Apocalypse
Now:
The Planet
Ravaged by Disasters and Deception
For
years, we have provided ample proof that the upheavals the world is
experiencing these days are connected with the prophecies about the end of this
age. All the signs that Jesus Christ
spoke about in connection with those prophecies have come to pass exactly as He
said they would.
One such prophecy is found in the
book of Revelation. What is remarkable
about this prophecy is that God relates it to human activity, more specifically
to human sins. Here it is in its
context. Bear in mind that Revelation
prophecies are highly symbolic. Even so,
it is easy to relate it to our time, in particular verses
Men were scorched with great heat, suffered pains and sores, yet what did they do? They did not repent of their deeds but blasphemed God even more. These things are already happening before our very eyes, however, because humans do not repent of their deeds, God is about to unleash His wrath upon this world with even more devastating plagues: islands will disappear, mountains will be flattened, and men will fall under great hail from heaven.
Two decades ago, when we perceived that biblical prophecies were being ignored, we began publishing The Christian Herald in an attempt to bring knowledge of these prophecies to the attention of world leaders – religious and secular – and their people. Yet instead of taking note of the danger that this world is blindly heading into, we encountered a never ending chain of problems and obstacles from the same people. Even now, when it has become clear that humanity is on the edge of the precipice, religious leaders are still engaged in pathetic attempts to obscure and belittle our work. Have a look at this.
“Jury out on climate change?” ”THE drought
this year has been particularly cruel in the country. Not simply because this
is the seventh year and most farmers are broke, but because there were good
early rains. Hopes were high, but nothing followed.
The climate has changed, but Australia has long known terrible
droughts. I suspect it was not only
distance that precluded a large population before European settlement, when
only a few hundred thousand Aborigines had the skill to survive our harsh
environment. But is human industrial activity making the weather worse?
Are we
on the brink of a man-made catastrophe? Could we do anything to change global
weather patterns, even in the unlikely eventuality that the Great Powers agreed
and society could afford it? These are
big and different questions.
I am a
believer in the Catholic understanding of faith and morals. I reserve my leaps
of faith for religion: e.g.the Incarnation and Redemption.
I am
certainly sceptical about extravagant claims of impending man-made climatic
catastrophes, because the evidence is insufficient. Climate change has always occurred.
Scientific debate is not decided by any changing consensus, even if it is
endorsed by public opinion. Science is a
process of experimentation, debate and respect for all the evidence. Often it's
dealing with uncertainties rather than certainties, so its forecasts and
predictions can be spectacularly wrong.
In the 1970s, some scientists were predicting a new ice age because of
global cooling. Today, other scientists are predicting an apocalypse because of
global warming. It's no disrespect to science, or scientists, to take these
latest claims with a grain of salt.
Uncertainties
on climate change abound. Temperatures in Greenland were higher in the 1940s
than they are today, and the Kangerlussuaq glacier is growing in size, not
shrinking.
[Wrong!
The glaciers in Greenland did not melt in the 1940’s at the speed they do now].
The
journal American Scientist recently published a study on the melting glacier on
Mt Kilimanjaro.
The study confirms that air temperature around the glacier continues to be
below freezing, so it's not melting because of global warming. Instead, the melt pattern of the glacier is
consistent with the effect of direct radiant heat from the sun. Human activity
can't be blamed for that. The day before
Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were jointly
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, England's High Court ruled that DVDs of Gore's
documentary An Inconvenient Truth could not be shown in schools without
teachers providing additional materials to correct nine "significant
errors'' in the film.
Among
them were claims that Pacific atolls were being evacuated because of rising sea
levels, and that polar bears were drowning because they had to swim as far as 100km to find ice. The court found
there was "no evidence'' to support either claim. [Wrong
again! Some islands have shrunk in size,and many people have lost their homes.
Tuvalu is one of them].
Some
allege preachers raise their voices when they have a weak point. It has never
worked for me, and it doesn't work in science or politics. (Cardinal Pell, The Sunday Telegraph, Oct 28, 2007).
This is
none other than the head of the Catholic Church in Australia. He reckons that human beings have had nothing
to do with the current climate change.
More than that: he denies that there is even a global warming. The current worldwide increase in
tempereature, he says, is nothinmg more than a natural cycle the likes of which
this world has experienced many times in its long history. If Cardinal Pell had wanted to be properly
informed and kept up to date with the latest scientific discoveries, he would
have read none other than the very newspaper that publishes his
concoctions.
“Turning up the heat” “LOS ANGELES: Climate models predicting the Earth's
temperature could rise up to 5.6C by the end of the century may have
underestimated the increase by as much as 2.3C.
Research at the University of
California Berkeley suggested that, as carbon dioxide emissions heat the globe,
hotter oceans and soils would release stored carbon dioxide, kicking up the
thermostat. "We've probably
underestimated the problem," University of California Berkeley ecologist
John Harte said yesterday.
Current
models predict a doubling of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which at
current emissions rates should happen within the next 50 years. That would
raise global temperatures between 1.5C and 4.5C. The Berkeley lab predicted a doubling of
carbon dioxide production would mean more of the gas would be released
naturally, pushing the global thermostat up by between 1.6C and 6.2C. By the end of the century, the rise could be
as much as 7.8C. "It's a vicious
cycle where more warming causes more greenhouse gas emissions, and more
greenhouse gas emissions cause more warming," biogeochemist Margaret Torn
said. "That could have serious
consequences both for human populations and biodiversity." Global temperatures fluctuate naturally with
the intensity of sunlight hitting the Earth.
The
scientists studied past warm periods in a 360,000-year climate record contained
in Antarctic ice cores.
Using
air bubbles trapped in the ice, they estimated past global temperatures using
the ratios of oxygen isotopes and deuterium, which vary with the
temperature. They then checked the
effect of hotter temperatures on the level of carbon dioxide and methane in the
bubbles. They found that, as
temperatures rose, the production of two greenhouse gases increased more than
would be expected from just the increased sunlight that initiated the
warming. "The extra greenhouse gas
emissions that occurred would lead to a significant amount of extra warming in
the future," Ms Torn said. (Betsy Mason, The Daily Telegraph, May 24, 2006).
Cardinal Pell preferred the
opinion of a judge to that of scientists.
And to make sure his message is understood in the right places, he sunk his boot into what he called
“allege preachers”. What he does not
know, or does not want to admit, is that virtually all of God’s prophets were
“allege preachers” for their contemporaries, including Jesus Christ. (See the article, “Why the prophets of
God have never been welcomed by this world” elsewhere in this edition). If it were not for these “alege
preachers”, we would have no Bible today, and the world would not know where it
stands in relation to its Creator.
Let us now look more closely at the scientific evidence and see whether the
jury is indeed still out on climate change.
The same
day Cardinal Pell published his article, Chanel Nine television network,
presented two documentaries on global warming in its “60 Minutes” program. One
from the Greenland, and the other from California. Here are parts of their transcripts. First the one from Greenland.
The Greenland’s
dissapesring ice cap “The
Greenland’s ice cap is melting at an astonishing speed … even
as we watch, it is changing. Huge ice
blocks are collapsing into the sea. “The
disappearing ice is a weather vein, proof that global warming is right here,
right now.” “In the past 30 years,
temperatures have increased by 1.5 degrees, more than double the world average
… High up into the mountain … a glacier has retreated in the last ten years by
almost 100 metres. You are really
experiencing global warming. You see it happening … “When you fly north and over Greenland’s vast
ice cap, the downside of global warming becomes frighteningly clear. Eighty per cent is still under ice. If it were all to melt, sea levels around the world would rise by a
disastrous seven metres. That thow is
already under way, and glaciers here are retreating at a rate that is shocking
glaciologists like Gene Katania. “It has
been increasing over the last 15 years or so. Every year we see more and more
of it.”
“Do you
have any doubt that man has anything to do with this?”
“No!”
“Gene
has been tracking the movement of the ice using satelite positioning. The glacier in this area is the fastest in
the world, moving 15 kilometres a year down fiord.”
“It
definitely has been speeding up. We never thought that ice could move that fast
…
“Disappearing
icebergs, rising sea levels, unpredictable weather, this is the downside of a
climate change, but for Greenlanders global warming gives them the best shot at
a good life.”
Now a
transcript of the documentary from California.
“California ablaze”. Reporter: It’s a frighgtening warning for
us. Enough to make you wonder what we
are in for this summer. Let’s just hope
it’s nothing like this, an absolute catastrophe. A daily fire storm that’s raced through
America’s west coast, forcing more than half a million people to evacuate their
homes. And the terrible thing is it’s
all part of a global pattern: fires that get worse and worse every year, at
least ten times bigger than we’ve ever seen before. There is no doubt that we are living in the
age of the mega fire.”
Tom
Boatner, US Fire Chief: “The fire of this size and this intensity in this
country would have been extremely rare 15, 20 years ago. They are common place
these days.
Reporter: “Ten years ago, a big fire was what?”
T.B.: “Ten years ago, if you had a 100,000 acres
fire you were talking of a huge fire. And if we had one or two a year that was
probably normal. Now we are talking of 200,000 acres fires like it is just
another day at the office. It’s been a huge change.”
Reporter: “And the biggest fires are what now?”
T.B.:
“We’ve had, I believe, two fires this summer that’ve been 500,000 acres, half a
million acres. And one of those was
600,000 acres . . . Seven of the ten bussiest fire seasons have been since
1999.”
Naration:
“It was 20 years ago that fire fighters got their first glimpse of what was to
come. This is Yellow Stone 1998, when a
third of the national park was burned.
Since then, fires have broken records in nine States. Several mega fires like this one in Arizona
have burned over half a million acres each.”
Reporter: “Is it possible we get these mega fires and
we just can’t fight them, because they are too large?”
T.B.: “Well, we’re …we’re there already. We have had to fight fires this summer that
we knew we can’t put them out with the resources that we have now.
Naration: “The fire season over the last 15 years has
increased by 78 days due to the melting ice on top of mountains. Global warming and climate change have
increased temperatures in the west by one degree and that has increased the
fire season. With these super fires,
some forests may never recover. In 2006,
the Feds spent 2 billion dollars on fire fighting, seven times more than just
ten years ago.”
Reporter: “You know, there are a lot of people who
don’t believe in climate change.”
T.B.:
“You won’t find them in America’s west, because we’ve had climate change
beating us in the last ten or fefteen years.
We know what we are seeing and we are dealing with a period of climate
change in terms of temperature, humidity and drought that’s different than
anything people have seen in our life time.”
So, is the jury still out on climate change? Or is it a case that there is none as blind as he that will not see. Far from the case of the jury being out on climate change, scientists are alarmed by the speed with which the globe is warming.
“2008 critical for shrinking ice cap” PARIS:
The Arctic ice cap has shrunk by an area twice the size of France's land mass
over the past two years, the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific
Research said yesterday. "The
year 2008 promises to be a critical year on every level," said Jean-Claude
Gascard, the body's research director and co-ordinator of the European
scientific mission monitoring the effects of climate change across the Arctic.
Measurements in September last year
show ice covering 4.13 million sq km, down from 5.3million sq km in 2005.
"Melting could result in the loss
of another million in one (2008) summer," Mr Gascard said.
"Summer 2007 was marked by a major
retreat in the ice cap, one we were not anticipating. The decline is also two
or three times faster than (observed) beforehand." International models used to predict
retreating ice have some "catching-up" to do, he said. Over the past 20 years, 40 per cent of the
ice cap has melted, with the average thickness halved from three to 1.5
metres. Year-round ice coverage has reduced,
with summer melting also lasting longer, the centre reported.
The team highlighted the role of ocean
currents, namely in the northern Pacific, behind the warming of waters.
Mr Gascard's research colleague, Gerard
Ancellet, also spoke of recently-formed Arctic mist, pollution clouds that
"trap" Earth's naturally emitted infrared rays, thereby raising
temperatures.
In last year's summer, the Northwest
Passage, historically an ice-jammed potential shortcut between Europe and Asia,
was "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in
1978, according to the European Space Agency. It lasted five weeks, according
to Canada's environment ministry.” (AFP/
The Australian,January 25, 2008).
“Wild weather a taste of things to come” “A MONSOON
dropped 35 centimetres of rain in one day across many parts of South Asia this
month. Germany had its wettest May on record, and April was the driest there in
a century. Temperatures reached 45 degrees in Bulgaria last month and 32
degrees in Moscow in late May, shattering long-time records. The year still has almost five months to go,
but it has already experienced a range of weather extremes that the UN's World
Meteorological Organisation says is well outside the historical norm and is a
precursor to much greater weather variability as global warming transforms the
planet.
The warming trend confirmed in February
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - based on the finding that 11
of the past 12 years had higher average ground temperatures than any others
since formal temperature recording began - appears to have continued with a
vengeance into 2007. The meteorological organisation reported that January and
April were the warmest worldwide ever recorded.
"Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot
extremes, heatwaves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more
frequent," the organisation said.
The heavy rains in South Asia have
resulted in more than 500 deaths and displaced 10 million people, while 13.5 million
Chinese have been affected by floods, the report said. In England and Wales,
the period from May to July was the wettest since record-keeping began in 1766,
resulting in floods that killed nine and caused more than $US6billion
($7billion) in damage. The World
Meteorological Organisation, which is co-sponsoring a series of meetings and
reports on global climate change, is putting together an early-warning system
for climate extremes and establishing long-term monitoring systems, and plans
to help countries most vulnerable to climate change.
"The average Northern Hemisphere
temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely the
highest during any 50-year period in the last 500 years, and likely the highest
in the past 1300 years," the report said.
Global warming is expected to result in
more extreme weather because of changes in atmospheric wind patterns and the
ability of warmer air to hold more moisture, said Martin Manning, the head of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's working group on the physical
science of climate change. He said that one year of heavier than normal rains
and warmer than usual temperatures said nothing definitive about climate
change, but they were consistent with the panel's long-term predictions. "What we have projected is an increase
in extreme events as the global temperatures rise," Dr Manning said.
"Floods, droughts and heatwaves are certainly consistent with that."
The World Meteorological Organisation
reported the extreme weather occurred in many parts of the world. In May, a
series of large waves (estimated at up to 3.6 metres) swamped almost 70 islands
in 16 atolls in the Maldive Islands off south India, causing serious flooding
and extensive damage. Halfway around the globe, Uruguay was hit during the same
month by the worst flooding since 1959 - floods that affected more than 110,000
people and severely damaged crops and buildings. Two months later, an unusual
winter brought high winds, blizzards and rare snowfall to parts of South America. Meanwhile, two extreme heatwaves affected
south-eastern Europe in June and July. Dozens of people died, and firefighters
worked nonstop battling blazes that destroyed thousands of hectares. On July
23, temperatures hit the record 45 degrees in Bulgaria. (Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post/SMH, August 9, 2007).
“Antarctica shows need for action on climate
change, Ban Ki-moon says”
“Ban Ki-moon, during his historic visit to Antarctica, the first by a
United Nations Secretary-General, has said warming temperatures on the
continent show the growing dangers of climate change and the need for action to
address it.
“It is here where our work, together, comes into focus,” Mr. Ban said in
a statement issued on Friday. “We see Antarctica's beauty – and the danger
global warming represents, and the urgency that we do something about it.”
The Secretary-General, who has made climate change a priority issue and
is working to galvanize support for an international conference to be held in
Bali in December on global commitments to stop it, said he is personally
determined to push forward. He said the
landscapes on Antarctica are “rare and wonderful” but also deeply disturbing as
the ice continues melting at a fast pace.
“All this may be gone, and not in the distant future, unless we act,
together, now,” he warned.
“Antarctica is on the verge of a catastrophe – for the world.”
The Secretary-General offered stark figures to illustrate his point,
noting that the glaciers on King George Island have shrunk by 10 per cent,
while some in Admirality Bay have retreated by 25 kilometers. He also recalled
how the 87-kilometer “Larsen B ice sheet” collapsed several years ago and
disappeared within weeks and warned that the entire Western Antarctic Ice Shelf
is at risk. “It is all floating ice, one
fifth of the entire continent. If it
broke up, sea levels could rise by 6 meters or 18 feet,” he noted, pointing
out that 138 tons of ice are now being lost every year. Other “deeply worrying signs” he mentioned
were the shrinking penguin population of Chabrier Rock, which has dipped by 57
per cent in the last 25 years.
“What will happen to the annual march of the penguins in the future?
Will there even be one?”
At the same time, grass is growing for the first time ever on King George
Island, where it rains rather than snows increasingly in the summer. “These things should alarm us all. Antarctica
is a natural lab that helps us understand what is happening to our world. We
must save this precious earth, including all that is here. It is a natural
wonder, but above all, it is our common home,” said Mr. Ban. (eGov Monitor, United Nations, Nov. 12, 2007).
Notice carefully: if only one fifth of the Antarctic continent were to melt, sea levels would rise by 6 metres. Add to that seven metres if Greenland’s ice sheets melts, and you have a rise in the sea levels of 13 metres. If that is not a catastrophe in the making, we would like to know what it is. And this is happening right now. The question is not whether sea levels are rising, but how they could be stopped from rising any further.
Cardinal Pell said that the current phase in global warming is not caused by human activity but is a cycle like many others in the earth’s history caused by disturbances in the sun which have come and gone without much damage to the earth. Well, perhaps the following story might change his mind.
“Fewer trees, less rain: study uncovers deforestation
equation” “Australian scientist
says they have found proof that cutting down forests reduces rainfall. The finding,
independent of previous anecdotal evidence and computer modelling, uses physics
and chemistry to show how the climate changes when forests are lost. Ann Henderson-Sellers, director of
environment at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, at
Lucas Heights, and Dr Kendal McGuffie, from the University of Technology,
Sydney, made the discovery by analysing variations in the molecular structure
of rain along the Amazon River. Not all
weather, Professor Henderson-Sellers said, was made from the recipe of two
atoms of “common” hydrogen and one of “regular” oxygen. About one in every 500 molecules had its
second hydrogen atom replaced by a heavier version called deuterium. And one in every 6500 molecules included a
heavy version of the oxygen atom.
Knowing the ratio allowed scientists to trace the Amazon water as if
flowed into the Atlantic, evaporated, blew back inland with the trade winds to
fall again as rain, and finally returned to the river.
“It’s as if
the water was tagged,” she said. While
the heavier water molecules were slower to evaporate from rivers and
groundwater, they were readily given off by the leaves of plants and trees,
through transpiration. “Transpiration
pumps these heavy guys back into the atmosphere.” But the study showed that since the 1970s the
ratio of the heavy molecules found in rain over the Amazon and the Andes had
declined significantly. The only
possible explanation was that they were no longer being returned to the
atmosphere to fall again as rain because the vegetation was disappearing. “With many trees now gone and the forest
degraded, the moisture that reaches the Andes has clearly lost the heavy
isotopes that used to be recycled so effectively,” Professor Henderson-Sellers
said.
Tom Lyons,
professor of environmental sciences at Perth’s Murdoch University, said there
was now “certainly very strong evidence that changes in surface conditions have
an impact on the climate. In some parts of the world the impact is very
marked”. The Amazon research “helps us understand the mechanism”. Professor Henderson-Sellers said the average
water molecule fell as rain and re-evaporated five times during its journey
from the tropical Atlantic to the river’s starting point in the Andes
mountains. Forests played a vital role in keeping the heavy molecules, and
their far more common relatives, moving through the water cycle. “People will tell you that when you remove
the forests it rains less,” she said, adding, however, such anecdotal evidence,
and even computer modelling, did not convince everyone. “This is the first demonstration that
deforestation has an observable impact on rainfall.” (Sydney
Morning Herald, March 4, 2005).
And if this is not enough, there is a now a new “time bomb” for
the earth resulting from human activity that is even more threatening than
global warming.
“Ocean Acidification – The BIG Global Warming Story”
“This is a scary story.
For decades we’ve been acidifying our oceans and we haven’t been aware
of it. We already know that warmer water is bleaching the coral of the Great
Barrier Reef, but just recently it was discovered that there’s a new threat to
the reef’s survival ... carbonic acid.
It’s only been in the science journals for the last few years but ocean
acidification is a time bomb. It could not only destroy the Great Barrier Reef
but it could wreak havoc on marine life around the world and, ultimately,
affect land dwellers like ourselves.
“Ocean acidification is destined
to be one of the biggest issues humanity has ever faced”, says reef expert
Dr. Charlie Veron. Ocean acidification
is a side-effect of putting too much carbon dioxide into the skies. This gas
ultimately ends up dissolved in the oceans where it forms weak carbon
acid. With the focus of global warming
largely trained upon increased levels of CO2 above sea level, Catalyst asks the
question, what’s happening below the surface of the ocean? Presenter/Reporter Dr. Graham Phillips meets
scientists who, for the first time, have found evidence that acidification is
affecting marine organisms in the Southern Ocean. Will this change the delicate balance of
ocean chemistry that we take largely for granted? Transcript of the program.
Narration: This is a scary story. For decades we’re been acidifying
our oceans and we haven’t been even aware of it till recently. Acidification is
a time bomb.
Dr Will Howard: This
problem will continue to affect the oceans even if we stopped all carbon
emissions now.
Dr Charlie Veron: It’s
like having a party on a railway track. You know the train is coming. And it’s
really frightening. It’s terrifying.
Dr Will Howard: We have put
in train a process that will probably last for centuries.
Dr Charlie Veron: It is
the most serious problem of climate change. It is the big one.
Narration: The
acidification of the world’s oceans is a side-effect of putting too much carbon
dioxide into the skies. You may not have heard of it – it’s only been in
science journals for the last few years - and the consequences could be huge. .
. Acidification is caused by our carbon
dioxide emissions not staying up in the atmosphere. They end up dissolved into
the oceans, mixed in by the wind and waves to form carbonic acid. To understand how this acid damages coral
reefs you need to know how reefs form. They’re produced by vast colonies of
little sea anemone like creatures – they’re the actual corals.
Dr Charlie Veron: You can see here some really big colonies. Hundreds of
colonies there all together. And the actual coral itself.
Every tiny little lip here is an individual coral.
Dr Graham Phillips: So that’s a little animal. Each one of those is a little
animal. . . It’s the little critters’ internal workings that are relevant here.
They have a stomach to digest food and water that comes in from the mouth at
the top. And here’s the key: the corals excrete limestone. A multitude of
corals endlessly expelling this rocky material - for 100s and 1000s of years -
builds up the vast skeleton scaffolding of a coral reef. And that’s the problem with acidification. As
you learn in chemistry class…acids and limestone don’t mix.
Narration: Here’s a piece of dead coral skeleton. As you can see it’s
hard – rock hard. But here’s the thing about limestone. Chemically it’s calcium
carbonate and anything with carbonate in it can be dissolved by acid. Here’s a
solution of weak hydrochloric acid and as you can see it bubbles instantly. Any
sea creature that uses calcium carbonate to build its body will struggle as the
oceans become more acidic. Now the oceans won’t become anywhere near as
acidified as this and actually dissolve corals, rather slight ocean acidification
will stop them growing. Check this out.
Dr Graham Phillips: These are two relatively similar looking pieces of
coral.
Dr Charlie Veron: Yeah they are, yeah they are. That one’s grown in a
natural environment. You can try and crush it.
Dr Graham Phillips: Pretty hard.
Dr Charlie Veron: Don’t try too hard cause you’ll just cut your fingers.
Dr Graham Phillips: Yeah.
Dr Charlie Veron: Yeah corals are tough. This guy has grown in an
environment where there is artificial acidification such as would occur around
the middle of this century. Now if I squeeze that.
Dr Graham Phillips: Oh yeah it’s just spongy.
Dr Charlie Veron: Yeah I can crush it. It all falls to pieces.
Narration: While corals haven’t been affected yet, there are some
important critters under even more immediate threat, according to new research
out of Hobart.
Dr Graham Phillips: In this beaker of clear-looking water are 1000s of
little creatures…plankton. They’re not as impressive as corals, of course,
because you can’t see them, but they too build their bodies out of calcium
carbonate.
Narration Could plankton have already been affected by acidification?
That would be disturbing because they’re at the very base of the ocean’s food
web. Plankton are eaten by krill, for instance, and krill by the larger
animals.
Dr Will Howard: This will have an ecological cascade effect right up to
parts of the food web that are important to human beings, that is fish, shell
fish for example a lot of the organisms that we depend on as food supply sources
will directly or indirectly be effected by this process.
Narration: So a scientific expedition was mounted to the wild southern
ocean to study the plankton. Down here is where the effects of ocean
acidification would first appear.
Dr Will Howard: We see them first in the southern ocean because the
southern ocean has absorbed a disproportionate amount of the anthropogenic
carbon dioxide that has already entered the atmosphere because it’s a cold
ocean and carbon dioxide is more soluble in colder water than in warmer water.
Narration: Plankton samples were collected…but how would the scientists
know if the critters had been changed by acidification? The trick was to
compare them with plankton fossils extracted from sea floor mud. When the
debris was washed away the little white flecks become visible…plankton from
long before the industrial age. When cleaned and dried, it’s under an optical
microscope for a first peek.
Andrew: What I’m looking at under here is, there are about 4 or 5
different planktonic foraminifera, which are calcite shells.
Narration: The foraminifera’s calcium carbonate shells are what interest
the scientists. Could they be becoming thinner and more feeble with ocean
acidification? To find out, it’s to the
more powerful scanning electron microscope.
And the answer is yes. This is the first evidence in the world that
acidification is already changing organisms in the ocean.
Dr Graham Phillips: So can we see those changes here?
Dr Will Howard: Yes we can. What you see in this shell is much thicker
crystals on the shell.
Dr Graham Phillips: So the crystals are here.
Narration: That shell belongs to the pre-industrial plankton. This shell
is one of today’s. It’s visibly more feeble.
Dr Will Howard: This shell is a thinner shell with a lot more porosity
in it.
Narration: Side-by-side, the contrast is dramatic.
Dr Will Howard: These organisms have having to make thinner smaller
shells than they would have in the pre-industrial ocean.
Narration: Now it’s too early to say what the flow on effects of more
frail plankton species will be, but one concern for us land dwellers is that
plankton currently take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Dr Will Howard: All this extra carbon dioxide derived from fossil fuels
will remain in the atmosphere that much longer because the ocean will become
saturated.
Narration: What worries Charlie is, major ocean acidification has helped
extinguish life before in Nature. These formations in north-western Australia
are the remains of coral reefs. They suddenly died 360 million years ago.
Dr Charlie Veron: And we call those the great mass extinction events.
Mass extinction. That means the extermination of a huge percentage of life on
Earth. And coral reefs have taken at least four million years to recover. Now
that’s quite well known, and been known for most of my life.
Dr Will Howard:There really is only one mitigation strategy and that is
in this case to limit the extent and rate of carbon emissions into the
atmosphere.
Dr Charlie Veron: It’s no use saying by 2030 that we’ll do this or we’ll
do that, by 2030 it will all be too late. That is the problem. So we have to
change. And humans are, I believe, very good at change. But there’s not an ounce of hope in a world
that wants to procrastinate and to say we can’t do this or that. We’re going to
have to. (Antarctic Climate &
Ecosystems CRC, ABC – Catalyst, Sept.
13, 2007).
Things are moving at break neck speed these days. The planet is being denuded of is forests, glaciers are melting, and the oceans are being acidified. Humanity is slowly waking up to the realization that this planet is no longer as accommodating as it used to be. Climate change, global warming and ocean acidification have passed from the realm of news to that of well-established grim facts. Yet, the Catholic Church would not even acknowledge that there is a crisis, let alone countenance the possibility that the life of this planet is in danger. Why? Because Rome is an “eternal city”, and as such it could never have an end. You will never hear a Catholic priest talk about the end of this age, even though Bible prophecies about the end time correlate well with what is happening in the world at present.
Not long ago, when a Catholic priest wrote a book about the mysteries of Revelation, he was promptly defrocked.
Genesis and Revelation are two
books that have come under severe attack by the Catholic Church. Why? The first, because if Genesis is true
evolution is wrong. Since the Catholic
Church has taken a firm position in favour of evolution, it follows that,
according to them, the Bible must be wrong.
And the second, because Revelation speaks of “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” The Catholic
Church wants this to remain a mystery forever.
Only that there is a problem with that.
The Bible speaks of a time when the mystery of God will be
finished.
Little does the Catholic Church know that this angel has already
spoken. If you want to know what he has
revealed, read The Christian Heralds
Post Scriptum: Only hours, before we were to publish this edition, Cardinal Pell was at it again. We had to cut out other articles in order to accommodate his latest diatribe on global warming. This is what he said this time.
“Global warming is over” “Canada has experienced the coldest winter and the heaviest snowfalls since 1970-71, which was called a once-in-1000-years event. Another 18 cm of snow would set an all-time record. A Kingston newspaper had a marvellous cartoon of a tough old Canadian, rugged up against the cold and hacking the ice off the windscreen of his car. The caption read: Global warming my a***”! In China, the Chinese New Year coincided with a fierce cold snap and snowstorms, which prevented many city workers returning to their village for the celebrations. Police had to deal with the ensuing riots. London has just experienced snow at Easter.
The
world is much more bigger than both China and Canada combined, which might be
the exceptions to the new rule of man-made global warming, but they are
inconvenient facts for the climate-change bandwagon. And it is an intolerant bandwagon with loud,
exaggerated claims that the issue is settled and that an unchallenged consensus
among scientists confirms the hypothesis of dangerous, humanly caused global
warming. In fact the issue is far from settled. Politicians sceptical of these claims would
need unusual courage to resist the strong tides of public opinion. However, the rest of us are not so constrained
and we should consider all information.
Three points are of some significance.
Last December, more than 100 international scientists, some of them
members of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned the UN that
attempting to control climate was “ultimately futile”. So did 500 experts in
Manhattan in March. Fighting change was
distracting governments from helping the most vulnerable citizens adapt to the
threat of inevitable natural climate changes, whatever they might prove to be. Futile attempts to prevent global climate
change would be a tragic misallocation of resources, they claimed. Secondly, none of the natural changes
observed with glaciers, sea levels and species migration is outside the bounds
of known variability, including the warming of 0.1C to 0.2C per decade, in the
late 20th century. But the 1930s decade was warmer than the 1990s.
Most importantly, the global temperature has not increased since 2001. Global warming has ceased (New Statesman,
19/12/2007). This finding invalidates
the global-warming hypotheses because the amount of carbon dioxide continues to
increase and the temperature should be increasing, too. It isn’t. The last point is that today’s computers
cannot predict climate over long periods, as there are too many unknowns and
variables. We should never forget that
while computers are miracles of human ingenuity, they are also limited, cannot
think for themselves and are totally obedient to their last human master. More than this is needed to predict the
future.” (The Sunday Telegraph, April
20, 2008).
If this sounds like a desperate cry of one who clings on to straws in order to deny reality, is because it is. As early as 2006, The Christian Herald No 15, pointed out that: 1. global warming is not equally spread all over the world, and 2. there are reliable scientific discoveries which show that global warming will, in most likelihood, be followed by an even greater evil – global dimming. 500 Manhattan “experts” who deny that there is a global warming problem, sounds a lot, but when you put that against the weight of the scientific world who believe that climate change has, if anything, been underestimated, you get a different perspective. Cardinal Pell shows no suspicion that those “experts” come from the business capital of the most polluting nation on earth, which belches out gargantuan quantities of carbon dioxide into the air, the main culprit for global warming. Reducing that to a “sustainable” level would be extremely costly, something that neither its political nor its business leaders are prepared to contemplate. Cardinal Pell uses the example of Canada, which has experiencing the coldest winter since 1970-71, to “prove” that global warming is over, but conveniently ignores the fact that on the other side of the world, Australia experienced the hottest summer on record at the same time.
“Climate change
‘underestimated” “Climate-change experts have warned the rest of Australia to brace
for record heatwaves similar to the one that has paralysed Adelaide for more
than a week. Adelaide yesterday
sweltered for the ninth day in temperatures of more than 38C – a record for an
Australian capital. The city’s maximum
daily temperature has not dipped below 35C since March 2, raising the risk of
heatstroke among the young and elderly and causing a surge in power and water
usage.
The heat has spread to western NSW, with
Broken Hill and Ivanhoe due to hit 40C yesterday. Edwin Jackson, policy and research director
at the Sydney based Climate Institute, said the heatwave was an indication
predictions of climate change may have been conservative. “Climate change is not just something our
children are going to have to worry about; it’s something we are already
seeing,” he said. “Temperature and
sea-level rises are at the top end of the range of the predictions . . . we
might be significantly underestimating the extent of climate change. ”Based on what we are seeing in the real
world this is a much more serious problem than we would have considered a year
ago. It’s becoming hotter, drier and
more extreme. We’re heading
into dangerous uncharted territory.”
South Australian regional director Andrew Watson is confident the
heatwave is influenced by climate change, showing global warming could be
taking place quicker than forecast.
“If we had the same weather 20 years ago, we doubt temperatures would
have been as high. Because the
greenhouse effect, the atmosphere can contain more heat than ever before,” he
said. (The Sunday Telegraph, March 16, 2008).
This
was published less than five weeks earlier in the same newspaper, which shows
how much attention Cardinal Pell gives to the newspaper that pays for his
articles. As for the fact that “none of
the natural changes observed with glaciers, sea levels and species migrations
is outside the bounds of known variability”, we do not know where he is getting
his facts from, but they are plainly wrong.
We have published enough on this topic to go into it again. What we did instead, was to check out the New
Statesman which he quoted as saying that “Global warming has ceased”. Well, this is what title that publication
carried: “Has global warming stopped?” Notice the difference? One is a statement of fact, the other a
question. When you put a question mark
after a statement, it is not a fact, but a possibility. The article does nothing but raises the
possibility that, based on the data from the last few years, global warming may
have stoped. Since Cardinal Pell was so
selective with his facts, here are some statements from the same article that
show a lesser certainty on global warming.
“The fact is that the global
temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year
since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased.
Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to
the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. Something
else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds
of billions of pounds needlessly. . .” “Certainly the working hypothesis of
CO2 induced global warming is a good one that stands on good physical
principles but let us not pretend our understanding extends too far or that the
working hypothesis is a sufficient explanation for what is going on.”
Saying that “global warming has, temporarily or
permanently, ceased”, and that we do not know all the facts about what is going
on, is not the same as making a definite statement that “Global warming is over”.
When you see Jerusalem
surrounded by armies,
you
know that its desolation is not near
There
is a prophecy in the Bible that has been much misunderstood by biblical
scholars, which says: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know
that its desolation is near”. We will
prove to you that in our contemporary context if Jerusalem is surrounded by
armies, it cannot be the end of it. First, here is that prophecy.
Luk 21:1 And He
looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,
Luk 21:2 and He saw also a
certain poor widow putting in two mites.
Luk 21:3 So He said, "Truly
I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;
Luk 21:4 for all these out of
their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put
in all the livelihood that she had."
Luk 21:5 Then, as some spoke of
the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said,
Luk 21:6 "These things which
you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon
another that shall not be thrown down."
Luk 21:7 So they asked Him,
saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will
there be when these things are about to take place?"
Luk 21:8 And He said: "Take
heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,'
and, 'The time has drawn near.' Therefore do not go after them.
Luk 21:9 But when you hear of
wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass
first, but the end will not come immediately."
Luk 21:10 Then He said to them,
"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Luk 21:11 And there will be great
earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be
fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
Luk 21:12 But before all these
things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you
up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers
for My name's sake.
Luk 21:13 But it will turn out
for you as an occasion for testimony.
Luk 21:14 Therefore settle it
in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
Luk 21:15 for I will give you a
mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or
resist.
Luk 21:16 You will be betrayed
even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some
of you to death.
Luk 21:17 And you will be hated
by all for My name's sake.
Luk 21:18 But not a hair of your
head shall be lost.
Luk 21:19 By your patience
possess your souls.
Luk 21:20 "But when you see
Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.
Luk 21:21 Then let those who are
in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart,
and let not those who are in the country enter her.
Luk 21:22 For these are the days
of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Luk 21:23 But woe to those who are
pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be
great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
Luk 21:24 And they will fall by
the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem
will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Luk 21:25 "And there will be
signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of
nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26 men's hearts failing
them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the
earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Luk 21:27 Then they will see the
Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 Now when these things
begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws
near."
Luk 21:29 Then He spoke to them a
parable: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.
Luk 21:30 When they are already
budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.
Luk 21:31 So you also, when you
see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
Luk 21:32 Assuredly, I say to
you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.
Luk 21:33 Heaven and earth will
pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Luk 21:34 "But take heed to
yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and
cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
Luk 21:35 For it will come as a
snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luk 21:36 Watch therefore, and
pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Luk 21:37 And in the daytime He
was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain
called Olivet.
Luk 21:38 Then early in the
morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.
This prophecy
parallels that of Mathew 24. Mathew however,
does not mention Jerusalem. Being a
relevant prophecy for our time, let us see what Mathew had to say, before we
consider the implication of Luke’s reference to Jerusalem.
Mat 24:1 Then Jesus
went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him
the buildings of the temple.
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said to them,
"Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one
stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
Mat 24:3 Now as He sat on the
Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us,
when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and
of the end of the age?"
Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and
said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.
Mat 24:5 For many will come in My
name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
Mat 24:6 And you will hear of
wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things
must come to pass, but the
Mat 24:7 end is not yet. For
nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Mat 24:8 All these are the
beginning of sorrows.
Mat 24:9 "Then they will
deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations for My name's sake.
Mat 24:10 And then many will be
offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Mat 24:11 Then many false
prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because lawlessness
will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Mat 24:13 But he who endures to
the end shall be saved.
Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and
then the end will come.
Mat 24:15 "Therefore when
you see the 'ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place"
(whoever reads, let him understand),
Mat 24:16 "then let those
who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Mat 24:17 Let him who is on the
housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
Mat 24:18 And let him who is in
the field not go back to get his clothes.
Mat 24:19 But woe to those who
are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
Mat 24:20 And pray that your
flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
Mat 24:21 For then there will be
great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until
this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And unless those days
were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days
will be shortened.
Mat 24:23 "Then if anyone
says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.
Mat 24:24 For false christs and
false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect.
Mat 24:25 See, I have told you
beforehand.
Mat 24:26 "Therefore if they
say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He
is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.
Mat 24:27 For as the lightning
comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son
of Man be.
Mat 24:28 For wherever the
carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
Mat 24:29 "Immediately after
the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not
give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
will be shaken.
Mat 24:30 Then the sign of the
Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will
mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And He will send His
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mat 24:32 "Now learn this
parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts
forth leaves, you know that
Mat 24:33 summer is
near. So you also, when you see all
these things, know that it is near—at the doors!
Mat 24:34 Assuredly, I say to
you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take
place.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth will
pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Mat 24:36 "But of that day
and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah
were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:38 For as in the days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39 and did not know until
the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of
Man be.
Mat 24:40 Then two men
will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
Mat 24:41 Two women will be
grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Mat 24:42 Watch therefore, for
you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
Mat 24:43 But know this, that if
the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have
watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Mat 24:44 Therefore you also be
ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Mat 24:45 "Who then is a
faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to
give them food in due season?
Mat 24:46 Blessed is that
servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
Mat 24:47 Assuredly, I say to you
that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
Mat 24:48 But if that evil
servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,'
Mat 24:49 and begins to beat his
fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
Mat 24:50 the master of that
servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour
that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51 and will cut him in two
and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
As you ca see
there are some differences between the two Gospel accounts. Matthew’s is much longer and more
detailed. Yet he does not mention
Jerusalem, or of being brought before kings and rulers for a testimony for
Jesus Christ. Matthew was a Jew, and Luke was a Gentile. It appears that each wrote the Gospel from
their own perspective. This may explain
why Luke makes no mention of the Sabbath.
What is important to realise though is that although there are some
differences, they do not contradict, but merely compliment each other.
Luke’s, which is
the weakest Gospel of them all, is given credence in this case by a reference
in the book of Revelation to a gathering of armies against the Lord in a place
called Armageddon. Biblical scholars
have interpreted Armageddon to mean Megiddo, a valley not far from Jerusalem. Let us look at that prophecy in its context
too.
The book of
Revelation, like the rest of the New Testament, was recorded in the Greek
language (or at lest it reached us in the Greek language). Yet verse 16 is sending us to the Hebrew
language, in other words, to the Jews.
Now, Jesus Christ knew that the time of this prophecy would be after the
Jews were returned from their long Diaspora.
He also knew that this would be just prior to the Great Tribulation that
would herald His return. But the Great
Tribulation is a time of worldwide nuclear conflagration. This begs the question, what role would a
place called “Armageddon” play in an age of ballistic missiles, if that is
indeed located near Jerusalem, as so many people seem to think?
There are at
least two reasons why Armageddon could not be Megiddo. 1) It is tenuous to say the least to link the
two words linguistically. 2) No hostile
armies could possibly gather near Jerusalem, or anywhere else in the Jewish
state, under the circumstances of a nuclear-armed Israel. The Jews will not sit down and watch as
another Holocaust is looming just next door to Jerusalem. The point we want to make is that just
because
It should not be forgotten
that
Mat
24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man
will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and
they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory.
You can be sure of one thing: the Jews will
fight against Jesus Christ as much, or more than, the rest of the world. Remember what
The whole world,
Jews included, are gathered to the battle of that great day of God
Almighty.
There are two other
prophecies that we need to look at, if we are to understand the order in which
those events will take place. Here is
the first one.
Zec 14:1 Behold, the day of the
LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
Zec 14:2 For I will gather all
the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses
rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But
the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Zec 14:3 Then the LORD will go
forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.
Zec 14:4 And in that day His feet
will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the
Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very
large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it
toward the south.
Zec 14:5 Then you shall flee through
My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall
flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus
the LORD my God will come, And all the saints with You.
Zec 14:6 It shall come to pass in
that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish.
Zec 14:7 It shall be one day
Which is known to the LORD Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall
happen That it will be light.
Zec 14:8 And in that day it shall
be— That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward
the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and
winter it shall occur.
Zec 14:9 And the LORD shall be
King over all the earth. In that day it shall be "The LORD is
one," And His name one.
Zec 14:10 All the land shall be
turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem
shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin's Gate to the place
of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to
the king's winepresses.
Zec 14:11 The people shall
dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter destruction, But Jerusalem
shall be safely inhabited.
Zec 14:12 And this
shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought
against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in
their mouths.
Zec 14:13 It shall come to pass
in that day That a great panic from the LORD will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, And raise his hand against his
neighbor's hand;
Zec 14:14 Judah also will fight
at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations Shall be gathered
together: Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.
Zec 14:15 Such also shall be the
plague On the horse and the mule, On the camel and the donkey, And on
all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this plague be.
Zec 14:16 And it shall come to
pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to
keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zec 14:17 And it shall be that
whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship
the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
Zec 14:18 If the family of Egypt
will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they
shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not
come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zec 14:19 This shall be the
punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up
to keep the Feast of
Zec 14:20 Tabernacles. In that day "HOLINESS TO THE LORD"
shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD's
house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
Zec 14:21 Yes, every pot in
Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts. Everyone who
sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall
no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts
Their flesh shall
dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their
sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. This could only happen in a nuclear war. What is different about this prophecy is
that, unlike others, it gives us a glimpse into what follows – a time of
abundance, peace, and holiness. It also
tells us that all the nations that survive the great conflagration will come to
Jerusalem from year to year to, ”worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to
keep the Feast of Tabernacles”. That
would seem to imply that the devastation will be so great that only a tiny
fraction of the world’s population will survive into the Millennium Kingdom,
enough for them all to be accommodated at a Feast of Tabernacles in
Jerusalem. What is more likely to happen
is that representatives of all nations will come to Jerusalem to bring their
tithes and offerings on behalf of their people to the Feast of Tabernacles
while the rest of them will keep that Fest wherever they are located on the
face of the earth. This is borne out by
the fact that remnants of Gog and Magog will be scattered in the four corners
of the earth in the aftermath of the Great Tribulation.
It would be all
but impossible to bring to Jerusalem all people from the four corners of the
earth after the devastation of the Great Tribulation when the means of transport
will be reduced to a trickle, if at all functional. And of course, it would be impossible to
accommodate them all in Jerusalem, even in booths of reefs and tree
branches. Even so, there is no dispute
that few nations will survive this end time catastrophe.
The question we
must ask now is what do we make of the first two verses of Zechariah’s prophecy, which say that
Jerusalem will be taken, the women ravished, and half the people taken into
captivity and half left into the city?
If you have a New
King James Version of the Bible, the most accurate that we know of, you will
notice that verse 3 is a boldfaced numeral.
This is what the translators say on page XI about that fact: “A
boldfaced verse numeral in the text indicates a paragraph break.” In this case, a paragraph break means a break
in prophecy – a time lapse of almost two millennia. What this means is that the first two verses
were fulfilled when the Roman legions, which could rightly be said to have been
armies of the nations, destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews into their long
Diaspora. The prophecy then takes us
forward to the time following the return of the Jews to their ancestral land,
and the return of Jesus Christ.
It is clear then that
the attack on Jerusalem in the end time will no longer result in half the city
being taken into captivity, and half left, for as we said earlier, in the
context of a nuclear-armed Israel any attempt to do such a thing would be
suicidal. Moreover, the Lord says that
He will fight against the nations that came up against Jerusalem: “Then the
LORD will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of
battle” (Verse 3). Now why would He
fight against the nations that come against Jerusalem, if the Jews continue to
refuse to repent of the horrible sin they had committed against Jesus
Christ? Because they do not mean to
merely conquer the Jews, they want to obliterate them and Jerusalem form the face
of the earth, the city the Lord had chosen as the Capital of His Kingdom, so
that He would have no place to return to.
That is how the nations of this world are preparing to fight against the
Lord. The Jews unwittingly bear the
brunt of that fight.
Zec 14:4 And in that day His feet
will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the
Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very
large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it
toward
Zec 14:5 the south. Then you shall flee through My
mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall
flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
Thus the LORD my God will come, And all the saints with You.
The Jews shall
flee when they see the glorious Christ standing on the Mount of Olives. That they will suffer severe devastation
during the Great Tribulation, like all nations of the earth, there is no doubt,
for we know that all life would perish if God Almighty does not intervene to
cut those days short, but they will not be obliterated from the face of the
earth.
Where then is
Armageddon in this context? Clearly,
Megiddo could not be that place, for it would be suicidal for any army to even
breach the border of Israel let alone advance to the proximity of
Jerusalem.
The nation that
has been raving for some time now of wiping Israel off the map is Iran. Now let us assume that Iranian armies reach
as far as the Megiddo. Since the Bible
tells us that this will be a nuclear conflict, a massive attack on Jerusalem
will affect people living dozens of kilometres from that city, including
Megiddo. Of course, if the Iranians, or
anyone else, will mount such an attack, they would not target just Jerusalem,
but several other cities plus military targets.
Given the size of Israel, that would mean nothing less than wiping off
the map the entire nation. That,
however, would also mean that the aggressor, or aggressors, would be wiping off
the map their own armies.
If Israeli
leaders wanted an assurance against a nuclear attack on their nation, they
could do no better than to have a few Iranian divisions posted in various
places in the country. Mind you, given the value the Islamists are putting on
the life of their own people these days that may not be much of an assurance.
Can you see now
why we say that if you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies it cannot be the end
of it?
The truth is that
in an age of nuclear missile technology, you do not look for infantry divisions
in Megiddo, in readiness to attack Jerusalem.
You look to where the real danger comes from, and that is hundreds and
thousands of kilometres away.
In that context,
Jerusalem is already being surrounded by deadly enemies. Have a look at this prophecy.
Eze 38:1 Now the word of the LORD
came to me, saying,
Eze 38:2 "Son
of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh,
Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy
Eze 38:3 against him, and say,
'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the
prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
Eze 38:4 I will turn you around,
put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and
horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and
shields, all of them handling swords.
Eze 38:5 Persia, Ethiopia, and
Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
Eze 38:6 Gomer and all its
troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many
people are with you.
Eze 38:7 "Prepare yourself
and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a
guard for them.
Eze 38:8 After many days you will
be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back
from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel,
which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all
of them dwell safely.
Eze 38:9 You will ascend, coming
like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many
peoples with you."
Eze 38:10 'Thus says the Lord
GOD: "On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in
your mind, and you will make an evil
Eze 38:11 plan: You will say, 'I will go up against a land of
unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of
them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates'—
Eze 38:12 to take plunder and to
take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again
inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired
livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
Eze 38:13 Sheba, Dedan, the
merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, 'Have you
come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away
silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?'
" '
Eze 38:14 "Therefore, son of
man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "On that day when
My people Israel dwell
Eze 38:15 safely, will you not
know it? Then you will come from
your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them
riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.
Eze 38:16 You will come up
against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the
latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know
Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes."
Eze 38:17 Thus says the Lord GOD:
"Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the
prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring
you against them?
Eze 38:18 "And it will come
to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says
the Lord GOD, "that My fury
Eze 38:19 will show in My
face. For in My jealousy and in
the fire of My wrath I have spoken: 'Surely in that day there shall be a great
Eze 38:20 earthquake in the land
of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of
the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are
on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be
thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the
ground.'
Eze 38:21 I will call for a sword
against Gog throughout all My mountains," says the Lord GOD. "Every
man's sword will be against his
Eze 38:22 brother. And I will bring him to judgment with
pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the
many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire,
and brimstone. Thus I will magnify
Myself
Eze 38:23 and sanctify Myself,
and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am
the LORD." '
Those armies from
the north, from the furthest parts of the earth, that come like a cloud in the
latter years against those brought back from the sword, have gained their
greatness because of a misguided Hebrew atheistic philosophy, called communism. God is about to unleash those armies upon
their own heads. That is what Armageddon
means in Hebrew – a massive army the likes of which this world has never seen,
coming against Israel not on land but by air like a cloud. An attack
against which Israel will have no defence and no remedy, except a divine
intervention. However, God will not
intervene to save them until they atone for their sin, their deicide, and turn
to the only Power that can save them in heartfelt repentance. The longer they wait, the more of them will
perish, in a doomsday scenario that is now in the making before our very
eyes.
“Russia Sends Warships to Mediterranean” “In response to the US turnaround on Iran,
Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to send six Russian warships, led by
the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and the Moskva
guided missile cruiser, the Russian Navy's Black Sea flagship, to the
Mediterranean. As the the first prolonged stay of a Russian carrier in
the eastern Mediterranean vicinity of Israel's shores and waters patrolled by
the US Sixth Fleet, the move is more than significant. The Admiral
Kuznetsov carries on its decks 47 warplanes and 10 helicopters. The Admiral Kuznetsov is a
Class CV carrier, built in 1991. It is 999 ft. in length, displaces 67,500 tons
and has a top speed of 30 knots. It
accommodates a crew of 1,700. Sources in
Moscow say that the Kremlin acted quickly to make its presence known after the
NIE report was released. The Russian
fleet, which has already set out for its new mission from the North and Black
Seas, will reportedly have the use of naval facilities at Syria's Tartous port.
Its presence for several months will be a complication for the Israel navy's
operations opposite the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, especially if the Russians are
joined at Tartous by Iranian submarines or warships. Russia also sent ships to
the northeastern Atlantic.” (The Lekarev Report,
Dec. 6, 2007).
“Russian Ships in Syrian Ports” “For the first time since
the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russian ships will again operate the Tartus and
Latakia ports in Syria as permanent
bases for the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean.
During a recent visit to the Russian
Navy base in the Sevastopol port in Ukraine, Russian Navy commander, Admiral
Vladimir Masorin said, "Being present in the Mediterranean is very
important for our Navy in the Black Sea." Western media picked up on this
statement, as did Arabic stations like Al-Jazeera.
According to reports, Syria plans to
let the Russian use its ports as part of the large arms deal signed between the
two countries a few months ago. Syria had been deeply indebted to Russia to the
tune of $11 billion but recently, Russia 'forgave' some 70% of the debt and
made an 'arrangement' with Syria by which some of the remaining 30% will be
paid in cash and the rest will be 'paid' through permanent services rendered to
the Russian Navy in the two Mediterranean ports.
The Russian Navy is known to
massively operate spy ships. Israeli officials believe that a renewed base in
Syria will help the Russians carry out spy missions against Israel,
particularly electronic spying aimed at observing new weapon systems and the
flow of information in channels used by the army and the defense establishment.
(The Lekarev Report, June 8, 2007).
“Iran Gets Anti-Aircraft Missile System from
Russia”
“Iran's
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced on Iranian TV Wednesday that
Russia will provide Iran with the sophisticated and powerful S-300
anti-aircraft missile defense system, vastly improving the Islamic Republic's
ability to protect its nuclear development facilities.
The missiles can intercept targets at an
altitude of up to 27 kilometers (90,000 feet) and at ranges of up to 150
kilometers (95 miles) from the launch point. They are effective against cruise
missiles and ballistic warheads as well, and are equivalent to the PAC-3
Patriot missiles which Israel is considering purchasing.
Russian military officials contend that the S-300
is of a higher operational standard than the U.S.-built Patriot missiles
currently used by Israel. The S-300 systems are also a major improvement over
the 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems delivered to Iran from Russia earlier
this year. The $700 million contract for that purchase was signed in December
2005. Former Israel Air Force Commander Eitan Ben-Eliyahu told Channel 10 TV
that the missiles will make it significantly harder for Israel to attack Iran
from the air, if it chooses to do so.
Even aircraft that do not directly participate in the attack will be
endangered by the missiles, he said, adding that AWACS planes, standby rescue
planes and other planes with protective missions could be targeted by such long
range missiles. Najjar did not specify how many S-300 systems would be
shipped to Iran, nor did he say when this would happen. An unidentified Russian
source confirmed that dozens of S-300 batteries would be transferred to Iran
and that the contract had already been signed several years ago.” (The
Lekarev Report, Dec. 27, 2007).
“Russia
Sending Nuclear Fuel to Iran” “In a dramatic turnaround, Russian president
Vladimir Putin indicated Friday that Moscow would send uranium to Iran's atomic
reactor in Bushehr. International Atomic Energy inspectors were invited to the
Novosibirsk Plant on Nov. 26 to verify and seal the fuel before shipment. On
that day, too, the US-promoted Middle East conference is provisionally set to
open in Annapolis, Maryland. The Quartet of which Russia is a member will not
be there. This decision means that
Moscow has backed away from the commitments Putin gave President Bush and
Israeli prime minister Olmert, after his mid-October talks with Iranian leaders
in Tehran broke down in discord. He then promised to withhold the fuel from the
Bushehr reactor and in fact, pulled all the Russian staff out before they had
completed work on the project's final stages.
Olmert received Putin's commitment to withhold the uranium fuel from
Iran when they met in the Kremlin on Oct. 18 and passed it on to President Bush
and later to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British premier Gordon Brown
in special trips he made to Paris and London. The Israeli prime minister
announced then that Israel had a true friend in the Russian leader. Olmert is
deeply embarrassed by Putin's about-face, putting it mildly. It also bodes ill
for the third round of sanctions, for which the Bush administration is pushing
at the UN Security Council, where Russian holds a veto, now that the nuclear
watchdog confirmed in its latest report Nov. 15 that Iran had not given up
uranium enrichment. DEBKAfile's
Moscow sources report that the Russian president has reverted to his previous
tactic of broadcasting to Muslim nations a message that Moscow has its own
agenda and is willing, unlike Washington, to help them develop their nuclear
programs. The question mark hanging over
UN sanctions also affects the decision on military action against Iran's
suspect military nuclear facilities, which President Bush had put on a back
burner under the influence of Putin's breach with Tehran. There was a brief
thaw in the tense relations between Washington and Moscow and signs of a new
willingness for compromise on both sides on such matters as the US plan to
deploy anti-missile systems in East Europe.
The month-long détente was abruptly curtailed Friday, Nov. 16, with
Moscow's decision to let Iran have the uranium to fuel its Bushehr reactor six
months before its scheduled start-up. The step was gladly welcomed in Tehran -
of course!” (The Lekarev Report, Nov. 18, 2007).
“Putin Rejects Tough Stand on Iran” “At the Russian-EU summit in Portugal
Friday, Oct. 26, Russian president Vladimir Putin compared the US proposal to
build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of
the 1960s. "Such a threat is being set up on our borders," he said,
but then admitted that tension was much lower now than then and that the US was
listening to Moscow's concerns. On
arrival in Portugal, Putin compared the supporters of tough policies against
Iran to "mad people wielding razor blades." On Kosovo's
future, he questioned the wisdom of "encouraging separatism in
Europe." Earlier, US defense secretary Robert Gates said the US
has done as much as it can "to appease Russia" on its missile plans.
"We've leaned about as far forward as we can." This week, the defense
secretary offered to open the proposed sites in Poland and the Czech Republic
to Russian observers and delay switching on the interceptors until the
Washington and Moscow agreed on proof of a threat from Iran. "We are not satisfied with any of their
proposals," Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov commented
Thursday. Regarding his future, Putin
said he would not assume presidential powers if he became prime minister after
finishing his term in the spring. "There will be no infringement on the
powers of the president of the Russian Federation, at least while it depends on
me," he declared. (Lekarev Report, Oct. 28, 2007).
“Iranian Opposition: Nuclear Race
Continues” “An Iranian
opposition group in exile acknowledged that Teheran halted its nuclear weapons
development program in 2003, but vehemently insisted that the bomb-making
program resumed the following year and said that the NIE Report published last
week was therefore misleading in ignoring the evidence of the resumption of the
program. "We announce vehemently that the clerical regime is
currently continuing its drive to obtain nuclear weapons," said Mohammad
Mohaddessin, a spokesman for the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of
Iran, or NCRI.
Speaking at a news conference,
Mohaddessin said that Iran appeared to have duped US intelligence. "The
clerical regime leaks false information and intelligence to Western
intelligence services, through double agents," he said. Mohaddessin acknowledged that Iran shut down
the Lavizan-Shian weapons center in Teheran sometime in 2003 under
international pressure. However, he claimed that the Iranian authorities merely
shifted their weapons development efforts to other sites around the country,
and that work had resumed by 2004. Israeli officials, citing their own sources,
have confirmed this scenario. The NCRI
is described as the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, an
opposition group advocating the overthrow of the government in Teheran. The
Mujahedeen are considered a terrorist group by the United States and the
European Union as well as Iran. There was no independent verification of the
NCRI claims, which Mohaddessin attributed to sources within Iran, including
staff at covert nuclear plants. He said the group had checked with its sources
in the past week and discovered that the centers were still working. (The Lekarev
Report, Dec 13. 2007).
“Iranian
Submarines Can Hit Tel Aviv” “The Iranian Navy is presently deploying two submarine
fleets - mini-subs in Persian Gulf waters for attacks on US shipping and Gulf
oil facilities, and the long-range Kilo class sub of Russian, Chinese and
Iranian manufacture, for long-range targets in the Mediterranean, such as the
US Sixth Fleet and Israel coastal towns, primarily Tel Aviv.
Iran's defense minister Mostafa Najiar
announced today, Nov. 27, that a new Iranian-built submarine would be delivered
to the navy Wednesday. He offered no details of the new item. However, two days
earlier, Iran's navy chief. Adm. Habibollah Sayyari disclosed that the new
submarine would operate in Persian Gulf waters in the Strait of Hormuz area. He
also declared that Tehran has no intention of blocking the Strait in a flare-up
with the US military.
DEBKAfile's military
sources note that Iran's strategic thinking has undergone a change. Up til now,
the rulers of Tehran viewed the blockage of the narrow waterway to shipping
that carries one-third of the world's oil needs, as its most effective reprisal
for a military attack. They have revised their thinking for two reasons: First,
Iran has made great strides in expanding its influence in Gulf oil states and
an assault on their sole source of revenue would win more enemies than friends.
Second, Tehran has developed a new
capability to deploy in the Mediterranean Kilo class submarines armed with the
Russian-made "Sizzler" Klub-S (3M54) missile. This missile can be
shot from underwater at a range of 300 kilometers and has a powerful
450-kilogram warhead. This possibility
was outlined by an authoritative Iranian security figure, the
spokesman-cum-commentator at Iran's defense ministry, Gen. Reza Naghdi, on Nov.
12. He said that if Iran were attacked, its navy - and its submarine fleet in
particular - could come close enough to "reach an Israeli coastal
target" from the sea.
If conditions are 'right', a strategic
decision could be taken in Tehran to send a sub or two to the Mediterranean to
hit American or Israeli naval shipping or the Israeli coast. The Revolutionary
Guards Corps is known to have built a large fleet of mini-subs and special
marine units equipped with fast boats for deployment in the Persian Gulf.
Don't forget that Iran's first
intervention in the Israel-Hizbullah war in South Lebanon last year was by sea.
On July 14, 2006, Iranian naval officers helped Hizballah shoot a shore-to-ship
C-802 missile from a Lebanese army base, crippling the Israeli Hanit
missile ship. The incident is still considered the most damaging suffered by
Israel in that war. A month later, Iran began experimenting with firing the
Sizzler missiles from its Kilo-class submarines. The Kilo class submarine is 74 meters long,
has a maximum speed of up to 30 knots surfaced, diving depth of 300 meters and
range of more than 12,100 km. The Kilo carries a crew of 52 sailors and,
depending on the type, is armed with six to eight 533 mm torpedo tubes, 24
mines and air defense missiles. The Kilo submarines' quiet engines enable them
to appear and disappear like wraiths, winning them the name of "Black
Hole" from the US Navy.” (The Lekarev Report , Nov 28, 2007).
“Ahmadinejad: End of Israel is
Imminent” “Speaking in the
southwestern town of Bushehr near the site of Iran's planned first nuclear
power plant, being built with Russian help, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said
today that "Israel's days are numbered." He declared, "It
is time to end the puppet theatre of the fake regime," referring to the
Jewish state. He insisted that Iran will not yield to western pressure and that
it is reaching the "peak" of its nuclear program. "If you
(Western powers) imagine that the Iranian nation will back down, you are making
a mistake," he said in the televised speech. "On the nuclear
path we are moving towards the peak."
Regarding Israel, Ahmadinejad said,
"The religious Palestinian people will bring down the last screen with its
powerful hand on the Zionists' puppet theater. It's time to end the puppet
theater of this fake regime."
Turning to the Western powers
supporting Israel, he said, "Those who remain silent in light of this
regime's crimes and support it should know that they are taking part in the
bloodshed of the Palestinian people and will be tried in the future. Defying international pressure, Iran has been
working on producing its own nuclear fuel, technology the West fears will be
used to make atomic bombs. Tehran says its work is peaceful and has refused to
stop. Ahmadinejad delivered this speech
two days after taking delivery of the Iran the eighth and final consignment of
nuclear fuel from Russia for the Bushehr plant. (LR, Feb, 1, 2008).
“UNBELIEVABLE!” “In his
most provocative anti-US speech to date, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
brazenly questioned whether al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attack on New York
actually took place in an address marking Iran's Nuclear Technology
day, April 8. He went on to ask why the US had never released the names
of the thousands of dead in the Trade Center attacks and how the most advanced
security, intelligence and tracking devices in the world had failed to detect
the hijackers' planes before they struck the two New York towers.
[Apparently Ahmadinejad didn't read the papers on that memorable day when the
names of all the victims were printed and beamed around the world.] Ahmadinejad is famous also for denying the
Nazi Holocaust.
Announcing earlier that Iran had begun
installing 6,000 new advanced (P2) centrifuges for uranium enrichment at
Natanz, the Iranian president claimed his country's nuclear program had passed
the point of no-return technologically and politically. According to
Ahmadinejad, America is disintegrating politically, militarily and
economincally and therefore, Iran's nuclear achievement will change the
international order of power that has been in place since World War II. By
going full steam ahead with uranium enrichment, Iran is flouting three UN
Security Council resolutions and standing fast against threats, sanctions and
incentives offered by the West to halt a process capable of producing nuclear
weapons. Instead, Tehran is installing a
new generation of advanced P2 centrifuges to replace the older P-1 machines and
accelerate enrichment. He claims they are five times cheaper than the
commercial machines.” (The Lekarev Report,
April 10, 2008)
“Iran's New Missile” “According to
Israeli News Channel 10, Iran tested a new missile during the Annapolis
summit.
The Ashoura missile has a range
of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the
Middle East and eastern European cities.
According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the
existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's
liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder
to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen.
Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new missile on the
day of the summit, but had not specified whether it had actually been
tested. He also called it one of "Iran's greatest
achievements." (The Lekarev Report,
Dec. 13, 2007)
“The NIE and the 12th Imam (the
Islamic 'Messianic' figure)”
“On August 8, 2006 Professor Bernard Lewis, the doyen of Islam studies
in the West, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "There is a radical
difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with
nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as
the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers." And "In this
context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during
the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general
destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead
-- hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this
mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement." I did a quick
search of the National Intelligence Estimate document "Iran: Nuclear
Intentions and Capabilities" for the words "imam" or
"12th" or "Mehdi". No hits. So I can judge with "high
confidence" that NIE conclusions have not much to do with WHY Iran
wants to do what it wants to do. As long as that has not changed, nothing has
changed. In other words, it is
irrelevant whether this is disinformation by Iran or not. The consequences of
making a mistake in estimating the threat from Iran are so high, that the worst
case scenario estimates should be the ones on which decisions should be made.
The mistakes done in Iraq where Saddam's WMD were moved to Syria, apparently
by the Russians, and the whole affair hushed up by both Democrats and Republicans
since the truth would have embarrassed them both, must not be repeated. There
is no room for petty partisan politics if the result is a nuclear war. (Mladen
Andrijasevic, www.israelinsider.com).
“Egypt
to Sign Nuclear Pact with Russia” “Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak heads for Russia today where he is expected to get
assurances of Russian assistance to build a nuclear facility. A bilateral
nuclear power deal was outlined last week and is expected
to be signed during the visit. Egypt's
Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit said the pact would enable Egypt to tap
into Russia's extensive experience in the field of nuclear energy. The deal could allow Russia to participate in
a tender to build nuclear reactors in Egypt.
The pact coincides with international efforts to pressure Iran into
abandoning its nuclear program. Iran insists its program is for civilian
purposes of manufacturing energy, but Western countries are concerned Teheran
is covertly making an atomic bomb. The
technologies for creating nuclear energy and nuclear bombs are similar and
involve many dual-usage elements and substances. Egypt is one of
several Middle Eastern countries seeking a nuclear program. Cairo wants to
revive its atomic energy program, which was aborted in the wake of the
Chernobyl disaster in 1986, when the dangers of such a program became
apparent.” (The Lekarev Report, March 25, 2008).
“Hizbollah
Preparing for Upcoming War” “Naim Kassem,
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah's deputy, described a training exercise the
group conducted at the beginning of this week as preparation for the next war
with Israel.
In an interview with the Arab-Israeli
paper Sawt el-Balad published Thursday, Kassem said that the Shiite
organization's weapons arsenal can hit all parts of Israel. He described the
maneuvers as "enormous and important and they were carried out as part of
our deployment so that we won't be caught by surprise. "Our exercise was unrestricted and was
meant to cover all of the territory of the Israeli entity and not simply to
strengthen our companies," he stated.
Kassem added that UNIFIL forces detected the increased Hizbullah
activity but, since no militants were carrying weapons, he claimed they were
acting in accordance with UN Security Resolution 1701.
The drill was part of our obligation to
make our presence and readiness known and (to show) that we act how we deem
necessary," Hizbullah's number two said. (Lekarev Report, Nov. 11,2007).
“Syria Arming Itself 'Furiously'”
“Jordan and Israeli security officials speaking to Aaron
Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for World Net Daily, have said that
Syria, aided by Russia and Iran, in recent months has been furiously acquiring
rockets and missiles, including projectiles capable of hitting the entire state
of Israel. A Jordanian security official said one of the main reasons Damascus did
not retaliate after Israel carried out its Sept. 6 airstrike inside Syria
allegedly targeting a nascent nuclear facility was because Syria's rocket
infrastructure was not yet complete. Syria picked up the pace of acquiring
rockets and missiles, largely from Russia with Iranian backing, with the goal
of completing its missile and rocket arsenal by the end of the year, after the
Israeli attack. The Jordanian official said Syria is aiming to possess enough
projectiles to fire over 100 rockets into Israel per hour for a sustained
period of time.
According to Israeli and Jordanian
officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow
to station submarines and warboats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is
supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and
rockets being financed by Iran.
"The Iranians opened an extended credit line with Russia for Syria
with the purpose of arming Syria," said one Jordanian security
official. "Russia's involvement and
strategic positioning is almost like a return to its Cold War stance," the
official said.
Both the Israeli and Jordanian
officials told WND large quantities of Syrian rockets and missiles are being
stockpiled at Latakia, Syria's main port on the Mediterranean Sea, as well as
at Syria's Tartus port, another major port area south of Latakia and north of
Damascus.
Syria's new acquisitions include
Russia's S-300 surface-to-air missile defense shield, which is similar to the
U.S.-funded, Israeli engineered Arrow antimissile system currently deployed in
Israel. The S-300 system is being run not by Syria but by Russian naval
technicians who work from Syria's ports, security officials said. New ballistic missiles and rockets include
Alexander rockets and a massive quantity of various Scud surface-to-surface
missiles, including Scud B and D Scud missiles.
The Wise Man Sees
In Proverbs 22:3 we read, "The
wise man sees evil coming and prepares, while the naive goes on and is
punished." My friends, the mass of evidence growing daily that the
enemies of Israel are seriously and systematically preparing for war against
the state of Israel - a war they openly call the war to destroy the Jewish
state - cannot be ignored. As we are exhorted by the verse quoted above,
the wise see evil coming and prepare. Those who proverbially hide their heads
in the sand will suffer. Top security
and defense officials are saying this is not a question of "IF" but
"WHEN". So when the rockets begin falling (G-d forbid)
in other parts of Israel like they have been falling on Sderot and the Negev,
it will be too late to prepare. It will be too late then to get bottled
water, non-perishable food and other necessities for survival. It will be
too late then to get help to IDF soldiers on the frontline, like we did during
the Second Lebanon war, thanks to your generous assistance. Last night, we had a call from the Sergeant
Major of the IDF unit for whom you bought shoes in August 2006. His
concern was evident in the phone call; there are preparations that must be made
now. We cannot wait. (The Lekarev Report, February 7,2008).
“Israel Will Defend Its Own” “As the UN
Security Council debated a resolution to condemn Israel (again!!) for the
situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared forcefully in her
speech to the Herzliya Conference that Israel will defend its own, regardless
of UN condemnations or resolutions.
"I believe that Israel should not have to apologize for its
existence and it will continue to defend the lives of its citizens, even at the
price of condemnation," she said, adding that "it is inconceivable
for Palestinians to fire rockets on Israel and then ask for our
help." Livni dedicated an extensive
part of her speech to the negotiation process and the divisive core issues:
"I am not here to peddle dreams nor am I here to strengthen the hands of
those who have given up. . . "Even
if the Palestinians fail to implement it, this document will be of worth if in
it there are Israeli interests set in writing and ratified by the international
community. There will be no further claims beyond this document and it will
offer a lasting solution to the conflict, one which will take the place of
United Nations resolutions and proposals like the Arab Initiative," the
foreign minister added. (The Lekarev Report, Jan. 23, 2008).
“UN Fails to Condemn
Jerusalem Massacre” “The United States accused Libya on Thursday of preventing
the Security Council from condemning as a "terrorist attack" the deadly
massacre at the Mercaz Ha Rav Yeshiva. The United States had drafted a
statement that was discussed at an emergency UN Security Council session called
to debate an attack by a Palestinian gunman who killed at least eight people
and wounded at least 10 more at an Israeli religious school. "The members of the Security Council
condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that took place in
Jerusalem March 6, 2008 which resulted in the death and injury of dozens of
Israeli civilians," said the draft statement. The US delegation
hoped the 15 member council would unanimously support the condemnation but Libya,
along with several other council members, voted it down. (The Lekarev
Report, March 7, 2008).
“Can Israel Rely on America?”
“Thanks
to Naomi Ragen for forwarding this article by Gerald M. Steinberg (Institute
for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs). The December "surprise" resulting from the publication
of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate disrupted fifteen years of Israeli
policy based on working with the international coalition to pressure Iran to
drop its nuclear weapons program through sanctions and the threat of military
action, and has reminded Israelis of the limits of American security guarantees
and strategic cooperation.
* Within two weeks following publication of the NIE report [that Iran is no longer pursuing nuclear
weapons. Ed], China signed a major contract on energy development and
supply with Iran, and Russia quickly dispatched two shipments of nuclear fuel
for the Bushehr nuclear reactor. Egypt moved to improve relations with Iran,
and Saudi Arabia welcomed Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Mecca for the Haj.
* Prime Minister Olmert had explained the logic of the
"Annapolis process" in terms of the coalition to stop Iran, but two
weeks after Annapolis, with the release of the NIE report this rationale has
lost much of its relevance.
* Another source of stress comes from differences over
renewed U.S. efforts to forge a quick agreement with the Palestinian Authority
at a time of continued terrorism, the violent conflict between Fatah and Hamas,
the failure to develop functioning Palestinian institutions, and the PA's
ongoing incitement and rejection of the legitimacy of a Jewish state.
* In addition, the overall decline of U.S. influence, as
reflected in Iraq, the return of Russia as a world power, the chaos in
Pakistan, and other developments, has highlighted the limits of Israeli
reliance on American assistance, and the need for Israel to maintain an
independent capability to act when necessary.” (The Lekarev Report, Jan. 8, 2008).
The media and political commentators all over the world
have been saying that it is not a matter of if, but of when, Israel, or
America, or both, will attack Iran.
However, a widespread devastation of Iran by those nations is not in
biblical prophecy. Instead, as we saw,
the Bible says the opposite, that it is Iran, in an alliance with Russia and a
host of other countries that will attack Israel. God will magnify Himself before the world by destroying such a mighty
coalition that is led by the bastion of atheism. The good news is that immediately afterwards
Jesus Christ will return to set up the Millennium Kingdom – a new world order
of true peace, holiness and prosperity, in which wicked people will have no
place.
Where God Was During the
Holocaust
The Jews never tyre asking the questions:
Where was God during the Holocaust? Why did He not intervene to prevent it or
put an end to it after it became obvious what was going on?
The answer is
rather clear and straightforward. God
was on His throne; He did not prevent it or stop it sooner was because He
prophesied it, He foresaw it, and He implemented it. Simple as that, and proven by the Scriptures,
yet they would never accept it, always claiming innocence and victim hood.
Amo 3:6 If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the
people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?
Why then do the
Jews keep on asking those questions, and never finding the answer to them? Because their spiritual leaders are as
self-centred and ignorant of the Scriptures now, as they were at the time of
Jesus Christ. And as dangerous for
Israel as they were then. They led the
nation to catastrophe then, and are about to do it again. Not because they are not making peace with
their intractable duplicitous enemies, for as sixty years of history have
proven, that is an impossible task, but because they continue to refuse to bend
their knees before the Almighty, and acknowledge their sins and wrongdoings,
and the evil they have inflicted upon the world with their anti-God, anti-life,
atheistic philosophy of communism.
In order to be
forgiven, all sins must be atoned for, and the Jews have a lot of atoning to
do. Only then can they be at peace with God, and especially with His Son, whom
they have so ingloriously crucified, and benefit once again of God’s protection
and blessings. Ezekiel makes the
following statement in one of his prophecies:
Eze
38:8 After many days you will be
visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back
from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel,
which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all
of them dwell safely.
There can be no
doubt that this verse, in particular the expression, “brought back from the
sword”, refers to the Holocaust. No
other comparable catastrophe can fall upon the Jews “in the latter years”,
other than the Great Tribulation which will fall upon the whole world. This means that this event was prophesied and
implemented under the eyes of God. Such
being the case, how is it that the Jews keep asking the question of where was
God in the days of the Holocaust and why He did not intervene to prevent it or
cut it short? Even Pope John Paul II
asked these questions when he visited Auschwitz.
The role of
spiritual leaders is to inform people of the will of God, of His laws, statutes
and judgments, of His prophecies and warnings, in order to keep them on the
straight and narrow path. As Jesus
Christ said:
Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is
the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are
many who go in by it.
Mat
7:14 Because narrow is the gate
and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find
it.
Now notice
carefully what Jesus Christ said in the very next breath.
Mat
7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Mat
7:16 You will know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Mat
7:17 Even so, every good tree bears good
fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Mat
7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Mat
7:19 Every tree that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Mat
7:20 Therefore by their fruits you will
know them.
Mat
7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me,
'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father in heaven.
Mat
7:22 Many will say to Me in that day,
'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?'
Mat
7:23 And then I will declare to them, 'I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
False prophets,
ravenous wolves, thornbushes, thistles – strong words and extraordinary
comparisons for those who would be spiritual leaders. Since Jesus Christ knew that His religion
will be universal, these words apply to the spiritual leaders of Judaism, of
Christianity, and of the whole world.
Any wonder that the world is in such a mess, and on the brink of a
universal catastrophe.
The question
therefore that should be asked is not where God was in those days, or why He
did not intervene to stop it, but why He implemented such a grievous prophecy
to the full. The answer, like the
prophecy itself, is in the Bible.
Eze 5:5 "Thus says the Lord
GOD: 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and
the countries all around her.
Eze 5:6 She
has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations,
and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her;
for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.'
Eze 5:7 Therefore thus says the
Lord GOD: 'Because you have multiplied disobedience
more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My
statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the
nations that are all
Eze 5:8 around you'—therefore
thus says the Lord GOD: 'Indeed I, even I, am
against you and will execute judgments in your midst in
Eze 5:9 the sight of the
nations. And I will do among you what I
have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all
your abominations.
Eze 5:10 Therefore fathers shall
eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I
will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to
all the winds.
Eze 5:11 'Therefore, as I
live,' says the Lord GOD, 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with
all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will
also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.
Eze 5:12 One-third of you shall
die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third
shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all
the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
Eze 5:13 'Thus shall My anger be
spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and
they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have
spent My fury upon them.
Eze 5:14 Moreover I will make you
a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the
sight of all who pass by.
Eze 5:15 'So it shall be a
reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are
all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in
furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.
Eze 5:16 When I send against them
the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send
to destroy you, I will
Eze 5:17 increase the famine upon
you and cut off your supply of bread. So
I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you.
Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against
you. I, the LORD, have spoken.' "
Does anyone still
wonder where God was, or why He did not intervene to stop the Holocaust? The answer is clear for all to see: they did
not obey God, they did worse than their fathers, and even worse than the
nations that God removed to make room for them.
Yet even after the Holocaust, still they would not obey God, repent and
acknowledge their sins. They are in mortal danger again, for without repentance,
God does not hear their prayers, and they cannot be saved, for this time truly
it is no longer a question of survival, but one of salvation.
Those who think
that they have reasons to hate the Jews, or that they are any better, should
beware of the fact that after they are refined through the fire, the Jews will
be leading the world back to God in the very near future.
Eze 36:16 Moreover the word of
the LORD came to me, saying:
Eze 36:17 "Son of man, when
the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways
and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary
impurity.
Eze 36:18 Therefore I poured out
My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with
which they had
Eze 36:19 defiled it. So I scattered them among the nations, and
they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them
Eze 36:20 according to their ways
and their deeds. When they came to the
nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them,
'These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of
His land.'
Eze 36:21 But I had concern for
My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever
they went.
Eze 36:22
"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
"I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy
name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.
Eze 36:23 And I will sanctify My great
name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in
their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says
the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you
from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into
your own land.
Eze 36:25 Then I will sprinkle
clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
filthiness and from all your
Eze 36:26 idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 I will put My Spirit
within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments
and do them.
Eze 36:28 Then you shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be
your God.
Eze 36:29 I will deliver you from
all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no
famine upon you.
Eze 36:30 And I will multiply the
fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never
again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Then you will remember
your evil ways and your deeds that were not good;
Eze 36:31 and you will loathe
yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this,"
Eze 36:32 says the Lord GOD,
"let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O
house of Israel!"
Eze 36:33 'Thus says the Lord
GOD: "On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also
enable you to dwell in the cities,
Eze 36:34 and the ruins shall be
rebuilt. The desolate land shall be
tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by.
Eze 36:35 So they will say, 'This
land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted,
desolate, and ruined
Eze 36:36 cities are now
fortified and inhabited.' Then
the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have
rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD,
have spoken it, and I will do it."
Zec 8:13 And it shall come to
pass That just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and
house of Israel, So I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear,
Let your hands be strong.'
Zec 8:14 "For thus says the
LORD of hosts: 'Just as I determined to punish you When your fathers provoked
Me to wrath,' Says the
Zec 8:15 LORD of hosts, 'And I
would not relent, So again in these days I am determined to do good To
Jerusalem and to the house of
Zec 8:16 Judah. Do not fear. These are the things you shall do:
Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your
Zec 8:17 gates for truth,
justice, and peace; Let none of you think evil in your heart against your
neighbor; And do not love a false oath.
Zec 8:18 For all these are
things that I hate,' Says the LORD."
Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,
Zec 8:19 "Thus says the LORD
of hosts: 'The fast of the fourth month, The fast of the fifth, The fast
of the seventh, And the fast of the tenth, Shall be joy and gladness and
cheerful feasts For the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.'
Zec 8:20 "Thus says the LORD
of hosts: 'Peoples shall yet come, Inhabitants of many cities;
Zec 8:21 The inhabitants of one city
shall go to another, saying, "Let us continue to go and pray before the
LORD, And seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also."
Zec 8:22 Yes, many peoples and
strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray
before the LORD.'
Zec 8:23 "Thus
says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days ten men from every language of the
nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with
you, for we have heard that God is with you." ' "
Amen,
indeed!
Why the
prophets of God have never
been welcomed by this world
In the beginning
of the nation of Israel, God spoke to His people through anointed priests. They had the priviledge of communicating with
God whenever they went into the Temple’s Holy of Holies adorned with the Urim and the Thummim – a special
breastplate that contained twelve
precious stones inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 28:29 "So Aaron shall
bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his
heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD
continually.
Exo 28:30 And you
shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they
shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the LORD. So Aaron shall
bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the LORD
continually.
In
the course of time, however, the priests failed to perform their duties before
God, forcing Him to choose a new set of servants, called prophets, to convey
His messages to the people. Not
surprisingly, the priests did not take kindly to the new arrangement. They have been hostile towards the prophets
throughout the history of Israel, a hostility that continues to this day in
both Judaism and Christendom. Take a
careful look at the following passages from the book of Nehemiah, and see the
disastrous consequences this hostility has had on the prophets and on the
nation of Israel.
Over and over again, God
kept forgiving His backsliding “chosen people”, until there was no further
remedy, and He gave them over into the hands of their enemies. Did you notice the main reason for this
disastrous outcome? Let us assemble the emphasised words together.
“Neither our kings nor our
princes, Our priests nor our fathers, Have kept Your law, Nor heeded Your
commandments and Your testimonies, With which You testified against them. Yet for many years You had patience with
them, And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets, That You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they would not listen, [but they] Cast
Your law behind their backs And
killed Your prophets.”
In the early days of Israel,
the priests, being custodians of God’s laws, also served as judges of the
people. However, when they ignored the
law and became self-indulgent and perverters of justice, the people, instead of
calling an assembly of the elders and praying to God for guidance and more
righteous holy priests, demanded instead a king in order to be like their
surrounding pagan neighbours.
Now notice what God told them when they
made that request.
The king would take their sons and daughters and make them his servants. He
would also take the best of their fields, plus ten percent of their produce
every year. Now is that what has
transpired since that time?
Tell me a country where people pay only ten percent tax, and I will tell
you a hapy people. I will migrate to
that country in no time at all. Rather,
what we have in the world is a ruinous regime of taxation that far exceeds that
amount. Worst of all appear to be the
countries in which the priests and ministers of religion hold sway over the
people, for they demand tithes and offerings on top of the taxes people have to
give to their governments. Religious leaders forget that ten per cent plus Holy
Day offerings were to be the whole tax people paid to the governing
authorities. Except for the Levites, who
had a full time job serving in the Temple in Jerusalem, other religious leaders
were to supplement people’s offerings by working with their own hands, as was
the case with the Apostles of Jesus Christ.
After the appointment of kings over Israel, the priests did their best to
obscure the messages of the prophets and create a wedge between them and the
king. Here is one such example.
Amo 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest
of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired
against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear
all his words.
Amo 7:11 For thus Amos has said:
'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From their own land.'
Amo 7:12 Then Amaziah said to
Amos: "Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, And there
prophesy.
Amo 7:13 But never again prophesy
at Bethel, For it is the king's sanctuary, And it is the royal
residence."
Amo 7:14 Then Amos answered, and
said to Amaziah: "I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a
prophet, But I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit.
Amo 7:15 Then the LORD took me as
I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people
Israel.' Therefore,
Amo 7:16 hear the word of the
LORD: You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, And do not spout against the
house of Isaac.'
Amo 7:17
"Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall be a harlot in the
city; Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; Your land shall be
divided by survey line; You shall die in a defiled land; And Israel
shall surely be led away captive from his own land.'
While
there are some examples of prophets who arose from the priestly line, on the
whole the prophets were drawn from simple people who had no expectation of
exalted positions. In fact, becoming a
prophet of God not only did not confer one any special priviledges with the
leaders and the people, but was a sure way of landing him into many personal
and family problems. An interesting example is that of David, who was a prophet
before he became a king. Had he failed
to overcome his trials and difficulties during his testing period and spiritual
growth, we would not have the Psalms – some of the most wonderful writings ever
put on paper.
When he
began to write his prayers and songs of praise to God, he could hardly have
imagined that he was writing for posterity.
In the course of time however, he became aware that something wonderful
was happening in his life and in the life of the world. He understood that he was an instrument in
the hands of a higher power.
Although
anointed King over Israel, David endured some of the most horrific trials that
could befall a human being. Was he aware
that he was a forerunner for Someone who would endure even more horrendous
trials and become the Saviour of the world?
Many of the Psalms are about Jesus Christ, who acknowledged David as His
forerunner.
Mat 22:41 While the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
Mat 22:42 saying, "What do
you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" They said to Him, "The
Son of David."
Mat 22:43 He said to them,
"How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'LORD,' saying:
Mat 22:44 'THE LORD SAID TO MY
LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, TILL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL"
'?
Mat 22:45 If David then calls Him
'LORD,' how is He his Son?"
Mat 22:46 And no one
was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question
Him anymore.
It is general
knowledge that Jesus Christ came into the world in order to make the Holy
Spirit available to all human beings.
Joh 14:15 "If you love Me,
keep My commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will
pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with
you forever—
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but
you know Him, for He
Joh 14:18 dwells with you and
will be in you. I will not leave you
orphans; I will come to you.
Joh 16:7
Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I
depart, I will send Him to you.
The
prerequisite for salvation is receiving the Holy Spirit, and the prerequisite
for receiving the Holy Spirit is keeping the Commandments of God. Salvation
means eternal life, and eternal life means knowing the true God and loving Him
with all of one’s heart, soul, mind and strength.
Joh 17:1 Jesus spoke these words,
lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
Joh 17:2 as You have given Him
authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You
have given Him.
Joh 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know
You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Mar 12:28 Then one of the scribes
came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered
them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"
Mar 12:29 Jesus answered him,
"The first of all the commandments is: 'HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD
OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
Mar 12:30 AND YOU
SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL
YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' This is the first
commandment. And the second, like it,
is this:
Mar 12:31 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR
NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Mar 12:32 So the scribe said to
Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is
one God, and there is no other but He.
Mar 12:33 And to love Him with
all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the
strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Mar 12:34 Now when Jesus saw that
he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of
God." But after that no one dared question Him.
In order to make
the Holy Spirit available to all, Jesus Christ had to die and rise again, then
create a New Covenant.
What is not so
well known is that the Holy Spirit was available to select individuals since
the beginning of time, such as the prophets who wrote the Old Testament. Indeed, the term “Holy Spirit” was used for
the first time by King David.
It is interesting
to note that David wrote this prayer and Psalm in connection with two grievous sins:
adultery and murder. Adultery with
Bathsheba and murder of her husband in order to cover his adultery. Some people may wonder how God could forgive
such grievous sins. The remedy, of
course, is repentance. What is
repentance? Macquarie dictionary: 1. compunction
or contrition for wrongdoing or sin. 2. regret for any past action. What is even more interesting is that David’s
sin occurred after God said that he was a man after His own heart (1 Sam.
13:14), a fact acknowledged in the New Testament too.
Act 13:21 And afterward they
asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of
Benjamin, for forty years.
Act 13:22 And when He had removed
him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and
said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID THE SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART, WHO WILL
DO ALL MY WILL.'
Act 13:23 From this man's seed,
according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—
Act 13:24 after John had first
preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of
Israel.
David’s
forgiveness is an important lesson for those who think that their sins are so
heinous that God cannot forgive.
Repentance, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit are what God loves in
human beings.
When people
repent of their sins, their past life does not matter anymore. They become new creations in God.
Human
beings are constantly under the influence of their carnal nature, and prone to
fall, but as long as they repent and come before God with a broken heart and
contrite spirit, they are forgiven and given the chance of reconciliation.
David’s example clearly shows that even people who have the Holy Spirit can be
overtaken by sin. God used him, one of the greatest personalities of the Bible,
to pass on this important message to us.
Willing, persistent sins, however, are a different matter.
Now
although David was the first to speak of the Holy Spirit, he was not the first
to have the Holy Spirit. Since the
beginning of the world, the Holy Spirit was available to select individuals;
people who were set apart for important transcendental roles: Abel, Noah, Job,
Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses, are but a few such examples.
You
may have noticed references to the Spirit in some of our earlier
references. Here they are again.
All people who
had the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times became role models for us.
Jesus Christ
connected the sufferings of the prophets that came before Him, with those who
would come after Him.
Mat 23:34 Therefore, indeed, I
send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and
crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and
persecute from city to city,
Mat 23:35 that on you
may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the
temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Assuredly, I say to
you, all these things will come upon this generation.
The
question is, do these words apply only to the Pharisees of old, as modern day
preachers would have it, or are they valid for all times? If they applied only
to the Pharisees of old, Christians would have had an easy time after the Jews
were dispersed by the Romans among other nations. The truth is painfully different. For more than a millennium true Christians,
and others of different opinions and beliefs, were persecuted, imprisoned and
even burned at stake, by none other than people who thought that they do God a
service. But then what did Jesus Christ
tell His disciples?
Joh 16:2 They will
put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you
will think that he offers God service.
The
Devil has always had servants ready and willing to do his work in the world.
During Middle Ages, it was Catholic Church’s Inquisition; nowadays,
fundamentalist Islamists have replaced them.
Those
who murdered the elect of God in the past are about to do it again to His last
two prophets. You are going to see it with
your own eyes, in real life or on the television screens. More than that: you will see a miracle the
likes of which the world has not seen since the time of Jesus Christ. Here is the story of God’s last two
witnesses.
Things however
are not going to be as simple as that.
For just as it happened in the past, Satan will turn things up side down
once again, presenting his servants as ministers of righteousness, and the prophets
of God as anti-Christs, or “allege preachers”.
As Jesus Christ
would have said: whoever reads let him understand!
What
Exactly Is A “Real Church”?
In July 2007, Pope Benedict made a statement that
stunned the Christian world. He told
them that only the Catholic and Orthodox are “real” Churches, and that all the
others are mere “ecclesial communities”.
“You are not real churches, Pope says to Protestants” “Pope Benedict … backing
traditional practices”
PROTESTANT churches have reacted with dismay to a new declaration
approved by the Pope insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities"
and their ministers in effect phonies with no right to give communion. Coming just days after the reinstatement of
the Latin Mass, Tuesday's document left no doubt about the Pope's eagerness to
back traditional Catholic practices and attitudes, even at the expense of
causing offence. The view that
Protestants cannot have churches was first set out by Pope Benedict seven years
ago when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed the Vatican ministry for
doctrine. A commentary attached to the latest text acknowledged that his 2000
document, Dominus Iesus, had caused "no little distress". But it added: "It is nevertheless
difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to
[Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion
of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered
essential to the Catholic Church."
The Pope's old department, which issued the document, said its aim was
to correct "erroneous or ambiguous" interpretations of the Second
Vatican Council, which ended in 1965. Quoting a text approved by the council,
it said Protestant churches, "because of the absence of the sacramental
priesthood", had not "preserved the genuine and integral substance of
the Eucharistic Mystery". However,
other Christians saw the latest document as another retreat from the spirit of
openness generated by the council, which laid the basis for talks on Christian
unity. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of the Protestant umbrella group Evangelical
Church in Germany, said: "The hope for a change in the ecumenical
situation has been pushed further away by the document published
today." He said the new
pronouncement repeated "offensive statements" in the 2000 document
and was a "missed opportunity" to improve relations with Protestants.
The president of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, Pastor
Domenico Maselli, called it a "huge step backwards in relations between
the Roman Catholic church and other Christian communities".
The Church of
England reacted cautiously. A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan
Williams, said: "This is a serious document, teaching on important
ecclesiological matters and of significance to the churches' commitment to the
full, visible unity to the one church of Jesus Christ." The Vatican's statement had fewer misgivings
about the Orthodox Church, which had "true sacraments" and a genuine
priesthood. But its failure to acknowledge the Pope's authority meant it suffered
from a "defectus", politely translated from Latin as "a
wound". Last Saturday the Pope
freed Catholics to ask for Masses to be celebrated according to the Latin rite
abolished by the Second Vatican Council. This meant the reinstatement of a Good
Friday prayer describing Jews as blind to the Christian truth. (John Hooper in Rome and Stephen Bates in
London, Sydney Morning Herald, July
12, 2007).
Now although we
are not enamoured with the papacy, we agree that this time the Pope did the
right thing in raising the question of what a “real” church is and what is
not. The first thing we wanted to know
is what he understood by the term "ecclesial communities" which he
applied to Protestant congregations which he says are not real churhces. In four decades of rather intensive Bible and
religious studies, we have never come across that kind of distinction between
“church” and “ecclesial communities”. So
we looked in an English Dictionary. This
is what Macquarie says:
Ecclesia = /uh'kleezeeuh/ noun, plural ecclesiae
/uh'kleezeeee/. 1. an assembly, especially the popular assembly
of ancient Athens. 2. a
congregation; a church. [L: assembly of
the people, LL church, from Greek ekklesía]
“Ecclesia” means
“church” according to this dictionary.
But that cannot be; the Pope is a wise man, and if he says that
“ecclesial” does not mean church, it could not mean church. The problem must lay with Macquarie
Dictionary. This is an Australian
Dictionary, and what would the colonials know.
So we looked into Webster’s “school and office” Dictionary, one of the most
popular these days. This is what that
one says.
Ecclesia = a
church, a religious assembly.
Short and to the
point, but basically the same thing.
Could it be that an Aussie had surreptitiously found his way into
Webster’s editorial team and sneacked in that term? We decided to look into an old English
Dictionary, Funk & Wagnalls.
Ecclesia =
1. The popular or legislative assembly
in Athens and other ancient Greek states in wich every free citizen could
vote. 2. A body of Christians organised
for worship and religiouys work; a church; congregation.
Wherever we
looked, ecclesia meant, among other things, church or religious
congregation. There was only one other
thing for us to do – look into the Bible and see what Jesus Christ and His
apostles meant by the trem
“church”.
This term
appears for the first time in the New Testament. Remarkably, it was used by Jesus Christ in
relation to Apostle Peter, whom He designated as head of His congregation of
followers.
Mat
16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and
on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
That explains
why the Popes think that only their followers form a “real” church, for they claim
to be the inheritors of Peter’s mantle and “Vicar’s of Christ on Earth”. Well, we had much to say on that; those
interested should read “Why
Apostle Peter Could Never Have Been the First Pope Of Rome” in TCH 16, and the article on the same
topic in this edition.
Now, even if the Popes are wrong in believing that they are
Vicars of Christ on earth by virtue of Peter’s mantle, it is still possible
that the Catholic is a real Church. We
have examples in the Bible in which the apostles of Jesus Christ were excluded
form the very churches that they themselves set up. This is what Apostle John said in his first epistle:
Extraordinary,
isn’t it? The Apostle, whom Jesus loved
the most, was excluded from a Church of God by one who loved to have preeminnce
among the members. And why would he want
to do that? The Bible tells us why.
Those, whose god
is their own belly, who set their minds on eartly things, would do anything to
clamour up to the leadership of churches, because that guarantees them a full
belly for life.
Now consider the
implications of these statements.
Apostle John, could have turnend around and put the onus on Diotrepes and his followers to prove that
they are a “real” church. He could
simply have said that since only the apostles and the true disciples of Jesus
Christ had the authority to baptise and pass on the Holy Spirit, any other
congregation would not be a real Church of God.
He could have empowered Gaius, to whom he wrote that epsitle, to take
out the genuine believers and form a rival but true Church of God. The fact that he did not do that, is quite
extraordinary and speaks volumes.
Instead, Apostle
John let that wretched Diotrepes remain leader, at least until he arrived, at
which time he would “call
to mind his deeds which he does”. He did
not even imply that he would put him out of the church, just to give him a good
verbal chastening. Now what does that
tell you? Undoubtedly, Apostle John had
the ear of Jesus Christ, for he received the book of Revelation in direct communication
with the glorified Christ in heaven.
Therefore, the glorified Christ approved of impostors leading His
Churches. Unless one believes and
understands this fact, he cannot understand the mysteries of the book of
Revelation, which says so much about today’s churches, including the Catholic
Church (See TCH Nos 14 & 15).
Now far be it for us to suggest that
the Pope is an impostor of the like of Diotrepes. Even if he were, if he is leading a “real”
Church of God, no one could complain against him, for he would be approved by
Jesus Christ. What is at stake here, is not
the authority, or otherwise, of the Pope, but the definition of a “real”
church. For that we have no other choice
but to go to the New Testament and see what the apostles understood by this
term, and especially what Jesus Christ called, and expected, of a Church of
God. This may surprise some people, but
this is what Jesus Christ said is a Church of God.
Mat 18:19 "Again I say to
you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it
will be done for them by My Father
Mat 18:20 in
heaven. For where two or three are
gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
Two or three
people gathered in the name of Jesus Christ form a church. And not just any curch, but a “real” Church
of God. By this definition, the question
is, are Protestant congregations “real” churches, or are they not? First of all, let us define the term,
“Protestant”. Catholic and Orthodox
Churches define as “Protestant” any church that does not belong to their
camp. That is not correct. This is what Macquarie Dictionary says about
Protestantism.
Reformation = the
religious movement in the 16th century which had for its object the reform of
the Roman Catholic Church, and which led to the establishment of the Protestant
Churches.
There are many churches in the world these days that did not originate
in the Protestant Reformation. They used
to be defined by the term, “fundamentalist”, meaning they sought to go back to
the fundamentals of the Bible. They
pointed out that although the Protestants had revolted against the excesses of
the Popes, and separated from them, they retained almost all of the Catholic
doctrines such as going to heaven or to hell after death, Catholic Holy Days,
sainthood after death, etc.
Lately, since the term “fundamentalist” has been identified more and
more with Islamic extremists, fundamentalist churches have adopted the term,
“evangelical”. Did the Pope have in mind
evangelical churches also when he told the Protestants that their congregations
are not “real” churches? Most likely,
yes. That is just as well, because on a
close analysis, there are enough deviations from the standards of the early
Churches of God among evangelicals, to make them hardly any better than the
Protestant churches.
This brings us back to the definition of a Church of God according to
Jesus Christ and His apostles. As we
saw, Jesus Christ is in the midst of two or three people that are gathered in
His name. You cannot have a clearer
definition of what makes a Church of God than that. Apostle Paul said that Christians are only
those who have the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit
of Christ is none other than the Holy Spirit.
And how does one get the Holy Spirit?
Act 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and
let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This creates a
real problem. Apostle Peter was speaking
to adult people here. In asking them to
repent, he was telling them to make a turn around in their life, to change from
a life of sin and dissipation, to one of holiness and righteousness.
The problem comes
from the fact that neither the Catholic, nor the Orthodox Churches, which the
Pope anointed as the only “real” churches, preach and practice adult
baptism. Which means that even if they
are ”real” churches according to the Pope’s definition, they do not have the
Holy Spirit. And if they do not have the Holy Spirit, they are not Christ’s.
And if they are not Christ’s, they go neither to heaven nor to hell, but to
everlasting perdition. The Bible simply
does not preach judgment after death, but judgment after resurrection at the
last day.
Joh 11:23 Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise again."
Joh 11:24 Martha said
to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last
day."
Joh 11:25 Jesus said to her,
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may
die, he shall live.
Joh 11:26 And whoever lives and
believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Joh 11:27 She said to Him,
"Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to
come into the world."
People
who have the Holy Spirit, who believe and die “in Christ”, go neither to heaven
nor to hell when they die, but are “asleep” in their graves until the
resurrection of the last day. This is
true as much of the New, as of the Old Testament.