On December 1, 2007, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “The Heavens.”

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.

The summer of 1969 was quite challenging for my family and me. I had come to the understanding that the Sabbath was the day of worship, designated by God, and that it was to be kept. What I didn’t  understand then, was the fact that I was not to work on that day.  I had a good government job at the time and was lined up for a promotion, but God had other things in mind.

Because of shift work, my job conflicted with the keeping of the Sabbath.  I still recall exactly when I came to this understanding–I was at work and faced my dilemma.  I was scheduled to work on that weekend.  I proclaimed to God my desire to obey Him, and asked if He would provide a way out of this situation.  No more than ten seconds after I decided that I could not and would not work that Saturday, my supervisor came to me and asked me if I would work a double shift since one of the men scheduled to work that afternoon had called in sick. I immediately said  I would do so, if he would give me Saturday off, which he agreed to do.

However, I had to quit my job shortly afterwards, because of Sabbath conflicts, and I really did not have any prospects for another comparable job. I was married, and we had three children. I  had previously worked for a plywood mill, so I applied there, and they hired me right away, the same day. Everything was fine until the third week when I was put on afternoon shift. That Friday, about an hour before sunset, I told my foreman I could not work beyond a certain time, for religious reasons, and he allowed me to go home. The next day I got a phone call from the personnel department stating that I was only a few days away from accruing  union seniority and thus union protection, but since I wasn’t prepared to work Friday evenings, I was summarily dismissed.

No work again! I applied for a job at another plywood mill, but after explaining that  I could not work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, I got “the look”–the one where they figure “you have two heads.” The manager said he would contact me, but he never did.

It was August by now, and I was able to get a job with the teamsters union, unloading boxcars. This was heavy labor and intense work, but I did my best. In the meantime I heard  about a Provincial Gas Company that was hiring, so one day, after helping my father working at his house, I got the urge to apply for a job there, which I did. I was hired by this company and was to start on September 15.

I still remember the look of disappointment on the foreman’s face at the teamsters union job when I told him I had another job to go to. I also remember the funny look I got when I stated during my final interview for this new position that I needed some time off at the end of September to go to my first Feast of Tabernacles. My fellow co-workers could not understand how I could work for two weeks, and then get nine days off for the Feast.  I told them it was pre-arranged, and that I wasn’t getting  paid for the time off.

By then, I thought my Sabbath trials were over.  I had quit a job,  had been fired  from a job, and I was not hired because I wanted to obey and keep God’s Sabbath. But now, I had an 8:00 am to 4:30 pm job, for five days a week, and it did not require me to work on the Sabbath. 

Well, after about two years on the job, we were suddenly asked to work on the Sabbath, due to the increased workload. I told my supervisor that I could not work for religious reasons. The superintendent became involved and told me that I had no choice but to work on the Sabbath. In return, I explained to him that in that case, I had no choice but to resign my position. He then changed his mind because he felt that I was a valuable employee, and the company created a job for me which did not conflict with the Sabbath. I subsequently worked for that company for some thirty-seven years and ten months. I recently retired, in August of this year. 

That is not the end of the story, however. Revelation 13:16-17 describes a future time when a European “beast power” will influence the people of the whole world to accept a certain mark to be able to buy or sell. That mark of the beast is enforced Sunday worship and enforced work and labor on the Sabbath. This will be the final Sabbath Test for all Sabbath keepers alive at that time, who will not be protected in the place of safety (compare Revelation 12:13-17).

We sincerely hope that anyone facing this test will pass it, regardless of the consequences. Christ said that we should not worry about what we need to say when brought before magistrates or law enforcement agencies, but that God, through His Holy Spirit, will inspire us to state the right words. In the meantime, we must ensure that we are staying close to God to be able to endure any and all Sabbath tests, which we will face in the future.

Big Brother in Europe–A System of Total Control

Der Spiegel Online wrote the following on November 23:

“The European Commission in Brussels wants to protect European citizens even more effectively against danger and disease. Soon there will be a well-intended — but mostly completely unnecessary — regulation for every aspect of life…

“It seems only a matter of time before Brussels’ compulsion to control everything is subjected to a nonsense standard, which would recognize anything that causes 25 of 100 adult EU citizens to shake their heads in disbelief for a period of at least 30 seconds as general lunacy.

“In all seriousness, the EU’s inspectors are keeping themselves busy coming up with more and more regulations to govern even the most hidden corners of human existence…

“There is only one thing the Brussels bureaucrats have forgotten in their zeal to slap regulations on just about everything: the often-evoked ‘responsible citizen.’ The Europeans of the 21st century appear to be dim-witted and unable to cope with life — and wholly dependent on the dictates of Big Brother in Brussels. When it comes to protecting the population from its own supposed lack of common sense, Big Brother is enthusiastic… Advocates for the protection of consumers, children, animals, patients and practically everything else are tirelessly proposing new things that they are convinced require regulation or, in some cases, ought to be banned outright. The EU administrators in Brussels are only too pleased to comply, while the representatives of the member states are quick to give the go-ahead…

“In truth, even legal experts find the well-intentioned flood of regulatory fervor overwhelming… Torsten Stein, a European legal expert at Saarland University, warns that one day EU citizens will become aware ‘that, long after the end of absolute rulers, a new authority has established itself that once again claims the authority to decide what is good and what is bad for subjects.’ Undeterred by such doubts, officials in Brussels continue to perfect a system of total control…”

Once Germany emerges as THE leader of Europe–as clearly prophesied in the Bible–we can expect more and more regulations and prohibitions, which will become worse, not better. This is due to Germans’ well-documented historical tendency to prohibit everything which is not specifically permitted. And in order to specifically permit something, you need regulations. Pretty soon, we will have Big Brother everywhere–this world is becoming more and more an unpleasant place in which to live. For more information, please read our free booklets, “Europe in Prophecy” and “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.”

New Poland For Europe

EUObserver wrote on November 23:

“In an effort to put Poland back on the European stage, the country’s new leadership is set to be the first to ratify the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, the bloc’s new institutional set-up agreed in October. ‘I hope that Poland will be the first country to ratify the treaty. This would be a symbolic gesture, signifying Poland’s return to the heart of Europe’, speaker of the Polish parliament Bronislaw Komorowski said on Thursday… The new Polish leadership has made it clear it wants to draw a clear line between the 16-month era of former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who earned himself the reputation of a trouble-maker on European issues.”

French President Sarkozy Approval Down as Rail Strike Ends

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 23:

“A national train strike that crippled France for nine days eased on Friday after rail workers voted Thursday morning to return to work. The poll to end rail strikes, coming just one day after union leaders and government officials began negotiations, was seen as a victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose reform agenda has drawn massive resistance from rail workers and other public servants.

“However, strikes that cost the country up to €400 million ($592 million) a day and at one point spread to other public services appear to have cost him with voters.

“A poll conducted by the OpinionWay institute and published in the daily Paris newspaper Metro showed that Sarkozy’s approval rating fell to 58 percent from a pre-strike level of 63 percent.

“Even as the rail strike fades, Sarkozy faces continued resistance from other groups affected by his broad reform agenda. Civil servants staged a separate strike Tuesday against pay and job cuts, and 3,000 students marched through Paris Thursday in protest of a plan that would restructure French universities with private funding.”

More Unrest in France

AFP reported on November 27:

“Riot police deployed late Tuesday across a north Paris suburb bracing for a possible repeat of youth riots that have left 120 police injured, as the government vowed zero tolerance for the ‘criminals’ behind the violence. For two nights running, young men have hurled petrol bombs and bricks at police, torching cars and buildings in the town of Villiers le Bel, where on Sunday two teenagers were killed in a motorbike collision with a police car… Police unions said the violence was worse than the rioting that hit hundreds of French cities in November 2005 — also sparked by the deaths of two youths.”

British Commonwealth Suspends Pakistan

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 23:

“Three weeks after President Perez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in Pakistan, the British Commonwealth has decided to suspend the country’s membership. The announcement was made after a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) on Thursday in Uganda. Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said the suspension would be ‘pending restoration of democracy and the rule of law.’…

“On Friday, a speaker for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that ‘the decision does not take into account the current conditions. The state of emergency was a necessary measure to avoid a serious internal crisis.’ Mohammed Sadiq told Reuters that Pakistan would be ‘reconsidering its membership and future co-operation with the organization.’

“The Commonwealth expelled Pakistan a first time in 1999 in response to the coup that brought Musharraf to power. The Commonwealth reinstated Pakistan five years later. The suspension has little impact on diplomatic relations but does mean that the country will be banned from Commonwealth meetings and the Commonwealth Games, which take place every four years. Within a year of its last suspension, Pakistan requested re-entry.

“British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the ‘decision was taken in sorrow, not in anger,’ and that the Commonwealth looked forward to being able to welcome Pakistan into its fold. Particular attention will be paid to the parliamentary elections which Musharraf has promised to hold in January.”

Commonwealth Summit in Uganda

Sky News stated on November 23:

“The Queen has given the opening speech at the three-day Commonwealth summit in Uganda–urging tolerance among its 53 nations… Sky’s political editor Adam Boulton said most countries see Commonwealth membership as beneficial, and Pakistan’s suspension is a ‘sanction’ although ‘not the toughest in the world.'”

AFP wrote on November 25:

“Commonwealth leaders… from the 53-nation federation ‘called on the government of Pakistan to respond positively to the Commonwealth’s desire to remain engaged and support the return of democratic government and the rule of law.’… Leaders from the Commonwealth, a body representing nearly a third of the world’s population, also called for global trade talks to be concluded swiftly…

“The Commonwealth represents two billion people…, drawn from the broadest range of religions and cultures, from the world’s smallest countries to its largest and its poorest to its richest. It also encompasses some of the biggest villains and victims of climate change, from major polluter Australia — whose outgoing government refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions — to Tuvalu. This Pacific Ocean island group, the second lowest nation in the world and home to 10,000 people, could disappear for ever under the waves if melting ice gaps and glaciers cause sea levels to rise…

“Some Commonwealth nations, led by Britain, pushed for the summit to send a recommendation that binding emissions cuts be agreed in the Indonesian resort. But others, reportedly led by Canada and Australia — at least under the outgoing government — oppose binding cuts if they fail to include all countries, most notably economic powerhouse China. The result was no recommendation of binding cuts and in its place a climate change ‘action plan’ trumpeted by Secretary General Don McKinnon as a ‘very strong political statement.'”

On the historic and prophetic role of the British Commonwealth, please tune in to our four-part StandingWatch programs on the Origins of Britain and America, which are posted on StandingWatch and on Google Video.

Pakistan’s President Resigns as Army Chief

AFP wrote on November 29:

 “The Bush administration on Wednesday took heart in Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf’s decision to take off his uniform but still faced the dilemma of what to do if the chief ally on the ‘war on terror’ went into January elections under a state of emergency. President George W. Bush and his chief diplomat Condoleezza Rice welcomed Musharraf’s resignation as military chief, but urged him to lift emergency rule to pave the way for free and fair elections… Musharraf [was] sworn in as civilian president on Thursday, his second five-year term as leader of the nuclear-armed nation regarded as a crucial US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants…

“The opposition maintains that Musharraf’s October 6 re-election as president was illegal, claiming he imposed emergency rule to purge the Supreme Court of hostile judges who threatened to overturn his victory. Calls have intensified for the release of all political detainees, lifting of media curbs and a [reinstatement] of the 1973 constitution.”

Australia’s New Leader

AFP wrote on November 25:

“Australia’s new leader Kevin Rudd vowed Sunday to tackle climate change and Iraq war policy, a day after sweeping veteran prime minister John Howard from power in a stunning election landslide. Rudd pledged to implement his campaign promises as a new era dawned for Australia after Saturday’s poll ended nearly 12 years of conservative rule by US President George W. Bush’s closest remaining ally in the war in Iraq. Voters abandoned Howard, 68, who presided over a record economic boom and became Australia’s second longest-serving leader, in a humiliating drubbing in which he is also likely to suffer the indignity of losing his parliamentary seat of 33 years.”

Russia’s Violent Suppression of the Opposition

AFP reported on November 27:

“Russia on Tuesday strongly defended the mass detention of anti-Kremlin demonstrators in the latest salvo of a war of words with the West before parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said riot police ‘acted very correctly’ when they detained more than 200 people and jailed chess legend turned opposition leader Garry Kasparov during the dispersal of weekend protests in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Interfax reported.

“Adding to the authorities’ tough message ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, a deputy interior minister announced the seizure of millions of issues of campaign literature allegedly ‘not conforming to the law.’ The row over the crackdown fuelled controversy over claims that anti-Kremlin politicians are being repressed to ensure overwhelming victory for Putin’s United Russia party…

“Late Monday, US President George W. Bush added his voice to condemnations from across the European Union, saying he was ‘deeply concerned about the detention of numerous human rights activists and political leaders.’ ‘I am particularly troubled by the use of force by law enforcement authorities to stop these peaceful activities,’ Bush said in a statement. He was speaking shortly after Putin accused foreigners of ‘sticking their noses’ into Russia’s affairs and claimed the United States had pressured European election monitors to boycott Sunday in order to ‘discredit’ the polls.”

Over Half of Afghanistan Under Taliban Control

Der Spiegel wrote on November 22:

“Six years ago coalition forces headed into Afghanistan to eradicate the Taliban. Now an international think tank says more than half of the country is under the Taliban’s thumb…

“‘The Taliban’s ability to establish a presence throughout the country is now proven beyond doubt,’ the report says, adding that ’54 percent of Afghanistan’s landmass hosts a permanent Taliban presence, primarily in southern Afghanistan, and is subject to frequent hostile activity by the insurgency.’… More than 6,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in 2007 as NATO forces continue to battle against the Taliban, particularly in the volatile south…

“The report was released on the same day as an Oxfam assessment critical of the spending efforts inside Afghanistan by Western powers… Both reports are grim…”

Don’t Dare To Believe in God!…

BBC News reported on November 25:

“Tony Blair avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled ‘a nutter’, the former prime minister has revealed. In an interview for BBC One’s The Blair Years, he said that his faith had been ‘hugely important’ to his premiership. His ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell once told reporters: ‘We don’t do God.’ Mr Campbell has now acknowledged to the programme that his former boss ‘does do God in quite a big way’, but that both men feared the public would be wary… Mr Campbell added that the former prime minister always asked his aides to find him a church to attend, wherever he happened to be, each Sunday… ‘This is a man who takes a Bible with him wherever he goes and last thing at night he will read from the Bible.’

“Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, suggested that Mr Blair may not have been so politically successful had the relationship between his beliefs and his actions in office been better known. ‘The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they’d known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism,’ Sir Menzies said.”

The Daily Mail commented on November 26 on Tony Blair’s secret religious faith, as follows:

“The great 19th-century campaigns of social reform, which brought about an end to slavery, universal suffrage and the transformation of Britain from a criminal cesspit into an orderly society, were motivated by Christian evangelicalism… So what a desperately sad commentary on our times it is that a Prime Minister felt unable to acknowledge that he subscribed to the faith that underpinned his society…

“But in Britain, the Church of England has turned into a kind of social workers’ convention where faith in God is too often seen as the equivalent of making a rude noise in church. It is almost as if Christianity is fine – with its high-minded concerns about poverty, the environment, war and so forth – as long as no one believes in it.

“Of course, the irony is that Mr Blair’s government seemed determined to attack and undermine bedrock Christian ethics… Nevertheless, he did believe in a Christian God which he was unable to reveal without doing himself political damage. That is because, to a secular society, religion is merely a form of organised superstition. Acting on religious faith is thus seen as irrational, and praying to God regarded as evidence of clinical insanity… Moreover, as the influence of religion has declined in Britain… people have become more credulous, superstitious and irrational than ever before. They place their faith in a range of New Age cults, paganism, witchcraft and belief in psychic phenomena such as reincarnation, astrology and parapsychology…

“In suggesting that life sprang into existence without any kind of governing intelligence, they fly in the face of the evidence emerging from science that the hitherto unimaginable complexity of life forms, including the living cell, makes it scientifically impossible for life to have emerged without some kind of intelligent design…

“The fact that a British Prime Minister has to keep his Christian faith secret is sorry testimony to the self-inflicted damage of a society that is in danger of losing not just its faith, but its mind.”

Anglican Archbishop Attacks the U.S.

Times on Line wrote on November 25:

“The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday. Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by ‘clearing the decks’ with a ‘quick burst of violent action’ had led to ‘the worst of all worlds’. In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.

“He said the crisis was caused not just by America’s actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the ‘chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity’. Williams went beyond his previous critique of the conduct of the war on terror, saying the United States had lost the moral high ground since September 11…”

America–“The Depressed Superpower!”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 27:

“As frustration takes hold in the land of optimism, Americans are beginning to resemble Germans. They are collectively depressed over the Iraq War, the weak dollar and the aging of the baby boomers. Presidential candidates are left to preach change to an electorate that is afraid of it…

“Sixty percent of Americans believe that the next generation will be worse off than their own. A majority of Americans have no confidence in the government’s ability to solve the nation’s problems. Sixty-two percent are convinced that the administration is a failure at everything it tries to do… Sixty-eight percent of Americans see their country going down the wrong path in every respect. According to demographers, America today is even more overcome by pessimism than it was in 1974, a disastrous year in American politics. It was the year the US military withdrew from Vietnam; and back in Washington, the Watergate scandal led to the impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon…

“There is in fact little today that an American can be proud of… The only thing that has doubled in the seven years of the Bush administration is the country’s military budget. By comparison, the average US family income has stagnated in the last decade or so.

“A look at the US economy doesn’t exactly offer grounds for optimism. The US’s share of global exports has been cut in half since 1960. The balance of trade deficit has skyrocketed from about $80 billion in 1992 to a forecast $700 billion in 2007. The dollar has lost 24 percent of its value against the euro. The Bush administration’s answer to skeptics is that America is still growing at a faster rate than Europe. Consumer spending drives the economy, say politicians in Washington. But since when has consumer spending made a nation wealthy?…

“Americans are capable of handling anything — just not the notion that something cannot be improved. When their pioneering ancestors tamed and developed the nation, their motto was: ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’ But nowadays more and more Americans face nights as dreamless as their days are dreary. America’s new reality is simple: Hope dies first…”

These developments are highly significant. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

“America Is Coming Apart”

On November 25, The Drudge Report advertised Pat Buchanan’s new book, “Day of Reckoning,” as follows:

“‘America is coming apart, decomposing, and…the likelihood of her survival as one nation…is improbable — and impossible if America continues on her current course,’ declares Pat Buchanan. ‘For we are on a path to national suicide.’

“This time, Buchanan goes all the way: ‘America is in an existential crisis from which the nation may not survive.’ The U.S. Army is breaking and is too small to meet America’s global commitments. The dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments. U.S. manufacturing is being hollowed out. The greatest invasion in history, from the Third World, is swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country, leading to Balkanization and the loss of the Southwest to Mexico.

“The culture is collapsing and the nation is being deconstructed along the lines of race and class. A fiscal crisis looms as the unfunded mandates of Social Security and Medicare remain unaddressed. All these crises are hitting America at once — a perfect storm of crises.”

US Republican Debate–“What Would Jesus Do?”

WorldNetDaily wrote about an interesting exchange during the Republican Presidential Debate on November 28, 2007. It stated:

“Do the Republicans running for president believe every word of the Holy Bible? That issue was the focus of a portion of tonight’s CNN/You Tube debate, as a questioner brought it to the forefront…

“‘The reality is, I believe it, but I don’t believe it necessarily literally true in every single respect,’ said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is Catholic. ‘I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive; I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical; I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context. I don’t believe every single thing in the literal sense of Jonah being in the belly of the whale,’ he added.

“Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a Mormon, drew applause when he said ‘the Bible is the Word of God, absolutely.’ ‘Does that mean you believe every word?’ asked moderator Anderson Cooper. ‘Yeah, I believe it’s the Word of God,’ Romney said. ‘I might interpret the Word differently than you interpret the Word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the Word of God. I don’t disagree with the Bible. I try and live by it.’

“The only other candidate presented with the question was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister. ‘It’s the Word of revelation to us from God Himself,’ Huckabee said. ‘The fact is when people ask if you believe all of it, you either believe it or you don’t believe it. As the only person here probably on this stage with a theology degree, there are parts of it I don’t fully comprehend and understand, but I’m not supposed to. Because the Bible is the revelation of an infinite God, and no finite person is ever gonna fully understand it. If they do, their God is too small.’

“When asked what would Jesus do concerning the death penalty, Huckabee quipped, ‘Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson. That’s what Jesus would do.'”

Lawsuit Challenges New California Law SB 777

WorldNetDaily reported on November 29:

“Absent a provision in the California Constitution that would ban ‘stupid’ laws, the non-profit Advocates for Faith and Freedom has filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law that would ban ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ from public schools. WND has reported that experts fear the socially groundbreaking legislative plan, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will impose a radical pro-homosexual indoctrination agenda on all California public schools.

“‘Realize that SB 777 affects all school “instruction” (textbooks, classroom instruction, homework, videos, and other instructional materials) and every school-sponsored “activity” (sex education classes, school assemblies, dramas, music, dances, proms, sports teams, homecoming games, etc.). To opt out of SB 777, you would have to opt out your child from the entire school day,’ said Randy Thomasson, of the Campaign for Children and Families, a California-based pro-family group.

“His organization has concluded a state constitutional amendment would be the best way to remove the objectionable requirements, while the Capitol Resource Institute is working on a separate effort to have voters overturn SB 777.

“Robert Tyler, the general counsel for Advocates for Faith and Freedom, said the lawsuit his organization has filed challenges the law on the basis it is unconstitutionally vague and violates the privacy of all students, teachers and the people on school campuses. SB 777 changed in state law the definition of gender to make it now mean ‘sex,’ including a person’s gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not associated with the person’s ‘assigned’ sex at birth.”

More Attacks on Corporal Punishment

WorldNetDaily wrote on November 29:

“A proposal in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to ban ‘corporal punishment’ would turn good parents into criminals, according to a family advocacy group leader who battled the same idea earlier this year in California. ‘This bill equates loving, corrective discipline with hateful, harmful abuse,’ said Randy Thomasson, the president of the Campaign for Children and Families.

“‘Just as California’s proposed spanking ban was stopped cold, [Rep. Jay] Kaufman’s bill should be rejected by lawmakers who respect the sanctity of the home… ‘This punish-you-if-you-spank-your-children bill is intrusive, unenforceable, and a blatant violation of parental rights,’ Thomasson said… ‘Some parents spank and some parents don’t, and that’s their right as parents. Government regulation of parents’ discipline wipes out the right of parents to raise their own children. This is wrong. God gave children to parents, not to the state,’ he said. ‘Appropriate spanking is not “beating” or “abusing” a child, which is a ridiculous and offensive comparison. When appropriate spanking is lovingly administered, it greatly helps a disobedient youngster to become a well-adjusted adult who respects authority,’ he said.”

For more information on this hotly debated issue, please tune in to our StandingWatch program, “To Spank or Not to Spank,” which is posted on StandingWatch and on Google Video.

Middle East Conference–Cause for Hope…?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 28:

“Few thought it was possible that the Middle East conference in Annapolis would generate anything other than photo ops. But now, the Palestinians and the Israelis have agreed to talks… The first meeting is scheduled for Dec. 12 with further negotiations scheduled for every two weeks thereafter. The talks will be facilitated by an American president committed to reaching an agreement by the end of his term at the end of 2008.

“It is a real coup. And it is a surprise for all those who expected nothing of import to result from the conference — as well as for those who question the Americans’ ability to help negotiate a peace agreement due to their close relations with Israel. Even the mega-news network CNN was caught off guard. The channel completely forgot about the simultaneous translation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech delivered on the heels of Bush’s announcement. There was no sound other than the leader’s speech in Arabic. For five long minutes, only Arabic could be heard, before CNN interrupts the program and cuts to a correspondent. ‘We are watching history be made,’ is all he can think to say…

“Whether it’s ‘history,’ of course, remains to be seen. But it is a new initiative, and Bush’s presentation contained new elements as well. He spoke emphatically about the suffering of the Palestinians and even used the word ‘occupation.’… Many questions remain… the agreement announced by Bush contains — besides the commitment to a fixed negotiating framework — no specific details on the most contentious issues, namely the borders of a Palestinian state, the right of return of refugees and the exact status of Jerusalem. Still, the US president listed three reasons why the time for a settlement is better than ever: The two leaders in Israel and the Palestinians are committed to peace; a historic battle is raging against extremists over the future of the region; and the whole world wants peace more than ever…”

… or for Utter Pessimism?

Subsequently, Der Spiegel Online hit quite a different note, when reporting about the reactions from Israel and the Arab world. The paper wrote the following, on November 28:

“Disappointment, pessimism, frustration. The participants in the Annapolis conference could only feel victorious for one evening — then the disillusion set in. In a rare show of unity, Israeli and Arab newspapers have thrashed out at their political leaders… ‘Anyone unfamiliar with the Middle East would be forgiven for thinking that Tuesday’s ceremonies were marking the signing of a permanent peace,’ wrote Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s best-known commentators. The opposite is true. According to Barnea, nothing less than ‘a miracle would be required’ for a Palestinian state to be brought into being by the end of 2008. There are too many difficulties to be cleared out of the way before this kind of ‘express peace’ would be realistic.

“The newspaper’s military expert is just as pessimistic. Prime Minster Ehud Olmert has maneuvered the Israeli army into a predicament. At a time when it is facing a tough militia enemy in Hamas, it is supposed to use restraint. That is ‘an almost unbearable situation.’

“This, however, sounds like resounding praise compared to the reaction of Maariv, the country’s second-biggest mass circulation paper. ‘Peace agreed for the cameras,’ writes Ben Caspit in his editorial. He caustically describes the joint statement between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a successful marketing coup by Olmert — arranged only so that the beleaguered premier could hold on to power until the end of next year.

“‘Olmert is the true winner,’ writes Caspit. The big losers are Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the peace movement. ‘Barak knows that the chances for a peace treaty in a year are as great as Olmert being elected US president next November.’ The great expectations that US President George W. Bush has stirred up will only be disappointed, Caspit writes, ‘and then we will experience a profound disaster.’

“The London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi also predicts calamity. ‘The rude awakening is yet to come,’ says their editorial. The Annapolis conference did not address the really urgent problems. That will come back to haunt the participants, the paper writes: ‘The only success at Annapolis is that the conference took place.’…

“One day after Annapolis, the mood in the Middle East’s newspapers is subdued. The conclusion of most of the commentators is that Annapolis’s turbo-charged approach to the peace process will cause more harm than good.”

Natural Disasters on the Rise

AFP wrote on November 25:

“More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming… The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report.

“‘This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people,’ noted Oxfam director Barbara Stocking. ‘This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people.’… The number of people affected by extreme natural disasters, meanwhile, has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994, to 254 million people a year between 1995 to 2004, Oxfam said. Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold.”

Although in the vast majority of cases, men have been sitting on the throne of David, it is indeed correct that on a few occasions, a woman, rather than a man, occupied the throne.

We are told that the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed on May 1, 1707, with the merger of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which had been in personal union under the House of Stuart since 1603. In 1801 Great Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After most of Ireland left the union in 1922, in 1927 its name was amended to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In looking at lists of the English monarchy, we find that for instance Anne, from the house of Stuart, ruled England and Scotland from 1707 until 1714; Victoria, from the house of Hanover, ruled England from 1837 until 1901; and Elizabeth II, from the house of Windsor, has been ruling England since 1952.

How, then, was the prophecy in Jeremiah 33 fulfilled, stating that “a man” or “a son” of David would always sit on his throne?

(1) David Won’t Lack a “Man”

Let us consider the Hebrew meaning of the word, translated as “MAN” in Jeremiah 33:17, where we read: “David shall never lack a MAN to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.”

According to Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, the Hebrew word for “man” is “adam.” Young’s explains that the word “adam” does not just mean “man,” but it includes a woman as well; in other words, a better translation would be “human being.” For instance, we read in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man (“adam” in Hebrew) in His own image; in the image of God He created him; MALE and FEMALE He created them.”

Many other Biblical passages could be cited, using the word “adam” or “man” for both males and females, or men and women. For instance, please note Genesis 6:1, 4, 5, 7; 7:21; 8:21, etc. etc.

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, No. 376, the Hebrew word for “man” in Jeremiah 33:17 is not “adam,” but “iysh.” Without determining which Concordance is correct, the meaning of the Hebrew word “iysh” is not limited to a male, either; it can also include a female, so that a better rendition would be, “human being.” Note, for example, the following passages, which, according to Strong’s, use the Hebrew word “iysh”: Job 15:16; 34:11; 38:26; Psalm 34:12; 39:11; 78:25, etc. etc.

Many Bible translations have recognized the fact that God did not limit the descendants of David, sitting on the throne of David, to males, while excluding females. As a consequence, note how they render the passage in Jeremiah 33:17:

“David shall never lack an HEIR to sit on the throne of the house of Israel” (Lamsa; compare also the Living Bible).

“David will never lack a SUCCESSOR on the throne of Israel” (Revised English Bible; compare also the New American Bible).

“A Davidic KING shall never be lacking to sit upon the throne of Israel” (Moffat).

“David shall never lack a DESCENDANT to sit on the throne of the house of Israel” (Menge and Zuercher).

“David shall never lack SOMEONE sitting on the throne of the house of Israel” (Luther).

(2) David Shall Never Lack a “Son”

However, how are we to understand verses 20-21 of Jeremiah 33, which state:

“… If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a SON to reign on his throne…”

The Hebrew word for “son” is “ben” and just means “offspring” (compare Young’s). As with the Hebrew word “adam,” the word “ben” is not limited to male offspring, but can and does at times include female offspring, depending on the context. For several examples, where the word “ben” is translated as “sons,” but clearly means, “offspring,” note the passages in Ecclesiastes 2:3; 3:18, 19; 8:11; 9:12.

In addition, according to Young’s, the two words “ben adam” are used in Ecclesiastes 3:21, clearly referring to male and female. We read: “Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward…” Young states that the meaning of “sons of men” simply is, “human beings.”

Again, many translations render the phrase in Jeremiah 33:21 in such a way as to convey their understanding that the word “ben” does not have to mean a “male son,” but could simply mean “offspring”:

“… Then may also my covenant which I made with David my servant be broken, so that he should not have an HEIR to reign upon his throne…” (Lamsa).

“… so that he would not have a DESCENDANT reigning upon his throne…” (Tanakh; compare also the New International Version and the Menge Bible).

“… none of his LINE… ” (The Revised English Bible).

That the Hebrew word “ben” cannot literally mean “son” in Jeremiah 33:21, is clear from the context anyway–God was obviously not just talking about David’s SON Solomon; rather, He was referring to David’s DESCENDANTS who would be ruling on the throne for thousands of years to come, until Christ returns (who, as a descendant of David, would then take over the throne).

(3) God Explains the Meaning

It is, therefore, a question of context, as how to translate the Hebrew words “adam” or “iysh,” and “ben.” In the case of Jeremiah 33:17, 21, “offspring” and “descendant” seem to be the correct choices, regardless of the gender, as God Himself explains the meaning of His covenant in the same 33rd chapter of the book of Jeremiah, in verses 25- 26:

He says about David: “If My covenant is not with day and night… then I will cast away the DESCENDANTS of… David My servant, so that I will not take any of his DESCENDANTS to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The Authorized Version translates “seed” for “descendants.” The Hebrew word is “zera” and means “progeny,” irrespective of gender. Compare passages such as Genesis 15:13; 16:10; Malachi 2:15.

(4) God’s Law Includes Female Descendants

In addition, even if the Hebrew terms “adam” or “iysh” and “ben” were to be understood as “man” and “son,” female descendants would STILL be included, according to the Word of God. Howard B. Rand writes in “Study in Jeremiah,” on pages 203 and 204:

“… church leaders have for the most part completely failed to recognize that with the death of the sons of Zedekiah [the last king of Judah ruling in Jerusalem] the inheritance passed to a daughter who became the heir apparent to the Throne of David. This was in accordance with the following judgment rendered by God at the request of Moses in behalf of the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘And thou shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughters (Num. 27:8).”

(5) Women “Ruled” on David’s Throne Before Jeremiah

There were times in Judah PRIOR to Jeremiah, when a queen, and not a king, ruled on the throne of David (compare 2 Kings 11:1-3). When God reiterated to Jeremiah the covenant that He had made with David, He surely knew that not only males, but also females had been ruling on David’s throne, and that they would sit on David’s throne in the future (including Zedekiah’s daughter). He therefore intended female rulers to be included in His promise.

We might also remember that there were times in ancient Judah when a young male was technically “king,” but practically, the throne was occupied by the son’s mother. Man would have looked at this situation, perhaps, as a woman–the king’s mother–sitting on the throne, but in God’s eyes, she just administered the throne for her royal child (compare 2 Kings 15:1-2; 22:1-2).

Based on all the foregoing, including the historical facts and developments, both before and subsequent to the prophet Jeremiah, we must conclude that God’s covenant with David was meant to include male and female descendants. Today, Queen Elizabeth II, who is a direct descendant of King David, sits on the throne of David, and her son, Prince Charles, or her grandson, Prince William, might very well be sitting on that throne in the not-too-distant future.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Our new booklet on man’s holidays and God’s Holy Days has entered the first review cycle.

A new StandingWatch program was posted on StandingWatch and on Google Video, titled, “The Law of God, Part 2.” In the program, Norbert Link asks the following questions:

Do you believe that Christ’s death abolished the Law of the Ten Commandments? If so, why did Christ tell us to obey Him and keep the commandments? Many think Paul taught in the book of Galatians that the law of the Ten Commandments was our tutor that brought us to Christ, but that we are today no longer under a tutor. But DID Paul speak about the Ten Commandments in that context? And if not, what law did he refer to?

On November 24, 2007, Norbert Link will give the sermon, titled, “Sex and Marriage, Part 3.”

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.

If I told you that the American economy is currently doing very well, would you believe me? If you pay even a little attention to the news, you would certainly not.

The news these days is bleak. The mortgage industry collapses further each day, dragging down whomever it can. The dollar consistently sets  records as its value decreases in the world market. The national debt is larger than it has ever been. Add to that the demands on the country to buy increasingly expensive oil and other resources, obligations to solve problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the picture you might see is one of a country on the brink of collapse. All the evidence in the news today portends a decline in the American economy, and a rapid one at that. The news certainly does not forecast a flourishing economy.

You might offer me this clear evidence as a counter-argument to my claim of America’s “successful economy.” And I would agree with you. However, I would point out to you that for every licensed driver, there’s a car on the road. With all those cars on the road, even though gas prices are higher than ever, gas consumption is continuing to grow. I’d also bring to your attention that Americans are living in increasingly larger homes, while housing fewer people. Another thing to consider is the $160 billion a year (and rapidly growing — $160 billion is a 2005 statistic) market for self storage. Such a gigantic market indicates that Americans have such an insatiable appetite for consuming goods that they can’t even store the stuff they buy in their newer, larger homes. It’s not just cheap stuff Americans are buying, either. Luxury brands report consistent upward sales trends and perform very well. By an empirical analysis, Americans live in a palatial state of being, continually lifting their standard of living. Even though the news about the economy is dismal, according to the way they spend, Americans don’t seem to care.

Putting the news together with America’s buying habits describes a dangerous set of circumstances. We know about this danger because the Bible tells us what must come to fruition. As a result of national disobedience, God communicates a warning in Deuteronomy 28:47-48:

“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.”

As the standards of living continue to escalate, while the economic foundation to support it weakens, America is setting itself up for a great fall. How great that  fall from a life of luxury to the need of everything will be!

When considering the times and circumstances to come, Paul gives those who live in Christ some reassurance in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 when he writes, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”

Let us be encouraged by God’s instructions and warnings so that we too are not left in the dark when that fateful and inevitable fall occurs.

More Military Might for Europe?

The EUObserver wrote on November 16:

“UK foreign secretary David Miliband called for a strengthening of the EU’s military capacities during his first major speech on EU policy on Thursday (15 November) – an idea that has also been recently raised by France. ‘It’s frankly embarrassing that when European nations – with almost two million men and women under arms – are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time’, Mr Miliband said… ‘European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven’t provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there’, he went on.

“French president Nicolas Sarkozy has also called for more efforts to build an independent European defence capability as well as to modernise NATO, while French defence minister Herve Morin told German newspaper FAZ earlier this week that Paris would put defence high on its EU presidency agenda during the second half of 2008.”

Europe, Under Germany, Against Iran…?

Reuters reported on November 16:

“Germany would consider the possibility of separate EU measures against Iran if the U.N. Security Council fails to agree on a new sanctions resolution, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

“Reacting to the latest report on Iran’s nuclear programme by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the United States said on Thursday it would work with its allies for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment.

“But Russia and China, permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council, are opposed to more sanctions. As a result, France has been pushing for the European Union to impose its own separate U.S.-style sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“A German Foreign Ministry spokesman was asked at a regular news conference what Germany, which diplomats have been saying opposed the idea of separate EU measures, would do if the Security Council failed to approve tougher sanctions. ‘The foreign minister has made clear that if this is the case we would take up this issue in Europe and consider together what steps could be taken by Europe,’ spokesman Martin Jaeger said.”

… But Germany’s Position “Difficult, Sketchy and Ineffective”…

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 20:

“In an effort to forestall an American military strike against Iran, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for tougher economic sanctions against the mullah-controlled regime in Tehran. But critics say Merkel’s plans are sketchy and difficult to implement, while experts disagree over their effectiveness…

“During a visit to US President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas two weekends ago, Merkel promised her host that her government would apply stronger economic pressure on the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Merkel hopes that harsh economic sanctions will force the country’s ruling mullahs to finally abandon their controversial nuclear program… Only a few days later, during a routine consultation between senior officials in the German and French governments, Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy explored ways to put together a European alliance of countries willing to participate in the boycott. The Europeans’ main goal is to prevent a US military strike, which they believe could have more catastrophic consequences than an Iranian nuclear program… However, many in Berlin doubt tougher sanctions would be enough to force Tehran to come around on the nuclear issue. They are merely the price of keeping the Americans peaceful.

“The Catch-22 in Merkel’s pledge is that the plans she proposes are difficult to implement, and the German government has little latitude. Government experts warn against further reducing or even eliminating Hermes cover — export credit guarantees that protect German companies from non-payment by foreign debtors — for business transactions with Iran, as the Americans are demanding. Although Berlin reduced the government export credit guarantees from €900 million last year to the current level of €500 million, canceling the Hermes guarantees altogether would be risky.

“In Berlin, senior government officials fear that if the guarantees were eliminated, Tehran would no longer have any reason to repay what it already owes. At issue are receivables totaling roughly €5.5 billion, and not collecting on these debts would drive many German companies into bankruptcy. The government would have to jump in to prevent this from happening, which would impose an unacceptable burden on its budget.

“Closing the Iranian banks’ German offices isn’t as easy as the Americans imagine, either. Before this could happen, the European Union would require a United Nations resolution stating that the banks are funding the nuclear weapons program Iran is believed to be developing. EU member states would only be permitted to take action against the relevant Iranian companies if the UN adopts the necessary resolution. Although the resolution is pending before the UN Security Council, it hasn’t been adopted yet…

“US government pressure on German corporations and banks is also causing legal problems for the companies in question. By agreeing to participate in a boycott against a foreign country, German businesses would be in violation of foreign trade legislation enacted in 1993. The new laws were introduced because a number of Arab nations had demanded that their trading partners refrain from doing business with Israel. Many companies, fearful of losing their Arab business, caved in and signed the statements their Arab trading partners were demanding. To prevent this from happening in the future, German lawmakers enacted the 1993 legislation, which imposes fines of up to €500,000 on offenders…”

French President Keeps Low Profile

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 20:

“It’s Black Tuesday for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Five million French civil servants have gone out on strike, joining millions of others already on the streets protesting planned reforms.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing his stiffest political test on Tuesday as five million public servants stage a one-day strike. They are joining transport workers who are staying off the job for the seventh straight day. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday that the transport strike was costing the economy between €300 million and €350 million ($440 million and $513 million) a day.

“The strikes are causing disruptions to air traffic, postal delivery and even weather forecasts and French people are being forced to forgo their newspapers as printers and distribution employees stay away from work…

“While the majority of French supported Sarkozy’s pledge to modernize France in the presidential elections in May many are beginning to feel disappointed with the failure to improve their daily lives six months on… The president has been keeping an uncharacteristically low profile over the past week, in an attempt to avoid aggravating the situation…”

Global Warming–Man-Made or Not?

AFP reported on November 16:

“UN experts agreed Friday on a draft report that warns global warming may have far-reaching and irreversible consequences… But sometimes sharp disagreement emerged during the five days of negotiations in Valencia to hammer out the summary, even though the main findings remained untouched. US delegates in particular said references to ‘irreversible’ climate change and impacts were imprecise. They argued, for example, that the melting of glaciers or ice sheets — which could raise ocean levels by several meters (a dozen feet) — was not ‘irreversible’ as ice could eventually reform… There is now broad agreement on the amplifying scale of the problem, but countries remain sharply divided on how to tackle it, fearing economic costs and loss of competitive advantage.”

In a related article, the Associated Press wrote on November 16:

“The document says recent research has heightened concern that the poor and the elderly will suffer most from climate change; that hunger and disease will be more common; that droughts, floods and heat waves will afflict the world’s poorest regions; and that more animal and plant species will vanish… The report is important because it is adopted by consensus, meaning countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions. While it does not commit governments to a specific course of action, it provides a common scientific baseline for the political talks. “U.N. experts say a new global plan must be in place by 2009 to ensure a smooth transition after the expiration of the Kyoto terms, which require 36 industrial countries to radically reduce their carbon emissions by 2012…

“While the European Union has taken the lead in enforcing the carbon emission targets outlined in Kyoto, the United States opted out of the 1997 accord. President Bush described it as flawed because major developing countries such as India and China, which are large carbon emitters, were excluded from any obligations. He also favors a voluntary agreement.

“Sharon Hays, a White House science official and head of the U.S. delegation, said the certainty of climate change was clearer now than when Bush rejected Kyoto.  ‘What’s changed since 2001 is the scientific certainty that this is happening,’ she said in a conference call to reporters late Friday. ‘Back in 2001 the IPCC report said it is likely that humans were having an impact on the climate,’ but confidence in human responsibility had increased since then.”

America Is Giving Mixed Signals on Global Warming

Although the U.N’s. draft report on man-made global warming was unanimous, this may not mean that the United States really agrees with its conclusions. As AFP reported on November 17:

“The United States believes there is no clear scientific definition of the dangers of climate change although it recognizes urgent action is needed, a US conference delegation said. ‘The scientific definition of that is lacking, and so we are operating within the construct of, again, strong agreement among world leaders that urgent action is warranted,’ said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality…

“‘The scientific community has offered a wide range of perspectives in these documents,’ Connaughton said… Head US delegate in Valencia, Sharon Hays, cited recent American studies… made on the basis of the last IPCC report, in which US researchers stated ‘very clearly’ that ‘value judgments’ still have to be made in determining what the dangers of climate change really are… ‘That is a political judgment, as it’s been made,’ added US negotiator on climate issues Harlan Watson. ‘It’s their interpretation.’… The United States continues to oppose establishing strict legal limits on greenhouse gas emissions.”

Changes In Poland

Will Poland’s new government change the country’s relationship with Europe and the United States?

Der Spiegel wrote on November 20:

“The Kaczynski twins went a long way toward destroying Poland’s relations with Europe. Now that Donald Tusk has become prime minister, the repairs have begun… Foreign Minister Sikorski… wants the US to give the Poles something in return for their commitment to the Americans. When he was defense minister, Sikorski asked Washington for $1 billion in military aid. He also fears that missiles stationed in Poland could turn the country into a target for attacks by rogue states.

“Besides, the new government promised its fellow Poles that it would withdraw the remaining 900 Polish soldiers from Iraq. Surveys have repeatedly shown that the majority of Poles are highly critical of their soldiers’ Iraq mission.

“This skepticism is likely to have grown in recent days, after a military prosecutor in Poznan filed charges against seven Polish soldiers alleged to have opened fire on unarmed civilians during their deployment in Afghanistan. Six people, including women and children, were killed in the incident. The notion that Polish soldiers may have committed war crimes is unbearable for a nation that has been the victim of war all too often in its own history.”

Pakistan’s Ongoing Maneuverings

In a bizarre twist of events, Pakistan’s President seems to follow through with a “quid pro quo” arrangement. Antagonistic Supreme Court justices were replaced with justices sympathetic toward the President. The new justices promptly confirmed, in effect, the “legality” of the President’s election. In return, the President subsequently announced that he would step down as Army chief–while continuing to refuse ending martial law. In addition, thousands of detained political opponents were released.

AFP reported on November 19:

“Stripped of hostile judges by [Pakistan’s President] Musharraf under a state of emergency after he feared it would rule he was ineligible for another five-year term, the new-look top court took just over two hours to throw out the cases… ‘There were five petitions, they have all been dismissed. There is only one left, and that will be heard on Thursday,’ attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum told AFP after a hearing from which international media were banned…

“There was no sign of a swift end to the emergency, despite a blunt message Sunday from US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who said it was ‘not compatible’ with holding a free and fair vote.”

Times On Line added on November 20:

“President Musharraf of Pakistan has decided to resign as Army chief by the end of the week, it emerged today. Sources close to the Pakistani President indicated that he wanted to stand down almost immediately if a Supreme Court newly packed with his supporters decides… to reject the final legal challenge to his victory in last month’s election on Thursday…

“Critics of the Pakistani President claim that he engineered the Supreme Court’s decision today by sacking a number of independently-minded judges who had been due to consider the case when the state of emergency was called…”

Further Decline of U.S. Dollar

Bloomberg reported on November 20:

“The dollar fell to a record low against the euro and Swiss franc on concern credit-market losses will slow economic growth, prompting the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates again this year… ‘There are lots of forces working against the dollar,’ said Robert Fullem, vice president of U.S. corporate currency sales at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. ‘The market sentiment toward the dollar is very negative. You are going to see further declines in the dollar.’… The dollar will decline to $1.50 per euro by the end of the year, according to Fullem.”

U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Case on Handguns

The Associated Press reported on November 20:

“The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to ‘keep and bear arms’ in nearly 70 years. The justices’ decision to hear the case could make the divisive debate over guns an issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections.

“The government of Washington, D.C., is asking the court to uphold its 31-year ban on handgun ownership in the face of a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the ban as incompatible with the Second Amendment… The main issue before the justices is whether the Second Amendment of the Constitution protects an individual’s right to own guns or instead merely sets forth the collective right of states to maintain militias. The former interpretation would permit fewer restrictions on gun ownership.

“Gun-control advocates say the Second Amendment was intended to ensure that states could maintain militias, a response to 18th century fears of an all-powerful national government. Gun rights proponents contend the amendment gives individuals the right to keep guns for private uses, including self-defense…

“The Second Amendment reads: ‘A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.’…

“Arguments will be heard early next year. The case is District of Columbia v. Heller, 07-290.”

Reuters: “U.S. Prison System a Costly and Harmful Failure”

Reuters reported on November 19:

“The number of people in U.S. prisons has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society, researchers said in a report calling for a major justice-system overhaul… The report was produced by the JFA Institute, a Washington criminal-justice research group, and its authors included eight criminologists from major U.S. public universities… More than 1.5 million people are now in U.S. state and federal prisons, up from 196,429 in 1970, the report said. Another 750,000 people are in local jails. The U.S. incarceration rate is the world’s highest, followed by Russia, according to 2006 figures compiled by Kings College in London.

“Although the U.S. crime rate began declining in the 1990s it is still about the same as in 1973, the JFA report said. But the prison population has soared because sentences have gotten longer and people who violate parole or probation, even with minor lapses, are more likely to be imprisoned. ‘The system is almost feeding on itself now. It takes years and years and years to get out of this system and we do not see any positive impact on the crime rates,’ JFA President James Austin, a co-author of the report, told a news conference. The report said the prison population is projected to grow by another 192,000 in five years, at a cost of $27.5 billion to build and operate additional prisons… Women represent the fastest-growing segment of the prison population, the report said.”

Vatican’s Ties With Israel Worsening

The International Herald Tribune wrote on November 16:

“A senior Vatican diplomat [Archbishop Pietro Sambi] who served as papal envoy to Israel has described Vatican-Israeli relations as worsening, blaming the Jewish state for failing to keep promises related to church land, taxes and travel restrictions on Arab clergy… Asked about Sambi’s criticisms, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: ‘Israel is interested in good relations with the Vatican and Israeli and Vatican officials are working to overcome gaps that exist.’

“Vatican spokesman… Federico Lombardi said the interview with Sambi ‘reflects his thinking and his personal experience’ during the diplomat’s former posting in Israel… Earlier this year, tensions developed between the Vatican and Israel when the Holy See’s ambassador to Israel initially decided to boycott a Holocaust memorial service because of allegations that during World War II Pope Pius XII was silent about the mass killings of Jews.”

Catholic Church’s Canon Law Prohibits Full Ecumenical Relations

The Canadian Press reported on November 14:

“Under pressure from Baltimore’s new Roman Catholic archbishop, a priest resigned as pastor to three parishes and signed a statement apologizing for ‘bringing scandal to the church’ after offences that included officiating at a funeral mass with an Episcopal priest, a violation of canon law. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien ordered the resignation of… Ray Martin, who has led the Catholic Community of South Baltimore for five years, triggering a debate about enforcing Catholic doctrine and the limits of ecumenical relations.”

“If Anyone Will Not Work, Let Him Not Eat”

On November 16, the Catholic News Agency, Zenit, published a noteworthy article, by Raniero Cantalamessa, on work ethics and the Bible. We are quoting the following excerpts:

“It seems that in one of the first Christian communities, that of Thessalonica, there were believers who… thought that it was useless to weary themselves, to work or do anything since everything was about to come to an end. They thought it better to take each day as it came and not commit themselves to long-term projects and only to do the minimum to get by… Paul responds to them in the second reading: ‘We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food.’ At the beginning of the passage,… Paul recalls the rule that he had given to the Christians in Thessalonica: ‘If anyone will not work, let him not eat.’

“This was a novelty for the men of that time. The culture to which they belonged looked down upon manual labor; it was regarded as degrading and as something to be left to slaves and the uneducated. But the Bible has a different vision. From the very first page it presents God as working for six days and resting on the seventh day. And all of this happens in the Bible before sin is spoken of. Work, therefore, is part of man’s original nature and is not something that results from guilt and punishment. Manual labor is just as dignified as intellectual and spiritual labor. Jesus himself dedicates 17 years to the former — supposing he began to work around 13 — and only a few years to the latter… A person who has done the most humble jobs in life can be of greater ‘value’ than those people who hold positions of great prestige.

“It was said that work is a participation in the creative action of God and in the redemptive action of Christ and that it is a source of personal and social growth, but we know that it is also weariness, sweat and pain. It can ennoble but it can also empty and wear down. The secret is to put one’s heart into what one’s hands do. It is not so much the amount or type of work done that tires us out, as much as it is the lack of enthusiasm and motivation. To the earthly motivations for work, faith adds eternal motivations: ‘Our works,’ the Book of Revelation says, ‘will follow us’ (14:13).”

Terrible Devastation of Bangladesh Cyclone

The Telegraph wrote on November 20:

“Up to 15,000 people were killed and seven million lives left devastated by the cyclone in Bangladesh last week, aid agencies have said as the full extent of the disaster became clear… In the worst affected districts, 90 per cent of homes and 95 per cent of rice crops and valuable prawn farms were obliterated by the winds, which generated a 20ft tidal surge that swept everything from its path… Officials described the humanitarian situation in coastal districts like Barguna, 130 miles south of the capital Dhaka, as the ‘worst in decades’, a grave assertion in a country that is used to dealing with annual floods and storms… Village after village has been shattered. Millions of people are living out in the open and relief is reaching less than one percent of the people. When reached, victims are being found dehydrated and in a state of shock.”

The Associated Press reported on November 19:

“Survivors said many of the deaths could have been prevented but people failed to heed warnings to move to higher ground as the storm approached Thursday…

“Many foreign governments and international groups… pledged to help.

“The United States offered $2.1 million and two U.S. Marine Corps transport planes arrived in Dhaka with medical supplies, said Chowdhury, the army spokesman. An American military medical team was already in Bangladesh and two U.S. Navy ships, each carrying at least 20 helicopters and tons of supplies, would be made available if the Bangladesh government requested them, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

“The European Union promised $2.2 million and the British government $5.1 million. Italy’s Roman Catholic bishops conference said it would donate $2.9 million. The governments of Germany and France each pledged $730,000, Japan sent $318,000 in relief supplies, and the Philippines said it would provide a medical team.

“Bangladesh is a densely populated nation sitting on a vast river delta. Storms batter its low-lying lands every year, often killing large numbers of people. The most deadly recent storm was a tornado that leveled 80 villages in northern Bangladesh in 1996, killing 621 people. A 1991 cyclone killed about 140,000 people near the city of Chittagong, and a storm in 1985 left some 11,000 dead. One of the worst disasters came in 1970, when a cyclone’s 20-foot-high storm surge killed an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people.”

AFP reported on November 21:

“Bangladesh’s army said Wednesday it had finally reached most parts of its cyclone-hit southern coastline where millions of desperate survivors were at risk from starvation and disease. Six days after cyclone Sidr smashed in from the Bay of Bengal, small amounts of aid were at last getting through to most places but villagers — most of whom have lost family members and livelihoods — said much more was needed… Up to four million people in the area, one of the poorest places on the planet, have been left destitute and without adequate food and water.”

It does not. Please look carefully at the context of the passage in light of other Biblical evidence.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 reads:

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Some Bible commentaries conclude from the words “shall be caught up… in the clouds,” that those in Christ will be secretly transported to heaven, and then later return visibly–together with Christ–to rule the world. Notice, for example, the comments of the Ryrie Study Bible:

“The dead in Christ shall rise first, when the Lord comes for His people (v. 17). Then living believers will be ‘caught up.’ From the Latin for ‘caught up’ comes the term ‘rapture.’ The rapture or catching up of believers described here involves both those who have died and those who are living when the Lord comes. His coming here is ‘in the air,’ not to the earth, and will occur just prior to the beginning of the tribulation period (see Rev. 3:10). That period will end with His coming to the earth (see [Matthew] 24:29-30; [Revelation]19:11-16).”

Not everyone agrees with that explanation. Note the following statements by the New Bible Commentary: Revised:

“‘To meet the Lord’ (Gk. ‘eis apantesin tou kyriou’): When a dignitary paid an official visit … to a city in Hellenistic times, the action of the leading citizens in going out to meet him and escorting him on the final stage of his journey was called the ‘apantesis’; it is similarly used in [Matthew] 25:6; Acts 28:15. So the Lord is pictured as escorted to the earth by His people–those newly raised from death and those who have remained alive.”

F.F. Bruce’s International Bible Commentary agrees: “To meet is used in the papyri of the official reception given to a visiting governor, whom his citizens escort into the city from which they have come to meet him.”

The same conclusion is reached by the commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, where we read:

“‘together with them’–all together: the raised dead, and changed living, forming one joint body, ‘in the clouds’–Greek ‘in clouds.’ The same honor is conferred on them as on their Lord. As He was taken in a cloud at His ascension (Acts 1:9), so at His return with clouds ([Revelation] 1:7), they shall be caught up in clouds. The clouds are His and their triumphal chariot ([Psalm] 104:3; [Daniel] 7:13)… ‘in the air’–rather, ‘INTO the air’; caught up INTO the region just above the earth, where the MEETING (cf. [Matthew] 25:1, 6) shall take place between them ascending, and their Lord descending towards the earth. Not that the air is to be the place of their LASTING ABODE with Him… His point being established… he [Paul] leaves undefined here the other events foretold elsewhere (as not being necessary to his discussion), Christ’s reign on earth with His saints (1 [Corinthians] 6:2, 3)…”

In an Editorial in Update 243 (May 12, 2006), the following is stated:

“Theologians have felt the need to explain God’s mercy and justice by developing the concept of the ‘secret rapture.’ The assumption is that Jesus will first come secretly for His disciples or saints by ‘rapturing’ them to heaven where they will be protected during the time of the ‘Great Tribulation’ which will ravage the earth. According to that theory, Christ will return with His disciples or saints from heaven to this earth after that terrible time of devastation has past. Books and movies have popularized this idea in recent years–known as the ‘Left Behind’ series.

“However, as ‘The Plain Truth’ magazine explains in an article, which was published in February of 1963, ‘The idea of a secret rapture of the saints was unknown to any Christian body before the sixteenth century. Joseph Ribera, Cardinal Bellarmine and Alcasar, Jesuit Priests of the sixteenth century, were the first Christian authorities to promulgate this idea. Even in their day the idea was unclear, but the basic roots of the doctrine began at this time (sources omitted). Later, around 1825, Samuel R. Maitland, Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury, embraced the belief, although its basic tenets were still unclear in his day. It wasn’t until 1830 that this belief began to take its modern definition. The Catholic Apostolic Church had its beginning in 1830. It was founded in Britain… by men who claimed divine inspiration. They said the Holy Spirit revealed to them that the last days had come, that the Lord was about to return, that first He would ‘rapture’ the believers who were ready, at a secret coming… after which [i.e., the great tribulation] Christ would come in manifest power’ (sources omitted).”

“The Bible does not teach a secret rapture. Rather, God’s Word reveals that Christ will return ONCE, NOT TWICE (Hebrews 9:28). He will come openly, not in secret (Matthew 24:21-31; Revelation 1:7; Acts 1:10-11), and He will END the Great Tribulation at the time of His Coming by establishing the Kingdom of God here on earth (Revelation 11:15-18). Mark 13:24-27 specifically states: “But in those days, AFTER that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. THEN they will SEE the Son of Man COMING in the clouds with great power and glory. And THEN [not before then] He will send His angels, and GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT…”

“Christ will come at the time of the LAST TRUMPET when His elect will be resurrected from the dead or changed to immortality (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52). There can only be ONE last trumpet, which means, there can only be ONE return of Christ.”

To interject, the Bible speaks about the last trumpet as the SEVENTH trumpet. In the book of Revelation, we read that seven angels will blow seven trumpets, but that at the time of the seventh trumpet–logically the last one–“the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). The seven angels blow the seven last trumpets AFTER the Great Tribulation has begun–in fact, when the seventh angel blows the seventh or last trumpet, the Great Tribulation will have ENDED. Christ returns to shorten the time of the Great Tribulation, lest all human beings on the earth would die (compare Matthew 24:21-22).

To continue with the above-mentioned Editorial:

“However, the Bible reveals that there can be protection from the terrible times to come–but that protection will not be provided in heaven, but on earth. As we explain in our free booklet, ‘The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,’ beginning on page 58, Christ promises His people, who are worthy, a way to ‘escape all these things that will come to pass’ (Luke 21:34-36; compare Revelation 3:10; Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 31:19-20). That ‘place of refuge’ (Proverbs 14:26) will be on this earth–not in heaven (Revelation 12:14; Isaiah 33:16; Isaiah 26:20-21). Yes, God will have prepared ‘a place for us’ to protect us from the Great Tribulation. Even though God CAN protect us anywhere He wants, He has decreed that His people will be protected at a certain place here on earth–the place of safety and ‘shelter’ (Joel 3:14-16). Christ compares the time preceding His coming with the time of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39), and as God protected Noah and his family in the ark, here on earth, so He will protect His people on this earth in the way that HE has chosen. And He will NOT protect them by ‘rapturing’ them to heaven!

“The idea of a rapture to heaven–secret or otherwise–is nowhere taught in Scripture. It is an invention by man which can give us no real hope, as it is not based on God’s Word. But God does offer us His protection, if we prove ourselves worthy to receive it.”

To re-emphasize, the Bible nowhere teaches two comings of Christ–or a secret rapture to heaven. The FACT that Christ’s Church will be protected here on EARTH–at a “place of safety” DURING the time of the Great Tribulation–PROVES that His Church will not be at that time in heaven–nor, that it was transferred to heaven before the Great Tribulation by means of a “secret rapture.”

But, this does not mean–as some have begun to erroneously teach–that Christ will return before the Great Tribulation and take His Church to a place of safety here on earth, where He will dwell with His Church during the time of the Great Tribulation. This teaching is likewise without any Biblical support; in fact, Christ warns against such teaching, when He says in Matthew 24:26-27: “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out… For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” His return will be clear and obvious and visible for all alive. Revelation 1:7 says: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, AND EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM.”

Some have advanced the idea that we will be caught up to meet Christ in the air and then proceed to rule the earth from heaven–either from the sky or from the “third heaven,” where God dwells. This concept is likewise without any Biblical merit. We read in Revelation 5:9-10, how the angels praise Jesus Christ for having redeemed His people through His blood: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (New International Version).

Another passage alluded to by some, that He will come as a thief in the night (compare 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4), describes the timing of His coming. The world will not expect His return at that time. It does not talk about the manner of His coming (visibly or secretly). Compare also Matthew 24:36-44.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 that we will meet the returning Christ, at His coming, in the air. This is not referring to the third heaven, but to the atmosphere of our earth, which has air and clouds. We read that we will be with Christ from that time on. We read that Christ will descend on that same day to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), and we will be with Him (Zechariah 14:5). As mentioned earlier, Christ’s disciples will meet Christ in the air and will accompany Him back to earth. The angels had told the apostles that Christ would come back in the same manner as He had left them. They were on the Mount of Olives, and He left them visibly on a cloud (Acts 1:9-11).

2 Thessalonians 2:1 also talks about the coming of Christ and OUR GATHERING with Him. Remember that Christ GATHERS His elect when He returns VISIBLY (compare again Mark 13:24-27). At that time, He will take care of the “lawless one” (compare verse 8). Again, this is one and the same event–there are no two comings described.

In conclusion, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 does not introduce a secret rapture, but it describes the resurrection of those who died in Christ and the change to immortality of those true Christians who are alive when Christ returns (compare 1 Corinthians 15:50-52). Christ will return visibly–every eye will see Him. The Bible reveals only ONE return–ONE second coming. When it occurs, the dead in Christ will be resurrected to immortality, and those in Christ who are alive will be changed to immortality. All of this will occur at the time of the LAST or SEVENTH trumpet. Christ will return AFTER the Great Tribulation, not BEFORE then. He will come to shorten those days. The Bible simply does not ALLOW for a secret rapture, and those who hope and expect to be transferred to heaven will be “left behind” and waiting in vain.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

A new StandingWatch program was posted on StandingWatch and on Google Video, titled, “The Law of God, Part 1.”  In the program, Norbert Link asks the following questions:

Are we still required to keep the Law of God? Or did Christ abolish it? But if He did, why does John say that it is the love of God to keep His commandments; and that sin is the transgression of the Law? Why does Paul say that the wages of sin is death; and that the Law of God is holy and just and good? And why does James say that we are judged by the royal law of liberty, and that we break the entire Law, if we just transgress one of the commandments? Surely, much confusion abounds as to whether or not true Christians are to keep the Law of the Ten Commandments.

Our new booklet on the Sacrificial System and the Tabernacle in the Wilderness has entered the second review cycle.

James opens his letter with a statement that is dumbfounding! Here it is: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials…” (James 1:2).

Trials? Rejoice in trials?

This is hard to do, and if you are like me and the countless others who do have trials far more often than we might choose, then you also realize that being tested drives us into some deeply profound soul-searching! And it might just bring us a little bit closer to God.

Jesus suffered. He endured His trials, because He had an ultimate goal that was unshakeable (Compare Hebrews 4:14-15; 12:1-2). A significant part of why He underwent what He did was for us! He is our High Priest and the One who can and who does help us!

Jesus had to have help in His trials. He found it by yielding to His Father’s will and by asking for help, as we read in Hebrews 5:7: “… who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear…”

James adds: “… knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience [endurance or perseverance]” (James 1:3).

It does then seem that our trials can bear a positive outcome, but that “endurance” is the fruit of staying the course of our calling and persevering in the testing of our faith.

Qualitatively, it is our faith in Jesus Christ and in our Father that is being refined and perfected through trials. If we, like Jesus Christ, come to God for help, then we will also endure unto eternal life: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

God’s help in time of need–in times of seemingly unbearable trials–is the greatest assurance we could possibly have, and it is the reason we can count even the testing of our faith with “all joy”!

The US Dollar Crisis–A Pearl Harbor Without War

On November 13, Der Spiegel Online published a thought-provoking article, explaining the imminent danger of an “attack on the US economy.” This is a “MUST-READ” article for all who want to be aware of the problems awaiting this country. The magazine stated the following:

“The dollar crisis has politicians alarmed worldwide. The US currency has lost 24 percent of its value since the introduction of the euro, and now there is even a chance that China could abandon its policy of pegging its currency to the dollar — a problem the United States should take very seriously… The most important country in the world for the United States isn’t Great Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia or Iraq. China holds that dubious distinction, because it is also the country the US can least do without. Without its willingness to buy an almost unlimited supply of US treasury bonds, there would be no American spending miracle. Without a spending miracle there would be no economic growth. In other words, without China the US superpower would lose a significant share of its economic clout…

“For the United States, a Chinese decision to abandon the dollar would be tantamount to Pearl Harbor without the war. It would represent a challenge to the world’s biggest economy by the world’s fastest growing economy. Millions of people would see their standard of living suffer as a result, and American self-confidence, already shaky, would crumble even further. The United States would suffer a serious blow on its very own turf, the economy…

“For years the US economy has suffered one dramatic setback after another… The United States, a once-proud exporting nation, became the world’s biggest importer. In only 15 years, from 1992 to 2007, the US balance of trade deficit has surged from $84 billion to $700 billion. Within a single generation, the world’s biggest lender has become its biggest borrower, a circumstance the United States has made no serious attempts to change.

“… an attack on the US economy is probably the most easily predictable event of the coming years. And if it happens, the attacker will even be able to justify its actions as self-defense.

“What is the difference between the US government in 1941 and the administration in Washington today? Perhaps there is none. A Japanese attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was unimaginable, even though US intelligence had picked up clues that it could happen. Washington, at the time, was convinced that the Japanese wouldn’t dare stage an attack on a target 5,000 miles away, and that they wouldn’t succeed if they did. The crews on America’s ships were sleeping as the Japanese bombers approached Pearl Harbor.”

Georgia Prays for Rain

The Associated Press reported on November 12:

“As Georgia descends deeper into drought, Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle and asked President Bush for help. On Tuesday, the governor will call on a higher power. He will join lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain.

“While public prayer vigils might raise eyebrows in other parts of the nation, they are mostly shrugged off in the Bible Belt, where turning to the heavens for help is common and sometimes even politically expedient. ‘Christianity has more of a place in the culture here than in some other region,’ said Ray Van Neste, a professor of Christian studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. ‘And it’s only natural, in a way, for the public to pray for rain.’

“Perdue won’t be the first governor to hold a call for public prayer during the epic drought gripping the Southeast. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a proclamation declaring a week in July as ‘Days of Prayer for Rain’ to ‘humbly ask for His blessings and to hold us steady in times of difficulty.’…

“Political heavyweights outside the U.S. are known to occasionally plead to the heavens for rain. In May, Australian Prime Minister John Howard asked churchgoers to pray for rain in hopes of snapping a drought that has devastated crops and bankrupted farmers Down Under.

“In the U.S., public expressions of faith are often discouraged as a breach of the separation of church and state.

“Thomas Jefferson, for one, resisted calls for a federal day of prayer. But he was an exception. From George Washington, who declared ‘a day of prayer and thanksgiving,’ to Harry Truman, who established a National Day of Prayer, American politicians have not been shy about associating themselves with petitions to the Almighty.”

… and the Rain Came, But Might Not Have Helped Much …

On November 15, The Associated Press reported:

“A storm crashed through the Southeast and brought up to an inch of rain in parts of drought-stricken Georgia, but forecasters said the storm likely did little to ease the state’s historic drought. ‘The ground probably sucked it all up,’ said Vaughn Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. ‘The ground is so dry, I seriously doubt if any of the lakes rose any.’

“The Wednesday storm packed lashing rain and powerful gusts, injuring at least nine in Tennessee. The roof of a Baptist church in Tennessee’s Marion County was heavily damaged…

“More than a quarter of the Southeast is covered by an ‘exceptional’ drought — the National Weather Service’s worst drought category. With water levels low, many Georgia residents are under conservation orders — such as a ban on watering lawns.

“The rainfall came two days after Gov. Sonny Perdue led a prayer service on the steps of the state Capitol to beg the heavens for an end to the drought.”

America’s Obsession With Weapons

AFP reported on November 11:

“For the first time in 70 years, the US Supreme Court may decide next week whether to examine the question of the right to bear arms, something which is fiercely upheld by millions of Americans. The US capital of Washington, which is trying to stem a wave of violence in its seedier neighborhoods, has lodged a case with the nine Supreme Court judges seeking to maintain its three-decade ban on individuals carrying handguns… The case goes right to the heart of the American constitution, which in its second amendment declares that: ‘A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.’

“Washington, which is also home to the president and the government, has interpreted the amendment to mean that there is a collective right to bear arms for those who are part of a police force or a security force. But since 1976, it has banned residents from carrying handguns, although they are allowed to keep a rifle or hunting gun in their homes, providing it is locked and not loaded. For millions of Americans though, and especially the powerful gun lobby represented by the National Rifle Association, the second amendment guarantees the right of every American citizen to own any gun, with few limits…

“Washington officials… lodged a case with the Supreme Court in September insisting that it must rule on the extent of access to handguns, the weapon of choice in two-thirds of robberies and assaults.Handguns are also used in half of the 15,000 murders across the country every year, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigations…”

Incredible Waste of Money

The Associated Press reported on November 13:

“The economic costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to total $1.6 trillion — roughly double the amount the White House has requested thus far, according to a new report by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee… The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said. The Bush administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, the report stated.

“For the Iraq war only, total economic costs were estimated at $1.3 trillion for the period from 2002 to 2008. That would cost a family of four $16,500, the report said. Future economic costs would be even greater. The report estimated that both wars would cost $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. Under that scenario, it would cost a family of four $46,400, the report said.

“Oil prices have surged since the start of the war, from about $37 a barrel to well over $90 a barrel in recent weeks, the report said… Meanwhile, ‘the sum of interest paid on Iraq-related debt from 2003 to 2017 will total over $550 billion,’ the report said. The government has to make interest payments on the money it borrows to finance the national debt, which recently hit $9 trillion for the first time.”

Merkel’s Visit With Bush–“Nothing of Substance”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 12:

“There was lots to discuss during Chancellor Merkel’s visit to President Bush’s Texas ranch… But was anything of substance accomplished by Merkel’s visit to Crawford? German commentators take a closer look at what the talks mean for the Iran dispute.

“The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘If Bush promises the German chancellor that he will stick to the diplomatic approach of isolating Iran, if the two of them agree on sanctions as the next stage of escalation and get their plan approved by the United Nations (Security Council), then all this means nothing less than the following: The president has chosen to go against Vice President Dick Cheney and instead go with the solution favored by the Europeans of cautious but persistent escalation. It would also mean that the US needs Europe’s influence, also to have enough pressure to bring to bear on Russia, which is playing a strange double game over Iran. This is the right strategy for this phase of the dispute…’

“The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

“‘Merkel is a few steps ahead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who only really started bringing his country back on to a US-friendly course last week (when he paid his first official visit to Washington). Bush is grateful to his two new friends because internationally there are not many governments that are so ready to cooperate with the current American administration, much less act in concert with the US. The US now needs Germany and France on its side, much more than in the past, when Germany was America’s junior partner. The US’s ill-considered warmongering and its bumbling diplomacy have weakened Washington in terms of international crisis management — and strengthened the Europeans… If the situation in Iran gets worse and Washington decides after all that it’s wise to respond to the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions with air attacks, then the French and Germans could quickly find themselves again in a situation like at the beginning of the Iraq war.'”

Germany–Still A Divided Country

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 9:

“Friday (November 9) marks the 18th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall… 18 years after the fall of the Wall, there is still no such thing as a truly unified Germany.

“Eastern Germans are less satisfied with and less optimistic about their situation than those living in the states that made up the former West Germany. They are also less convinced about the virtues of democracy than their western counterparts — with many believing that socialism is a good idea that just hasn’t been implemented well in the past.

“Indeed, the biggest differences in the survey come when eastern and western respondents are asked to share their views on life in the former East Germany. The communist state gets far higher marks from those living in the east than from those in the west. A full 92 percent of 35- to 50-year-old eastern Germans believe that one of the greatest attributes of the former East Germany was its social safety net… There is a silver lining in the report in that despite major divergences in views between the older eastern and western Germans, those differences appear to be shrinking with the younger generation in the east and west. Slowly, the country appears to be coming back together.”

Stoiber’s Battle in Brussels

The EUObserver wrote on November 11:

“An expert group charged with advising the European Commission on cutting the unnecessary laws coming out of Brussels has run into difficulty – even before its first official meeting later this month. The red tape-busting committee, led by the centre-right former Bavaria leader Edmund Stoiber, is meeting opposition within its target institution, the European Commission, for its extensive demands… Stoiber has asked for the group to have more powers as well as many more members than just the secretarial assistance the commission had intended… The whole issue has a separate element of political frisson because of German internal politics. The man Mr Stoiber is supposed to be helping out with his bureaucracy-cutting suggestions is industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen, a fellow German but a rival socialist… As yet it remains unclear who will be on the 15-strong committee, supposed to have its first meeting on 20 November. Die Welt notes that Mr Stoiber is already looking for support from Munich, Bavaria’s capital and has asked business consultant Roland Berger to be part of the group.”

Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Resigned

AFP wrote on November 13:

“Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Franz Muentefering, a key figure holding together the country’s fractious left-right government, has resigned for personal reasons, his ministry said Tuesday.His departure is likely to increase tensions in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s already unwieldy, two-year-old ‘grand coalition’ government with the Social Democrats (SPD)… Tensions within the coalition have mounted in recent weeks over reforms of Europe’s biggest economy. But officials from both parties have said they have no desire to call early elections before 2009 because neither could win a majority with their coalition partner of choice.

“Muentefering’s departure is… likely to lead to more clashes between the two parties, which are traditionally fierce rivals. The vice-chancellor, nicknamed the general for his loyal and stoic style, suffered a number of political defeats in recent weeks… He remains a popular figure, however, and won a standing ovation at an SPD congress in Hamburg last month… The party, however, has sunk to historic lows in the polls since the 2005 election, scoring about 30 percent — 10 points behind Merkel’s conservatives.”

“Spain’s King Puts Chavez in his Place”

AFP reported on November 12:

“Spain’s King Juan Carlos won praise back home on Sunday after telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to ‘just shut up’ before storming out of an Ibero-American summit. Spain’s monarch was applauded by Spanish media for his angry reprimand Saturday of Chavez, after the Venezuelan leader described a former Spanish prime minister [Jose Maria Aznaras] a ‘fascist’ and launched into a wide-ranging tirade.

“‘The king has put Chavez in his place in the name of all Spaniards,’ the centrist El Mundo newspaper said, noting that it was ‘an act without precedence.’ It said the monarch’s rebuke was ‘something that should have been said to him (Chavez) a long time ago.’

“[Chavez’s] mentor, ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, hailed Chavez for his critique of European governments in a commentary published Sunday in Juventud Rebelde…

“Chavez earned the ire of the Spanish delegation upon his arrival on Friday… and on Saturday… [when] the Venezuelan leader [attacked Aznaras and then] carried on, attacking the United States (a favorite target of his), the Catholic Church in Venezuela and the pope. He also accused the United States and Europe of having approved of the failed coup against him in 2002… Chavez’s outburst and King Juan Carlos’ admonition to ‘shut up’ was replayed again and again late Saturday on Spanish television news programs to the delight of viewers.”

“Something Is Rotten in the State of Italy” — The “Whole Country Lacks Leadership”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 13:

“Italy is scrambling to deal with the aftermath of riots this weekend sparked by the accidental shooting of a football fan… The violence that spread across Italy was in reaction to the death of Gabriele Sandri, a 26-year-old DJ, who was killed after police officer Luigi Spaccatorella fired warning shots to stop a brawl among rival fans at a motorway rest stop. The policeman is now under investigation for manslaughter.

“Soccer authorities said on Monday…  they would suspend matches scheduled for next Sunday, and Italy’s Interior Ministry slapped a ban on large groups of violent fans traveling to certain games… However, according to Clarence Seedorf, a player with AC Milan, football is being made a scapegoat by the government for deeper problems in Italian society. ‘They cannot blame football every time,’ the Dutch player told Britain’s Sky Sports News. ‘The people are not happy. They are coming to the stadiums to express their feelings and their feelings are not positive. … The whole country lacks leadership.’…

“The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes: ‘The Italians are always caught up in a power struggle. Nothing in that country has a secure position — not the parties which are constantly splitting up and being refounded … not the institutions which pass from the clutches of one party to another, not the church which wants to control domestic politics.’…

“The conservative daily Die Welt writes: ‘Italy likes to call itself the bel paese, the beautiful country…. But there is another side to Italy: the ugly side… The fact that this kind of rage can flare up so quickly across the whole country is an indication that there is something rotten in the state of Italy.’

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘What began as a brawl between football fans in Tuscany could lead to the fall of the already crisis-ridden Italian government. Giuliano Amato, Italy’s interior minister, has said he carries the political responsibility for the death of the fan, who was shot by a police officer. The fact that it was a tragic accident can minimize the guilt of the shooter. But that doesn’t absolve Amato from the fact that the security forces operate in a chaotic manner, and that the one stray bullet led to riots by thousands of thugs in several cities… If Amato resigns then Romano Prodi’s center-left government could break apart. Amato has been one of its few supporters. But the end of the government would only be the smaller problem, in comparison to the effect of unrestrained football fanaticism on Italian society.'”

British Conservatives in Disarray Over EU Treaty

The EUObserver reported on November 13:

“The question of Europe was once again riding high in British politics last night after a senior member of the opposition Conservatives indicated that the party would not accept parliamentary ratification of the new EU Reform Treaty. William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, caused a political rumpus on Monday (12 November) by appearing to say that the conservative party – long known for its strongly eurosceptic streak – would press for a referendum on the treaty even if it has been ratified by British MPs…

“Mr Hague’s comment [has] broken open the [Conservatives’] uneasy stance on Europe. Under its new leader David Cameron, the party has tried to move away from being defined by its anti-Europe position. But it retains a core of members and supporters who are strongly in favour of changing Britain’s relations with Europe and who believe the Reform Treaty – introducing a long-term president of the EU and a foreign minister – goes too far. The party has been putting substantial pressure on prime minister Gordon Brown to hold a referendum on the treaty – particularly since the Labour government under Tony Blair had promised a poll on the now-shelved but similar EU constitution.

“Mr Brown has so far resisted the calls arguing Britain’s interests have been upheld in the Reform treaty… If all goes to plan, the EU treaty is to enter into force at the beginning of 2009 – but has to be ratified by all 27 member states first.”

“European Defense Absolute Priority”

The EUObserver wrote on November 13:

“France will next year push for a Europe of defence, proposing Brussels-based EU planning staff, exchanges between professional soldiers and a harmonization of military education – ideas which are likely to raise concern in the UK. In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, French defence minister Hervé Morin said that Paris will put defence high on the agenda when it takes over the rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of 2008. Mr Morin described European defence as an ‘absolute priority’ which is at least as important for European integration as the EU’s common currency, the euro.

“‘With the common currency, we have created a strong symbol for Europe. But nothing can better express the European community of fate than common defence, a common sense of Europe’s threats and security interests,’ he said. ‘A kind of European conscience can grow over the question where, if need be, we want to defend our values with weapons,’ he stated. ‘This is why during the presidency of the European Council in the second half of 2008 we would like to press ahead with a Europe of defence.'”

“Apocalyptic Scenario” For Israel

The Jerusalem Post wrote on November 8:

“Egyptian and Saudi Arabian intentions to begin or revive their nuclear programs in the face of Iran’s continued race toward nuclear power present an ‘apocalyptic scenario’ for Israel as well as for the rest of the world, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

“Lieberman’s remarks came a week after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced a decision to restart his country’s nuclear program. On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had begun operating 3,000 centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium… Lieberman also said Pakistan was a major threat to Israel due to the political instability there and the fact that the country had ‘missiles, nuclear weapons and a proven capability.’ ‘We hope there will be stability and the [Pakistani] nuclear weapons won’t fall into radical hands,’ he said. ‘If the Taliban or [al-Qaida leader Osama] bin Laden get control [of Pakistan] they will have nuclear weapons for terror use and they don’t hide their opinions about Israel.’ … On Tuesday, Military Intelligence said Iran could produce a nuclear weapon by the end of 2009.”

The Jerusalem Post wrote on November 15:

“Israel is preparing for the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday. According to the report, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed his ministers to draft proposals on how to cope with a nuclear Iran. The report was later denied by a senior Prime Minister’s Office official, Israel Radio reported… Reuters reported that Israel was developing its defense systems to fend off a possible Iranian attack. It added that Israel was constructing a fleet of German-made submarines which could possibly carry nuclear missiles, sending a clear message that there would be retaliation for any Iranian attack.”

Historic Visit of Israel’s President in Turkey

AFP reported on November 12:

“Israel’s President Shimon Peres arrived in Ankara on Sunday, where he will become the first Israeli head of state to address a majority-Muslim country’s parliament, a report said… On Monday, he holds talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. A highlight of the trip is to occur when Peres addresses Turkish lawmakers in Hebrew on Monday.

“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected in Ankara Monday, where he will similarly address the Turkish parliament and meet Peres and Gul on the sidelines of an economic forum gathering Turkish, Israeli and Palestinian business people. The three sides are expected to conclude a deal to establish a joint industrial zone in the West Bank, according to Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, the forum’s founder.

“In an interview published Sunday by Turkey’s Sabah newspaper, Peres described his visit as ‘historic’ and said Ankara had a key role to play in establishing peace in the Middle East. Turkey is perhaps Israel’s most important strategic ally after the United States, and economic cooperation between the two took off after the signing of a key military cooperation accord in 1996.”

Turkey is a descendant of the Biblical Esau or Edom, twin-brother of Jacob or Israel. Both were sons of the Biblical Isaac. The relationship between Edom and Israel has been strained throughout their history, and the Bible shows that Edom or Turkey will turn against Israel in the near future.

Murder in Turkey

The Eastern Star News Agency reported on November 13:

“On January 19th, 2007, the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was murdered outside the newspaper Agos’ office in Constantinople (Istanbul). A couple of days after the murder, the 17-year old Ogun Samas was arrested. The police treated the murderer like a national hero and posed proudly with him in front of cameras with a Turkish flag in their hands and boasted with taking pictures with the murderer.

“The murdered Hrant Dink’s son, Arat Dink, was convicted on the 12th of October 2007, together with the responsible publisher of the magazine Agos, Serkis Seropyan, to [a] one year conditional prison sentence for desecrating ‘turkishness’. The sentence was based on the same paragraph that Hrant Dink was sentenced for, paragraph 301 [of] the Turkish penal code… This is happening in a country that applies for membership in the European Union!”

The EU Warns Ethiopia

AFP wrote on November 12:

“Joint Ethiopia-Somali government forces on Monday descended into Mogadishu’s main market and scoured for weapons in a bid to stem an escalating insurgency. However, the European Union urged the warring sides to spare civilians in the latest clashes that have killed dozens of people and displaced at least 114,000 while others remain trapped in Mogadishu… Civilians have complained of indiscriminate shooting by Ethiopian forces, involved in their toughest crackdown against the insurgents. But the government says it is only targeting rebels.”

It is possible that Ethiopia is the last revival of the “king of the South,” as mentioned in Scripture. If so, we can expect increasing confrontation between Ethiopia and the EU–the modern revival of the Roman Empire, to be lead soon by a military leader–the “king of the North.”

Russian-Indian Ties

AFP wrote on November 12:

“Arms and energy were on the agenda Monday as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to buttress ties between the veteran allies… India was a key ally of the former Soviet Union in the Cold War era.

“New Delhi is expected to make a bid for an increased share of Russia’s oil and gas exports as Russia fights to retain its position as India’s top arms supplier amid Western competition… In a statement released ahead of the talks, the Russian presidential administration said the two sides would work on intensifying the country’s ‘strategic partnership’ on international relations, with a particular focus on the Middle East. The two sides aim to boost bilateral trade to 10 billion dollars (6.8 billion euros) a year by 2010 from four billion dollars in 2006, the Kremlin said.

“Trade between Russia and India has long been dominated by Indian military spending. Russia accounts for 70 percent of Indian military hardware while India currently accounts for 30 percent of Russian arms sales… ‘Russia is India’s most important partner in defence,’ Singh said… Business daily Vedomosti on Monday reported that Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport could soon sign a contract for 450 million dollars to buy 80 Mi-17 helicopters… Interfax news agency, meanwhile, reported that the two would sign agreements for the joint development of the Ilyushin 214 military transport plane.”

AFP added on November 13:

“The leaders of veteran allies Russia and India agreed Monday to launch a joint unmanned mission to the moon during Kremlin talks on boosting military and trade ties… During the talks the Russian and Indian leaders also ‘paid particular attention to cooperation in nuclear energy and in military-technical cooperation,’ Putin said… Singh thanked the Russian president for assisting in efforts to lift international restrictions on nuclear cooperation with India.”

The Bible reveals that Russia and India, as well as countries such as China and Japan, will form a mighty military and economic power bloc, in competition to the EU.

15-Day State of Emergency in the Country of Georgia

Der Spiegel Online wrote on November 9:

“Georgia’s parliament has rubber-stamped the state of emergency declared by President Mikhail Saakashvili on Wednesday. While German papers concede that the country does face interference from Moscow, they also decry the heavy-handed repression of peaceful protests that reflect real concerns among the population.

“Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili seemed to bow to international pressure Thursday by announcing snap presidential elections for Jan. 5. But with parliament voting in favor of the state of emergency on Friday and independent media still off the air, it is unlikely that the move will be enough to repair the damage done by the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations on Wednesday…

“While many Georgians support Saakashvili’s attempts to take the former Soviet Republic into the European Union and NATO and to shake off Russian influence, the president is regarded as increasingly authoritarian… his move has been met with sharp criticism in the West. The United States has expressed its disappointment and NATO has warned that Georgia’s aspirations to join the alliance have been jeopardized… German commentators seem united in the opinion that while there is undoubtedly Russian interference in Georgia, this does not justify ditching democratic values such as the right to protest and freedom of speech.

“The Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘… The harsh tone coming from NATO and the European Union is the only correct reaction: If Georgia wants to be a part of the West, it has to respect its values and rules.’…

“The business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘… His style of government has become authoritarian, and the number of corruption cases and scandals has increased… With the brutal use of the police force and the declaration of a state of emergency, he seems to have adapted the role of autocrat.’…

“The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘By striking down the peaceful demonstrations, Saakashvili has made Georgia’s path toward NATO more difficult than all the provocations from the Kremlin in the past few years could have achieved.'”

According to AFP of November 14, “Georgia will lift a state of emergency on Friday, a top official said Wednesday, but doubts remained about whether one of the country’s main television channels would be allowed back on the air.” It added on November 15 that the Georgian “Parliament has approved a decision to lift the state of emergency on Friday at 7:00 pm.”

Pakistan–End of Chaos in Sight?

On November 9, The Daily Telegraph published a strong  editorial regarding the situation in Pakistan and the failure of the West to stop its escalation. Pakistan’s reaction to the editorial was one of anger, fright and terror, and has only escalated the situation even more.

In the editorial, the paper wrote:

“Despite George W Bush’s rhetoric about freedom, the struggle against terrorism is provoking a reaction familiar from the Cold War and nowhere is that clearer than over Pakistan… General Pervez Musharraf… has failed to stamp out extremist groups and close the madrassas that inspire them. He has allowed the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to fall into the hands of assorted jihadis. And he has sacked independent-minded judges for fear that the Supreme Court declare illegal his re-election as president last month.

“Yet, despite this combination of incompetence and brutality, America and Britain continue to back him as head of what has a strong claim to be the most dangerous country in the world… In short, the relationship between Gen Musharraf and the West is bankrupt. Valued as an ally after 9/11, he is now part of the problem. Under his dictatorship, Pakistan has become an increasingly ungovernable country in which moderate, secular forces have been sidelined to the advantage of the Islamists.”

AFP reported on November 11 about Pakistan’s reaction to the article:

“‘The Telegraph has withdrawn its correspondents in Pakistan after they were threatened with expulsion by the government,’ a two-paragraph article in the newspaper read… Britain’s foreign ministry earlier on Sunday said that the three journalists were on their way back to Britain, and said that the British high commissioner had complained to Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri about the journalists’ treatment.”
The International Herald Tribune wrote on November 11:

“In another signal that the general was strengthening his grip on power, the government announced Saturday that it had amended an army law so that civilians could be charged and prosecuted before military courts.”

On November 12, the Associated Press reported that “Foreign ministers from the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies said that Pakistan would be suspended from the organization unless the state of emergency was repealed and Musharraf stepped down as army chief by Nov. 22.”

On November 13, AFP stated “Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on President Pervez Musharraf to quit Tuesday in her most direct challenge yet to his rule, vowing never to serve under him in government…

“Holed up under house arrest with close aides in Lahore as more than 1,000 police manned barbed wire barricades outside, she urged the world to abandon the president… ‘It is over with Musharraf,’ she told AFP in an interview from inside the residence where she has been detained to stop her leading a mass procession against emergency rule… ‘General Musharraf must quit. He must quit as president and as chief of army staff. I call on the international community to stop backing him — to stop backing the man whose dictatorship threatens to engulf this nuclear-armed state in chaos.’…”

On November 15, AFP reported that “Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said that he will step down as army chief before December 1… Musharraf named former spy chief Ashfaq Kiyani as the heir apparent to the post of chief of army staff in October… [It was further announced that] Pakistan’s incoming caretaker government would take an oath on Friday morning after the current parliament dissolves at one minute before midnight.”

“Christian” Cult In Russia–What Insanity!!!

Reuters reported on November 15:

“At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials and media said on Thursday… The cult members, who include 29 adults and four children, are hidden inside a snow-covered hillside in the Penza region of central Russia…

“They are thought to have taken food and fuel supplies in with them… ‘They are simple Christians,’ a local priest, Father Georgy, told NTV television station. ‘They say: “The church is doing a bad job, the end of the world is coming soon and we are all saving ourselves.”‘

“Media reports said the cult members believed the world would end sometime in May next year. Police expected them to emerge when their supplies ran out.

“After decades of state-enforced atheism under Soviet rule, many Russians and other ex-Soviet nationals have come under the influence of homegrown and foreign sects. Many Russians have refused new passports and taxpayers’ personal identification numbers, saying the figures contained ‘satanic’ combinations of numbers. Izvestia newspaper said the leader of the cult, Pyotr Kuznetsov, had been detained by police. It said he was a 43-year-old who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that in the last few months he had been sleeping in a coffin.”

Unfortunately, such insane conduct and these kind of false doomsday predictions give TRUE Christianity a bad reputation. It is Satan’s way of convincing people to reject the truth, by pointing at such terrible examples as set by the cult in Russia.

Earthquake in Chile

AFP reported on November 14 that “A strong earthquake measuring 7.7 rocked arid northern Chile Wednesday, killing at least two people, injuring others, sparking panic and causing power outages… Meanwhile separate earthquakes also hit Argentina and Central America on Wednesday. An earthquake, which US geologists measured at magnitude 5.3, rocked Guatemala and neighboring El Salvador, with no reports of casualties.”

The news agency also reminded the readers on November 15 that “In August, southern Peru was struck by a powerful 8.0-magnitude earthquake that left 600 people dead and 300,000 homeless.”

The Associated Press added on November 15 that “Strong aftershocks [including one of magnitude 6.2 and another of magnitude 6.8] from a powerful earthquake hit northern Chile on Thursday as the government erected a working military hospital and promised hundreds of other portable dwellings for 15,000 left homeless by the quake… A 1939 quake in Chile killed 28,000 people and in 1960, a magnitude-9.5 quake — the strongest recorded in the 20th century — killed 5,700 people. On June 13, 2005, a magnitude-7.8 quake… in northern Chile killed 11 people and left thousands homeless.”

Cyclone Forces Bangladesh Evacuations

The Associated Press reported on November 15:

“Ten of thousands of coastal villagers took shelter inland Thursday as a cyclone rapidly approached Bangladesh’s southwestern shores, spawning cold drizzles, strong winds and high waves, a weather official said. Tropical cyclone Sidr was expected to make landfall late Thursday… The cyclone, which began brewing Tuesday in the Bay of Bengal, was producing winds up to 140 miles per hour, and may trigger tidal surges as high as 20 feet…”

What Killed the Dinosaurs?–It Was Not Evolution, For Sure!

LifeScience wrote on November 12:

“The Age of Dinosaurs ended roughly 65 million years ago with the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which killed off all dinosaurs save those that became birds, as well as roughly half of all species on the planet, including pterosaurs. The prime suspect in this ancient murder mystery is an asteroid or comet impact, which left a vast crater at Chicxulub on the coast of Mexico.

“Another leading culprit is a series of colossal volcanic eruptions that occurred between 63 million to 67 million years ago. These created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds in India, whose original extent may have covered as much as 580,000 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers), or more than twice the area of Texas…

“Both an impact from space and volcanic eruptions would have injected vast clouds of dust and other emissions into the sky, dramatically altering global climate and triggering die-offs.”

Cloned Human Embryos?

The Independent wrote on November 12:

“A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos… It is the first time that scientists have been able to create viable cloned embryos from an adult primate – in this case a 10-year-old male rhesus macaque monkey…

“The monkey-cloning technique is the same basic procedure that resulted in Dolly the sheep. The nucleus of a healthy, unfertilised egg is removed and another nucleus from the mature skin cell of an adult animal is placed inside the egg. With careful timing and the use of electrical pulses, an embryo can be created which is a genetic clone of the skin tissue donor. It is possible to implant embryos created in this way into the womb to produce cloned animals. This so-called ‘reproductive cloning’ of humans is illegal in Britain and many other countries. However it has been applied to a range of animal species, including:

“Cow: Many domestic cattle have been successfully cloned. First attempt to clone an endangered species was Noah, a rare gaur ox, which was cloned in the US in 2001 but died 48 hours after birth.

“Mouse: Cumulina was a common brown house mouse, cloned from adult cells at the University of Hawaii in 1997. She survived to adulthood and produced two litters, before dying in May 2000.

“Horse: Called Prometea, the first cloned horse, born in Italy in May 2003.

“Cat: A kitten called CopyCat was born in 2002 in Texas, and gave birth to three kittens by a natural father in September 2006.

“Dog: Snuppy, born in South Korea. Doubts about its authenticity were dispelled by DNA tests. The group has also cloned two wolf cubs, called Snuwolf and Snuwolffy using the same procedure. Cloned Afghan hounds named Bona, Peace and Hope have also been born.”

Even though many professing Christians believe that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding on us today, and although some Biblical “scholars” quote, amongst other Scriptures, the book of Galatians as evidence for such assumptions, the Bible totally rejects and disproves such ideas.

In fact, if you are a truly converted Christian, you have received the Holy Spirit of God, dwelling in you, and through the Holy Spirit, you have received the love of God (Romans 5:5). The love of God is defined as keeping the commandments. 1 John 5:3 says: “For this IS the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Paul tells us that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Love does not do away with it; quite to the contrary, it FULFILLS or KEEPS it. Rather than thinking that the Ten Commandments have been abolished, God’s Holy Spirit in you reveals to you that they are still binding for you, and God’s love in you will motivate you to KEEP them.

One good way for a person to determine if he has really responded to his call to repentance and conversion, is to analyze and examine himself to find out whether he is willing to keep ALL of God’s Ten Commandments–including the Seventh-Day Sabbath. If a person believes that these laws are no longer required and that he is “free” to ignore or break them, then it is extremely unlikely that he is truly converted, and that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in him. If this applies to you, then you need to pray to God that He may open your understanding to the truth, REPENT of your errors and sins; ACCEPT and BELIEVE IN the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; understand that Christ DIED for YOUR transgressions of His LAW; and become baptized to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. To help you, please read our free booklets, “And Lawlessness Will Abound” and “Baptism–A Requirement for Salvation.”

Some teach and believe that you will automatically do what is right, if you have God’s Holy Spirit living within you–and that you do not need “rules” to tell you what to do. First of all, this concept is a contradiction in terms. If God’s Holy Spirit “tells” you to do what is right and how to live a “holy” life, then it tells you to keep God’s Law of the Ten Commandments, as God’s Law is “holy, just and good” (Romans 7:12). For instance, Paul explains to us in Ephesians 6:1 that it is “right” that children obey their parents, continuing that such conduct is in conformity with the “first commandment with promise” (verse 2).

Secondly, you don’t know, by yourself, what is right. In fact, God chides those who live by their own standards, doing what is right “in their own eyes” (Deuteronomy 12:8; compare Judges 17:6; 21:25). You might think, if you “love” your neighbor, you won’t do him any harm, but that is a false assumption. With that rationale, people have killed others in war; they have aborted their unborn children; they have engaged in “alternate lifestyles”; and they have committed fornication and adultery (after all, isn’t it “love” to have an “affair” with a “misunderstood” or “unloved” woman?). Without God’s love in you, you don’t really love God, either. People may think they do, but, again, they are wrong–and so, they have created idols for themselves, believing they serve God thereby; they have created their own weekly “day of worship” and their annual religious holidays; and they have trampled God’s Sabbath under foot, thinking that God does not care whether we keep it or not. Man’s “love” is a misguided counterfeit of the true love of God, which, we repeat, is DEFINED as KEEPING the commandments of GOD!

The apostle James silenced those who claim that we today do not have to keep all of God’s Ten Commandments. We read in James 2:8–12: “If you really fulfill [that is, keep] the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep [or, fulfill] the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”

James tells us that we sin if we break just one provision of the “whole” law. He makes it clear that the “law” he is talking about is, in fact, the Ten Commandments. He illustrates this point by selecting two of the Ten Commandments—the law against murder and the law against adultery. He explains to us that, if we violate even one of the Ten Commandments, we are still a “transgressor of the [entire] LAW.”

How, then, are we to understand Galatians 3?

In Galatians 3:17–19, 22, 24–25, Paul states the following: “And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator… But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in [of] Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe… Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”

Does this passage teach us that the Ten Commandments have been abolished, as some claim? Does Paul even have the Ten Commandments in mind when he talks about the “law” that “was added because of transgressions”?

In order to understand this passage properly, we must recognize that the Bible sometimes uses the word “law” for just a portion of the entire law system. We must consider the context of the particular passage in order to ascertain whether the word “law” refers to the entirety of God’s law system, or just a portion, and if just a portion, which portion. We do the same today in human affairs. We might say, “the law requires you to do this or that,” and we may be speaking about a particular provision in the Civil Code, or the Criminal Code, or some administrative law.

We learned from Galatians 3:17 and 19 that “the law” was “added” “four hundred and thirty years” after God’s covenant with Abraham. This “law” was added “because of transgressions.” We also learned in verse 22 that the Scripture confined everybody “under sin.” Sin is the transgression of the Law (1 John 3:4, Authorized Version). The physical law referred to in Galatians 3 was added because people had sinned—because they had transgressed God’s spiritual Law (Romans 7:14) of the Ten Commandments.

Paul’s use of the word “law” in the third chapter of the book of Galatians then does not relate to the Ten Commandments at all, but to an altogether different set of rules–the sacrificial law SYSTEM which was added some time after Moses had brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt (compare Jeremiah 7:21-23).

Paul uses the same language in Romans 5. A careful analysis shows that he speaks there, again, about two sets of law–the Ten Commandments and the sacrificial system which was ADDED because of sin. In Romans 5:12-14, Paul says: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin [death came through sin, because death is the penalty for sin, compare Romans 6:23], and thus death spread to ALL men, because ALL SINNED–(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. NEVERTHELESS death REIGNED from Adam to Moses…).”

Notice carefully, and don’t be deceived by those who teach falsely that the Law of the Ten Commandments has been abolished. Paul says here that ALL sinned; that all incurred the DEATH penalty BECAUSE they had sinned; and that there is no penalty if there is no law. THEREFORE, SINCE there was a death penalty, there had to be a LAW. But then, Paul says that that situation already existed before the “law” was in the world. How clear–he is talking about TWO different sets of law! The law which came into the world had to be different from the law which already existed from the time of Adam.

Paul continued in verse 20: “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” What law entered? What law was added? NOT the Law of the Ten Commandments, which was in force and effect since Adam, but the sacrificial law system which “entered” or was “added” more than 430 years after Abraham’s covenant with God.

The Bible does not contradict itself. One Scripture does not “break” or “make of no effect” another Scripture (John 10:35). A law was added because of transgressions. This law cannot be the Ten Commandments. Rather, because people had transgressed the Law of the Ten Commandments, an additional law was given to the people. Paul’s statement that the law was added because of transgression (Galatians 3:19), and that a law “entered” the world AFTER sin and death were already in the world (Romans 5:12-14, 20), refers to that part of the physical law which has to do with sacrifices and other rituals. Because the people had sinned by transgressing the spiritual LAW of the Ten Commandments, as well as those statutes and judgments which embellish those righteous commandments, ANOTHER “law” was ADDED and came into the world — the temporary physical law dealing with sacrifices and other rituals.

Professing Christians are deceived, as is the rest of the world (Revelation 12:9). If you think you are free to break God’s Law, you ARE deceived–no matter what Christian group or denomination you may claim to be a member of. “Christian” commentaries of worldly scholars add to the deception, by concocting ridiculous “explanations” in their terrible desperate attempts to contradict the clear and timeless message of Jesus Christ, which is beyond debate for those who are willing to believe and OBEY their Master. Read for yourself Christ’s words in Matthew 19:17: “But if you want to enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS.”

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

A new StandingWatch program was posted on the StandingWatch Web and on Google Video, titled, “The Origins of Britain and America, Part 4.” In the program, Norbert Link is asking the following questions:

How COULD the peoples of the United States of America and Great Britain be descendants of the ancient House of Israel? Why did prominent personalities, like the former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, believe that some of the Lost Ten Tribes ended up in Ireland? HOW did God fulfill His unconditional promise to make the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, a great nation and a company of nations, as He did NOT fulfill this promise in ancient times?

We have begun a new Internet Advertising campaign, on Google, in the USA, Canada and the UK, promoting our booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.” In the USA and Canada, we are also, at the same time, advertising our booklet, “Human Suffering–Why, and How Much Longer?,” while in the UK, we are still promoting the booklet, “America and Britain in Prophecy.”

In the USA and in the UK, the Internet ad for our Christmas booklet also offers, for the time being, three additional booklets, namely “Angels, Demons and the Spirit World,” “God’s Commanded Holy Days,” and “Jesus Christ–A Great Mystery.”

Our ad campaign in Canada for our booklet, “The Mysteries of the Bible” has ended and resulted in 118 requests (with several follow-up’s), including 76 initial requests from Canada, 36 from Nigeria, 5 from Ghana and 1 from Malaysia.

by Louise Amorelli

We have the luxury of living in today’s society, where getting in touch with loved ones is only a phone call away.   I appreciate this even more, after moving away from family and friends to another state. Establishing a long distance phone connection was one of the most important first steps in bridging that distance between us.  Keeping the lines of communication open for continuing the family bonding, as well as for emergencies, was of utmost importance. 

With the most recent California fires, bridging that gap of distance was of extreme importance with church members who lived in those pivotal areas.  My husband and I live quite a distance from church brethren and it was difficult to know exactly what to do in these emergency situations, especially with many miles between us.  We felt totally helpless when we first heard the news.  So many emotions were going on inside…fear, helplessness and discouragement. What if we could not get through…what if their phone or internet connections were not working??  Where would they go if they had to evacuate and we could not get through to them??

Needless to say, we utilized our long distance connection to the fullest during those recent California fires.  Thankfully we were able to get in touch with the brethren on a continued basis through our phone lines. But through it all, I realized that there was only ONE long distance connection that is MOST important….that is prayer!!  I knew that the most important thing I could have done was pray!   Praying would bridge that gap of mileage between us, with no interruptions! God certainly did intervene and my husband and I are ever grateful to the Eternal who heard our fervent prayers. It gave me a sense of peace, knowing that God’s method of long distance communication will never fail. 

I know that  no matter where or how far apart our families, friends or church brethren may be, the distance may be long, but the connection will ALWAYS be there…thanks to our Heavenly Father!!