Gerald Flurry, Pastor General of the Philadelphia Church of God:
If you truly saw what is coming on this Earth, and had a vision of tomorrow, you would know that the Gathering Storm darkens as you sip champagne and boast that you're rich and in need of nothing, woefully ignorant that the Two Witnesses will soon be wearing sackcloth and fasting, not wining and dining at black tie dinners!
You've proven you've lost the zeal you once expressed, now exposing your dangerous attitude of "my Lord delays His coming" and you find time to build vain structures and name them after men that will soon be left in ruins, abandoned, desolate like our Israelite countries who carry on business as usual when these are not normal times and our days are numbered!
Gerald Flurry, you will be held accountable for all the time and money wasted, tithes that should have gone toward warning the nations that the German BEAST is about to devour, and the EU jackboot to stomp Jerusalem and occupy Israel and pollute the Temple. Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall was made available to you for God's Church to mightily use to get this Word out.
God meant for you to raise up the Work of WARNING - to sound the alarm, to blow the trumpet - not to get fat and lazy and listen to music and fiddle while the world is about to burn! (Amos 6:1-8). This is the prophesied work of restoration: preserving and promoting the plain truth - not pretty buildings and outdated thinking! That era is over!
You're the leader of Laodicea and you further prove it. You're looking backwards towards an administration GOD destroyed and a campus that GOD left in ruins. Is God impressed with your buildings? Is God impressed with your ratings when the average man on the street has never heard of you and remains oblivious to the warning message? His blood will be on your head!
If you were looking forward, if you had a frightening vision of tomorrow, you would launch an ad campaign in major newspapers to warn them about the fascist Europe, and warn them in such a way that each ad is sufficient warning if it's the only one they read. But they would read and debate and argue about it - a national debate and an international controversy - if you would seek God's glory and not a man's - whether your own or Herbert Armstrong's.
Jeremiah 45:4-5
4 The LORD said, "Say this to him: 'This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the land. 5 Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD....' "
Zephaniah 1:14-18
14 The great day of the LORD is near;
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter;
There the mighty men shall cry out.
15 That day is a day of wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of devastation and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of trumpet and alarm
Against the fortified cities
And against the high towers.
17 “ I will bring distress upon men,
And they shall walk like blind men,
Because they have sinned against the LORD;
Their blood shall be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like refuse.”
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
Shall be able to deliver them
In the day of the LORD’s wrath;
But the whole land shall be devoured
By the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make speedy riddance
Of all those who dwell in the land.
For Zion's sake,
David Ben-Ariel
Monday, January 30, 2006
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
I first met Elder Mordakhai Joseph in Jerusalem during my first Feast of Tabernacles in 1980. Later, when I attended Sukkot/Tabernacles again with the Worldwide Church of God in 1982 in Jerusalem, I stayed on as a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan near Haifa for five more months. Right next door in Kiryat Ata was where our only member in Israel, Simcha Gombo lived with her deaf daughter, Michal.
During my initial search for Simcha's home on Hannah Senesh Street, I "just happened" to ask directions from a young Israeli reporter who helped me to find her place. Once there he started talking with her and revealed he was a reporter and wanted to write an article about her, since he found our beliefs fascinating, since sitting and listening to us talk. He was graciously waiting to help me find my way back to the kibbutz. She told him to write about me.
Ilan Itzhayek wrote a full length article that was published in the entire Galilee region. It was about my former drug addiction, wandering in different religions looking for the truth, and how by a series of miracles God brought me into the Worldwide Church of God, mentioning some of our beliefs about Europe, and how we considered Herbert W. Armstrong in the spirit of Elijah.
I was later interviewed by the local high school principal and Bible teacher about our beliefs, especially why we keep the Jewish holy days and believe we are Israelites. (I've since discovered Brit-Am Israel, a Jewish organization, also teaches the Israelite origins of the West).
That same article was posted at the kibbutz in the communal dining room for all to see and read and led to an invitation for me to speak against drugs. I resisted, feeling most people have to learn for themselves, but when Ofrah, the volunteer leader, persisted saying perhaps it could help someone, I relented on the condition I could give God the glory and mention Him as the reason for my deliverance. She agreed and I spoke to over twenty young people from all over the world and mentioned how we're all missing something and try to fill it with this and that and only God and His Holy Spirit are the answer.
When Richard Frankel, a minister who used to live in Israel and served as the regular Feast coordinator for the Middle East, found out that this little ol' "shepherd boy" in the field was "making waves," he basically demanded that I return to America since he "trusts that God will get His message to the Jews through His apostle..." and how Mr. Armstrong had carefully built bridges with Israel over the years. (Acts 7:25, 35 flashed through my mind). He said in no way was Ilan (the reporter) to consider himself a spokesman for the Church or me a representative of it! (The Worldwide Church of God always taught we are representatives of God's Church and Kingdom).
I wondered why Mr. Frankel didn't trust God to see that nothing could be done to undermine those bridges that God through Mr. Armstrong had built, besides Mr. Armstrong NEVER went to the average Israeli but only addressed leaders in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, I complied.
However, another article had been sent out by Ilan for possible publication that I did receive permission from Mr. Armstrong through Aaron Dean to go ahead with it. Obviously, Mr. Armstrong didn't feel threatened! Mr. Richard Paige, then in charge of the Ambassador College digs in Jerusalem, met Ilan and I in Haifa for a pleasant visit, during his trip to make arrangements for the next archaeological dig. I humbly presented him with some grapefruits I had picked from our kibbutz orchard. He said he loves grapefruit and later reported they were the best!
I wanted to return to Israel to live, fulfilling a goal I had to live all over Israel, study Hebrew, learn the culture, etc., (which I've since done) but Mr. Frankel's influence required that I wait until I could have a minister over there to "supervise" my activities. (God had supervised them very well, thank you!).
When Raymond Clore, a Consul General for the US was assigned by our government to work over there for four years (and with whom I briefly corresponded), I appealed to Headquarters again to move over there and was denied permission because they hadn't sent Mr. Clore - the US government had! So I encountered petty politics from ministers I permitted to have power over my personal life. A local elder questioned whether they were setting an unusual precedent with me in deciding where a member can live!
During that time, Mr. George Kackos (Toledo, Ohio's wonderful minister, who was on the refresher program at Ambassador College) and Mordakhai Joseph both encountered the attitude that "we don't need him, we have plenty of AC students to send if we want." In fact, a female Ambassador College graduate from Oregon, Sylvia Owens (top of her class Mr. Paige informed me), was permitted to stay and live in Jerusalem (whom Ilan and I had arranged to meet and visited the Biblical Zoo with)!
Mark Joseph encouraged me that Jesus' disciples also tried to stop someone from casting out demons in Jesus' name because he wasn't of their clique. He was later basically told to stay out of this situation! I still remember him fondly and what correspondence we've shared and wish him all the best with his new book on the Middle East. Meanwhile, I yearn to return to Zion.
During my initial search for Simcha's home on Hannah Senesh Street, I "just happened" to ask directions from a young Israeli reporter who helped me to find her place. Once there he started talking with her and revealed he was a reporter and wanted to write an article about her, since he found our beliefs fascinating, since sitting and listening to us talk. He was graciously waiting to help me find my way back to the kibbutz. She told him to write about me.
Ilan Itzhayek wrote a full length article that was published in the entire Galilee region. It was about my former drug addiction, wandering in different religions looking for the truth, and how by a series of miracles God brought me into the Worldwide Church of God, mentioning some of our beliefs about Europe, and how we considered Herbert W. Armstrong in the spirit of Elijah.
I was later interviewed by the local high school principal and Bible teacher about our beliefs, especially why we keep the Jewish holy days and believe we are Israelites. (I've since discovered Brit-Am Israel, a Jewish organization, also teaches the Israelite origins of the West).
That same article was posted at the kibbutz in the communal dining room for all to see and read and led to an invitation for me to speak against drugs. I resisted, feeling most people have to learn for themselves, but when Ofrah, the volunteer leader, persisted saying perhaps it could help someone, I relented on the condition I could give God the glory and mention Him as the reason for my deliverance. She agreed and I spoke to over twenty young people from all over the world and mentioned how we're all missing something and try to fill it with this and that and only God and His Holy Spirit are the answer.
When Richard Frankel, a minister who used to live in Israel and served as the regular Feast coordinator for the Middle East, found out that this little ol' "shepherd boy" in the field was "making waves," he basically demanded that I return to America since he "trusts that God will get His message to the Jews through His apostle..." and how Mr. Armstrong had carefully built bridges with Israel over the years. (Acts 7:25, 35 flashed through my mind). He said in no way was Ilan (the reporter) to consider himself a spokesman for the Church or me a representative of it! (The Worldwide Church of God always taught we are representatives of God's Church and Kingdom).
I wondered why Mr. Frankel didn't trust God to see that nothing could be done to undermine those bridges that God through Mr. Armstrong had built, besides Mr. Armstrong NEVER went to the average Israeli but only addressed leaders in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, I complied.
However, another article had been sent out by Ilan for possible publication that I did receive permission from Mr. Armstrong through Aaron Dean to go ahead with it. Obviously, Mr. Armstrong didn't feel threatened! Mr. Richard Paige, then in charge of the Ambassador College digs in Jerusalem, met Ilan and I in Haifa for a pleasant visit, during his trip to make arrangements for the next archaeological dig. I humbly presented him with some grapefruits I had picked from our kibbutz orchard. He said he loves grapefruit and later reported they were the best!
I wanted to return to Israel to live, fulfilling a goal I had to live all over Israel, study Hebrew, learn the culture, etc., (which I've since done) but Mr. Frankel's influence required that I wait until I could have a minister over there to "supervise" my activities. (God had supervised them very well, thank you!).
When Raymond Clore, a Consul General for the US was assigned by our government to work over there for four years (and with whom I briefly corresponded), I appealed to Headquarters again to move over there and was denied permission because they hadn't sent Mr. Clore - the US government had! So I encountered petty politics from ministers I permitted to have power over my personal life. A local elder questioned whether they were setting an unusual precedent with me in deciding where a member can live!
During that time, Mr. George Kackos (Toledo, Ohio's wonderful minister, who was on the refresher program at Ambassador College) and Mordakhai Joseph both encountered the attitude that "we don't need him, we have plenty of AC students to send if we want." In fact, a female Ambassador College graduate from Oregon, Sylvia Owens (top of her class Mr. Paige informed me), was permitted to stay and live in Jerusalem (whom Ilan and I had arranged to meet and visited the Biblical Zoo with)!
Mark Joseph encouraged me that Jesus' disciples also tried to stop someone from casting out demons in Jesus' name because he wasn't of their clique. He was later basically told to stay out of this situation! I still remember him fondly and what correspondence we've shared and wish him all the best with his new book on the Middle East. Meanwhile, I yearn to return to Zion.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The Oracles of God
Just what do you mean "the oracles of God?" And is the sacred calendar a part of them? There are only four places in the New Testament that speak of the oracles of God:
Acts 7:38 reveals that Moses received "the lively oracles to give unto us."
Rom. 3:2 states, without apology, that "the oracles of God" were COMMITTED TO THE JEWS.
Heb. 5:12 speaks of "the first principles of the oracles of God" and 1 Pet. 4:11 states that those whom God has gifted to speak should "speak as the oracles of God."
All of these examples use the Greek word logion (Strong's Concordance #3051) that means an utterance-oracle. That word comes from logios (#3052) that means an orator-eloquent. And that word comes from logos (#3056), which means something said (including the thought); a topic; the word. The words, thoughts and topics of God given to the Jews (to PRESERVE for all mankind) includes "the covenants, the law, the service of God, the promises," among many other things (Rom. 9:4).
How can we properly serve God without knowing His plan of salvation as revealed through His holy days? And how can we know the CORRECT DATES to observe the holy days without a SACRED CALENDAR? Besides, what other purpose is there for a calendar? (Gen. 1:14; Ex. 12:2).
WHO has preserved this knowledge? The Asians? Maybe the Greeks? How about the Africans? No! Only the JEWS have kept God's sacred calendar and made us aware of it and God's holy days! Without the Jews faithfully fulfilling their commission to preserve this knowledge we would've been left in the dark! (Hos. 11:12). But GOD IS FAITHFUL who has left us a witness in every generation.
But what if some Jews weren't faithful? What if different Jewish groups were divided on these holy issues? Let God's Word answer: "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yes, LET GOD BE TRUE, but every man a liar..."(Rom. 3:3). God is quite capable of seeing that His light will shine through doctrinal darkness. After all, GOD'S WORD IS AT STAKE! Let's not limit the Holy One of Israel!
God's empowered the Jews - despite themselves - to preserve His Word. They are the only people on earth that God has blessed and ordained to fulfill such a calling! God will not retract His Word or renege on this gift and responsibility that He's graciously bestowed upon Judah! (Gen. 49:10, Rom. 11:29; Num. 23:19).
In Jesus' day there were different Jewish groups at odds with each other (like Christianity today), and Christ often publicly corrected them where they were wrong. He's done the same to His Church throughout the ages, pointing out our strengths and weaknesses (Rev. 2; 3). But Jesus clearly revealed WHICH Jewish group had GOD'S SEAL OF APPROVAL! Only the PHARISEES - of all the various splinter groups - had received the GOD-GIVEN AUTHORITY to keep/preserve/retain and teach "the oracles of God."
The apostle Paul also stood with the Pharisees against the other sects (Acts 23:6). Will we accept God's Word on this subject or resist change? Are we any better than our forefathers who clung to their vain traditions? (Acts 7:51; Mark 7:7). We condemn ourselves and our religion when we refuse to be corrected and prefer to remain comfortable in our pews! How proud (Sodom) and stubborn (Egypt)! (John 3:20; Amos 6:1; Rev. 11:8).
Jesus didn't stutter when He taught that "the scribes and PHARISEES sit in Moses' seat" (Matt. 23:2). Even so, Jesus went on to rebuke certain attitudes and practices that weren't consistent with the Scriptures, but He didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater since He testified that "salvation is of the Jews!" (John 3:22).
God made sure that the PHARISEES' biblical traditions would survive and prevail. However, the faulty teachings of the Sadducees and Samaritans (whose blind dates for Passover and Pentecost many in God's Church shamefully follow) are history!
Today the Jewish nation of Israel follows the correct holy dates as established by the Pharisees. They don't have any question or controversy over it. On this holy topic they all "speak the same thing." And, thankfully, bold members of God's Church are beginning to see the light on this subject and are accepting God's correction and opportunity to change.
May we embrace the "oracles of God" and overcome the obstacles of men! (Luke 11:52).
Acts 7:38 reveals that Moses received "the lively oracles to give unto us."
Rom. 3:2 states, without apology, that "the oracles of God" were COMMITTED TO THE JEWS.
Heb. 5:12 speaks of "the first principles of the oracles of God" and 1 Pet. 4:11 states that those whom God has gifted to speak should "speak as the oracles of God."
All of these examples use the Greek word logion (Strong's Concordance #3051) that means an utterance-oracle. That word comes from logios (#3052) that means an orator-eloquent. And that word comes from logos (#3056), which means something said (including the thought); a topic; the word. The words, thoughts and topics of God given to the Jews (to PRESERVE for all mankind) includes "the covenants, the law, the service of God, the promises," among many other things (Rom. 9:4).
How can we properly serve God without knowing His plan of salvation as revealed through His holy days? And how can we know the CORRECT DATES to observe the holy days without a SACRED CALENDAR? Besides, what other purpose is there for a calendar? (Gen. 1:14; Ex. 12:2).
WHO has preserved this knowledge? The Asians? Maybe the Greeks? How about the Africans? No! Only the JEWS have kept God's sacred calendar and made us aware of it and God's holy days! Without the Jews faithfully fulfilling their commission to preserve this knowledge we would've been left in the dark! (Hos. 11:12). But GOD IS FAITHFUL who has left us a witness in every generation.
But what if some Jews weren't faithful? What if different Jewish groups were divided on these holy issues? Let God's Word answer: "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yes, LET GOD BE TRUE, but every man a liar..."(Rom. 3:3). God is quite capable of seeing that His light will shine through doctrinal darkness. After all, GOD'S WORD IS AT STAKE! Let's not limit the Holy One of Israel!
God's empowered the Jews - despite themselves - to preserve His Word. They are the only people on earth that God has blessed and ordained to fulfill such a calling! God will not retract His Word or renege on this gift and responsibility that He's graciously bestowed upon Judah! (Gen. 49:10, Rom. 11:29; Num. 23:19).
In Jesus' day there were different Jewish groups at odds with each other (like Christianity today), and Christ often publicly corrected them where they were wrong. He's done the same to His Church throughout the ages, pointing out our strengths and weaknesses (Rev. 2; 3). But Jesus clearly revealed WHICH Jewish group had GOD'S SEAL OF APPROVAL! Only the PHARISEES - of all the various splinter groups - had received the GOD-GIVEN AUTHORITY to keep/preserve/retain and teach "the oracles of God."
The apostle Paul also stood with the Pharisees against the other sects (Acts 23:6). Will we accept God's Word on this subject or resist change? Are we any better than our forefathers who clung to their vain traditions? (Acts 7:51; Mark 7:7). We condemn ourselves and our religion when we refuse to be corrected and prefer to remain comfortable in our pews! How proud (Sodom) and stubborn (Egypt)! (John 3:20; Amos 6:1; Rev. 11:8).
Jesus didn't stutter when He taught that "the scribes and PHARISEES sit in Moses' seat" (Matt. 23:2). Even so, Jesus went on to rebuke certain attitudes and practices that weren't consistent with the Scriptures, but He didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater since He testified that "salvation is of the Jews!" (John 3:22).
God made sure that the PHARISEES' biblical traditions would survive and prevail. However, the faulty teachings of the Sadducees and Samaritans (whose blind dates for Passover and Pentecost many in God's Church shamefully follow) are history!
Today the Jewish nation of Israel follows the correct holy dates as established by the Pharisees. They don't have any question or controversy over it. On this holy topic they all "speak the same thing." And, thankfully, bold members of God's Church are beginning to see the light on this subject and are accepting God's correction and opportunity to change.
May we embrace the "oracles of God" and overcome the obstacles of men! (Luke 11:52).
Raymond McNair rejects God's government
I preface my comments by giving credit where credit is due, showing a great love and appreciation for Raymond F. McNair being blessed to serve as one of the pioneers of the Worldwide Church of God and to serve in such an active and important role in the holy Work of fulfilling the Great Commission under God's apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong, blessing thousands of brethren over the years. I want this on record since he is an elder and deserving of biblical respect, while I respectfully and strongly disagree with him on the sacred calendar, as a brother in the Lord.
I am very happy to see Raymond McNair acknowledge the Jews have a God-given authority to include postponements in the sacred calendar. Some Church of God members reject this plain truth and go off the deep end, creating their own calendars in the confusion of a spiritual anarchy, a Laodicean everybody-decide-for-himself wrong attitude.
I am grieved to see Raymond McNair assume it's the Sadducees God's Church should submit to on these matters, rather than the Pharisees whom Christ clearly supported on these biblical issues of the sacred calendar.
Quotes from Raymond F. McNair's article, WHAT ARE THE "POSTPONEMENTS"? --
Modern Jews don't observe Pentecost (Shavout) on a Sunday. Instead they observe it on Sivan 6. However the early New Testament Church of God (like the Sadducees) followed the biblical command to observe Pentecost by counting 50 days from the Sunday (the "morrow after the Sabbath") that occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This means that when Pentecost is counted correctly, it always falls on a Sunday-thus creating tandem Sabbaths.
Furthermore, no biblical or historical sources indicate that Christ and His apostles had any calendar disputes with the Jews (the Sadducees were then in control of the calendar and the Temple ritual until a short time before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D!) regarding the calendar that they were using in New Testament times.
What a crying shame that Raymond McNair refuses to submit to the government of God and hear the Voice of the Shepherd who clearly stated THE PHARISEES SIT IN MOSES' SEAT - not the blind Sadducees that some Church members continue to blindly follow. God has restored this truth to His Church, and some have repented of their vain Church traditions, choosing to get back on track like the early Church that followed the correct calculations of the Pharisees, like the Apostle Paul.
For Zion's sake,
David Ben-Ariel
Jewish Holidays are Biblical Festivals for God's Church!
Did God authorize Herbert W. Armstrong to determine when the holy days are to be kept? Did Jesus Christ reject the Jews and decide God's Church would now be the custodian of His sacred calendar?
The Pharisees
Who isn't aware of the sins of the Pharisees? Did Jesus have nothing but condemnation for them? You might be surprised.
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
Why do we differ on dates for Passover and Pentecost? Is it because our Father God left us in the dark? Has the God of law and order left us in chaos and confusion? Are we unable to "prove all things" from the Scriptures?
I am very happy to see Raymond McNair acknowledge the Jews have a God-given authority to include postponements in the sacred calendar. Some Church of God members reject this plain truth and go off the deep end, creating their own calendars in the confusion of a spiritual anarchy, a Laodicean everybody-decide-for-himself wrong attitude.
I am grieved to see Raymond McNair assume it's the Sadducees God's Church should submit to on these matters, rather than the Pharisees whom Christ clearly supported on these biblical issues of the sacred calendar.
Quotes from Raymond F. McNair's article, WHAT ARE THE "POSTPONEMENTS"? --
Modern Jews don't observe Pentecost (Shavout) on a Sunday. Instead they observe it on Sivan 6. However the early New Testament Church of God (like the Sadducees) followed the biblical command to observe Pentecost by counting 50 days from the Sunday (the "morrow after the Sabbath") that occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This means that when Pentecost is counted correctly, it always falls on a Sunday-thus creating tandem Sabbaths.
Furthermore, no biblical or historical sources indicate that Christ and His apostles had any calendar disputes with the Jews (the Sadducees were then in control of the calendar and the Temple ritual until a short time before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D!) regarding the calendar that they were using in New Testament times.
What a crying shame that Raymond McNair refuses to submit to the government of God and hear the Voice of the Shepherd who clearly stated THE PHARISEES SIT IN MOSES' SEAT - not the blind Sadducees that some Church members continue to blindly follow. God has restored this truth to His Church, and some have repented of their vain Church traditions, choosing to get back on track like the early Church that followed the correct calculations of the Pharisees, like the Apostle Paul.
For Zion's sake,
David Ben-Ariel
Jewish Holidays are Biblical Festivals for God's Church!
Did God authorize Herbert W. Armstrong to determine when the holy days are to be kept? Did Jesus Christ reject the Jews and decide God's Church would now be the custodian of His sacred calendar?
The Pharisees
Who isn't aware of the sins of the Pharisees? Did Jesus have nothing but condemnation for them? You might be surprised.
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
Why do we differ on dates for Passover and Pentecost? Is it because our Father God left us in the dark? Has the God of law and order left us in chaos and confusion? Are we unable to "prove all things" from the Scriptures?
The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy
Where does the United States of America appear in Bible prophecy? Does Bible prophecy neglect to mention major nations such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom?
In fact, many prophecies do mention these nations. But without an understanding of history and the Scriptures, few can identify them and understand what lies ahead of them.
This featured booklet will take you on a remarkable journey through history and Bible prophecy to reveal an incredible story with sobering implications for the major English-speaking nations.
Request this FREE booklet
In fact, many prophecies do mention these nations. But without an understanding of history and the Scriptures, few can identify them and understand what lies ahead of them.
This featured booklet will take you on a remarkable journey through history and Bible prophecy to reveal an incredible story with sobering implications for the major English-speaking nations.
Request this FREE booklet
Friday, January 27, 2006
Herbert Armstrong: He Was Right
Herbert Armstrong: He Was Right
By Mark Jenkins
June 2005
A look back at the prescient warnings of a lesser-known spiritual leader
From the very start of his work, when the Church was called the Radio Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong realized in his study of the Bible that he must warn about a coming religiously dominated European superpower just before the return of Jesus Christ to Earth.
In a July 24, 1983, letter he wrote, “The very first issue of the Plain Truth magazine appeared February 1934—just 50 years ago lacking about six months. The article starting on the cover page warned of a coming sudden appearance of a resurrected ‘Holy Roman Empire’ in Europe—a union of 10 nations in Europe under one government, with one united military force. For 50 years I have been crying out to the world the Bible prophecies of this coming ‘United States of Europe’—a new united superpower perhaps more powerful than either the Soviet Union or the United States!”
That warning continued, unabated, right up to Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986.
Knowing that the Bible prophesied a final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, Mr. Armstrong took special care to watch those men who were critical to the planning and formation of the European Union. In the late 1970s, he identified a man we should watch carefully: John Paul II. The appointment of a Polish pope—the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years—was like an electric jolt to the entire world, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. It was clear to Mr. Armstrong that the return of Jesus Christ was drawing near and that this pope, more than any before him, was setting the stage for the most climactic time in history and preparing the Roman Catholic Church for its role in end-time events.
From our perspective, another man deserves careful scrutiny as well: Herbert Armstrong. The prophecies we often write about—the coming together of the European superpower, the growing alliance between Russia and China, the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ—were covered by him for over 50 years before the Trumpet even existed. Our prophetic understanding is grounded in his work. His instructions to watch the pope as we lead up to the return of Jesus Christ provided an education that far excels that of any news commentator.
Today, both John Paul and Herbert Armstrong are dead, but the actions they took have prepared the way for the prophetic fulfillment of the return of Christ. By reviewing these actions—and Mr. Armstrong’s comments on Bible prophecy during that critical period—we can see exactly how right Mr. Armstrong was to watch the pope.
John Paul II
Karol Wojtyla prepared the way for Europe’s unification, east with west. Read Mr. Armstrong’s comments on this pope’s first trip to Poland, in 1979, and the eventual outcome: “Many of … Pope John Paul ii’s activities point to the fact that he can be the pope that will initiate this European reunion, in a ‘United States of Europe.’ As a matter of fact, his having come from Poland, and the effect of his visit there, indicate that instead of the coming ‘resurrected’ Holy Roman Empire including such nations of Israelitish ancestry as Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the 10 nations to compose it may include such nations—now Russian satellites—as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. The latter two are long since, to a considerable degree, independent of the Kremlin. The Soviet Union may soon experience a breakaway of some of the Balkan satellite nations. It does seem that the nations of Israelitish ancestry, in western and northwestern Europe, would likely be excluded from the coming 10-nation ‘Roman Empire’” (co-worker letter, Sept. 20, 1979).
In 2004, just as Mr. Armstrong foretold, eight former Eastern bloc countries were admitted to the European Union—including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. Romania and Croatia are currently in the application process. As Mr. Armstrong stated, John Paul ii precipitated the unification of Eastern Europe with its western counterpart.
The pope also started Europe down the path to religious unification. Mr. Armstrong often talked about how a united Catholic Church would drive Europe, even over the objection of its political leadership. “Bible prophecy says this European unification will be also a union of church and state (Revelation 17). Many European political leaders do not want religious domination, or even participation. But they are coming to realize they cannot be welded together into one great European supernation without the unifying power of the Catholic Church” (member and coworker letter, Nov. 22, 1982).
John Paul II made a habit of being “the first pope ever” to visit certain areas, and his reasons were no secret. He wanted to heal the breach in Europe between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches—a split rooted in a dispute over the infallibility of the pope that goes all the way back to the ninth century. Mr. Armstrong made reference to this dispute: “The Catholic Church is divided between the Roman Catholic Church in the west and the Greek Orthodox Church in the east. The latter has strenuously objected to supremacy of the pope and to the doctrine of papal infallibility. But on this trip we learned in Athens that the Eastern Orthodox church at last is willing to give in on papal leadership, though not yet in agreement on infallibility. I feel sure some compromise or agreement will be reached very soon” (ibid.).
John Paul II spent the rest of his life trying to bring the daughter churches back into the fold. In a May 25, 1995, address, “That They May Be One,” he stated, “How can unity be restored after almost a thousand years? This is the great task which the Catholic Church must accomplish, a task equally incumbent on the Orthodox Church.” But while his life was spent working toward the unity of the Catholic Church, his death was the single greatest catalyst toward achieving that goal. Look at how John Paul’s funeral, the greatest media event in history, brought the world together. Mr. Armstrong’s statements on Catholic unity are right on the verge of coming to pass (see “Returning to the Fold” on page 18). Any actions Pope Benedict xvi will take toward further reconciliation with Protestant and Orthodox religions were made possible by John Paul II.
He Was Right
And yet, on occasion, someone will point out that Mr. Armstrong was not always correct in stating how quickly prophecy might unfold. Remember though, the Apostle Paul believed he would be caught up in the air at Christ’s return as one of “we which are alive” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). When the Apostle John said, “It is the last time [hour],” he truly believed that Jesus Christ was returning shortly. These men, obviously faithful servants of God, were off in their timing by almost 2,000 years.
When the Great Tribulation comes before the return of Jesus Christ, no one will think about the timing of Mr. Armstrong’s comments. They will remember that everything he said came to pass exactly as he said it would in 1934, as well as the words the apostles Paul and John penned so long ago.
How far away does a European superpower seem now? With a Europe-focused conservative new pope, a phenomenon the Trumpet has continually warned we should expect at this time, how probable does it seem that the European superpower will take its final form speedily?
This is not the time to say, as Christ warned against in Matthew 24:48, “My Lord delayeth His coming!”
Far from being wrong in his prophetic statements, Mr. Armstrong has been proven right again and again. He saw the formation of the European superpower on the horizon before anyone else did. He pointed out, decades in advance, that John Paul could be the pope to initiate the reunion of east and west in Europe. In the midst of the Cold War, the headline “Why Russia Will not Attack America!” only ran in one magazine: the Plain Truth. His analysis of world events was consistently decades ahead of those around him. For far more proof of this, please request a copy of our sample Trumpet edition titled “He Was Right,” which illustrates this fact in detail.
Before Jesus Christ came to Earth the first time, John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way. Now, a man in this modern age has prepared the way for Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, which will have a far more dramatic outcome for everyone alive—in fact, for everyone who has ever lived. The announcement given during Christ’s first coming of the good news of His coming Kingdom is about to be realized! And, just as prophesied in Malachi 4:5, the world has been prepared before the coming of that “great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
By Mark Jenkins
June 2005
A look back at the prescient warnings of a lesser-known spiritual leader
From the very start of his work, when the Church was called the Radio Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong realized in his study of the Bible that he must warn about a coming religiously dominated European superpower just before the return of Jesus Christ to Earth.
In a July 24, 1983, letter he wrote, “The very first issue of the Plain Truth magazine appeared February 1934—just 50 years ago lacking about six months. The article starting on the cover page warned of a coming sudden appearance of a resurrected ‘Holy Roman Empire’ in Europe—a union of 10 nations in Europe under one government, with one united military force. For 50 years I have been crying out to the world the Bible prophecies of this coming ‘United States of Europe’—a new united superpower perhaps more powerful than either the Soviet Union or the United States!”
That warning continued, unabated, right up to Mr. Armstrong’s death in 1986.
Knowing that the Bible prophesied a final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, Mr. Armstrong took special care to watch those men who were critical to the planning and formation of the European Union. In the late 1970s, he identified a man we should watch carefully: John Paul II. The appointment of a Polish pope—the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years—was like an electric jolt to the entire world, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. It was clear to Mr. Armstrong that the return of Jesus Christ was drawing near and that this pope, more than any before him, was setting the stage for the most climactic time in history and preparing the Roman Catholic Church for its role in end-time events.
From our perspective, another man deserves careful scrutiny as well: Herbert Armstrong. The prophecies we often write about—the coming together of the European superpower, the growing alliance between Russia and China, the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ—were covered by him for over 50 years before the Trumpet even existed. Our prophetic understanding is grounded in his work. His instructions to watch the pope as we lead up to the return of Jesus Christ provided an education that far excels that of any news commentator.
Today, both John Paul and Herbert Armstrong are dead, but the actions they took have prepared the way for the prophetic fulfillment of the return of Christ. By reviewing these actions—and Mr. Armstrong’s comments on Bible prophecy during that critical period—we can see exactly how right Mr. Armstrong was to watch the pope.
John Paul II
Karol Wojtyla prepared the way for Europe’s unification, east with west. Read Mr. Armstrong’s comments on this pope’s first trip to Poland, in 1979, and the eventual outcome: “Many of … Pope John Paul ii’s activities point to the fact that he can be the pope that will initiate this European reunion, in a ‘United States of Europe.’ As a matter of fact, his having come from Poland, and the effect of his visit there, indicate that instead of the coming ‘resurrected’ Holy Roman Empire including such nations of Israelitish ancestry as Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the 10 nations to compose it may include such nations—now Russian satellites—as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. The latter two are long since, to a considerable degree, independent of the Kremlin. The Soviet Union may soon experience a breakaway of some of the Balkan satellite nations. It does seem that the nations of Israelitish ancestry, in western and northwestern Europe, would likely be excluded from the coming 10-nation ‘Roman Empire’” (co-worker letter, Sept. 20, 1979).
In 2004, just as Mr. Armstrong foretold, eight former Eastern bloc countries were admitted to the European Union—including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. Romania and Croatia are currently in the application process. As Mr. Armstrong stated, John Paul ii precipitated the unification of Eastern Europe with its western counterpart.
The pope also started Europe down the path to religious unification. Mr. Armstrong often talked about how a united Catholic Church would drive Europe, even over the objection of its political leadership. “Bible prophecy says this European unification will be also a union of church and state (Revelation 17). Many European political leaders do not want religious domination, or even participation. But they are coming to realize they cannot be welded together into one great European supernation without the unifying power of the Catholic Church” (member and coworker letter, Nov. 22, 1982).
John Paul II made a habit of being “the first pope ever” to visit certain areas, and his reasons were no secret. He wanted to heal the breach in Europe between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches—a split rooted in a dispute over the infallibility of the pope that goes all the way back to the ninth century. Mr. Armstrong made reference to this dispute: “The Catholic Church is divided between the Roman Catholic Church in the west and the Greek Orthodox Church in the east. The latter has strenuously objected to supremacy of the pope and to the doctrine of papal infallibility. But on this trip we learned in Athens that the Eastern Orthodox church at last is willing to give in on papal leadership, though not yet in agreement on infallibility. I feel sure some compromise or agreement will be reached very soon” (ibid.).
John Paul II spent the rest of his life trying to bring the daughter churches back into the fold. In a May 25, 1995, address, “That They May Be One,” he stated, “How can unity be restored after almost a thousand years? This is the great task which the Catholic Church must accomplish, a task equally incumbent on the Orthodox Church.” But while his life was spent working toward the unity of the Catholic Church, his death was the single greatest catalyst toward achieving that goal. Look at how John Paul’s funeral, the greatest media event in history, brought the world together. Mr. Armstrong’s statements on Catholic unity are right on the verge of coming to pass (see “Returning to the Fold” on page 18). Any actions Pope Benedict xvi will take toward further reconciliation with Protestant and Orthodox religions were made possible by John Paul II.
He Was Right
And yet, on occasion, someone will point out that Mr. Armstrong was not always correct in stating how quickly prophecy might unfold. Remember though, the Apostle Paul believed he would be caught up in the air at Christ’s return as one of “we which are alive” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). When the Apostle John said, “It is the last time [hour],” he truly believed that Jesus Christ was returning shortly. These men, obviously faithful servants of God, were off in their timing by almost 2,000 years.
When the Great Tribulation comes before the return of Jesus Christ, no one will think about the timing of Mr. Armstrong’s comments. They will remember that everything he said came to pass exactly as he said it would in 1934, as well as the words the apostles Paul and John penned so long ago.
How far away does a European superpower seem now? With a Europe-focused conservative new pope, a phenomenon the Trumpet has continually warned we should expect at this time, how probable does it seem that the European superpower will take its final form speedily?
This is not the time to say, as Christ warned against in Matthew 24:48, “My Lord delayeth His coming!”
Far from being wrong in his prophetic statements, Mr. Armstrong has been proven right again and again. He saw the formation of the European superpower on the horizon before anyone else did. He pointed out, decades in advance, that John Paul could be the pope to initiate the reunion of east and west in Europe. In the midst of the Cold War, the headline “Why Russia Will not Attack America!” only ran in one magazine: the Plain Truth. His analysis of world events was consistently decades ahead of those around him. For far more proof of this, please request a copy of our sample Trumpet edition titled “He Was Right,” which illustrates this fact in detail.
Before Jesus Christ came to Earth the first time, John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way. Now, a man in this modern age has prepared the way for Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, which will have a far more dramatic outcome for everyone alive—in fact, for everyone who has ever lived. The announcement given during Christ’s first coming of the good news of His coming Kingdom is about to be realized! And, just as prophesied in Malachi 4:5, the world has been prepared before the coming of that “great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Vatican ties to Rabin's assassination
The dark powers of the European Union, under evil influence of the very real German-Jesuit cabal, are intent on ripping out the heart of Israel and sacrificing Israeli sovereignty to their wannabe divine emperor about to take the world by storm, pimped by the sorcerer-pope.
The German-dominated EU have set their evil eye upon Jerusalem and prepare to go for the kill with the call for UN Resolution 181 - the blueprint of THE BEAST - to be enforced, all under guise of promoting world peace while whetting their nuclear sword for World War, ignited by the foolish Muslims whose imminent jihad against Europe will result in their rapid response: a NEW CRUSADE.
The Vatican is tightening its noose around the neck of Israel and its diabolical desire for Jerusalem plans on being fulfilled by implementing THE GRAND DESIGN: the final revival of the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the restoration of the Crusader-Kingdom, with Jerusalem as its crown and the Temple Mount (with its imminent Temple) as the crown jewel.
Truth is stranger than fiction and to fail to appreciate or even begin to understand the cultic pull, the demonic drive, key players (with their foreign interests and alien ideas) feel and exert to possess Jerusalem and occupy Israel is to doom the Jewish homeland to getting stomped by the EU jackboot and conquered in the satanic sign of their cross.
As Israeli investigative reporter Joel Bainerman has exposed within The Vatican Agenda, this pagan plot to subdue Israel and control Jerusalem is very real and important and serious to the criminal minds that spawned the Luciferian Oslo "peace process" (which has been nothing less than the systematic dismantling of the Jewish homeland and imminent destruction of many of its Jews, whether oblivious Israelis grasp or believe it or not).
Mr. Bainerman charges the lying "peace process" has been nothing but a smokescreen, a red herring, while the Vatican is intent, based upon their Babylonian Mystery religious beliefs masquerading as Christian, to feverishly work underground, undermining Israeli will and sovereignty, bringing both to a state of collapse, inviting foreign invasion under the guise of "peacekeeping" troops.
Yitzhak Rabin was the biggest diversionary tactic these murderers in our midst have pulled off: the Israeli Left, ignobly represented by the likes of Shimon Peres, conspired with their European masters to sacrifice Rabin to become their martyr and ritually abuse his blood to further their agenda against those faithful Jews and patriots who won't just go like sheep to the slaughter, or at least not as easily as the others who have been duped into believing the BIG LIE of "Land for Peace." Israel has given plenty of land and yet still has no peace, and yet continues blindly toward the abyss with such a failed formula and miserable "Roadmap" to hell! Where is Israel's rosh Yehudi? (Jewish head). Where is the nephesh Yehudi? (Jewish soul).
Barry Chamish and David Rutstein, two Israelis, both publicly charge Shimon Peres with the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and haven't been sued! They courageously testify before the Israeli people that something isn't kosher. They offer plenty of evidence that Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body. Messrs. Chamish and Rutstein decry that Rabin's real killers are still at large and that Rabin's real killers are still selling out Israel to foreigners, gorging themselves with blood money and fattening themselves for the slaughter they fail to believe will include them, as it most certainly will, as history warns every kapo discovered to his horror.
I'm convinced that the same vultures that circled Rabin, that saw to his violent death, who have brutally betrayed Prime Minister Rabin and sold out the nation, are heavily bribed, bought and paid for prostitutes, involved in illicit foreign affairs with their European counterparts and Vatican cronies.
Such scandals must be brought to light (that would rock the nation and shake the world), if such stooges are to be stopped dead in their tracks, their treason exposed and their ticking time-bomb defused! Otherwise, they will carry out their instructions until the bitter end of the Third Jewish Commonwealth; instrumental in the premeditated murder of Israeli sovereignty, enslavement of the Jewish people and rape of Jerusalem.
Israel must reopen the Rabin File (which will bring all this out into the open) or they will have sealed their own fate and written it in Rabin's blood that still cries out for justice.
The German-dominated EU have set their evil eye upon Jerusalem and prepare to go for the kill with the call for UN Resolution 181 - the blueprint of THE BEAST - to be enforced, all under guise of promoting world peace while whetting their nuclear sword for World War, ignited by the foolish Muslims whose imminent jihad against Europe will result in their rapid response: a NEW CRUSADE.
The Vatican is tightening its noose around the neck of Israel and its diabolical desire for Jerusalem plans on being fulfilled by implementing THE GRAND DESIGN: the final revival of the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the restoration of the Crusader-Kingdom, with Jerusalem as its crown and the Temple Mount (with its imminent Temple) as the crown jewel.
Truth is stranger than fiction and to fail to appreciate or even begin to understand the cultic pull, the demonic drive, key players (with their foreign interests and alien ideas) feel and exert to possess Jerusalem and occupy Israel is to doom the Jewish homeland to getting stomped by the EU jackboot and conquered in the satanic sign of their cross.
As Israeli investigative reporter Joel Bainerman has exposed within The Vatican Agenda, this pagan plot to subdue Israel and control Jerusalem is very real and important and serious to the criminal minds that spawned the Luciferian Oslo "peace process" (which has been nothing less than the systematic dismantling of the Jewish homeland and imminent destruction of many of its Jews, whether oblivious Israelis grasp or believe it or not).
Mr. Bainerman charges the lying "peace process" has been nothing but a smokescreen, a red herring, while the Vatican is intent, based upon their Babylonian Mystery religious beliefs masquerading as Christian, to feverishly work underground, undermining Israeli will and sovereignty, bringing both to a state of collapse, inviting foreign invasion under the guise of "peacekeeping" troops.
Yitzhak Rabin was the biggest diversionary tactic these murderers in our midst have pulled off: the Israeli Left, ignobly represented by the likes of Shimon Peres, conspired with their European masters to sacrifice Rabin to become their martyr and ritually abuse his blood to further their agenda against those faithful Jews and patriots who won't just go like sheep to the slaughter, or at least not as easily as the others who have been duped into believing the BIG LIE of "Land for Peace." Israel has given plenty of land and yet still has no peace, and yet continues blindly toward the abyss with such a failed formula and miserable "Roadmap" to hell! Where is Israel's rosh Yehudi? (Jewish head). Where is the nephesh Yehudi? (Jewish soul).
Barry Chamish and David Rutstein, two Israelis, both publicly charge Shimon Peres with the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and haven't been sued! They courageously testify before the Israeli people that something isn't kosher. They offer plenty of evidence that Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body. Messrs. Chamish and Rutstein decry that Rabin's real killers are still at large and that Rabin's real killers are still selling out Israel to foreigners, gorging themselves with blood money and fattening themselves for the slaughter they fail to believe will include them, as it most certainly will, as history warns every kapo discovered to his horror.
I'm convinced that the same vultures that circled Rabin, that saw to his violent death, who have brutally betrayed Prime Minister Rabin and sold out the nation, are heavily bribed, bought and paid for prostitutes, involved in illicit foreign affairs with their European counterparts and Vatican cronies.
Such scandals must be brought to light (that would rock the nation and shake the world), if such stooges are to be stopped dead in their tracks, their treason exposed and their ticking time-bomb defused! Otherwise, they will carry out their instructions until the bitter end of the Third Jewish Commonwealth; instrumental in the premeditated murder of Israeli sovereignty, enslavement of the Jewish people and rape of Jerusalem.
Israel must reopen the Rabin File (which will bring all this out into the open) or they will have sealed their own fate and written it in Rabin's blood that still cries out for justice.
Don't fall for Europe's BIG LIE!
Having clearly seen how practicing homosexuality is a sin, I can now see clearly how SPIRITUAL HOMOSEXUALS, the bloody Roman Catholic whore and her Protestant prostitute daughters (Rev. 17:5), prefer their perverted and idolatrous, manmade doctrines, over the Word of God and his holy commandments (Mark 7:7).
All those who refuse to FORSAKE BABYLON are proud and stubborn and many will die in their sins, suffering the seven last plagues, as is just (Rev. 18:4-5).
Why are you in love with Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, whom both the Bible and history testify against as whitewashed paganism, counterfeit Christianity? May you learn to love the Lord God of the Bible, the King of all Creation, and learn to hate that which He hates: the ABOMINATION OF THE RCC.
May you not resist this Light to return to traditional darkness (John 3:19-21), or you'll fall for the pope's tricks when he bewitches the masses with his sorcery and fight against true Christians - again! Don't let yourself be given over to a reprobate mind. Let Christ renew your mind and wash it by the water of the Word that can cleanse you of all the unclean doctrines and pagan practices of the unholy RCC, so help you God.
The Church Jesus Built
All those who refuse to FORSAKE BABYLON are proud and stubborn and many will die in their sins, suffering the seven last plagues, as is just (Rev. 18:4-5).
Why are you in love with Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, whom both the Bible and history testify against as whitewashed paganism, counterfeit Christianity? May you learn to love the Lord God of the Bible, the King of all Creation, and learn to hate that which He hates: the ABOMINATION OF THE RCC.
May you not resist this Light to return to traditional darkness (John 3:19-21), or you'll fall for the pope's tricks when he bewitches the masses with his sorcery and fight against true Christians - again! Don't let yourself be given over to a reprobate mind. Let Christ renew your mind and wash it by the water of the Word that can cleanse you of all the unclean doctrines and pagan practices of the unholy RCC, so help you God.
The Church Jesus Built
Monday, January 23, 2006
Pope to mislead the masses!
Watch for the pagan sorcerer-pope to start performing many supernatural deeds, counterfeit miracles, to mislead the masses and get them eating out of his hand to support the Vatican's elect to "defend" Europe and "Western Christian Civilization" and murder any who oppose them.
Daniel 11:36
The King Who Exalts Himself
36 "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. (Antiochus Epiphanes - "god in the flesh" - was only a type of the unholy Terror about to be unleashed).
Acts 8:9-11
Simon the Sorcerer
9Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." 11They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Revelation 13:13-17
13And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword (final revival of the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation) and yet lived. 15He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast (imperial restoration), so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Biblical prophecy announces that the European Union will morph into a bloodthirsty BEAST, a politico-ECONOMIC superpower under the evil influences of the Vatican who will seduce it with satanic offers of all the kingdoms of this world and great riches in exchange for enforcing their idolatrous traditions, especially SUNDAY WORSHIP.
Watch for the pope and his "man of the hour" to storm the world stage, to put on a command performance, Satan at his best; the darkest before Dawn prophecies being fulfilled before our very eyes culminating with the real Jesus Christ's return from Heaven to make the diabolical duo history!
This is bad news/good news: Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
Daniel 11:36
The King Who Exalts Himself
36 "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. (Antiochus Epiphanes - "god in the flesh" - was only a type of the unholy Terror about to be unleashed).
Acts 8:9-11
Simon the Sorcerer
9Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." 11They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Revelation 13:13-17
13And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword (final revival of the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation) and yet lived. 15He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast (imperial restoration), so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Biblical prophecy announces that the European Union will morph into a bloodthirsty BEAST, a politico-ECONOMIC superpower under the evil influences of the Vatican who will seduce it with satanic offers of all the kingdoms of this world and great riches in exchange for enforcing their idolatrous traditions, especially SUNDAY WORSHIP.
Watch for the pope and his "man of the hour" to storm the world stage, to put on a command performance, Satan at his best; the darkest before Dawn prophecies being fulfilled before our very eyes culminating with the real Jesus Christ's return from Heaven to make the diabolical duo history!
This is bad news/good news: Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
Herbert Armstrong knew far in advance what's reported today: the Vatican covets Jerusalem!
Here is further PROOF that the Vatican is determined to wrest control of Jerusalem from the Jews and are shamefully aided and abetted by Israeli traitors, lying thieves and bribed politicians. I also blame the Jewish religious authorities for not taking the threats seriously from the first whisper of them and for miserably failing to do all that they could to nip such nefarious negotiations in the bud and demand the restoration of the Temple Mount to Jewish hands in serious preparation for the construction of the Third Temple. Both the secular and religious have permitted the deplorable situation to come this far. - DBA
The Vatican Agenda by Joel Bainerman
Israelis have probably never thought very much about what the Roman Catholic Church/The Vatican thinks about "end of days" theology. Jews themselves don't give much thought to what will happen when "Gog and Magog" takes place. Jews don't go in for anything the least bit "next world" but instead are firmly planted in the here and know. That's good.
However it doesn't matter what Jews think, what matters is what The Vatican believes, and why it believes this. Judaism, and modern Jewish thought pretty much just dismisses the basic tenets of Catholicism outright and doesn't even bother addressing the core questions of what is behind "Catholic theological claims."
Instead of taking what they believe seriously, we tend to snicker amongst ourselves when we see those pictures of obscure rituals and ceremonies, and think the whole religion is near pagan-like with the "eating of Holy Wafers" and "sprinkling of Baptism water" on people's heads. That may be true, but that doesn't matter. What matters is what they believe and what they plan to do about making their beliefs become a reality.
The institution of "The Vatican" is not understood by Israelis and Jews. The conventional wisdom you get from the spokespersons in Israeli government ministries and the conventional Israeli media is "both sides have great intentions to do good" and that's about it. When it comes to Israel's bi-lateral affairs, nothing much gets investigated by the Israeli media. Thus a secret deal could be done between the Vatican and the State of Israel and nobody in Israel would ever find out about it.
In fact, that is exactly what happened.
This essay will provide the background to that deal, as well as what the Vatican's intentions are regarding Israel and The Old City Of Jerusalem. It will reveal which Israeli politicians made certain commitments to The Vatican regarding the issue of sovereignty in the Old City of Jerusalem. These negotiations and meetings were all carried out in secret. During this time period, 1992-l995, the Oslo Accords was what got all the public's attention. Oslo was like "throwing sand in the eyes" of the public. The Vatican is where the real action was happening. Oslo seemed to be just the cover story. A "red herring", if you will.
What Does The Vatican Want?
It can't be that the Vatican is only interested in "access to their Holy Sites" in Jerusalem. They already have that as well as legal jurisdiction under Israeli law for their institutions and assets in Jerusalem. Also, when these "Holy Sites" were under the jurisdiction of the Jordanians from l948-l967, no Pope demanded the "internationalization of Jerusalem".
It is something else, which the Vatican wants. The Roman Catholic Church, need to have certain versions of events be played out for them to stand in front of mankind and proclaim: our Messiah has returned." Of course, to the Jews, this Messiah will be as false as the first one was supposed to be. Don't matter. This is the goal of the Vatican and this is what all Israelis need to worry about.
The Vatican/Roman Catholic's version of events is this:
They know this isn't the end of the story that the Jewish G-d had in mind, but that doesn't mean they won't try and engineer their own ending to the story. So what if it is fraudulent. Doesn't matter, that is their game plan and that is what matters and that is what Israeli Jews need to be better informed about. It is important for everyone to know what The Vatican have up its sleeve because it directly relates to our existence and our future destiny as an independent nation. This a very powerful force this is scheming to get control of the Old City of Jerusalem so you better know why and how the Vatican intends to do this. Once you have all the facts and the chronological record you will be better informed deal with this issue and of foreign control over Israel's political existence and destiny.
First, you have to realize that for centuries The Vatican has attempted to obtain control of Jerusalem, which started with the Crusades. For them to convince the world that the Messiah they put on the world's stage is going to be accepted as genuine, they need to perform this play in the Old City. The story of this production is that this "Messiah" will merge the three monotheistic religions, usher in peace and harmony in the world, and solve the Middle East conflict. The location for this "production" will be in none other than the Old City of Jerusalem.
This so-called "Messiah" that will be proclaimed, will be a false one and it will insist that by having a "world government" (i.e., the United Nations) the world peace and harmony will be ushered in. This will be a lie, and a fraud, but never mind. In our world, reality isn't important. Public perceptions are. The end result is the stripping of Israel's sovereignty as an independent nation giving way to a "regional bloc of nations" in the Middle East. Israel will be pressured to accede to these demands by all world bodies and the superpowers on the claim that "this is the only way to solve the Middle East conflict). In order to the Jews to go along they will convince them that with the "Messiah" having appeared for the Jews, it is time to start rebuilding the Third Temple- what they call "Solomon's Temple". This version of events is widely available through a simple search on the Internet as there are many Christian groups and organizations (the majority of which who are very pro-Israel) who don't buy into these beliefs and thus are against them. I didn't come up with the theory- I am just bringing it to the attention of the Israeli public.
Make no mistake about it. The Old City of Jerusalem, as well as most of the eastern half of the city, is what The Vatican is after.
Why?
Because controlling the entire Old City of Jerusalem (and not just Church properties) and being able to build whatever they want on Mount Zion is critical for the program they have planned to put into play in our capital city. The deal that it has signed with Israel via Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres (in secret and without the approval of the Knesset) gives The Church not only extraterritorial status to their properties (which is what the bi-lateral agreement the Israeli government signed with the Vatican on December 30th, 1993, put in law) but of control over the entire city as "custodians" under UN presence. In this way the Jews will give up control over the Old City. To the Vatican the Israeli people would have a problem with. To the UN, they would say, "we had no choice".
A Chronology Of The Attempt By The Vatican To Displace Israel From The Old City Of Jerusalem
The "Chronology of Events" for the Vatican's conquest of the Old City of Jerusalem is as follows- all of which can be verified via the sources of the information:
October 1991
On October 12th, the head of the World Jewish Congress, Edgar Bronfman, is appointed head of the International Jewish Committee of Inter-religious Consultation to conduct officials contacts with The Vatican and the State of Israel.
March 1992
On March 17th, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek says: "The Israeli government should meet the Vatican's demand to apply special status for Jerusalem."
April 1992
On April 1st, The Vatican announced that it "favors a Labor victory" in the June 1992 general elections in Israel.
On April 15th, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of the highest ranking diplomats at The Vatican, visits Israel for the first time but only meets with Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.
June 1992
The story of The Catholic Church's attempt to abscond with the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jews begins in July 1992. According to the information on the Foreign Ministry website, literally from the moment the new Rabin-led Labor government took over from Yitzhak Shamir's defeated Likud party, secret talks with the Vatican and the State of Israel began. What precipitated these secret talks? Who arranged these talks, and why? Why were they kept secret from the Israeli public? What was the end result of these agreements? Where do they stand today? The entire subject of Israel's bi-lateral relations with the Vatican is intentionally kept locked away in secrecy. It is no wonder that nobody in Israel knows much about "Israel-Vatican relations" as it is never, ever reported on in the Israeli press.
The official story of the origins of Israel's "secret channel contacts" between Beilin's negotiating team and the Vatican comes about as a result of Shlomo Gur, a personal aide to Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin, who knew someone who put him in touch with Father David Jaeger. Father David Jaeger was president of the Catholic Court in Austin, Texas, and was brought up as an Israeli orthodox Jew who then converted to Catholicism and became a Father (not something that has happened to many Israelis who grew up Orthodox). From there, which according to the information on the Israel Foreign Ministry website was in July 1992 right after the new Rabin government took over power, nothing is known about the discussions until the agreement is signed on Dec. 30th, 1993. Nothing in the Israeli press. The info given on the actual agreement signed was very minimal and general in tone. This is probably one of the most important political contacts Israel has in the world's "power structure" yet it isn't reported on in the press. Thus no Israelis know about it. That is how it remains hidden.
November, l992
The document which was used as the underlying ideological basis for the Vatican's secret deal with Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres was personally authored by Beilin. "The Illegitimacy of Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem" outlines the Israeli government's program for the future of Jerusalem and calls for the division of the Old City into cantons whose border posts will be under UN control.
The plan which led to the December, 1993 agreement between The Vatican and the State of Israel was originally discussed in November 1992 at the exact same time the first meetings in London took place to discuss an agreement between Israel and the PLO which led to the Oslo Agreements. The real goal was the Vatican attempt to take over the Old City of Jerusalem. Oslo, or, "peace between Israel and the Palestinians" was just a good cover story to hide what was really going on in another sphere of Israel's foreign affairs.
September, 1993
On the 10th of September, just three days before the signing of the Oslo Accords Washington, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres concluded a secret deal with the Vatican to hand over sovereignty of Jerusalem's Old City to the Vatican. the agreement and it was included in the secret clauses of the Declaration Of Principles signed on September 13th, 1993 in Washington, DC.
In the same week that Israeli Foreign Minister and chief Oslo architect Shimon Peres signed the Declaration of Principles with Yasser Arafat in Washington, the Israel-Vatican commission held a special meeting in Israel. Under the Vatican agreement the Israelis would give over control the Old City to the Vatican before the year 2000. The plan also calls for Jerusalem to become the second Vatican of the world with all three major religions represented but under the authority of the Vatican. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel but the Old City will be administered by the Vatican.
Arafat agreed to the plan just before the famous "handshake" in 1993, but when he realized that the Vatican was also going to let Israel share in the temple mount, he rejected it. (To get Arafat and the Palestinians "on board", on February 14th, 2000, the PA did sign an agreement with the Vatican which recognized the Palestinians' claims to East Jerusalem. The outbreak of the "Al Asqa Intifada" seven months after this agreement was signed may have been part of the commitment Arafat gave the Vatican as to what he would do for him in return for the Vatican acknowledging Palestinians claims to East Jerusalem and the right to statehood. The violence in the Middle East serves the Catholic Church's interest especially if Jerusalem is the subject to discuss. By Arafat getting guarantees from the Vatican that no matter what he does the Europeans will not abandon him, then it makes sense for him to declare war on Israel in Sept 2000. The "Barak gave him everything at Camp David" is propaganda. Nothing was offered that the Knesset would have approved. The intifada could only have happened if Arafat had gotten assurances from major European powers that he would survive. The agreement on Feb 2000 would have made more sense if it had occurred three or four years previous. However its timing when it was makes the Sept 2000 intifada seem logical from Arafat's perspective.
November 1993
In a report in the Jerusalem weekly newspaper Kol Ha'ir, it was revealed that: "for the past six months, The Israeli government has been taking advice on the future of Jerusalem from a planning commission headed by a close aide of Teddy Kollek, Raanan Weitz, formerly the settlement director of the Jewish Agency. At a secret meeting on September 9, 1993, one day before Prime Minister Rabin signed the recognition agreement with the PLO in Israel, the forum met secretly and approved in principle a plan for Jerusalem concocted by Weitz, which he calls, "Metropolitan Jerusalem."
December, 1993
With absolutely no media coverage in Israel, on December 30th an "historic agreement with the Vatican" is publicly acknowledged. Called: "The Fundamental Agreement Between The Holy See and The State of Israel", it declares:
"Mindful of the singular character and universal significance of the Holy Land. Aware of the unique nature of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, and of the historic process of reconciliation and growth in mutual understanding and friendship between Catholics and Jews;
"Having decided on 29 July 1992 to establish a 'Bilateral Permanent Working Commission', in order to study and define together issues of common interest, and in view of normalizing their relations."
Already within one month of taking power there was a special committee to further "Israeli-Vatican Relations". From where did this initiative come so soon as the new government took office?
April 1994
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Shmuel Meir announces at a Jerusalem press conference that he had received information that properties promised to the Vatican in Jerusalem would be granted extraterritorial status. (In early 1996 Meir was killed in a very suspicious car crash whereby the driver who drove a UN truck into Meir's car was not even charged.)
May 1994
Mark Halter, a French intellectual/philosopher and a close friend of Peres, tells the Israeli weekly magazine HaShishi that he personally delivered a letter from Peres to the Pope in Sept, 1993 in which Peres promised to internationalize Jerusalem, granting the UN political control of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the Vatican hegemony of the holy sites within. The UN would give the PLO a capital within its new territory and East Jerusalem would become a kind of free trade zone of world diplomacy.
June 1994
On June 15th, the Israeli government signs an agreement with The Vatican allowing the Catholic Church to participate in negotiations to determine the future of Jerusalem.
July, 1994
On July 9th, 1994, the Vatican's Foreign Minister, Jean-Louis Tauran, announces in Amman, Jordan: "Before territorial problems are resolved, we have to find international guarantees to safeguard the uniqueness of the city and assurances that never again one party should claim Jerusalem as its possession."
November l994
Israel signs a peace treaty with Jordan which, according to reports in Haaretz, Maariv, and Yediot Achronot, included secret clauses concerning water and Jerusalem. The agreement had been negotiated in London eight months before between Rabin, King Hussein, and Lord Victor Mishcon. As part of the agreement, Jordan would receive control over the Islamic Holy sites within a Vatican-controlled Old City of Jerusalem.
March 1995
A cable from the Israeli Embassy in Rome to The Foreign Ministry was in Jerusalem is leaked to radio station Arutz Sheva, confirming the handover of Jerusalem to the Vatican. Two days later the cable made front page of Haaretz. In the widely distributed minutes of a meeting with President Clinton in 1997, Peres ended the cable with the words, "as I had previously promised the Holy See."
April 1995
Member of Knesset Avraham Shapira announced in the Knesset that he had information that all Vatican property in Jerusalem was to become tax exempt and that large tracts of real estate on Mount Zion were given to the Pope in perpetuity.
February l996
A delegation from the Vatican met in Jerusalem with Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Minister, Hassan Tahbob. Father Serge Sebastian, Secretary General of the Vatican, announced that the Holy See recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem. After Shimon Peres had replaced Yitzhak Rabin as Israel's prime minister, Internal Security Minister Moshe Shachal refused to allow a Palestinian Authority meeting at the Vatican's Notre Dame Hospice in Jerusalem. According to Shachal, the Palestinians were planning to "use the Vatican to circumvent the Oslo Accords."
November, 1997
On November 10th, the State of Israel and the Vatican sign the "Legal Personality Agreement" whereby the State of Israel agrees to "assure full effect law to the legal personality of the Catholic Church itself." (What that means in plain english is anyone's guess.)
February 2000
Hedging its bets by having bi-lateral agreements with both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict, on February 14th, Pope John Paul 11 meets Arafat in Rome to sign an accord to normalize relations between Roman Catholic churches in Jerusalem and PA. Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei told The Jerusalem Post that the agreement is "recognition by the Catholic Church of the Palestinian claims to the eastern half of Jerusalem." According to Arafat's spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, "Arafat had been lobbying for the idea of sharing undivided Jerusalem, and for creating a Vatican-style sovereignty in the Old City." (Somehow we are supposed to believe that Arafat initiated this, and not the Vatican). The agreement calls for Jerusalem to be "an international city based on international resolutions and an international guarantee." The pack was signed despite the Vatican having signed an agreement with Israel six years earlier on December 30th, 1993 which gave legal jurisdiction under Israeli law over the Church's own institutions and assets in the Holy Land.
March 2000
The Pope visits the Holy Land and repeats the Holy See's insistence that" international oversight- 'a special statute, internationally guaranteed'- would best safeguard the city's holy sites and all its religions. The city of Jerusalem is the main obstacle to peace in the region."
On March 27th, the Palestinian Authority says that The Vatican no longer insists on international status for the Old City of Jerusalem, and that The Vatican accepts the political division of the Old City between Israel and the Palestinians. (One has to wonder if this agreement had anything to do with Arafat's decision to wage war on Israel six months later?)
October 2000
In a speech to the United Nations on October 30th, Archbishop Renato Martino declared: "The "unique character" of Jerusalem as a city sacred to three great religions makes it essential that religious leaders, not politicians, control the holy sites." In his meeting on October 26th with Lebanese Ambassador to the Vatican, Fouad Aoun, Pope John Paul 11 said that the city of Jerusalem should be given "specially guaranteed international status."
January 2001
Israel TV journalists secretly film under the Shrine Of Omar, the 7th century Islamic building which may have been deliberately constructed over the Holy of Holies, them most sacred prayer room of the ancient Jewish Temple. The video revealed a new and massive tunnel aimed directly at the most sacred core of Solomon's and later, Herod's Temples. During the Crusades the early 12th century chivalric order, The Knights Templer, dug under the ruins for nine years and found a network of tunnels where the Jewish priests hid their treasures form the marauding Romans in 70 CE. It was also assumed that the original records of the Jerusalem Church which prove that the Vatican was not practicing Christianity as its founders had intended, was buried in this spot. A pope with exclusive rights of divine interpretation was not part of G-d's plan. If these scrolls were made public they would jeopardize Rome's legitimacy. Thus it is imperative to The Vatican that the Jews be removed from the Temple Mount so that they don't find these important scrolls. The PA is serving as the Vatican's "building contractors" in this arrangement in the hope that the Vatican will side with the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.
July 2002
Israeli, US and German delegations at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Berlin have to fight a surprise proposal to internationalize Jerusalem's Old City by the Italian delegation to the meeting. The head of the Italian delegation told Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the US-based Simon Weisenthal Center, that the main concern of the Italian government was that "in the future when there are peace discussions, the Palestinian entity will be given control of the Christian Holy sites."
Why the secular government of Italy should be worried about this was not explained in the new item. (The Jerusalem Post, July 8th, 2002)
So What Is The Vatican Planning And What Can Israeli Jews Do About It?
For centuries the Vatican has been pushing its "replacement" doctrine which states that the Catholic has replaced Israel as "the New Israel".
The Roman Catholic Church wants Israel to lose sovereign control over the Old City of Jerusalem so that "the promises to the literal descendents of Abraham will be applied to the 'New Jerusalem.'" If Israel controls Jerusalem it is evidence that Rome's claims are not legitimate and that the literal interpretation of Scriptures is correct. There is no place for the restoration of the nation of Israel in its theology. How can the Vatican claim to be "the New Jerusalem" and "rightful heir to the Kingdom of God" if the Jews control Jerusalem? How is the Catholic Church going to convince the world that their version of theology is correct?
The Vatican is going to have everyone believe this "mysterious individual who will "unite the faiths" and appear in Jerusalem which will be under the control of an authority headed by The Vatican. " That deal to have the Vatican come into Israel and take over these properties and to "control and dominate the Old City of Jerusalem" already exists and has been fully documented and reported in the world's media.
The end goal of The Vatican is to seize control of the Old City of Jerusalem out of the clutches of the state of Israel. To that end they have a secret agreement with Israel which obliges Israel to respect the "extraterritorial" claim to their physical presence in the city. In short, "we have accepted the Vatican's rights to have little Vatican sovereign embassies throughout our eternal capital of Jerusalem. That same Vatican has committed itself, in public and in a written agreement, to ensure that the Palestinians have sovereignty in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The public record shows a secret deal has already been conducted behind the backs of the Israeli public whereby the Vatican was promised to take over the Old City. There is ample proof in the public record to prove that a secret deal was done with the Vatican by two Israeli government representatives, Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres. As it was concocted covertly it can't serve the Israeli public- but someone else. Thus these agreements need to be made void and nullified.
It doesn't matter if religious Jews or Israelis think that "Catholic theology" is "strange looking" or extremely "ritualistic." What matters is that all Israelis understand that The Vatican has a secret agenda and it includes stealing the Old City of Jerusalem away from the Jews. That is what you need to know and understand. Unfortunately, this agenda is being carried out in secret and behind your back and that is why you are ignorant of its true aims. The purpose of this essay is to warn you of these exact intentions of The Vatican so that you will be an "informed consumer" when it comes to Israel's relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Even the overt clauses of the Vatican agreement, the exchange of ambassadors and the opening of the Vatican archives to Israeli researchers, have not been fulfilled by The Vatican. From an Israeli perspective, the "Fundamental Agreement Between The Holy See and The State of Israel" has been a complete failure and should be immediately rescinded.
The Vatican Agenda by Joel Bainerman
Israelis have probably never thought very much about what the Roman Catholic Church/The Vatican thinks about "end of days" theology. Jews themselves don't give much thought to what will happen when "Gog and Magog" takes place. Jews don't go in for anything the least bit "next world" but instead are firmly planted in the here and know. That's good.
However it doesn't matter what Jews think, what matters is what The Vatican believes, and why it believes this. Judaism, and modern Jewish thought pretty much just dismisses the basic tenets of Catholicism outright and doesn't even bother addressing the core questions of what is behind "Catholic theological claims."
Instead of taking what they believe seriously, we tend to snicker amongst ourselves when we see those pictures of obscure rituals and ceremonies, and think the whole religion is near pagan-like with the "eating of Holy Wafers" and "sprinkling of Baptism water" on people's heads. That may be true, but that doesn't matter. What matters is what they believe and what they plan to do about making their beliefs become a reality.
The institution of "The Vatican" is not understood by Israelis and Jews. The conventional wisdom you get from the spokespersons in Israeli government ministries and the conventional Israeli media is "both sides have great intentions to do good" and that's about it. When it comes to Israel's bi-lateral affairs, nothing much gets investigated by the Israeli media. Thus a secret deal could be done between the Vatican and the State of Israel and nobody in Israel would ever find out about it.
In fact, that is exactly what happened.
This essay will provide the background to that deal, as well as what the Vatican's intentions are regarding Israel and The Old City Of Jerusalem. It will reveal which Israeli politicians made certain commitments to The Vatican regarding the issue of sovereignty in the Old City of Jerusalem. These negotiations and meetings were all carried out in secret. During this time period, 1992-l995, the Oslo Accords was what got all the public's attention. Oslo was like "throwing sand in the eyes" of the public. The Vatican is where the real action was happening. Oslo seemed to be just the cover story. A "red herring", if you will.
What Does The Vatican Want?
It can't be that the Vatican is only interested in "access to their Holy Sites" in Jerusalem. They already have that as well as legal jurisdiction under Israeli law for their institutions and assets in Jerusalem. Also, when these "Holy Sites" were under the jurisdiction of the Jordanians from l948-l967, no Pope demanded the "internationalization of Jerusalem".
It is something else, which the Vatican wants. The Roman Catholic Church, need to have certain versions of events be played out for them to stand in front of mankind and proclaim: our Messiah has returned." Of course, to the Jews, this Messiah will be as false as the first one was supposed to be. Don't matter. This is the goal of the Vatican and this is what all Israelis need to worry about.
The Vatican/Roman Catholic's version of events is this:
They know this isn't the end of the story that the Jewish G-d had in mind, but that doesn't mean they won't try and engineer their own ending to the story. So what if it is fraudulent. Doesn't matter, that is their game plan and that is what matters and that is what Israeli Jews need to be better informed about. It is important for everyone to know what The Vatican have up its sleeve because it directly relates to our existence and our future destiny as an independent nation. This a very powerful force this is scheming to get control of the Old City of Jerusalem so you better know why and how the Vatican intends to do this. Once you have all the facts and the chronological record you will be better informed deal with this issue and of foreign control over Israel's political existence and destiny.
First, you have to realize that for centuries The Vatican has attempted to obtain control of Jerusalem, which started with the Crusades. For them to convince the world that the Messiah they put on the world's stage is going to be accepted as genuine, they need to perform this play in the Old City. The story of this production is that this "Messiah" will merge the three monotheistic religions, usher in peace and harmony in the world, and solve the Middle East conflict. The location for this "production" will be in none other than the Old City of Jerusalem.
This so-called "Messiah" that will be proclaimed, will be a false one and it will insist that by having a "world government" (i.e., the United Nations) the world peace and harmony will be ushered in. This will be a lie, and a fraud, but never mind. In our world, reality isn't important. Public perceptions are. The end result is the stripping of Israel's sovereignty as an independent nation giving way to a "regional bloc of nations" in the Middle East. Israel will be pressured to accede to these demands by all world bodies and the superpowers on the claim that "this is the only way to solve the Middle East conflict). In order to the Jews to go along they will convince them that with the "Messiah" having appeared for the Jews, it is time to start rebuilding the Third Temple- what they call "Solomon's Temple". This version of events is widely available through a simple search on the Internet as there are many Christian groups and organizations (the majority of which who are very pro-Israel) who don't buy into these beliefs and thus are against them. I didn't come up with the theory- I am just bringing it to the attention of the Israeli public.
Make no mistake about it. The Old City of Jerusalem, as well as most of the eastern half of the city, is what The Vatican is after.
Why?
Because controlling the entire Old City of Jerusalem (and not just Church properties) and being able to build whatever they want on Mount Zion is critical for the program they have planned to put into play in our capital city. The deal that it has signed with Israel via Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres (in secret and without the approval of the Knesset) gives The Church not only extraterritorial status to their properties (which is what the bi-lateral agreement the Israeli government signed with the Vatican on December 30th, 1993, put in law) but of control over the entire city as "custodians" under UN presence. In this way the Jews will give up control over the Old City. To the Vatican the Israeli people would have a problem with. To the UN, they would say, "we had no choice".
A Chronology Of The Attempt By The Vatican To Displace Israel From The Old City Of Jerusalem
The "Chronology of Events" for the Vatican's conquest of the Old City of Jerusalem is as follows- all of which can be verified via the sources of the information:
October 1991
On October 12th, the head of the World Jewish Congress, Edgar Bronfman, is appointed head of the International Jewish Committee of Inter-religious Consultation to conduct officials contacts with The Vatican and the State of Israel.
March 1992
On March 17th, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek says: "The Israeli government should meet the Vatican's demand to apply special status for Jerusalem."
April 1992
On April 1st, The Vatican announced that it "favors a Labor victory" in the June 1992 general elections in Israel.
On April 15th, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of the highest ranking diplomats at The Vatican, visits Israel for the first time but only meets with Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.
June 1992
The story of The Catholic Church's attempt to abscond with the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jews begins in July 1992. According to the information on the Foreign Ministry website, literally from the moment the new Rabin-led Labor government took over from Yitzhak Shamir's defeated Likud party, secret talks with the Vatican and the State of Israel began. What precipitated these secret talks? Who arranged these talks, and why? Why were they kept secret from the Israeli public? What was the end result of these agreements? Where do they stand today? The entire subject of Israel's bi-lateral relations with the Vatican is intentionally kept locked away in secrecy. It is no wonder that nobody in Israel knows much about "Israel-Vatican relations" as it is never, ever reported on in the Israeli press.
The official story of the origins of Israel's "secret channel contacts" between Beilin's negotiating team and the Vatican comes about as a result of Shlomo Gur, a personal aide to Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin, who knew someone who put him in touch with Father David Jaeger. Father David Jaeger was president of the Catholic Court in Austin, Texas, and was brought up as an Israeli orthodox Jew who then converted to Catholicism and became a Father (not something that has happened to many Israelis who grew up Orthodox). From there, which according to the information on the Israel Foreign Ministry website was in July 1992 right after the new Rabin government took over power, nothing is known about the discussions until the agreement is signed on Dec. 30th, 1993. Nothing in the Israeli press. The info given on the actual agreement signed was very minimal and general in tone. This is probably one of the most important political contacts Israel has in the world's "power structure" yet it isn't reported on in the press. Thus no Israelis know about it. That is how it remains hidden.
November, l992
The document which was used as the underlying ideological basis for the Vatican's secret deal with Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres was personally authored by Beilin. "The Illegitimacy of Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem" outlines the Israeli government's program for the future of Jerusalem and calls for the division of the Old City into cantons whose border posts will be under UN control.
The plan which led to the December, 1993 agreement between The Vatican and the State of Israel was originally discussed in November 1992 at the exact same time the first meetings in London took place to discuss an agreement between Israel and the PLO which led to the Oslo Agreements. The real goal was the Vatican attempt to take over the Old City of Jerusalem. Oslo, or, "peace between Israel and the Palestinians" was just a good cover story to hide what was really going on in another sphere of Israel's foreign affairs.
September, 1993
On the 10th of September, just three days before the signing of the Oslo Accords Washington, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres concluded a secret deal with the Vatican to hand over sovereignty of Jerusalem's Old City to the Vatican. the agreement and it was included in the secret clauses of the Declaration Of Principles signed on September 13th, 1993 in Washington, DC.
In the same week that Israeli Foreign Minister and chief Oslo architect Shimon Peres signed the Declaration of Principles with Yasser Arafat in Washington, the Israel-Vatican commission held a special meeting in Israel. Under the Vatican agreement the Israelis would give over control the Old City to the Vatican before the year 2000. The plan also calls for Jerusalem to become the second Vatican of the world with all three major religions represented but under the authority of the Vatican. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel but the Old City will be administered by the Vatican.
Arafat agreed to the plan just before the famous "handshake" in 1993, but when he realized that the Vatican was also going to let Israel share in the temple mount, he rejected it. (To get Arafat and the Palestinians "on board", on February 14th, 2000, the PA did sign an agreement with the Vatican which recognized the Palestinians' claims to East Jerusalem. The outbreak of the "Al Asqa Intifada" seven months after this agreement was signed may have been part of the commitment Arafat gave the Vatican as to what he would do for him in return for the Vatican acknowledging Palestinians claims to East Jerusalem and the right to statehood. The violence in the Middle East serves the Catholic Church's interest especially if Jerusalem is the subject to discuss. By Arafat getting guarantees from the Vatican that no matter what he does the Europeans will not abandon him, then it makes sense for him to declare war on Israel in Sept 2000. The "Barak gave him everything at Camp David" is propaganda. Nothing was offered that the Knesset would have approved. The intifada could only have happened if Arafat had gotten assurances from major European powers that he would survive. The agreement on Feb 2000 would have made more sense if it had occurred three or four years previous. However its timing when it was makes the Sept 2000 intifada seem logical from Arafat's perspective.
November 1993
In a report in the Jerusalem weekly newspaper Kol Ha'ir, it was revealed that: "for the past six months, The Israeli government has been taking advice on the future of Jerusalem from a planning commission headed by a close aide of Teddy Kollek, Raanan Weitz, formerly the settlement director of the Jewish Agency. At a secret meeting on September 9, 1993, one day before Prime Minister Rabin signed the recognition agreement with the PLO in Israel, the forum met secretly and approved in principle a plan for Jerusalem concocted by Weitz, which he calls, "Metropolitan Jerusalem."
December, 1993
With absolutely no media coverage in Israel, on December 30th an "historic agreement with the Vatican" is publicly acknowledged. Called: "The Fundamental Agreement Between The Holy See and The State of Israel", it declares:
"Mindful of the singular character and universal significance of the Holy Land. Aware of the unique nature of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, and of the historic process of reconciliation and growth in mutual understanding and friendship between Catholics and Jews;
"Having decided on 29 July 1992 to establish a 'Bilateral Permanent Working Commission', in order to study and define together issues of common interest, and in view of normalizing their relations."
Already within one month of taking power there was a special committee to further "Israeli-Vatican Relations". From where did this initiative come so soon as the new government took office?
April 1994
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Shmuel Meir announces at a Jerusalem press conference that he had received information that properties promised to the Vatican in Jerusalem would be granted extraterritorial status. (In early 1996 Meir was killed in a very suspicious car crash whereby the driver who drove a UN truck into Meir's car was not even charged.)
May 1994
Mark Halter, a French intellectual/philosopher and a close friend of Peres, tells the Israeli weekly magazine HaShishi that he personally delivered a letter from Peres to the Pope in Sept, 1993 in which Peres promised to internationalize Jerusalem, granting the UN political control of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the Vatican hegemony of the holy sites within. The UN would give the PLO a capital within its new territory and East Jerusalem would become a kind of free trade zone of world diplomacy.
June 1994
On June 15th, the Israeli government signs an agreement with The Vatican allowing the Catholic Church to participate in negotiations to determine the future of Jerusalem.
July, 1994
On July 9th, 1994, the Vatican's Foreign Minister, Jean-Louis Tauran, announces in Amman, Jordan: "Before territorial problems are resolved, we have to find international guarantees to safeguard the uniqueness of the city and assurances that never again one party should claim Jerusalem as its possession."
November l994
Israel signs a peace treaty with Jordan which, according to reports in Haaretz, Maariv, and Yediot Achronot, included secret clauses concerning water and Jerusalem. The agreement had been negotiated in London eight months before between Rabin, King Hussein, and Lord Victor Mishcon. As part of the agreement, Jordan would receive control over the Islamic Holy sites within a Vatican-controlled Old City of Jerusalem.
March 1995
A cable from the Israeli Embassy in Rome to The Foreign Ministry was in Jerusalem is leaked to radio station Arutz Sheva, confirming the handover of Jerusalem to the Vatican. Two days later the cable made front page of Haaretz. In the widely distributed minutes of a meeting with President Clinton in 1997, Peres ended the cable with the words, "as I had previously promised the Holy See."
April 1995
Member of Knesset Avraham Shapira announced in the Knesset that he had information that all Vatican property in Jerusalem was to become tax exempt and that large tracts of real estate on Mount Zion were given to the Pope in perpetuity.
February l996
A delegation from the Vatican met in Jerusalem with Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Minister, Hassan Tahbob. Father Serge Sebastian, Secretary General of the Vatican, announced that the Holy See recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem. After Shimon Peres had replaced Yitzhak Rabin as Israel's prime minister, Internal Security Minister Moshe Shachal refused to allow a Palestinian Authority meeting at the Vatican's Notre Dame Hospice in Jerusalem. According to Shachal, the Palestinians were planning to "use the Vatican to circumvent the Oslo Accords."
November, 1997
On November 10th, the State of Israel and the Vatican sign the "Legal Personality Agreement" whereby the State of Israel agrees to "assure full effect law to the legal personality of the Catholic Church itself." (What that means in plain english is anyone's guess.)
February 2000
Hedging its bets by having bi-lateral agreements with both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict, on February 14th, Pope John Paul 11 meets Arafat in Rome to sign an accord to normalize relations between Roman Catholic churches in Jerusalem and PA. Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei told The Jerusalem Post that the agreement is "recognition by the Catholic Church of the Palestinian claims to the eastern half of Jerusalem." According to Arafat's spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, "Arafat had been lobbying for the idea of sharing undivided Jerusalem, and for creating a Vatican-style sovereignty in the Old City." (Somehow we are supposed to believe that Arafat initiated this, and not the Vatican). The agreement calls for Jerusalem to be "an international city based on international resolutions and an international guarantee." The pack was signed despite the Vatican having signed an agreement with Israel six years earlier on December 30th, 1993 which gave legal jurisdiction under Israeli law over the Church's own institutions and assets in the Holy Land.
March 2000
The Pope visits the Holy Land and repeats the Holy See's insistence that" international oversight- 'a special statute, internationally guaranteed'- would best safeguard the city's holy sites and all its religions. The city of Jerusalem is the main obstacle to peace in the region."
On March 27th, the Palestinian Authority says that The Vatican no longer insists on international status for the Old City of Jerusalem, and that The Vatican accepts the political division of the Old City between Israel and the Palestinians. (One has to wonder if this agreement had anything to do with Arafat's decision to wage war on Israel six months later?)
October 2000
In a speech to the United Nations on October 30th, Archbishop Renato Martino declared: "The "unique character" of Jerusalem as a city sacred to three great religions makes it essential that religious leaders, not politicians, control the holy sites." In his meeting on October 26th with Lebanese Ambassador to the Vatican, Fouad Aoun, Pope John Paul 11 said that the city of Jerusalem should be given "specially guaranteed international status."
January 2001
Israel TV journalists secretly film under the Shrine Of Omar, the 7th century Islamic building which may have been deliberately constructed over the Holy of Holies, them most sacred prayer room of the ancient Jewish Temple. The video revealed a new and massive tunnel aimed directly at the most sacred core of Solomon's and later, Herod's Temples. During the Crusades the early 12th century chivalric order, The Knights Templer, dug under the ruins for nine years and found a network of tunnels where the Jewish priests hid their treasures form the marauding Romans in 70 CE. It was also assumed that the original records of the Jerusalem Church which prove that the Vatican was not practicing Christianity as its founders had intended, was buried in this spot. A pope with exclusive rights of divine interpretation was not part of G-d's plan. If these scrolls were made public they would jeopardize Rome's legitimacy. Thus it is imperative to The Vatican that the Jews be removed from the Temple Mount so that they don't find these important scrolls. The PA is serving as the Vatican's "building contractors" in this arrangement in the hope that the Vatican will side with the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.
July 2002
Israeli, US and German delegations at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Berlin have to fight a surprise proposal to internationalize Jerusalem's Old City by the Italian delegation to the meeting. The head of the Italian delegation told Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the US-based Simon Weisenthal Center, that the main concern of the Italian government was that "in the future when there are peace discussions, the Palestinian entity will be given control of the Christian Holy sites."
Why the secular government of Italy should be worried about this was not explained in the new item. (The Jerusalem Post, July 8th, 2002)
So What Is The Vatican Planning And What Can Israeli Jews Do About It?
For centuries the Vatican has been pushing its "replacement" doctrine which states that the Catholic has replaced Israel as "the New Israel".
The Roman Catholic Church wants Israel to lose sovereign control over the Old City of Jerusalem so that "the promises to the literal descendents of Abraham will be applied to the 'New Jerusalem.'" If Israel controls Jerusalem it is evidence that Rome's claims are not legitimate and that the literal interpretation of Scriptures is correct. There is no place for the restoration of the nation of Israel in its theology. How can the Vatican claim to be "the New Jerusalem" and "rightful heir to the Kingdom of God" if the Jews control Jerusalem? How is the Catholic Church going to convince the world that their version of theology is correct?
The Vatican is going to have everyone believe this "mysterious individual who will "unite the faiths" and appear in Jerusalem which will be under the control of an authority headed by The Vatican. " That deal to have the Vatican come into Israel and take over these properties and to "control and dominate the Old City of Jerusalem" already exists and has been fully documented and reported in the world's media.
The end goal of The Vatican is to seize control of the Old City of Jerusalem out of the clutches of the state of Israel. To that end they have a secret agreement with Israel which obliges Israel to respect the "extraterritorial" claim to their physical presence in the city. In short, "we have accepted the Vatican's rights to have little Vatican sovereign embassies throughout our eternal capital of Jerusalem. That same Vatican has committed itself, in public and in a written agreement, to ensure that the Palestinians have sovereignty in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The public record shows a secret deal has already been conducted behind the backs of the Israeli public whereby the Vatican was promised to take over the Old City. There is ample proof in the public record to prove that a secret deal was done with the Vatican by two Israeli government representatives, Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres. As it was concocted covertly it can't serve the Israeli public- but someone else. Thus these agreements need to be made void and nullified.
It doesn't matter if religious Jews or Israelis think that "Catholic theology" is "strange looking" or extremely "ritualistic." What matters is that all Israelis understand that The Vatican has a secret agenda and it includes stealing the Old City of Jerusalem away from the Jews. That is what you need to know and understand. Unfortunately, this agenda is being carried out in secret and behind your back and that is why you are ignorant of its true aims. The purpose of this essay is to warn you of these exact intentions of The Vatican so that you will be an "informed consumer" when it comes to Israel's relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Even the overt clauses of the Vatican agreement, the exchange of ambassadors and the opening of the Vatican archives to Israeli researchers, have not been fulfilled by The Vatican. From an Israeli perspective, the "Fundamental Agreement Between The Holy See and The State of Israel" has been a complete failure and should be immediately rescinded.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Abolish the European Union
For over 50 years, Herbert W. Armstrong warned the world about the emergence of a United States of Europe that would wreak nuclear havoc upon the world. This article by Robert Locke further reveals ugly aspects of the European Union that too many Americans remain dangerously oblivious to....
Abolish the European Union
Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com
June 5, 2002
AMERICANS SUFFER FROM A CURIOUS DELUSION:
Reading their newspapers and perusing their atlases, they continue to believe that such geographical entities as France, England, Italy and Germany are nations. But in fact they are, or more accurately are rapidly becoming, mere provinces of the Holy Belgian Empire: the European Union (EU). This empire has been getting continually more malignant for years without attracting significant conservative opposition on this side of the Atlantic. But American conservatives should realize that it represents the European manifestation of the odious ideology of globalism, or the liquidation of nations. It should therefore be abolished forthwith.
The EU seems to have a unique talent for bringing out the worst in its member states. It is like the universal alloy of medieval alchemy: a mixture of all metals that turns out to have the liabilities of each and the virtues of none. Each of its member states has its own dishonorable reasons for participating in it.
For example, one motivating factor behind the ongoing attempt of the EU to become a superstate is the colossal unresolved guilt felt by Germany about her Nazi past. Germans would very much like to abolish Germany as a nation and declare themselves citizens of "Europe" so that their consciences wouldn’t have to bear the burden of being Germans. After having tried to liquidate the other nations of Europe by the sword twice in one century, they are now trying it a third time to weasel out of their well-deserved guilt over the first two. It is an utter scandal that nations like Britain, France, and soon Poland, which sacrificed millions of lives fighting German aggression, are being asked to liquidate their nationhood to expiate German crimes.
Another motivating factor behind the EU is the determination of French bureaucrats to rule Europe. France, because of her history, the structure of her government, and her educational system, produces the most ambitious bureaucrats in the world. Her tradition of dirigisme or state-directed capitalism is precisely suited to present world economic conditions, in which competitive pressures make expanding socialism impossible but the inexorable will of the state to grow has not gone away. They are convinced that the expanded powers of the EU will by nature fall into their lap, the Germans being too shy about asserting their power, the British not being statist by instinct, the Italians being too disorganized, and everyone else being too small.
Those Italians who like the EU like it because it absolves them of the need to get their own national act together and fix the most chaotic government and economy in Europe. Rather than fixing their own budget deficits to save the ever-falling lira, they adopt the euro. Rather than fixing their own government, they prefer to sign away their sovereignty and with it, the ability of future generations of Italians to be masters of their own political destiny. The idea of an Italy governed in all essentials by foreigners in Brussels doesn’t seem to scare them or bother their national pride at all.
Other nations, like Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, have knuckled under to the EU essentially on a basis of bribery. They have been paid billions in subsidies to support obsolescent farming sectors in exchange for compliant votes to expand EU powers. It is a classic case, writ large, of the old warning about selling one’s freedom in exchange for welfare.
The other openly admitted motivation for the EU is to create a political entity large enough to blunt "American hegemony." Given that it is US hegemony over Europe since WWII that has given the continent the greatest peace and prosperity it has known in the 20th century, this is for a start monumentally ungrateful. Given that Europe cannot even deal with local crises like the wars of the Yugoslav succession without American help, it is pathetic. Despite all talk of a common foreign policy, the minute bullets start to fly, pronouncements of European unity vanish and the member states go their separate ways. And what wonderful geopolitical agenda does Europe intend to pursue once it stands tall next to America? What terrible harm at our hands does it propose to rectify? No one has answered this question because frankly, the motivation here is pure ego, leavened only by the cynicism that passes for political sophistication in Europe. Fortunately, Europe is unlikely to ever match American military power, since it cannot afford to match our defense budget and maintain its bloated welfare states. This is not even to mention our 40-year technological head start; the European armies, with the limited exception of the Americanized but very small British military, are perfectly nice 1960s-era militaries, a joke compared to our Star Wars forces. All of Europe put together cannot field a single state-of-the-art stealth aircraft.
The other great aim of EU supporters is that it be their last chance to salvage the statist, over-regulated, socialistic economic policies that have been pushed to the wall by the worldwide free-market revival of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It is no accident that the movement to turn the EU from a free-trade area to a superstate rose with this free-market revival. Their essential premise is that these failed policies will work if the political unit of their operation is large enough. Naturally, this is absurd: the Soviet Union had nearly 300 million people and couldn’t make socialism work. The justification for this claim is the idea that there is no real superiority to free-market policies and that these policies have only been offering them competition because they are embodied in the United States, which uses its vast size to bully other nations into adopting them. (I have discussed the tendency of the world’s losers to see their self-inflicted problems as caused by America in another article.) So if the EU is large enough, it will be able to sustain these discredited ideas by hiding behind a protectionist shield. They will of course eventually discover that this won’t work, that mistakes are mistakes regardless of scale, but the attempt could doom a generation of Europeans to continuing economic sclerosis.
Some examples of the dirigiste economic policies of EU nations:
High taxes on everything from incomes to retail goods. High social charges on employers. Legally-entrenched labor union power. Laws against firing people, which just cause employers not to hire them in the first place. Massive subsidies for obsolescent industries like agriculture and steel. Cozy cartels to restrict competition and divide up markets. Massive government intervention in business decisions. Outright government ownership of sectors of the economy. Anti-business cultural attitudes. Protectionism against American and Asian goods.
There is no meaningful doubt that the nations of the EU pay a high price for its dirigiste practices. For the last decade, the EU’s unemployment rate has averaged roughly double that of the United States. Since 1980, the US has created 30 million new private-sector jobs; the European Union a net of zero. (Source: National Center for Policy Analysis).
Fortunately one of the saving graces of Europe has traditionally been competition between governments. For example, the most economically free nation in Europe (thanks to Margaret Thatcher, not the current Labor government) is currently Britain, which has been attracting investment away from more regulated economies in Europe as a result. The French fume about this and call it "social dumping." British workers call it an unemployment rate far below that of France. The EU would like to end this ability of nations to compete by having lighter tax burdens. It would like to "harmonize," as it says in its inimitably dishonest eurobabble, tax rates across nations. It also raises taxes simply by having a budget, which taxpayers of the member states ultimately finance.
Like every undesirable thing in politics, the EU has its own characteristic varieties of sophistry that are used to justify it. The key piece of sophistic reasoning used to justify the European Union is the claim that opposition to the political construct that is the EU constitutes opposition to the existential fact that is Europe. Anyone who opposes expansion of the powers of the EU is tarred as "anti-Europe," which has become an epithet exceeded only by "racist" in its ability to both mean nothing and brand its victim a pariah. But Europeans have been benefiting from their relations with other European countries for millennia without the benefit of this superstate. It is entirely possible, indeed desirable, to be pro-Europe and anti-EU.
Another EU sophism: the benefits of free trade within the EU require its existence. False: all they require is the absence of tariffs between the member states, as the old Common Market, predecessor of the EU, used to provide. The European Union uses the promise of free trade as a tool to bribe the nations to its East to submit to its political control. I am not Polish, but it makes me want to cry to see this proud, nationalistic nation, which has suffered so many cruel affronts to its independence in its history, being prepared for subjugation to Brussels, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic. All the preposterous claims about the economic benefits of membership in the EU crumble on contact with the fact that some of Europe’s most successful economies, like Norway and Switzerland, are outside it, and one of the most successful countries inside the EU, Britain, has the least degree of economic submission to it, having not adopted its currency, the euro.
The lies spouted in favor of the euro are a rich topic in their own right. The fundamental premise underlying the euro is the same bald empirical falsehood that underlies most EU thinking: bigger is better. When it comes to economics, one can compare the success of the currencies of Russia and Singapore, or Brazil and Switzerland, and come to one’s own conclusions. Supposedly, having a common currency is necessary to weld the individual economies of Europe into one big economy. Naturally, since the euro is backed by the sagging over-regulated economies of Continental Europe, it has been sinking relative to the dollar and the pound since it was established. It was issued in 1999 at a value of $1.17; it is now trading at 94 and has been lower. This loss in value is not an abstraction: it has wiped billions off of the value of pension funds, especially German ones, which used to be denominated in the rock-solid mark. Britain, which remains outside the euro, has less inflation, less unemployment, and more growth, than the average of those nations within it. And the euro does not promote foreign investment: in 1999, Britain attracted a grossly disproportionate 40% of all US and Asian investment into the EU.
However smoothly its spokesmen would deny it in public while admitting it in private, the EU is a threat to the national sovereignty of its member states. Sovereignty sounds like an abstraction, but in fact it refers to the ultimate ability of a nation to control its own destiny rather than being dictated to by others. For example, EU laws override the laws made by the parliaments of the member states. This means that the entire body of English common law, for example, a treasury of liberty, which has grown up over nearly a thousand years, is now disposable. The British parliament cannot legislate for its own people without the permission of bureaucrats in Brussels.
The EU is exceptionally dishonest in how it goes about coercing its member states. Its fundamental modus operandi is what has been called "union by stealth," namely the surrender of national sovereignty to the new superstate so gradually that the electorates of the member nations don’t notice until it is too late. Stealth combines with the narcotization of European electorates by bloated welfare states to make this possible. It is the same tactic of "progressive" revolutionaries that we have seen in America: push through fundamental changes not by arguing that they are good, but by pretending that they don’t matter. It is government by anesthesia. The politicians responsible have consistently lied about the nature of the changes they have made. It is well understood that the EU could never survive real democratic debate. Claude Cheysson, the former French Foreign Secretary who subsequently became one of France's European Commissioners, famously observed that the superstate-building Maastricht Treaty could only have been constructed "in the absence of democracy."
Politicians as a class love the EU. It gives them the ability to wield power through insider wheeler-dealing, without the accountability of pesky national electorates or judiciaries.
Leftists especially appreciate its ability to impose laws that would never be passed by their national legislature. The EU is governed by an unelected Commission; the "European Parliament" is an inert joke. The issue is usually fudged by resorting to the kind of technical discussion of the structures of government, rife with meaningless phrases like "pooled sovereignty," that have come to be known as eurobabble, but the blunt fact is, the EU has no democratic legitimacy. The legal basis for the imposition of its laws on its member states is only a series of treaties that they have signed, starting with the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The treaty that contained the fundamental basis for surrender of sovereignty was that of 1972, but this was not given its full force until the treaties of Maastrich of 1993 and Amsterdam in 1997. The fundamental problem with these treaties, as a matter of basic sound political philosophy, is that they surrender or alienate the right of self-government of the nations that sign them. Our Declaration of Independence rightly observes that the right to self-government is "unalienable;" i.e. that no government elected by the people can abolish that right or surrender it to someone else, for the fundamental reason that no government owns the right to self government, but merely holds it in trust temporarily for its owners, the people It follows that the treaties that form the basis for the EU are fundamentally invalid on philosophical grounds and the EU superstate should be considered an illegitimate government against which patriots have a right to rebel.
The EU is a mortal threat to the civil liberties of those who live under it. It is currently trying to impose on those member states, like Britain, whose citizens currently have a right to trial-by-jury, a legal system known as Corpus Juris - a judicial system under which Trial by Jury and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty will be abolished. The EU is trying to extend the preposterously strict and anti-free speech hate crimes laws of Germany, a product of that nation’s unique and horrifying history, to all the other nations. It would like to make such acts as "disparaging" another religion illegal. Magazines like this one are probably already in violation of the law in some member states and could soon be illegal in the whole Union. Thank God, I must say, we are Americans. Almost needless to say, like all other non-democratic governments the EU has no respect whatsoever for gun rights. It is trying to impose a requirement that communications providers snoop on their customers’ communications and store them indefinitely for police use. It is trying to abolish Europe’s network of extradition laws. It is trying to create a central register of "troublemakers" called the Schengen Information Registry which will be used to deny demonstrators freedom of movement between member states.
The fundamental form of the political order that the EU is trying to impose can be described as soft totalitarianism. Soft totalitarianism shares with the various forms of "hard" totalitarianism that have been tried (fascism, nazism, communism) the aspiration of total government control over the life of its citizens. But soft totalitarianism does this by means of bribery (i.e. the welfare state) and bureaucracy, rather than by means of concentration camps and the knock on the door at 3 AM. Those who would scoff at this, I challenge to name one thing that the EU is not trying to regulate. This is an entity that regulates how curved a banana can be.
The bureaucracy of the EU has a well-earned reputation for heavy-handedness, arrogance, incompetence, and deafness to the public. The European Commission is seriously corrupt. So much so, in fact, that in the Spring of 1999 the entire commission had to resign due to corruption charges. After this, of course, many of them kept on working for the EU in other posts. The Brussels headquarters has become a feather bed for the unelectable political cronies of all the member states.
There should be no mystery why the EU is the way it is: most continental European states have no indigenous traditions of democracy. What democracy they have was imposed at the point of American bayonets. Or if they do have a democratic tradition, it is one of unstable, ineffective democracies that destroy themselves. Since one of the fundamental requirements of a viable democracy is the rule of law, it comes as no surprise that the EU is utterly lacking in this quality. It compiles governing statutes that run to thousands of pages, and then casually flouts them for brazen political reasons. For example, it established elaborate convergence criteria for national debt levels of member states being admitted to the European Monetary Union (an institutional arrangement that led the way to the euro) and then ignored them in order to get Germany, Belgium and Italy in. And the supposed independence of the European Central Bank crumbled when the French government demanded a special say over things.
The cultural agenda of the EU is to liquidate the sense of national identity in its member states and replace it with enthusiasm for "Europe." But not Europe as a meaningful pan-European culture in its own right, Europe as a bloodless bureaucratic construct. As a result, emotional attachment to this new superstate is weak. The EU's own surveys show that only a tiny minority (5%) of the EU's inhabitants consider themselves essentially "European" in identity, 85% instead viewing their nation as their sole or principal affiliation. As the EU survey ruefully admits, "a sense of sharing a common identity does not appear to have become more widespread over the years."
Tony Blair, whom Margaret Thatcher rightly described as animated by "a doomed ambition to rule Europe," would like to be the first president of a united Europe. In pursuit of this ambition, he has, to be perfectly blunt, become the greatest traitor in the history of Britain, selling out to foreigners contemptuous of Britain’s blood-bought political values not just her secrets or her interests but her very sovereignty. He has almost certainly made a private deal with the rest of the EU to be given this post in exchange for eventually submitting Britain to the euro. Margaret Thatcher’s greatest regret, she has said, is that she allowed the EU to acquire too much power. Americans should consider the threat to Britain as a threat to themselves, as the EU, with its incoherent but lethally mischievous foreign policy, is a threat to the special relationship between America and its most loyal ally. The European Union, by funding the Palestinian Authority, has directly and knowingly financed terrorism. Its member states continue to trade with Iraq, Libya, Cuba, and other nations implicated in the support of terror.
It is a distinct possibility that, in the long run, the EU will not be content with governing only Europe. Because of its lack of respect for, or foundation in, real concrete European identity, it is quite capable of redefining itself at some point to embrace the nations at its fringe, like North Africa, and then amorphously expanding to include them. Naturally, anyone who opposes this will be labeled a racist. The EU is quite plausibly the nucleus of an aspiring soft-totalitarian world state; it is in fact far more likely to fulfil this role than the justly-despised UN. I apologize if this sounds alarmist, but history clearly teaches us to think ahead to the logical implications of things that are just beginning.
Fortunately, there are signs that Europe is awakening to the monster in its midst. A number of right-wing politicians like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (closest American equivalent: Ross Perot) are actively fighting to curb the EU. Poll evidence regularly indicates that a narrow majority of British voters now favors outright withdrawal from the European Union under certain circumstances and 60% favor leaving the EU if the alternative is joining the euro. A majority of citizens in eight of the European Union's 15 member states are dissatisfied with the way the EU is progressing towards closer unity. Unfortunately, the welfare machine constructed to narcotize European electorates after WWII produces a far more passive electorate than in the US, far more used to being fed faits accomplis by their political masters so long as the public teat keeps giving.
So what’s the solution to the EU? Simply disband it. Let the nations of Western and Central Europe engage in free trade with one another. That’s it. For once, a complex problem has a simple solution.
Abolish the European Union
Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com
June 5, 2002
AMERICANS SUFFER FROM A CURIOUS DELUSION:
Reading their newspapers and perusing their atlases, they continue to believe that such geographical entities as France, England, Italy and Germany are nations. But in fact they are, or more accurately are rapidly becoming, mere provinces of the Holy Belgian Empire: the European Union (EU). This empire has been getting continually more malignant for years without attracting significant conservative opposition on this side of the Atlantic. But American conservatives should realize that it represents the European manifestation of the odious ideology of globalism, or the liquidation of nations. It should therefore be abolished forthwith.
The EU seems to have a unique talent for bringing out the worst in its member states. It is like the universal alloy of medieval alchemy: a mixture of all metals that turns out to have the liabilities of each and the virtues of none. Each of its member states has its own dishonorable reasons for participating in it.
For example, one motivating factor behind the ongoing attempt of the EU to become a superstate is the colossal unresolved guilt felt by Germany about her Nazi past. Germans would very much like to abolish Germany as a nation and declare themselves citizens of "Europe" so that their consciences wouldn’t have to bear the burden of being Germans. After having tried to liquidate the other nations of Europe by the sword twice in one century, they are now trying it a third time to weasel out of their well-deserved guilt over the first two. It is an utter scandal that nations like Britain, France, and soon Poland, which sacrificed millions of lives fighting German aggression, are being asked to liquidate their nationhood to expiate German crimes.
Another motivating factor behind the EU is the determination of French bureaucrats to rule Europe. France, because of her history, the structure of her government, and her educational system, produces the most ambitious bureaucrats in the world. Her tradition of dirigisme or state-directed capitalism is precisely suited to present world economic conditions, in which competitive pressures make expanding socialism impossible but the inexorable will of the state to grow has not gone away. They are convinced that the expanded powers of the EU will by nature fall into their lap, the Germans being too shy about asserting their power, the British not being statist by instinct, the Italians being too disorganized, and everyone else being too small.
Those Italians who like the EU like it because it absolves them of the need to get their own national act together and fix the most chaotic government and economy in Europe. Rather than fixing their own budget deficits to save the ever-falling lira, they adopt the euro. Rather than fixing their own government, they prefer to sign away their sovereignty and with it, the ability of future generations of Italians to be masters of their own political destiny. The idea of an Italy governed in all essentials by foreigners in Brussels doesn’t seem to scare them or bother their national pride at all.
Other nations, like Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, have knuckled under to the EU essentially on a basis of bribery. They have been paid billions in subsidies to support obsolescent farming sectors in exchange for compliant votes to expand EU powers. It is a classic case, writ large, of the old warning about selling one’s freedom in exchange for welfare.
The other openly admitted motivation for the EU is to create a political entity large enough to blunt "American hegemony." Given that it is US hegemony over Europe since WWII that has given the continent the greatest peace and prosperity it has known in the 20th century, this is for a start monumentally ungrateful. Given that Europe cannot even deal with local crises like the wars of the Yugoslav succession without American help, it is pathetic. Despite all talk of a common foreign policy, the minute bullets start to fly, pronouncements of European unity vanish and the member states go their separate ways. And what wonderful geopolitical agenda does Europe intend to pursue once it stands tall next to America? What terrible harm at our hands does it propose to rectify? No one has answered this question because frankly, the motivation here is pure ego, leavened only by the cynicism that passes for political sophistication in Europe. Fortunately, Europe is unlikely to ever match American military power, since it cannot afford to match our defense budget and maintain its bloated welfare states. This is not even to mention our 40-year technological head start; the European armies, with the limited exception of the Americanized but very small British military, are perfectly nice 1960s-era militaries, a joke compared to our Star Wars forces. All of Europe put together cannot field a single state-of-the-art stealth aircraft.
The other great aim of EU supporters is that it be their last chance to salvage the statist, over-regulated, socialistic economic policies that have been pushed to the wall by the worldwide free-market revival of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It is no accident that the movement to turn the EU from a free-trade area to a superstate rose with this free-market revival. Their essential premise is that these failed policies will work if the political unit of their operation is large enough. Naturally, this is absurd: the Soviet Union had nearly 300 million people and couldn’t make socialism work. The justification for this claim is the idea that there is no real superiority to free-market policies and that these policies have only been offering them competition because they are embodied in the United States, which uses its vast size to bully other nations into adopting them. (I have discussed the tendency of the world’s losers to see their self-inflicted problems as caused by America in another article.) So if the EU is large enough, it will be able to sustain these discredited ideas by hiding behind a protectionist shield. They will of course eventually discover that this won’t work, that mistakes are mistakes regardless of scale, but the attempt could doom a generation of Europeans to continuing economic sclerosis.
Some examples of the dirigiste economic policies of EU nations:
High taxes on everything from incomes to retail goods. High social charges on employers. Legally-entrenched labor union power. Laws against firing people, which just cause employers not to hire them in the first place. Massive subsidies for obsolescent industries like agriculture and steel. Cozy cartels to restrict competition and divide up markets. Massive government intervention in business decisions. Outright government ownership of sectors of the economy. Anti-business cultural attitudes. Protectionism against American and Asian goods.
There is no meaningful doubt that the nations of the EU pay a high price for its dirigiste practices. For the last decade, the EU’s unemployment rate has averaged roughly double that of the United States. Since 1980, the US has created 30 million new private-sector jobs; the European Union a net of zero. (Source: National Center for Policy Analysis).
Fortunately one of the saving graces of Europe has traditionally been competition between governments. For example, the most economically free nation in Europe (thanks to Margaret Thatcher, not the current Labor government) is currently Britain, which has been attracting investment away from more regulated economies in Europe as a result. The French fume about this and call it "social dumping." British workers call it an unemployment rate far below that of France. The EU would like to end this ability of nations to compete by having lighter tax burdens. It would like to "harmonize," as it says in its inimitably dishonest eurobabble, tax rates across nations. It also raises taxes simply by having a budget, which taxpayers of the member states ultimately finance.
Like every undesirable thing in politics, the EU has its own characteristic varieties of sophistry that are used to justify it. The key piece of sophistic reasoning used to justify the European Union is the claim that opposition to the political construct that is the EU constitutes opposition to the existential fact that is Europe. Anyone who opposes expansion of the powers of the EU is tarred as "anti-Europe," which has become an epithet exceeded only by "racist" in its ability to both mean nothing and brand its victim a pariah. But Europeans have been benefiting from their relations with other European countries for millennia without the benefit of this superstate. It is entirely possible, indeed desirable, to be pro-Europe and anti-EU.
Another EU sophism: the benefits of free trade within the EU require its existence. False: all they require is the absence of tariffs between the member states, as the old Common Market, predecessor of the EU, used to provide. The European Union uses the promise of free trade as a tool to bribe the nations to its East to submit to its political control. I am not Polish, but it makes me want to cry to see this proud, nationalistic nation, which has suffered so many cruel affronts to its independence in its history, being prepared for subjugation to Brussels, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic. All the preposterous claims about the economic benefits of membership in the EU crumble on contact with the fact that some of Europe’s most successful economies, like Norway and Switzerland, are outside it, and one of the most successful countries inside the EU, Britain, has the least degree of economic submission to it, having not adopted its currency, the euro.
The lies spouted in favor of the euro are a rich topic in their own right. The fundamental premise underlying the euro is the same bald empirical falsehood that underlies most EU thinking: bigger is better. When it comes to economics, one can compare the success of the currencies of Russia and Singapore, or Brazil and Switzerland, and come to one’s own conclusions. Supposedly, having a common currency is necessary to weld the individual economies of Europe into one big economy. Naturally, since the euro is backed by the sagging over-regulated economies of Continental Europe, it has been sinking relative to the dollar and the pound since it was established. It was issued in 1999 at a value of $1.17; it is now trading at 94 and has been lower. This loss in value is not an abstraction: it has wiped billions off of the value of pension funds, especially German ones, which used to be denominated in the rock-solid mark. Britain, which remains outside the euro, has less inflation, less unemployment, and more growth, than the average of those nations within it. And the euro does not promote foreign investment: in 1999, Britain attracted a grossly disproportionate 40% of all US and Asian investment into the EU.
However smoothly its spokesmen would deny it in public while admitting it in private, the EU is a threat to the national sovereignty of its member states. Sovereignty sounds like an abstraction, but in fact it refers to the ultimate ability of a nation to control its own destiny rather than being dictated to by others. For example, EU laws override the laws made by the parliaments of the member states. This means that the entire body of English common law, for example, a treasury of liberty, which has grown up over nearly a thousand years, is now disposable. The British parliament cannot legislate for its own people without the permission of bureaucrats in Brussels.
The EU is exceptionally dishonest in how it goes about coercing its member states. Its fundamental modus operandi is what has been called "union by stealth," namely the surrender of national sovereignty to the new superstate so gradually that the electorates of the member nations don’t notice until it is too late. Stealth combines with the narcotization of European electorates by bloated welfare states to make this possible. It is the same tactic of "progressive" revolutionaries that we have seen in America: push through fundamental changes not by arguing that they are good, but by pretending that they don’t matter. It is government by anesthesia. The politicians responsible have consistently lied about the nature of the changes they have made. It is well understood that the EU could never survive real democratic debate. Claude Cheysson, the former French Foreign Secretary who subsequently became one of France's European Commissioners, famously observed that the superstate-building Maastricht Treaty could only have been constructed "in the absence of democracy."
Politicians as a class love the EU. It gives them the ability to wield power through insider wheeler-dealing, without the accountability of pesky national electorates or judiciaries.
Leftists especially appreciate its ability to impose laws that would never be passed by their national legislature. The EU is governed by an unelected Commission; the "European Parliament" is an inert joke. The issue is usually fudged by resorting to the kind of technical discussion of the structures of government, rife with meaningless phrases like "pooled sovereignty," that have come to be known as eurobabble, but the blunt fact is, the EU has no democratic legitimacy. The legal basis for the imposition of its laws on its member states is only a series of treaties that they have signed, starting with the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The treaty that contained the fundamental basis for surrender of sovereignty was that of 1972, but this was not given its full force until the treaties of Maastrich of 1993 and Amsterdam in 1997. The fundamental problem with these treaties, as a matter of basic sound political philosophy, is that they surrender or alienate the right of self-government of the nations that sign them. Our Declaration of Independence rightly observes that the right to self-government is "unalienable;" i.e. that no government elected by the people can abolish that right or surrender it to someone else, for the fundamental reason that no government owns the right to self government, but merely holds it in trust temporarily for its owners, the people It follows that the treaties that form the basis for the EU are fundamentally invalid on philosophical grounds and the EU superstate should be considered an illegitimate government against which patriots have a right to rebel.
The EU is a mortal threat to the civil liberties of those who live under it. It is currently trying to impose on those member states, like Britain, whose citizens currently have a right to trial-by-jury, a legal system known as Corpus Juris - a judicial system under which Trial by Jury and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty will be abolished. The EU is trying to extend the preposterously strict and anti-free speech hate crimes laws of Germany, a product of that nation’s unique and horrifying history, to all the other nations. It would like to make such acts as "disparaging" another religion illegal. Magazines like this one are probably already in violation of the law in some member states and could soon be illegal in the whole Union. Thank God, I must say, we are Americans. Almost needless to say, like all other non-democratic governments the EU has no respect whatsoever for gun rights. It is trying to impose a requirement that communications providers snoop on their customers’ communications and store them indefinitely for police use. It is trying to abolish Europe’s network of extradition laws. It is trying to create a central register of "troublemakers" called the Schengen Information Registry which will be used to deny demonstrators freedom of movement between member states.
The fundamental form of the political order that the EU is trying to impose can be described as soft totalitarianism. Soft totalitarianism shares with the various forms of "hard" totalitarianism that have been tried (fascism, nazism, communism) the aspiration of total government control over the life of its citizens. But soft totalitarianism does this by means of bribery (i.e. the welfare state) and bureaucracy, rather than by means of concentration camps and the knock on the door at 3 AM. Those who would scoff at this, I challenge to name one thing that the EU is not trying to regulate. This is an entity that regulates how curved a banana can be.
The bureaucracy of the EU has a well-earned reputation for heavy-handedness, arrogance, incompetence, and deafness to the public. The European Commission is seriously corrupt. So much so, in fact, that in the Spring of 1999 the entire commission had to resign due to corruption charges. After this, of course, many of them kept on working for the EU in other posts. The Brussels headquarters has become a feather bed for the unelectable political cronies of all the member states.
There should be no mystery why the EU is the way it is: most continental European states have no indigenous traditions of democracy. What democracy they have was imposed at the point of American bayonets. Or if they do have a democratic tradition, it is one of unstable, ineffective democracies that destroy themselves. Since one of the fundamental requirements of a viable democracy is the rule of law, it comes as no surprise that the EU is utterly lacking in this quality. It compiles governing statutes that run to thousands of pages, and then casually flouts them for brazen political reasons. For example, it established elaborate convergence criteria for national debt levels of member states being admitted to the European Monetary Union (an institutional arrangement that led the way to the euro) and then ignored them in order to get Germany, Belgium and Italy in. And the supposed independence of the European Central Bank crumbled when the French government demanded a special say over things.
The cultural agenda of the EU is to liquidate the sense of national identity in its member states and replace it with enthusiasm for "Europe." But not Europe as a meaningful pan-European culture in its own right, Europe as a bloodless bureaucratic construct. As a result, emotional attachment to this new superstate is weak. The EU's own surveys show that only a tiny minority (5%) of the EU's inhabitants consider themselves essentially "European" in identity, 85% instead viewing their nation as their sole or principal affiliation. As the EU survey ruefully admits, "a sense of sharing a common identity does not appear to have become more widespread over the years."
Tony Blair, whom Margaret Thatcher rightly described as animated by "a doomed ambition to rule Europe," would like to be the first president of a united Europe. In pursuit of this ambition, he has, to be perfectly blunt, become the greatest traitor in the history of Britain, selling out to foreigners contemptuous of Britain’s blood-bought political values not just her secrets or her interests but her very sovereignty. He has almost certainly made a private deal with the rest of the EU to be given this post in exchange for eventually submitting Britain to the euro. Margaret Thatcher’s greatest regret, she has said, is that she allowed the EU to acquire too much power. Americans should consider the threat to Britain as a threat to themselves, as the EU, with its incoherent but lethally mischievous foreign policy, is a threat to the special relationship between America and its most loyal ally. The European Union, by funding the Palestinian Authority, has directly and knowingly financed terrorism. Its member states continue to trade with Iraq, Libya, Cuba, and other nations implicated in the support of terror.
It is a distinct possibility that, in the long run, the EU will not be content with governing only Europe. Because of its lack of respect for, or foundation in, real concrete European identity, it is quite capable of redefining itself at some point to embrace the nations at its fringe, like North Africa, and then amorphously expanding to include them. Naturally, anyone who opposes this will be labeled a racist. The EU is quite plausibly the nucleus of an aspiring soft-totalitarian world state; it is in fact far more likely to fulfil this role than the justly-despised UN. I apologize if this sounds alarmist, but history clearly teaches us to think ahead to the logical implications of things that are just beginning.
Fortunately, there are signs that Europe is awakening to the monster in its midst. A number of right-wing politicians like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (closest American equivalent: Ross Perot) are actively fighting to curb the EU. Poll evidence regularly indicates that a narrow majority of British voters now favors outright withdrawal from the European Union under certain circumstances and 60% favor leaving the EU if the alternative is joining the euro. A majority of citizens in eight of the European Union's 15 member states are dissatisfied with the way the EU is progressing towards closer unity. Unfortunately, the welfare machine constructed to narcotize European electorates after WWII produces a far more passive electorate than in the US, far more used to being fed faits accomplis by their political masters so long as the public teat keeps giving.
So what’s the solution to the EU? Simply disband it. Let the nations of Western and Central Europe engage in free trade with one another. That’s it. For once, a complex problem has a simple solution.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
German-EU pressure on Jerusalem
The Vatican has its evil eye on Jerusalem! What better place to start their siege against the Holy City than Mt. Zion? Watch for them to fortify their position and launch an all-out attack to undermine Israeli sovereignty, enlisting Jewish traitors and the international community.
It is only a matter of time before the Vatican exercises their evil influences to enforce UN Resolution 181. Will Israel make the most of this grace period, return to God and secure the Jewish homeland or fall prostrate before the Roman EU?
The Vatican's illegitimate claims to Mt. Zion stem from the extorted belief that Jesus' "Last Supper" was held in the Upper Room of the traditional site of King David's Tomb. I am a Christian and trust Jesus held such a meal in Jerusalem, but there is no way to prove it was at such a site and since the bloody Roman Catholic Church states it to be so, I highly doubt it.
Regardless, the allleged "Upper Room" would not be a holy site in light of the New Testament and is never mentioned again after the fact, but the Temple Mount stands alone as "the most holy place." Isn't that what the Vatican is really after? Haven't they coveted the crown of Jerusalem, and its crown jewel - the Temple Mount - since the Crusades? The leopard has not changed its spots!
Some might contend that there isn't sufficient proof that King David (my forefather) is actually buried on Mt. Zion. However, it is a Jewish belief, it is the Jewish homeland, and it isn't necessary for Jews to prove anything to the world, as it is honestly none of their business.
If Israel were wise, they would immediately cut off all negotiations, unequivocally state Jerusalem is not for sale, and threaten any Jew who persists in such an error and grievous sin with expulsion from the Jewish community. It's that serious! Israeli sovereignty is at stake!
Rabbi Avraham Goldstein is leader of the Diaspora Yeshiva (Yeshiva Toras Yisrael) that has been blessed since 1966 to utilize David's Tomb and the building complex on Mt. Zion for religious classes and services. Goldstein is also Chief Rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem, and in agreement with all 14 rabbis in the Old City, is convinced that the Vatican's true intent is to ultimately evict the yeshiva and completely empty the complex of Jews.
"Jerusalem is in danger," the rabbi warned his American audience, as reported by The Jewish Voice and Opinion, exposing the disturbing fact that the European Union has joined dark forces with the Palestinian Authority to put undue pressure upon Israel to disengage from half the Holy City and cede the Eastern half to the Muslim Arabs.
How can Israel live with half a heart? Why permit occult designs to forge Jerusalem's future? Why sanction secular politicians to handle such holy issues? Why trust an unholy trinity composed of "Jewish Catholic Knights" (Gary Krupp and David Rosen) and the poisonous Vatican plant (David Bartholdy), Jannes and Jambres and Korah, to have any say in what belongs in the court of the Sanhedrin?
If Israel prostitutes itself and cedes this strategic part of Jerusalem to the Vatican, they will have sold out Jews and Christians, since Christians would have to obtain permission from the Catholic Church to hold services at the site. Why exalt the Roman Catholic Church to such a lofty position? Why fall for the attempt to trump King David at the site or supercede him by towering over his tomb, a Catholic Church over and above his dead body!
As Barry Chamish has duly noted, the German-built Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion (next to the yeshiva) is an exact replica of the German Church that crowned emperors: Charlemagne's Aachen Cathedral. Can't we see what spirit is at work here and what plans are in store? UN Resolution 181 demands Jerusalem become a separate, international city that will amount to a long-held Catholic dream of Jerusalem serving as the capital of their Crusader-Kingdom.
The German-Jesuit powers that be are busy reconstructing Europe into the final revival of the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation that Daniel foresaw wreaking havoc on the Middle East and Jeremiah foresaw affecting the whole world (all of Jacob, the unprecedented Time of Jacob's Trouble).
What offer could convince the religious authorities to abandon claims to Mt. Zion? Would a trade-off work? Not of empty synagoges in Spain, but how about international guarantees of protection during the construction of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount? What if Israel were offered acceptance of full Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, complete with the restoration of the sacrificial system and Temple worship?
Wouldn't the religious prefer such freedom of religion over secular Israeli sovereignty that continues to despise the Jewish heritage and dismantle the Jewish homeland? Not that Israel couldn't immediately restore the Temple Mount to Jewish hands without worldly approval or international "peacekeeping" support, and that would be preferable but it's unlikely.
Will the Israeli authorities fall for Europe's BIG LIE of "peace and security" (and religious freedom and independence upon the Temple Mount) and enable them to station troops around Jerusalem in a clever and deceitful perversion of Bamidbar Rabbah 1,3:
If the nations of the world had only known how much they needed the Temple, they would have surrounded it with armed fortresses to protect it.
Doesn't Zechariah warn of such Roman wolves in sheep's clothing? Must Jerusalem suffer a brutal betrayal and rape, with the violent eviction of Jews from half of the Holy City, all of it under brazen Gentile occupation? Doesn't Daniel warn of Europe's imminent wannabe divine emperor (promoted by the pagan pope) who would leave his designated place at Mt. Zion and seize and pollute the Temple with his unclean presence, slaughtering all who got in his way?
"Why will you die O House of Israel?" If only Israel and Judah would return and trust in God, none of this reliance on foreign promises (that will prove to be worthless, once again) would be necessary. At least during Jerusalem's 3 1/2 years of foreign occupation, captive Israel will be reassured by a Davidic messenger in the spirit of Elijah, like an angel of the LORD (Zech. 12:8), that our God will come and save us and cleanse the Temple and liberate Jerusalem.
For Zion's Sake,
David Ben-Ariel
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Nothing new under the sun... Church politics
"We ought to be ASHAMED of the pitiful, puny, weak, feeble work that has split up and divided brethren, reached but so very FEW with the message, with almost no real conversions! All this, while leaders desiring power to RULE send out misleading, exaggerated, deceiving statements designed to convince tithe-payers that "the work is progressing." What a mockery! What a tragedy! What a pity!"
Does this statement reflect the condition of God's Church today? You might be shocked to learn it was published in the February, 1939 edition of "The Good News of the Kingdom" and written by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Does this statement reflect the condition of God's Church today? You might be shocked to learn it was published in the February, 1939 edition of "The Good News of the Kingdom" and written by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Radio Church of God - Fundamentals of Belief
Radio Church of God
Fundamentals of Belief
1. We believe in ONE GOD, eternally existing in the heavens, who is a Spirit, a personal Being of supreme intelligence, knowledge, love, justice, power, and authority, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that in them is, and the source of life.
2. We believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ, the divine Son of the living God, begotten of the Holy Spirit, born in the human flesh of the virgin Mary, and that He is true God and true man, that God created all things by Jesus Christ, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of God and of Christ Jesus; the power of God with which all things were created and made; that thru the Holy Spirit, God is everywhere present; that the Holy Spirit is divine Love, Faith, Understanding, Power, Joy and all the attributes of God -- the Spirit of life eternal.
4. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are God's revelation and complete expressed will to man, inspired in thought and word, and infallible in the original writings; that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and in life, and the source of Truth. We believe all teachings contrary to the Holy Bible are false. We accept the Bible alone, and not the Bible and "something else."
5. We believe Satan is a personality, a spirit being; and as the Devil is the adversary of God and the children of God; and that he now has dominion over the world which God allowed him for a definite "week" of seven thousand-year days -- the first six of which are his six working days for his labor of deception, leading the children of Adam into rejection of God's law and therefore rebellion against God -- the seventh thousand-year day of which will be the DAY OF THE LORD (the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God), during which Satan will be forced to rest from his work of deception while Christ rules the nations of the earth. Satan's power is merely to influence and lead, not to force men arbitrarily against their will. He has ruled by deception with the aid of a host of demons which are rebellious angels, spirit beings, who have followed Satan in his rebellion.
6. We believe man was created in the image of God, formed of flesh, which is material substance, living by the breath of life, and is wholly mortal, subject to corruption and decay, without possibility of eternal life inherent in himself, except as the gift of God under God's terms and conditions as expressed in the Bible; that God placed before the first man, Adam, his free choice of eternal life through obedience to God's commandments, or death through sin, that Adam sinned, thereby incurring the death penalty without having received eternal life, having yielded to the temptation of Satan, and that the sinful fleshly nature with its sensual desires and its pride passed on all men, so that all become sinners, thus bringing upon themselves the penalty, death.
7. We believe sin is the transgression of the Law; that the Law is spiritual, perfect, holy, just, and good, summed up in the word "LOVE;" that it involves the two great principles of love to God, and love to neighbor, and that the Ten Commandments compose the ten points of that Law, and that the breaking of only one point makes one guilty of sin. We believe this fundamental spiritual Law reveals to us the only right and true way to life -- the only possible way of happiness, peace and joy; that it has existed from Adam, is immutable and binding thru-out eternity; and that all unhappiness, misery, poverty, anguish, and woe has come from its transgression.
8. We believe God so loved this world of helpless sinners that He GAVE His only begotten Son, who, though in all points tempted as we are, lived without sin in the human flesh, and died for us as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice thus making it legally possible for man's sins to be forgiven and for God to release him from their penalty, since Jesus, whose life was of greater value than the sum-total of all other human lives (because it was He who brought them into being) has thus paid the penalty in man's stead.
9. We believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead after His body reposed three days and three nights in the grave, thus making immortality possible for mortal man; that He thereafter ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father, as our High Priest and Advocate.
10. We believe that all who truly repent of their sins in full surrender and willing obedience to God, accepting Jesus Christ as personal Saviour in faith believing, are forgiven their sins by an act of divine GRACE, justified, pardoned from the penalty of past sins, reconciled to God, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which literally comes and abides within, supplying the divine LOVE which alone can fulfill the law and produce righteousness; and thus are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ which is the true CHURCH OF GOD. We believe in a true change in life and attitude and that only those who have the indwelling presence of, and are being led by the Holy Spirit are Christ's. Bible evidence of being thus baptized by the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit in one's life. (See Matthew 7:20; Galatians 5:22-23). "Manifestations" regulated by I Corinthians 14.
11. We believe in TWO ORDINANCES for this age; water baptism by immersion, into Jesus Christ (not a denomination) for the remission of sins, following genuine repentance; and the Lord's Supper as continuation of the Passover, observed at night on the anniversary of the death of our Saviour, the 14th of Abib.
12. We believe that from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. On this day we must rest from our labors following the commands and example of the apostle Paul, the New Testament Church, and Jesus.
13. We believe the seven Annual Holy days as given to ancient Israel by God through Moses, kept by Christ, the Apostle Paul, and the New Testament Church, as evidenced by the books of Acts and Corinthians, are to be kept today. The sacrifices, which were added, are not to be kept on those days nor any other day of the year. During the spring festival of seven days, leavening in any form is not to be eaten, as Paul instructed the Corinthians.
14. We believe that certain foods called "unclean" are not to be eaten under any circumstances as they are harmful to body and health and also violate our bodies which are called the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.
15. We believe that Christian disciples of Christ are forbidden by Him and the commandments of God to kill, or in any manner directly or indirectly to take human life; by whatsoever means; we believe that bearing arms is directly contrary to this fundamental doctrine of our belief; we therefore conscientiously refuse to bear arms or to come under the military authority.
16. We believe the PROMISES were made to Abraham and his "seed," Christ, and that the Covenants (including the New Covenant), and the promises pertain alone to ISRAEL. That our white, English-speaking peoples of today are enjoying the national phases of the promises -- that of MATERIAL blessings -- called the "Birthright," which was handed down thru the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, whose descendants we are; but that the "Scepter" -- the promise of kings, and the SPIRITUAL phase of the promises, including Christ and salvation thru Him -- was given to and shall not depart from Judah of whom are the race we know today as the Jews. We believe eternal life is God's gift resting upon the promises made to Abraham and his "seed," Christ, designating this earth (made new), not heaven, as our eternal home and reward. That salvation is thru Christ alone, and not inherited thru the Birthright (right of birth) and that salvation is freely open to Gentiles who, thru Christ, become Abraham's children and are adopted into the family of Israel and become heirs according to the promises.
17. We believe God's purpose is the creation of high spiritual character, and therefore the very object of redemption is to rescue mankind from SIN (transgressing the fundamental spiritual law), and its resulting degradation, misery and unhappiness; and that the object of the present dispensation is to fit those whom God now calls, with their consent, thru a life of trial and test and overcoming sin, growing in grace and knowledge to possess the KINGDOM and to become kings and priests reigning with Christ after His return. We believe Christians must therefore live a clean, pure, holy life by faith according to the Bible standard, with constant Bible study and surrendered prayer, trusting God in and for all things, that yielding to pride and lust of the flesh is sin, that God hears and literally answers the believing prayers of His children who keep His commandments -- according as He has promised in His Word, including physical healing, deliverance from temptation and trouble, providing the way for every actual need.
18. We believe the Church is merely that body of believers who have, and are being led by the Holy Spirit; that the true Church of God is not a denomination; that the inspired name for this spiritual organism is "THE CHURCH OF GOD;" that the Bible name for each local assembly is "THE CHURCH OF GOD," and, considered collectively, "The Churches of God;" that the mission of the Church in this time is to preach the Gospel (Good News) of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD, (with special stress on the warning to America and Britain of the prophecies pertaining to them), into all nations as a witness, reaching the vast multitudes with power and conviction; to reconcile to God, and to save, thru Christ, such people as are now called; and to minister to the Church of God, strengthening and edifying the brethren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
19. We believe the only hope of eternal life for mortal man lies in the resurrection; thru the indwelling (now) of the Holy Spirit; and that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and unjust -- the just to eternal life as spirit beings upon earth, the unjust to receive the second and final death in hell (Gehenna) fire in which they shall perish in eternal punishment.
20. We believe in the personal, visible, premillennial, imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ to rule the nations of earth as King of Kings, and to continue His priestly office as Lord of Lords; that at that time He will sit upon the throne of David restoring all things during a thousand year reign upon earth and establish the KINGDOM OF GOD upon earth forever.
Fundamentals of Belief
1. We believe in ONE GOD, eternally existing in the heavens, who is a Spirit, a personal Being of supreme intelligence, knowledge, love, justice, power, and authority, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that in them is, and the source of life.
2. We believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ, the divine Son of the living God, begotten of the Holy Spirit, born in the human flesh of the virgin Mary, and that He is true God and true man, that God created all things by Jesus Christ, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of God and of Christ Jesus; the power of God with which all things were created and made; that thru the Holy Spirit, God is everywhere present; that the Holy Spirit is divine Love, Faith, Understanding, Power, Joy and all the attributes of God -- the Spirit of life eternal.
4. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are God's revelation and complete expressed will to man, inspired in thought and word, and infallible in the original writings; that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and in life, and the source of Truth. We believe all teachings contrary to the Holy Bible are false. We accept the Bible alone, and not the Bible and "something else."
5. We believe Satan is a personality, a spirit being; and as the Devil is the adversary of God and the children of God; and that he now has dominion over the world which God allowed him for a definite "week" of seven thousand-year days -- the first six of which are his six working days for his labor of deception, leading the children of Adam into rejection of God's law and therefore rebellion against God -- the seventh thousand-year day of which will be the DAY OF THE LORD (the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God), during which Satan will be forced to rest from his work of deception while Christ rules the nations of the earth. Satan's power is merely to influence and lead, not to force men arbitrarily against their will. He has ruled by deception with the aid of a host of demons which are rebellious angels, spirit beings, who have followed Satan in his rebellion.
6. We believe man was created in the image of God, formed of flesh, which is material substance, living by the breath of life, and is wholly mortal, subject to corruption and decay, without possibility of eternal life inherent in himself, except as the gift of God under God's terms and conditions as expressed in the Bible; that God placed before the first man, Adam, his free choice of eternal life through obedience to God's commandments, or death through sin, that Adam sinned, thereby incurring the death penalty without having received eternal life, having yielded to the temptation of Satan, and that the sinful fleshly nature with its sensual desires and its pride passed on all men, so that all become sinners, thus bringing upon themselves the penalty, death.
7. We believe sin is the transgression of the Law; that the Law is spiritual, perfect, holy, just, and good, summed up in the word "LOVE;" that it involves the two great principles of love to God, and love to neighbor, and that the Ten Commandments compose the ten points of that Law, and that the breaking of only one point makes one guilty of sin. We believe this fundamental spiritual Law reveals to us the only right and true way to life -- the only possible way of happiness, peace and joy; that it has existed from Adam, is immutable and binding thru-out eternity; and that all unhappiness, misery, poverty, anguish, and woe has come from its transgression.
8. We believe God so loved this world of helpless sinners that He GAVE His only begotten Son, who, though in all points tempted as we are, lived without sin in the human flesh, and died for us as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice thus making it legally possible for man's sins to be forgiven and for God to release him from their penalty, since Jesus, whose life was of greater value than the sum-total of all other human lives (because it was He who brought them into being) has thus paid the penalty in man's stead.
9. We believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead after His body reposed three days and three nights in the grave, thus making immortality possible for mortal man; that He thereafter ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father, as our High Priest and Advocate.
10. We believe that all who truly repent of their sins in full surrender and willing obedience to God, accepting Jesus Christ as personal Saviour in faith believing, are forgiven their sins by an act of divine GRACE, justified, pardoned from the penalty of past sins, reconciled to God, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which literally comes and abides within, supplying the divine LOVE which alone can fulfill the law and produce righteousness; and thus are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ which is the true CHURCH OF GOD. We believe in a true change in life and attitude and that only those who have the indwelling presence of, and are being led by the Holy Spirit are Christ's. Bible evidence of being thus baptized by the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit in one's life. (See Matthew 7:20; Galatians 5:22-23). "Manifestations" regulated by I Corinthians 14.
11. We believe in TWO ORDINANCES for this age; water baptism by immersion, into Jesus Christ (not a denomination) for the remission of sins, following genuine repentance; and the Lord's Supper as continuation of the Passover, observed at night on the anniversary of the death of our Saviour, the 14th of Abib.
12. We believe that from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. On this day we must rest from our labors following the commands and example of the apostle Paul, the New Testament Church, and Jesus.
13. We believe the seven Annual Holy days as given to ancient Israel by God through Moses, kept by Christ, the Apostle Paul, and the New Testament Church, as evidenced by the books of Acts and Corinthians, are to be kept today. The sacrifices, which were added, are not to be kept on those days nor any other day of the year. During the spring festival of seven days, leavening in any form is not to be eaten, as Paul instructed the Corinthians.
14. We believe that certain foods called "unclean" are not to be eaten under any circumstances as they are harmful to body and health and also violate our bodies which are called the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.
15. We believe that Christian disciples of Christ are forbidden by Him and the commandments of God to kill, or in any manner directly or indirectly to take human life; by whatsoever means; we believe that bearing arms is directly contrary to this fundamental doctrine of our belief; we therefore conscientiously refuse to bear arms or to come under the military authority.
16. We believe the PROMISES were made to Abraham and his "seed," Christ, and that the Covenants (including the New Covenant), and the promises pertain alone to ISRAEL. That our white, English-speaking peoples of today are enjoying the national phases of the promises -- that of MATERIAL blessings -- called the "Birthright," which was handed down thru the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, whose descendants we are; but that the "Scepter" -- the promise of kings, and the SPIRITUAL phase of the promises, including Christ and salvation thru Him -- was given to and shall not depart from Judah of whom are the race we know today as the Jews. We believe eternal life is God's gift resting upon the promises made to Abraham and his "seed," Christ, designating this earth (made new), not heaven, as our eternal home and reward. That salvation is thru Christ alone, and not inherited thru the Birthright (right of birth) and that salvation is freely open to Gentiles who, thru Christ, become Abraham's children and are adopted into the family of Israel and become heirs according to the promises.
17. We believe God's purpose is the creation of high spiritual character, and therefore the very object of redemption is to rescue mankind from SIN (transgressing the fundamental spiritual law), and its resulting degradation, misery and unhappiness; and that the object of the present dispensation is to fit those whom God now calls, with their consent, thru a life of trial and test and overcoming sin, growing in grace and knowledge to possess the KINGDOM and to become kings and priests reigning with Christ after His return. We believe Christians must therefore live a clean, pure, holy life by faith according to the Bible standard, with constant Bible study and surrendered prayer, trusting God in and for all things, that yielding to pride and lust of the flesh is sin, that God hears and literally answers the believing prayers of His children who keep His commandments -- according as He has promised in His Word, including physical healing, deliverance from temptation and trouble, providing the way for every actual need.
18. We believe the Church is merely that body of believers who have, and are being led by the Holy Spirit; that the true Church of God is not a denomination; that the inspired name for this spiritual organism is "THE CHURCH OF GOD;" that the Bible name for each local assembly is "THE CHURCH OF GOD," and, considered collectively, "The Churches of God;" that the mission of the Church in this time is to preach the Gospel (Good News) of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD, (with special stress on the warning to America and Britain of the prophecies pertaining to them), into all nations as a witness, reaching the vast multitudes with power and conviction; to reconcile to God, and to save, thru Christ, such people as are now called; and to minister to the Church of God, strengthening and edifying the brethren in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
19. We believe the only hope of eternal life for mortal man lies in the resurrection; thru the indwelling (now) of the Holy Spirit; and that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and unjust -- the just to eternal life as spirit beings upon earth, the unjust to receive the second and final death in hell (Gehenna) fire in which they shall perish in eternal punishment.
20. We believe in the personal, visible, premillennial, imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ to rule the nations of earth as King of Kings, and to continue His priestly office as Lord of Lords; that at that time He will sit upon the throne of David restoring all things during a thousand year reign upon earth and establish the KINGDOM OF GOD upon earth forever.
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