, in the invisible world… [The Sadducees] received only the five books of Moses, and rejected all unwritten traditions.”

From this background, we must understand correctly to whom Christ was speaking and what He was saying–and we must take note of what He was NOT saying. He responded to the assertion of the Sadducees that there was no resurrection by pointing out that there WAS a resurrection to ETERNAL LIFE. Please note carefully that He was not addressing other resurrections to physical life–both past and future. (For more information on the THREE resurrections, as taught in Scripture, please read our free booklets, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?” and “God’s Commanded Holy Days.” Please read also our Q&A in Update #316 on the three resurrections.)

Notice that the parallel passage in Luke 20:27-40 makes clear that Jesus was only addressing the resurrection to eternal life.

He said in verses 34-36: “..’ The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are COUNTED WORTHY to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; NOR CAN THEY DIE ANYMORE, for they are equal to the angels and are SONS OF GOD, being sons of the resurrection.”

When addressing the resurrection to immortality–also called the FIRST resurrection in the Bible (compare Revelation 20:4-5)–Jesus explained that those who will be in THAT resurrection, will be SPIRIT beings (like angels are spirit beings) who don’t marry in the way physical human beings do. In making this comparison, He told the Sadducees that angels DO exist, and that the righteous will be LIKE angels–as they will be Spirit beings. He did not teach that the righteous will BECOME angels; rather, that they will be higher than angels, as He called them SONS of the resurrection (compare Hebrews 2:10). Normally, angels are not called sons, but ministering spirits to assist the SONS of God to inherit salvation (compare Hebrews 1:14). Paul would later say that the sons of God will “judge angels” (compare 1 Corinthians 6:3). For further information, please read our free booklet, “Angels, Demons and the Spirit World.”

Notice how Jesus continued His response to the Sadducees, as recorded in the parallel account, in Luke 20:37: “But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that THE DEAD ARE RAISED, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live in Him.”

As the Sadducees did not believe in the inspiration of the Old Testament apart from the first five books of Moses, Jesus quoted, as proof for a resurrection, from the first five books of Moses, mentioning the burning bush episode, as recorded in the book of Exodus. He continued to say that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that God was not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Some commentaries erroneously conclude that Jesus was saying here that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were ALIVE when Jesus spoke these words–and that Jesus was therefore upholding the concept of the immortal soul which teaches that the immortal soul goes to heaven when man dies–a teaching which the Sadducees rejected.

However, Jesus did not believe in the false concept of the immortal soul. He taught that death was a sleep out of which man must be awakened (compare John 11:11-14, 43-44). He said to the Sadducees that God is a God of the living, because He will awaken Abraham, Isaac and Jacob out of their sleep of death through a resurrection from the dead. Remember, Jesus answered the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection. He proved that there is a resurrection from the dead by saying that God is the God of the living. The dead will live because God WILL RAISE them up in the resurrection (compare John 5:25, 28-29)–and God looks at future events, which are certain, as if they had already occurred. (Compare Romans 4:17, in the Living Bible: “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say that God made Abraham the father of many nations. God will accept all people in every nation who trust God as Abraham did. And this promise is from God himself, who makes the dead alive again and speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past.”)

But let us also consider resurrections to physical life. Jesus taught such resurrections as well, but He did not address those in His response to the Sadducees. Jesus resurrected Lazarus to physical life, and He taught that many will be resurrected to physical life in the future. The Bible refers to that resurrection of billions of people as the “Great White Throne Judgment” (Revelation 20:11-12; compare also Revelation 20:5).

The question may be asked: What will happen to a woman who was married to several husbands and who will be resurrected to physical life, together with all those former husbands, in the Great White Throne Judgment resurrection? Would God consider her married to any or all of those former husbands? The answer would be clearly, no. When a husband dies, the wife is no longer “bound” or married to him. Since in the example of the Sadducees, all husbands died before the woman did, she was not “bound” or married to any of them at the time of her death. But even if she had died before her last husband, she still would not be considered married to him at the time of her resurrection–as the last husband would also have died subsequently.

Paul says in Romans 7:1-2:

“Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.”

A married couple would not be considered married to each other in the First Resurrection to immortal life. Nor would they be considered married in the Second Resurrection to physical life, because by virtue of their death, their physical marriage arrangement was dissolved.

Would they be able, though, to marry (again) in the Second Resurrection? The Bible does not expressly say that marriages will not take place during the time period of the Second Resurrection–the Great White Throne Judgment–but it is highly unlikely that they will, as one important reason for marriage is producing physical offspring. It does not appear from Scripture that new babies will be born in the Second Resurrection. The Great White Throne Judgment period will pertain to those who HAD lived before, without having been given the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and who will then be given that opportunity.

In conclusion, Christ reproved the Sadducees in many different ways, teaching and confirming the concept of the resurrection of the dead. He limited His answer to the FIRST resurrection of the righteous. He did not teach the false concept of an immortal soul, but He did teach that the righteous, who DIED, will be RAISED to immortal life through a resurrection.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

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A new StandingWatch program was posted on StandingWatch and Google Video. It is titled, “What Is the True Gospel?, Part 2”

In the program, Norbert Link discusses that Christ came to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. He commissioned His Church to preach it today, and He said that its worldwide proclamation would be the sign for His Second Coming and the end of this present civilization. But why does Christ tell you to seek the Kingdom of God–to become worthy to inherit it and to enter it? And once you are in the Kingdom of God, what will you do then?