Western Values Which Westerners Don’t Value
On September 16, the Ron Paul Institute republished the following article by Caitlin Johnston:
“Have you ever noticed how those who shriek the loudest about tyranny in foreign countries are always the same people calling for the censorship and deplatforming of anyone who criticizes the western empire?… Anyone — and I do mean anyone — who aggressively and consistently criticizes the foreign policy of the US and its allies in front of a sizeable audience gets branded a Russian agent by empire apologists…
“Defenders of the western empire won’t admit to wanting all empire critics silenced, but that’s what you get… Whenever I criticize the foreign policy of the western empire I get its apologists telling me I’d never be allowed to criticize my rulers like that if I lived in a nation like Russia or China, when they know full well that if it were up to them I wouldn’t be allowed to criticize the western empire here either. They are the same as the tyrants they claim to despise.
“The trouble with ‘western values’ is that westerners don’t value them… all that reverence for free expression and holding power to account with the light of truth goes right out the window the second they see someone saying something that sharply differs from what their rulers and their propagandists have told them to think. Then they want that person silenced and shut down…
“People tell me ‘Move to Russia!’ or ‘Move to China!’… and I always want to tell them, no, you move to Russia. You move to China. You’re the one trying to suppress dissent and criticism of the powerful. I’m the one who is living by western values as they were sold to me and demanding normal scrutiny of the most powerful empire that has ever existed. You don’t belong here…
“It’s obvious with a look around that the ‘western values’ we’re all told about are not actually terribly common in the west. Look at the west’s major media platforms and they virtually never platform anyone who is meaningfully critical of the real centers of power in western civilization. Look at western governments and they continually dance to the beat of oligarchy and empire regardless of how people vote in their supposedly free democratic elections. Look at the internet and it’s actually very difficult to find authentic criticisms of imperial power unless you already know where to look… It’s we marginalized outsiders who are adamantly opposing censorship, propaganda and the empire’s war on the press while continuously working to shine the light of truth on the mechanisms of power from the fringes, while we are being yelled at and accused of treason by mainstream sycophants who have far more in common with the autocrats they claim to oppose than with the western values they purport to uphold.”
Sadly, this is SO true!
The Anointing Oil for King Charles III
Express wrote on September 17:
“The anointing of a monarch is regarded as the most sacred part of the coronation – the only part which is shielded from public view, and which was not televised when the late Queen Elizabeth officially took the crown in 1953. During that section of the ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury daubs the head of the monarch with special oil, of a secret recipe that has remained the same across reigns. It is intended to mark their appointment as a religious and spiritual leader for the nation, as well as the head of the Church of England…
“John Bell and Croyden, the Queen’s pharmacy in London, holds the two samples of the oil ‘under lock and key’ at their Marylebone premises. It said it had ‘contacted the palace and are awaiting further instructions’ on the use of the oil in King Charles’ coronation. The current batch of oil was formulated using the same recipe as that which crowned King Charles I in 1626, after the oil used for her father King George VI was destroyed in the Blitz. Several bottles have been made up in the centuries between for various historical reasons, but the use of oil in anointing monarchs in the UK is believed to date back to 973, to the time of King Edgar…
“Though the exact preparation is said to be a well-kept secret [it is said that] the 1952 oil ‘consists of a mixture of sesame and olive oil, perfumed with roses, orange flowers, jasmine, cinnamon, flowers of benzoin, musk, civet and ambergris’…”
King Charles III’s coronation will or may include numerous interesting components and “accessories”… compare our new series of Q&As in this and the next issue.
Queen Victoria’s Crown
The Arlington Daily Dispatch wrote on September 9:
“… an Anglican priest who I have known for decades is searching to find out if the following anecdote — which is circulating once again, for obvious reasons — is real or fiction. It would appear that the original source was one of the queen’s chaplains, or someone close to the chaplain. Here is the reference:
“ONE of the chaplains of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, had been preaching on the Second Coming of the Lord, and afterward, in conversation with the preacher, the Queen exclaimed: ‘Oh! how I wish that the Lord would come in my lifetime!’ ‘Why,’ asked the chaplain, ‘does your Majesty feel this very earnest desire?’ The Queen replied with quivering lips, and her whole countenance lighted up by deep emotion: ‘I should so love to lay my crown at His feet.’”
This episode, if true, would be remarkable, given the fact, as is being pointed out in our new Q&As, that Queen Victoria apparently believed that she was Jewish and a direct descendant of King David, which would mean that she also believed that she was sitting on the Throne of David, and that the British crown would be transferred to Christ at His return.
The Red Heifer and the Third Temple
Israel 365 wrote on September 16:
“The Temple Institute and Boneh Israel made a huge step towards reinstating the Temple service on Thursday when five red heifers landed at Ben Gurion International Airport. The red heifer was the main component in the Biblically mandated process of ritual purification for impurity that results from proximity or contact with a dead body. Because the elements needed for this ceremony have been lacking since the destruction of the Second Temple, all Jews today are considered ritually impure, thereby preventing the return of the Temple service. The Temple Institute launched its Red Heifer program about a decade ago, led by Rabbi Azariah Ariel. But even in Temple times, an animal that fulfilled the Biblical requirements was exceedingly rare. Failing to produce a suitable candidate from ranchers in Israel, The Temple Institute began investigating alternative sources for a red heifer.
“Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, stepped in to help. Led by Byron Stinson, a native Texan, Boneh Israel understood ranchers. ‘I didn’t set out to do this, but right now, I am probably the best red heifer hunter in Texas,’ Byron quipped. ‘The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said… The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel,’ Byron said. ‘Now they need to build a Temple… The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it’s supposed to.’…
“From the time of Moses, who personally prepared the first heifer, until the destruction of the Temple, only nine red heifers were prepared. Nonetheless, this was sufficient to maintain the ritual purity of the entire nation for almost 2,000 years. According to Jewish tradition, there will only be ten red heifers in human history with the tenth heifer ushering in the Messianic era…”
Even though the Bible does NOT require the existence and sacrifice of a red heifer prior to the building of the Temple, many orthodox Jews believe in its necessity.
Blowing the Shofar and Rebuilding the Temple
Israel Today wrote on September 18:
“Three Jewish men were detained by the Jerusalem Police for questioning on Sunday after they blew a shofar outside the Temple Mount, reported TPS. They are being accused of ‘provocations’ and disturbing the peace. The three ‘offenders’ were identified as: Former Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick; Tom nisani, head of the Beyadenu… [and] Emanuel Brosh, also a leader of Beyadenu.
“All three men are activists for a return of Jewish prayer to the Temple Mount, and the eventual rebuilding of the biblical Temple. The present status quo bars Jews from expressions of faith and religion at the Temple Mount, despite it being Judaism’s holiest site.”
JNS wrote on September 18:
“The first shofar blast in the Bible is a supernatural one: at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Jews [the Israelites] are gathered and hear the sound of the shofar, presumably from the lips of God Himself… There is an etymological link between the Hebrew term for ‘shepherd,’ ro’eh, and the term we identify with shofar blasts, t’ruah….
“Leviticus proclaims the first day of the seventh month—Rosh Hashanah—yom t’ruah, a ‘day of blasts.’ On Yom Kippur, every 49 years, the Jubilee is ushered in with the sound of a ‘broken blast.’… In the Temple, priests blew shofars to mark the new moon and as part of the regular musical service of the Levites…. Even in Temple times, it was used to warn of approaching danger, mark the onset of Shabbat (before the advent of clocks) and crown a new king—a practice preserved in modern-day Israel when a new president is sworn in. And it was used in war. In the book of Judges, Gideon and his army of 300 intimidate the much more numerous Midianites with some primitive pyrotechnics accompanied by shofar blasts. Perhaps most famously, at the command of God and under the direction of Joshua, the walls of Jericho collapse at the sound of seven shofars…
“Rosh Hashanah also became the day when, with shofar blasts, the Jewish people crown God as their king… Laden with such history and significance, it’s little wonder that in modern times, the shofar became a symbol of Jewish identity and continuity, blown in Auschwitz, at the end of World War II and at the liberated Western Wall in 1967…”
Even the continued existence and blowing of the shofar keeps the Jewish desire for a third temple very much alive.
Pope Rebuked Over Liberal Abortion Views
LifeStiteNews wrote on September 16:
“Four bishops, several priests, and numerous Catholic scholars have signed a statement rebuking Pope Francis for a recent statement about the reception of Holy Communion, according to which ‘everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Re 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word.’ The Pope wrote these words in his June 29 Apostolic Letter on the liturgy… but for the signatories of this new statement… he omitted the ‘essential topic of repentance for sin for the worthy reception of the Eucharist.’… They explain:
“The Catholic Church has always taught that in order to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily and without sin, Catholics must receive sacramental absolution, if possible, for any mortal sins they may have committed and obey all other laws of the Church concerning reception of the Eucharist (as, for example, the laws concerning fasting prior to reception of the Eucharist).
“If a sacramental confession is not possible, but the reception of Holy Communion urgent (such as for a priest celebrating Mass), the Sacrament of Penance has to be sought as soon as possible afterwards, and the penitent must have perfect contrition for his mortal sins. By extensively quoting from the Council of Trent’s documents, the signatories also make it clear that such teachings as presented in Pope Francis’ document have already been condemned as heresy. ‘The claim,’ they write, ‘that faith is the only requirement for worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist was condemned by the Council of Trent as a heresy.’
“This false teaching might become more important now at this historic moment. Only in May, a U.S. Bishop – Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – publicly banned Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, from receiving Holy Communion because she is defying the Church’s teaching against abortion. ‘A Catholic legislator,’ he then wrote, ‘who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others.’
“It nearly looks as if Pope Francis’s June 2022 document is a response to that diocesan ruling, now stating that faith alone is sufficient for receiving Holy Communion….”
The disagreements and rifts within the Catholic Church about the Eucharist will not go away. The tragedy is that all sides are wrong. The Eucharist is a false concept based on a false understanding of the Passover. In addition, Revelation 19:9 has nothing to do with the issue at hand. But the controversy within the Catholic Church between liberals (led by Francis) and conservatives (looking at Benedict as their guide) continues.
Biden Declares That the COVID Pandemic Is Over. But This Means Nothing!
The New York Post wrote on September 18:
“The pandemic is essentially over, right?… It was only June when unvaccinated Canadians were finally allowed to leave the country, for reasons unclear to anyone. The vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission, so how did it make sense to keep the unvaccinated behind the frozen curtain? It didn’t. But that’s Canada. It’s completely lost the plot with COVID… America wouldn’t behave like that, right? Except we are…
“The fractured trust between Americans and our institutions will be immeasurable. And the damage continues… Studies show the vaccine’s effectiveness wears off after a few months and transmission can happen at any time. Forced compliance for the fun of it should not be health policy.
“And no, boosters don’t mean you’re any safer. In fact, the Biden administration isn’t labeling the latest shot a ‘booster’ at all. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called it a ‘new vaccine.’ You [the fully vaccinated] might find yourself back with the ‘unvaccinated’ sooner than you think…
“It’s maddening… We have won absolutely nothing with these vaccine mandates — but will have lost so much. Politicians did so many backward, horrible things in the name of safety throughout COVID. The continuing vaccine mandates are a reminder that… the harm goes on.”
The “scientific” incompetence of politicians and their medical “advisors” in their hypocritical approach towards COVID—which is sadly still going on in many parts of the world—has been appalling and terribly harmful.
USA to Defend Taiwan?
Reuters wrote on September 19:
“U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, his most explicit statement so far on the issue. Asked in a CBS 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Sunday whether U.S. forces would defend the democratically governed island claimed by China, he replied: ‘Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.’ Asked to clarify if he meant that unlike in Ukraine, U.S. forces – American men and women – would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden replied: ‘Yes.’
“The interview was just the latest time that Biden has appeared to go beyond long-standing stated U.S. policy on Taiwan, but his statement was clearer than previous ones about committing U.S. troops to the defend the island… In May, Biden was asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan and replied… ‘Yes … That’s the commitment we made.’…
“Biden’s remarks are likely to enrage Beijing, which was angered by a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi in August. That visit promoted China to conduct its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan and China has protested moves by U.S. lawmakers to advanced legislation that would enhance U.S. military support for Taiwan.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control and has not ruled out the use of force. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims… In a phone call with Biden in July, Xi warned about Taiwan, saying ‘those who play with fire will perish by it.’”
It appears that Biden is indeed willing to defend Taiwan militarily with American “boots on the ground” in case of an undefined “unprecedented attack,” even though the White House keeps denying it.
Biden “Warns” Moscow
AFP wrote on September 18:
“US President Joe Biden is warning his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the wake of serious losses in his war in Ukraine. ‘Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,’ Biden said in an excerpt from an interview with CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ that aired Friday evening… ‘You would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,’ Biden said. ‘They will become more of a pariah in the world, more than they have ever been,’ the US leader added… Moscow is facing fresh outrage from the West after the discovery of a mass grave outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izyum, where, Kyiv officials say, almost all of the exhumed bodies showed signs of torture.
“But Putin remained steadfast, saying his war against Russia’s Western-leaning neighbor was proceeding according to plan. ‘The plan is not subject to adjustment,’ Putin said Friday. ‘Our offensive operations in Donbas itself do not stop. They are going at a slow pace… The Russian army is occupying newer and newer territories.’”
These kinds of vague “warnings” are pretty meaningless.
The Threat of Nuclear War
The Spectator wrote on September 16:
“The world is facing the prospect of its first nuclear attack since the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet that horror arouses little fear or outrage… The vast mass of people don’t care to think about it… we belittle threats that terrified our parents and grandparents… Fears of radiation clouds do not panic the European public…
“The Russian ‘tactical’ weapons that could hit Ukraine are ‘delivered’ by cruise missiles fired from submarines and ships, or from land-based missile launchers…
“The bombs they carry have about 10 kilotons of destructive power. To grasp the devastation 10 kilotons can cause, the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kilotons. It killed about 70,000 people, injured another 70,000 and levelled the city for 12 square kilometres around the blast site. In our time, the explosion that destroyed much of central Beirut in 2020 was less than 1 kiloton. It still stripped steel-framed buildings of their cladding, and left 300,000 people homeless. There’s nothing tactful about tactical weapons…
“Military analysts who believe we can escape a catastrophe must downplay Russian military doctrine and how it envisages the first use of nuclear weapons in conventional wars. They tell us to wipe from our mind, too, of the jeering bullies of Russian state television who deploy threats to go nuclear against Ukraine and the wider West as a matter of course. Underlying their arguments is a belief in Putin’s rationality… Is a man who locked himself away during the pandemic rational? More pertinently does Putin see any rational difference between his interests and Russia’s interests? There’s no reason to think he does. The existential threat to his autocracy that defeat in Ukraine could bring surely appears to him to be an existential threat to Russia itself. The tsar cannot separate the two.
“In these circumstances, we cannot rule out the chance that nuclear terror will return. Neither can we do much to stop it returning. Betraying Ukraine is the only plausible way to remove the possibility of a catastrophe. If we cut off all weapons supplies and left it at Putin’s mercy, then the threat would recede…”
A complacent mankind will have a rude awakening.
Russia, China, India and Pakistan
Insider Paper wrote on September 16:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the growing influence of ‘new centres of power’ on Friday at a summit with Asian leaders including China’s Xi Jinping. ‘The growing role of new centres of power who cooperate with each other… is becoming more and more clear,’ Putin told the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan…
“The summit has brought together Putin and Xi with the leaders of several Asian countries including India and Pakistan, as Russia looks to show it has not been fully isolated by the conflict in Ukraine.”
In a related article, Insider Paper wrote on September 15:
“A Russian pipeline to China will replace the Nord Stream 2 gas link to Europe, abandoned amid the Ukraine conflict, Moscow’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday… Earlier in the day, the minister, on the sidelines of a visit to Uzbekistan, said Russia and China would soon sign agreements on the delivery of ‘50 billion cubic metres of gas’ per year via the future Force 2 pipeline in Siberia. This volume will almost represent the maximum capacity of Nord Stream 1 — 55 billion cubic metres in total — which has been shut down since September 2…
“Construction is due to start in 2024… Russian gas exports to the EU ‘will drop by around 50 billion cubic metres’ in 2022, Novak said.”
Far Eastern nations are forming to become a new power bloc—the biblical “kings of the East.”
SCO Meets Again
The Jerusalem Post wrote on September 17:
“[The] Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] brought together countries that are close partners of Russia and China… [including Iran and Turkey.]”
Turkey said that it wants to become a member of SCO. While Turkey will ultimately lean more towards Europe than Russia, Iran and other Central Asian countries (all being part of the SCO) might continue to align more strongly with China and Russia. SCO members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Germany to Become Best-Equipped Force in Europe
Deutsche Welle wrote on September 16:
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday once more stressed… the importance of Germany’s armed forces in the new situation. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to redraw borders with the aim of making Russia an ‘imperial power’ in Europe once more…
“Scholz said Germany had to get used to the fact that Putin’s Russia will define itself as an adversary to it, to NATO and the EU for the foreseeable future. He said that in view of the situation, Germany’s military force must become Europe’s best-equipped. ‘We are making it convincingly clear: Germany is ready to take on leading responsibility for the security of our continent,’ he said. ‘As the most populous country with the greatest economic power and as a country in the middle of the continent, our army must become the cornerstone of conventional defence in Europe: the best-equipped force in Europe,’ he added… ‘The core task of the Bundeswehr is to defend freedom in Europe,’ he said, adding that all other jobs had to take a secondary role…”
As we reported in our last Update, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had already said she believed Germany was obliged to play a leading global role, including in the military sphere, and that the country should not be afraid of its responsibility.
Even though the words of Scholz, as such, are pretty meaningless, since he is always wavering and speaking out of both sides of his mouth, the approach is interesting, as he is being pushed to say and echo these words which WILL come true in due time… but not under Scholz and the present Ample coalition, which is a laughing stock and doomed to fall apart.
Germany Wants Weapons From Israel
Israel 365 wrote on September 14:
“Already in early April, reports began surfacing that Berlin is interested in purchasing Israeli-made air- and missile-defense systems, in addition to unmanned aerial vehicles… Monday’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin yielded significant clues that a major defense deal is in the works (according to Bloomberg, the cost could be around $2 billion)…
“Germany seems keen to prioritize air defense against Russian missile threats after the latter fired thousands of cruise missiles and an unknown but likely smaller number of ballistic missiles at Ukraine… The Arrow-3 system features advanced radar that constantly scans for threats, and when it detects them, it tracks and dispatches interceptors into the air over a very large area.
“The likely German purchase fits into a larger pattern of growing European defense acquisitions from Israel… Europe as a region is already the leading importer of Israeli defense technology, accounting for 41% of sales in 2021 out of a total of $11.3 billion… The trade will be two-way; Germany is supplying Israel’s most expensive and strategically important platform, the existing Dolphin and future Dakar submarines… These sales reflect extensive, mutual and strategic cooperation on defense, with the Arrow-3 representing a dramatic Israeli export to a Europe that has been permanently changed by Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
The tragedy is that ultimately, Europe will use those Israeli weapons against Israel.
The DOJ’s and the FBI’s Persecution of Trump Supporters
Zero Hedge wrote on September 13:
“Prominent Trump supporter and 2020 election integrity skeptic [MyPillow CEO] Mike Lindell says he was stopped by the FBI Tuesday and had his cell phone seized. While heading home from a hunting trip with a friend, Lindell said he was at a Hardees in Minnesota when ‘cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us and behind us, and I said “they’re either bad guys or the FBI”’…Well, it turns out they were the FBI. ‘I can’t even imagine that you can take someone’s phone because they want me to be a witness in the Tina Peters case. But I’m not a witness, they just want my phone.’
“Lindell is the latest Trump ally to receive a warrant or subpoena by the FBI. Last week, the Biden DOJ hit dozens of Trump aides and allies with subpoenas as part of their investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US election over claims of fraud that handed Joe Biden the White House, as well as the run up to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Interesting how the Biden DOJ waited more than 18 months – right before midterms – to initiate legal action against Trumpworld. And Biden said he wouldn’t weaponize the Justice Department.”
Newsmax wrote on September 14:
“Trump blasted the FBI through his Truth Social page for questioning Lindell, commenting that he was ‘just raided by the FBI. We are now officially living in a Weaponized Police State, Rigged Elections, and all. Our Country is a laughing stock all over the World. The majesty of the United States is gone…’”
It sure is.
Acknowledgement and Disclaimer
These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.
