Barrack Obama – Messiah to some, Antichrist to
others
They danced in the streets, they chanted,
they cried, they embraced – their messiah had arrived, on the most powerful
position in the world – the American Presidency.
The much hoped for era of peace, progress
and emancipation had finally arrived: for blacks, for homosexuals, for illegal
migrants, even for the terrorists in the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Barrack Obama was their man; he would fix
all their problems, and quickly.
In his second day in office, Barack Obama
signed a decree to close down Guantanamo Bay. That was the most pressing
problem that had to be solved quickly – a typical half baked idea that would
become the hallmark of his Administration.
He put the proverbial cart before the horse – close down the prison
before knowing what to do with the inmates.
Like all American Presidents since the
advent of the nuclear age, Barak Obama is accompanied everywhere he goes by a
nuclear trigger box. Let us hope he shows better judgment and foresight in
pressing the button of that deadly accoutrement than he has shown so far.
An accomplished public speaker, he has an
army of admirers both inside and outside the country. In the beginning, we too looked upon him as a
breath of fresh air after the stiltedness of recent American presidencies. Until, that is, we took a closer look at his
record and potential in the light of biblical prophecies. Americans would be
shocked if they knew what lies ahead.
Barack Obama had hardly settled in the
White House when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. It surprised us, it surprised him, and it
surprised everyone who looked objectively at his record. There wasn’t much of a record to look at,
but, as it turned out, he was awarded it not for what he had done, but for what
he might do, for his intentions. He
spoke of a world without nuclear weapons, and signed a treaty with Russia about
that. And that was good enough for the
Nobel Committee.
Obama’s Peace Prize gave us great hope
too, for we do not know of anyone who has had better intentions for this word
than us. For two decades, we have cried
aloud to world leaders that humanity was heading in the wrong direction, a path
of self-destruction, and offered the way out of it – return to the Creator God,
or perish. The fact that world leaders
have not listened to us, and the world has been sinking ever deeper into the
mire, is neither here nor there. What
matters are intentions, and in that we cannot be faulted. This is why we have packed our suitcases,
ready to travel to Oslo, or Stockholm, or wherever, for the next Nobel Prize
for Peace.
Mind you, that would put us in the
company of wealthy people, and we do not know whether we could cope with that.
We have been poor for so long, it might prove to be too much of a shock to our
system. I think we better stick to our
current status, and the way we have been doing thinks so far. Even the Bible tells us not to raise our
hopes too high, for this world honors its own, and we are destined to be
“clothed in sackcloth” to the very end. It has been God’s pleasure to have poor
people do His work, and we could not be more grateful to Him for having chosen
us. What did Jesus Christ say? Here is
the very first of the so-called beatitudes.
Mat 5:3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
We have been poor not just in the spirit,
but literally poor from the very beginning, and made poor not by chance, but by
the very people that claimed to be ministers of Jesus Christ.
As for the wealthy of this world, this is
what He had to say.
Mar 10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich one to enter into the kingdom of
God.
Sour grapes, someone may say. Perhaps, but the fact remains that the
wealthy of this world cannot have the proverbial cake and eat it too. They cannot indulge themselves in the
pleasures of this world and attain the Kingdom of God too. So said Jesus Christ, and so it shall
be!
In saying this I think I blew any chance
of getting the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Well, I cannot win them all, can I?
And you know who else is a wealthy
man? During his election campaign, it
was reported that Barack Obama had amassed a fortune of more than half a
billion dollars in donations, far more than any other candidate in history.
Whoever gave him that money, must surely expect a lot of things from him. It is interesting to note that although
American law requires that all donations be made public, Barak Obama has never
fully complied with that law. Yet, such
is the lobby that supports him that no one dares ask any questions about it; or
about the fact that he refuses to prove his entitlement to the American Presidency
by revealing his birth certificate.
Apparently, he was not born in the USA.
When thousands of Americans filed a Court
case demanding that proof, the overseeing judge threw the case out of
Court. He was not going to handle such a
hot potato. A typical American democracy
at work! And I have been complaining for
years that Romanian democracy is faulty for refusing to investigate the rape
and murder of my mother by people associated with that country’ secret services
– Ceausescu’s murderous Securitate, which still pulls the strings behind that
country’s veil of democracy, and which never gets tired of sending me murder
threats if I do not keep quiet about it.
One day God will grant them that pleasure, and how pained I am until
that is accomplished.
Everywhere in this world, justice serves
the purpose of the wealthy and of those in power.
Can you see now why the Bible has such
strong words for wealthy people? Here is more.
Jas 5:1 Come now, rich ones, weep and howl for your
hardships coming on.
Jas 5:2 Your
riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten.
Jas 5:3
Your gold and silver have corroded, and their poison will be a witness
against you, and will eat your flesh as fire. You heaped treasure in the last
days.
Jas 5:4
Behold, the hire of the laborers reaping your fields cry out, being kept
back by you. And the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears
of the Lord of hosts.
Jas 5:5
You have lived luxuriously on the earth, and lived wantonly. You have
nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Jas 5:6
You have condemned and murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Jas 5:7
Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold,
the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for
it, until he receives the early and the latter rain.
Jas 5:8
You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of your Lord
draws near.
Jas 5:9 Do
not grudge against one another, brothers, lest you be condemned. Behold, the
Judge stands before the door.
I wonder whether this refers to wealthy political and religious
leaders too. It couldn’t, for have the Catholic leaders, for example, “lived
luxuriously on the earth” and “condemned and murdered the just”? Aside from reportedly a few million victims
during the Inquisition, we do not know of too many other people that have died
at their hands. But what is that in the
overall scheme of things – a mere drop in the ocean. Would God care more about those unfortunate
few than about the billions that call themselves “Christians”? Of course not!
But then again, do you know which biblical statement the Catholic Church fears
the most?
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.
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 thorn
bushes or figs from thistles?
But we are digressing. This is
what other people have said about Obama’s Peace Prize.
“Why I am standing
with Hamas and the Taliban”
“When it comes to awarding US President Barack
Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize, I’m with the Taliban! The terrorists think it stinks (Hamas does,
too) and I believe he shouldn’t have come within cooee of the prize.
The Nobel for Medicine is awarded on
results, not to a recent medical graduate who aspires to find a cancer cure.
Nor is the prize for Literature handed to someone who has written the first
paragraph of what they think will be a masterpiece. That is how it should be, but the Nobel
Prize Committee, doesn’t live in the real world. Look at previous winners such as Yasser
Arafat in 1994. The father of modern Middle Eastern terrorism was at least
engaged in peace talk (he signed the Oslo Accords) though 15 years on nothing
has really changed. Or the 2001 award to former UN boss Kofi Annan, on whose
watch possibly 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered.
North Vietnam’s Lee Duc Tho had the grace
to refuse to share the 1973 award with Henry Kissinger, becoming the only
nominee to reject the glittering prize. His scruples were genuine – the communist
North were planning their major invasion.
Obama on the other hand, is still
dithering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan (he should), but he took
the prize without a blink. In office for
less than nine months, Obama could have just moved into the White House after
his January 20 inauguration, mere days before the Nobel nominations closed last
February 1. What has he done, then, to
deserve anything?
The chairman of the prize committee,
former Norwegian PM (coincidentally the only male on board) Thorbjorn Jagland
said: “We have on many occasions given it to try and enhance what personalities
were trying to do.” When asked whether
it was premature, he said: “It could be too late to respond three years from
now. It is now that we have the
opportunity to respond, all of us, I hope it will help him.”
Sounds like Norway runs on the basis of
handing out elephant stamps for encouragement rather than marketing people on
their performance. Even the AP White
House Correspondent Jennifer Lowen, not known for her critical view on the
Obama presidency, noted that it has actually barely began.
“He won! For what?” she wrote. Work on
the President’s ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely under way,
much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that seem to warrant a
verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee.”
As for peace, she noted that he is
currently running two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cannot get a climate
change bill through his own Congress. If
he was being graded, his scorecard would read: “Incomplete.” The award illustrates a number of serious
problems that currently exist – not only in the Peace Prize process – but
globally. The principal flaw is the readiness to accept spin over substance.
Obama has promised the world but has not
delivered anything significant. His list
of “incomplete” projects includes the pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo
Bay, already slipping behind and unlikely to meet his own January, 2010
deadline. Then there are his others: the
failure to bring home US troops from Iraq; his failure to deal with the real
threat of developing nuclear weapons; his failure to even lay the groundwork
for a new peace initiative between the Israelis and Palestinians. As for a nuclear-free world, see Iran.
Then there is climate change, which he
sees as a “priority”, unlike our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who sees the issue
of man-made carbon dioxide as the biggest moral issue facing the world. It
seems highly unlikely that Obama will have anything to present to his fans on
this issue in Copenhagen come December.
(…) The Nobel Committee seems to
be sending a politically correct affirmative action love note to the Left in
the US and elsewhere, applauding voters for electing a black man, albeit, one
who has kindled divisions in his own country to such an extent that his
opponents are starting to protest against his policies with a vehemence which
may one day equal that of Obama’s own more extremist supporters.” (Piers Akerman, The Sunday Telegraph, October 11, 2009).
Barack Obama had shown great concern for
the fate of 220 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but has said nothing about the
countless more victims of violent crimes in his own home town. In one month alone, September 21, 2009 to October
21 2009, there were no less than 31,504 violent crimes in Chicago. EveryBlock.com, from where we took
this figure, says that this is an incomplete data too.
“Most of the public information we publish
comes from government data that is far from perfect. Data can change after it’s
originally published — often after we have the ability to know whether it
changed. In fact, many agencies note that they don’t ensure the accuracy or
completeness of their information, and use words such as “snapshot” to describe
what they display at any given time.
Also, the figures published on
EveryBlock might not include all data provided by public agencies. Say you’re
trying to learn about all the crimes in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood in
June 2009. If we at EveryBlock can’t decipher an address listed with a crime
report that occurred in Georgetown — e.g., the police didn’t note whether a
crime in the 3100 block of Q Street occurred in the northwest quadrant of
the city or the southeast quadrant (both of which have 3100 blocks of Q
Street) — we can’t map it, and it won’t show up with the rest of the crimes
reported in Georgetown. Such a report,
and other pieces of data that we can’t map, would instead fall under the Unknown
category.
Finally, we at EveryBlock
occasionally have technical issues that prevent us from publishing every record.
We do our very best to avoid this problem, but it happens every now and then —
and even if it happens once, it means the data isn’t complete.”
The Washington Times also said this about what is
happening in Chicago.
“Chicago -
busy putting on its best face to garner a 2016 Olympics bid and basking in the
afterglow of President Obama's election - has become the nation's most violent
city for youths.
With three
weeks left before summer break, a record 36 Chicago Public Schools students
have been killed this school year, marking the third straight year that youth
homicides have climbed into double digits. Chicago has surpassed New York City
and Los Angeles for having the highest youth homicide rate in the nation.
"I
think people in Chicago have almost gotten numb to the statistics," said
Dexter Voisin, a researcher at the University of Chicago who studies the impact
of violence on adolescents.
"The
homicide rate is just the tip of the iceberg," Mr. Voisin said.
"Those with nonfatal injuries are almost 100 times that of our homicide
rates. You think for about every one kid who is murdered, 100 kids witness the
murder or are victims of nonfatal injuries, of robberies, muggings and
gang-related incidents. A lot of times, this exposure goes undocumented or
unreported." Black youths, he said,
are two times more likely than white youths to fail or drop out of school, and
at the same time they are also eight to 10 times more likely to be victims of
homicide than whites.
"It's
difficult for young people to focus in school if they are traumatized by the
stress in these communities," Mr. Voisin said. The death toll exasperates those offering
hope to troubled neighborhood children in Chicago - an increasingly tall task
in impoverished areas where gangs, drugs and guns are right outside their
doors.
"I
don't even know where to begin," said Diane Latiker, who runs a program
for at-risk youths out of her home in the city's Roseland neighborhood.
"There aren't any words for what I feel for what is going on for our
youth." (Andrea Billups, The
Washington Times, May 13, 2009)
More than 31,000 victims of crime on one
month, and 36 Public School kids killed in less than six months! What is this, the new killing fields of the
world?
And what has Barack Obama said about
that? Nothing! Nothing because he is
terribly concerned with the fate of 220 foreign terrorists imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay than with the mayhem that is taking place in his own backyard. The difference is that one is in the media
all the time while the other is not, and Barak Obama knows where his priorities
lay.
The media has been overly concerned with
the casualties that America has been incurring in the Iraqi and Afghan wars
than about the fact that more people are murdered in anyone of America’s major
cities than in the two wars combined in the same period of time.
America’s Public Broadcasting Station
(PBS), which sends its signals to Australia too, ends up its daily programs
with a parade of fallen victims in the two wars. Our question is, why are the lives of
Americans who die in foreign lands more valuable than the lives of innocent
Americans that die violent deaths in America’s cities.
During his election campaign, Obama made
a great deal of the fact that of all the presidential candidates he alone voted
against the Iraqi war. The American
people took that as a virtue, forgetting that in the context of the time, that
was a vote for America’s enemy. The
Secret Services of all the major powers believed that Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction, Saddam himself doing everything in his power to
reinforce that impression.
After the fall of the tyrant, more than
three hundred mass graves were discovered all over the country, an event that
would have caused any decent man to blush and apologize for supporting him. Not
so Barrack Obama.
And you know who else was very much
against the Iraqi war? The Catholic
Church! That Church had nothing to say
about supporting a mass murderer to the very end either.
Some people may well ask, why would the
Catholic Church do that? For one simple
reason: America is the centre of evangelism, a movement that is very much
against the Catholic counterpart of ecumenism.
Therefore, anything that weakens America is fine by that Church.
Few people know that ecumenism is well on
its way, exactly as the Bible says we should expect at this particular junction
in world history. The Bible says that as
the ecumenical forces, which oppose the return of Jesus Christ, will gather
strength, those that welcome Him will be greatly diminished.
One cannot make sense of biblical
prophecies, and of what is happening in the world at present, without
understanding who is behind the current word developments.
Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead
in trespasses and sins, in which you once
Eph 2:2
walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Eph 2:3
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, just as the others.
And who is this “prince of the power of
the air, who now works in the sons of disobedience”?
2Co 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing,
2Co 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God, should shine on them.
Eph 6:10
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil.
Eph 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places.
Deadly epidemic that is destroying the western
world
From the very beginning, the Devil has
been working in many different ways to weaken and destroy God’s creation. One
of the ways in which he does it these days is through food and drinks. America and much of the western world suffer
from an obesity epidemic that threatens to destroy the fabric of their society
from within. Here is a report from
Internal Medicine Au.
“Obesity has become an
epidemic on a global scale and poses one of the greatest threats to human
health and well being as the 21st century approaches. The World Health
Organisation has declared that obesity is a disease of pandemic significance,
which threatens the developing world as well as developed countries.
Obesity has now been
changed from a minor to a major risk factor for coronary heart disease by the
American Heart Association. The other major risk factors are smoking, high
blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and a sedentary lifestyle.
In 1980 one in 14
Australians were obese. By 1989 the figure had jumped to one in seven, in 1995
it was one in five and based on current trends, by 2025 it could be one in
three. In most of Western Europe, obesity levels range between 10% to 25%,
while in large parts of the American continent they are between 20% to 25%.
Levels are particularly high amongst ethnic groups such as American Indians,
Hispanic Americans, Australian Aboriginals and Pacific Islanders. The highest
obesity levels in the world are found among the urban populations of Western
Samoa, affecting 60% of men and 80% of women.
Childhood obesity is of
particular concern because the evidence shows that one in three obese children
will become obese adults, increasing their vulnerability to a range of weight
related diseases. The majority of obese teenagers will remain obese as adults. Obesity
affects about one in 10 children in industrialised countries.
Obesity is still ignored
as a disease. Health and medical professions concentrate on treating its
results - heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, gallstones, sleep apnoea,
bowel cancer, etc. It is a preventable disease through changes in diet and by
becoming more physically active. Even modest weight loss can bring significant
improvements in health and a reduction in level of risk.
The main causes of
obesity are sedentary lifestyles and high fat, energy dense diets. The impact
of changes in traditional lifestyles is being felt in the developing world and
some countries are facing the double burden of over-nutrition and
under-nutrition among sections of their communities.
Tackling the problem is
an enormous challenge that goes far beyond giving out healthy lifestyle
messages. Such strategies have failed in recent times. There needs to be an
approach that acknowledges that obesity is a normal response to an abnormal
environment rather than vice versa. Understanding, measuring and altering the
"obesogenic" environment is critical to success.
The individual interacts
with a number of micro-environmental settings (e.g. home, work, supermarket,
local community). These micro-environments are in turn influenced by one or
more macro-environment sectors (e.g. food industry, local government,
transportation system). The physical environment refers to what is available
such as expertise, technology, exercise facilities, low-fat food options. The economic
environment, which includes the cost of goods and services, is a powerful
determinant in a capitalist society. Lower fat foods are often more expensive.
The political environment refers to rules in the form of legislation and
regulation (e.g. food labelling), rules (e.g. school rules) or policy (e.g.
nutrition policies for manufacturers). The socio-cultural environment refers to
norms in society for behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, customs and
traditions.2
Any program aimed at having an impact on
the obesity problem needs to take into account the whole environment and to
ascertain what aspects of that environment can be influenced by intervention.
In our own environment we have a major crisis in the health of our Aboriginal
population with obesity and its complications becoming more prevalent. There is
an urgent need to address this problem. (Andrew Binns, Internal Medicine Au,
reporting on a paper “An ecological approach to the obesity pandemic” presented
by Garry Egger, to the 8th International Congress on Obesity, 29 Aug
– 3 Sept 1998).
This article is more than a decade old,
yet in that time not only have governments done nothing about it, but this
pandemic is far worse now. The author said
that, “In 1980 one in 14 Australians were obese. By 1989 the figure had jumped
to one in seven, in 1995 it was one in five and based on current trends, by
2025 it could be one in three.”
Well, the figure of one in three has
already been reached and surpassed in both Australia and the USA, and most
likely in other countries too. This
pandemic is gripping the world, the western one in particular, much faster than
people have hitherto realized.
Not many people know that the Roman
Empire did not fall because it faced much more powerful enemies, but because
its population lost its fiber and appetite for fight after being slowly
poisoned by lead from its water pipes.
The western world is being poisoned a lot
quicker by an avalanche of chemicals in its food and drinks in the form of
preservatives, colorants, flavors, stabilizers, etc.
Most people have forgotten what natural
food tastes like. Even vegetables do not
taste the way they used to. They are imbibed with chemicals or are genetically
modified to look good and stay long on the shelves, without taste or any
consideration of what these may do to the human body. America is leading the world in this process
of bastardization of food and drinks.
Diseases that until recently were a
rarity, are now ravaging the western world in epidemic proportions – cancers,
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, irritability, ADHD, tuberculosis, AIDS,
swine flu, bird flu, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, glaucoma, etc. –
and no one seems to know why. They might
want to have a closer look at their food and drink concoctions; and of course
at their life style.
People live in highly unnatural
environments in which personal effort is shunned upon and comfort is praised
and encouraged. So they keep on piling calories without any way of burning them
out. Hence the epidemic of obesity and
life style diseases.
America and her allies have difficulty
recruiting soldiers because of obesity, health problems, and low levels of
literacy. No power on earth can bring them
to their knees. No power needs to try
to, for they do it to themselves.
Western allies have forgotten how to
fight a war too. Before they go to war, they tell their enemies not to worry
about the “collateral damage”, because after the war they are going to inject
billions of dollars to reconstruct their country. And how do the enemies respond to that? They do everything in their power to prolong
the war and destroy as much of their ramshackle economy and decrepit
infrastructure as possible, knowing that in the end they will end up with
something better. Sacrificing a few
civilians along the way is worth the trouble, especially if it could be blamed
on the “infidels”.
As Christians, we do not advocate going
to war, but rather turning the other cheek, knowing that if we obey our God He
fights our wars for us.
Deu 3:22 You must not fear [your enemies], for the
LORD your God Himself fights for you.'
Exo 14:14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall
hold your peace."
But if one must go to war, he may as well
learn from the lessons of the Bible.
When God send Israel to war against pagan enemies, He told them not to
mess around with them, but destroy them altogether.
Num 33:50
Now the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across
from Jericho, saying,
Num 33:51
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you have
crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Num 33:52
then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before
you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and
demolish all their high
Num 33:53
places; you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and
dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
Num 33:55 But
if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it
shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes
and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you
dwell.
Num 33:56
Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to
them.' "
Israel disobeyed God and decided to
engage in a humane war against their enemies and save some of them. They learned a painful lesson for which they
pay to this day. For God did exactly what He said He would — He turned against
them and caused them to perish from the land instead of their enemies.
If God thought that the Canaanites could
be reformed, He would not have told Israel to wipe them out from the face of
the earth, but to convert them to their own religion. Present day Canaanites are sacrificing their
children to the god of death no less than their ancestors did in ancient
times. They have changed their religion
in the meantime, yet that horrible practice is still with them to this
day.
“Hamas Launches Website Encouraging Children to be
Martyrs”
“The Palestinian Authority's ruling Hamas terror
group has launched a web site for children, preaching the moral desirability of
being a suicide terrorist through cartoons and children's stories. The Hamas-run Al-Fateh.net glorifies shahada,
martyrdom, and presents the deaths of terrorists attacking Israelis as a time
of celebration, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
“One of the stories on the site quotes a mother
saying that when she heard her son had become a shahid, a martyr, she bought
dates, candies and coffee to give out. An entire section of the site is called
"Stories of the Shahids" and the most recently posted story honors
Hamas terrorist Naseem Ja'abari, who murdered 16 people when he blew himself up
on a bus in Be'er Sheva on August 31, 2004.
“The homepage encourages martyrdom with a
prominently featured drawing of a religiously garbed girl participating in
violent attacks on both the homepage and on a second page with a poem
glorifying Jihad, Islamic conquest, and Shahada.
Will we hear an uproar from "Children's
Rights Activists" and "Child Abuse" Advocates over this??? We
should!” (The Lekarev Report, March
08, 2006).
Barack Obama made it his priority to bring peace
to the Middle East. Had he taken notice
of what God says, and the developments that are to take place in that land
shortly, he would put his efforts to better use. There will be no peace in the
Middle East. Unmistakable prophecies
tell us to expect not peace but war, and one of such magnitude – a worldwide
catastrophe – the likes of which this world has never seen, one which will
threaten the very survival of life on earth.
The only
way out of this predicament is a wholehearted return to our Creator God.
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.
This passage makes it abundantly clear what is wrong with our world.
Are there any false prophets in the world at present? In every Church, though no one seems to know
who they are or how they do their work.
Does lawlessness abound in the world? The world wallows in it.
Is the Gospel of the Kingdom being preached in
all the world? Most Churches do not even
know what that Gospel is let alone restore it. Our readers however would know
both the Gospel and who is doing that work.
Does the world know who the “abomination of
desolation” is, and the place where it ought not to stand? It has been told (see TCH 3).
Does the Christian world keep the Sabbath so
that it will pray not to be forced to flee on that day from the Great
Tribulation? How could it know it when
it keeps and worships God on the Day of the Sun (Sunday)?
Are you among the elect of God for whose sake He
will cut those days short before all life is wiped out? Remember, the elect keep the sign that
identifies them as God’s people. Do you
know which is that sign? Here it
is.
Exo 31:12
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Exo 31:13 "Speak also to the children of Israel,
saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me
and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am
the LORD who sanctifies you.
Exo 31:14
You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you.
Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any
work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Exo 31:15
Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath
of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he
shall surely be put to death.
Exo 31:16
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the
Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between Me and the
children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the
heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'
"
I am continuously being told that this command
applied to the people of Israel in Old Testament times, and not to the
Christians of the New Testament. I can
only reply to that with what the Scriptures say. First, Jesus Christ told us that salvation is
of the Jews.
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we know
what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
Second, Jesus Christ did not call His followers
Christians but Jews.
Rev 3:7
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These
things says He who is holy, He who is true, "HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID,
HE WHO OPENS AND NO ONE SHUTS, AND SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS":
Rev 3:8
"I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no
one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have
not denied My name.
Rev 3:9 Indeed I will make those of the
synagogue of Satan, who say they are
Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before
your feet,
Rev 3:10
and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept My command to
persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon
the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
Here He
addressed one of the seven Churches that are mentioned in the book of
Revelation. Jesus Christ expected all
members of His Churches to be Jews, but some were not.
Finally, Apostle Paul made this statement in
regard to the people who are saved.
Gal 3:26
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29
And if you are Christ's,
then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The Jews according to the flesh expect Abraham’s
promise to be fulfilled in this world – a State in that much fought over piece
of parched land in the Middle East.
The Jews according to the Spirit, however, look forward
to Abraham’s promise – eternal life – in a new world altogether.
Can you see now why the sign that identified
God’s people in Old Testament times identifies them in the New Testament
too?
God never promised the people of Israel eternal
life, but blessings and prosperity in this world. On the other hand, God never promised the
Jews of the New Testament (the Christians), blessings and prosperity in this
world, but eternal life in the next world, and not after death, but after
resurrection. Not only that, but
Christians were told that, of necessity, in order to purify and create in them
a new heart and a new character, they will be subjected to much trial,
chastisement, and even tribulations in this world.
Heb 12:5
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons,
"My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are
rebuked by Him; for
Heb 12:6 whom the
Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives."
Heb 12:7 If you endure chastening, God deals with
you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?
Heb 12:8
But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then
you are bastards and not sons.
Heb 12:9
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us,
and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to
the Father of spirits and live?
Heb 12:10
For truly they chastened us for a few days according to their own
pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness.
Act 14:21
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many
disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
Act 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples,
exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the
kingdom of God."
This is why Jesus Christ told His
followers to love their enemies – those who are causing them the
tribulations. It does them good, even
though the perpetrators do not know it and will pay in the end for their evil
deeds.
To damn or to
bless America
Obama’s spiritual
master, a certain Reverend Jeremiah Wright, said that the United
States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes
a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no,
God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he
said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less
than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is
supreme." “In addition to damning
America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the
United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more
than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an
eye," Rev. Wright said on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and
black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done
overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens
are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
"He has impacted the life of
Barack Obama so much so that he wants to portray that feeling he got from Rev.
Wright onto the country because we all need something positive," said a
member of the congregation. Obama has
praised at least one aspect of Rev. Wright's approach, referring to his
"social gospel" and his focus on Africa, "and I agree with him
on that."
Sen. Obama declined to comment on
Rev. Wright's denunciations of the United States”. (Brian Ross and Rehab El-Buri, ABC
News, March 13, 2008).
Another commentator wrote:
“Obama as an adult chose
to become a congregant in a very specific church, and chose that church's
leader as his personal "spiritual advisor." He chose Rev. Wright to perform
his wedding ceremony and to baptize his children, and credits Rev. Wright with
devising the title of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." This was not just simple membership in one
of the world's great religions. It was Obama's decision to very closely
associate himself with this congregation and its pastor.” “Were the shoe on a Republican foot, would
the MSM not have long-ago driven him from the race?
"Now
we know where Michelle Obama’s resentment of America comes from: her
profanity-spewing pastor”, said Michelle Malkin.”
(Mark Finkelstein, NewsBusters, March 13, 2008).
We should not be the ones to answer the claims of this biblical
illiterate “Reverend”, but since no American preacher has done it we are happy
to do it for them.
He denounced the United States for its treatment of blacks. He forgets that blacks form the United States
as much as whites, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, and others. Now which of these treat the blacks
badly?
He ignores the fact that America of the 21st century is not
the slave owning country of the past.
All honest hard working Americans have the opportunity to make something
of their lives if they put their minds and effort into it, Barrack Obama
himself being the very proof of it.
This
“Reverend” said that, "The government gives them the drugs” and “builds
bigger prisons”. Has he seen members of
the Government or of the Congress selling drugs on dark alleys to the blacks of
his city? I think if he took the time
to look he will find that blacks are selling drugs to blacks more than any
other people. The reason the percentage
of black prisoners keeps growing alarmingly is because false prophets preach to
them false gospels.
What the Ku
Klux Clan did to some blacks in the past is inexcusable. But do you condemn the whole country for
that? People forget that America went to
war, an extremely bloody civil war, in order to free its blacks from
slavery. But those who look for
negatives only in order to condemn the country never mention this fact.
Barrack Obama
said that he agrees with his spiritual master because he preaches a “social
gospel”. No Sir, that is not a “social
gospel”, it is an anti-social one. If a
pastor tells his youths to damn America, they are not going to grow up into law
abiding citizens, but into malcontents that take up arms and do just that, damn
America. And by all accounts, they are
doing a pretty good job at it too.
The “Reverend”
decried the fact that America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He should thank God that America did not lose
that war, for if it had, he and his fellow Americans would know what real
slavery is all about. He should ask the
Australian prisoners of war that survived Japanese labor camps, or the Jews
that survived NAZI concentration camps.
America has never treated its blacks that way.
If he knew the
Bible, he would know that God had a good purpose in bringing the Africans to
America, albeit as slaves. Has he ever
stopped to think about the meaning of these Scriptures?
Rev 5:9
And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the
scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God
by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
Rev 5:10
And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the
earth."
In the Kingdom of God there will be kings and priests of every color,
tribe, tongue, people and nation, ruling over people of every color, tribe,
tongue and nation. If America’s blacks
had remained in Africa that would not have been possible!
So, instead of berating the whites for bringing them to America, they
should turn adversity into victory and thank God for giving them the chance to
eternal life in His eternal Kingdom.
For God, there is no difference between races; they are all equal in His
sight.
Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said:
"In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation
Act 10:35
whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
Col 3:11 [As far as
the Gospel of Jesus Christ is concerned] there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but
Christ is all and in all.
Col 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender
mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
Col 3:13
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a
complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
In God’s eyes, the color of human beings is like the color of flowers:
they are all beautiful in their own way. This is what those who claim to serve
of God and be ministers of Jesus Christ ought to preach. They should remember that the fate of the
people of God has never been an easy one.
Trials and tribulations have always been part of their life from the
very beginning.
Rejoice when you partake of
Christ's sufferings
Apostle Paul was inspired by the
Holy Spirit to pass on this message to God’s Churches.
1Co 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most
pitiable.
1Co 15:20 But now Christ is risen from
the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep.
1Co 15:21
For since by man came death, by Man also came the
resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
1Co 15:23
But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who
are Christ's at His coming.
1Co 15:24
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father,
when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25
For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.
1Co 15:26
The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
Christians
have never had an easy life in this world, yet that has not prevented them from
attaining the purpose of their life, even when unspeakable atrocities were
committed against them. Hebrew chapter
eleven says a lot about that. Here is part of that chapter.
Heb 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested,
offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son, of whom it was said,
Heb 11:18
"IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED," concluding that God was
able to raise him
Heb 11:19
up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative
sense.
Heb 11:20
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Heb 11:21
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph,
and worshiped,
Heb 11:22 leaning
on the top of his staff. By faith
Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of
Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
Heb 11:23
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his
parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not
afraid of the king's command.
Heb 11:24
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter,
Heb 11:25
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the passing
Heb 11:26
pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Heb 11:27
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king;
Heb 11:28
for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the
sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
Heb 11:29
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas
the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
Heb 11:30
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for
seven days.
Heb 11:31
By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe,
when she had
Heb 11:32
received the spies with peace.
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon
and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the
prophets:
Heb 11:33
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped
Heb 11:34 the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight
the armies of the aliens.
Heb 11:35
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Heb 11:36
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains
and imprisonment.
Heb 11:37
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with
the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented— of whom the
Heb 11:38
world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in
dens and caves of the
Heb 11:39
earth. And all these, having
obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the
Heb 11:40
promise, God having provided
something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
Apostle Peter encouraged Christians to rejoice when they come under
severe trials.
Pe 4:12
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to
try you, as though some
1Pe 4:13 strange thing happened to you;
but rejoice to the extent that you
partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may
also be glad with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is
blasphemed, but on your part He is
1Pe 4:15
glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an
evildoer,
1Pe 4:16
or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
1Pe 4:17
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God;
and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who
do not obey the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18
Now "IF THE RIGHTEOUS ONE IS SCARCELY SAVED, WHERE WILL THE UNGODLY
AND THE SINNER APPEAR?"
1Pe 4:19
Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their
souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
And the writer of Hebrews (Apostle Paul in most
likelihood), wrote this.
Heb 12:1 Therefore
we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
Heb 12:2
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself,
lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Heb 12:4
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Heb 12:5
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
"MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD, NOR BE DISCOURAGED
WHEN YOU ARE
Heb 12:6 REBUKED BY HIM; FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND
SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."
Heb 12:7
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son
is there whom
Heb 12:8 a
father does not chasten? But if you are
without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are
illegitimate and not sons.
Heb 12:9
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we
paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to
the Father of spirits and live?
Heb 12:10
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best
to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His
holiness.
Heb 12:11
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful;
nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those
who have been trained by it.
Heb 12:12
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,
and make straight
Heb 12:13
paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated,
but rather be healed.
Heb 12:14
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one
will see the Lord:
Heb 12:15
looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any
root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
Mr. Obama, this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a true “social
gospel”. You would be well advised to
embrace it.
You should get on your knees before the Almighty and be grateful to
Him for placing you at the head of this great nation. Give up on your homosexual and abortionist
agenda, for if you don’t, He will not be with you in the trying times ahead!
Amen!
The coming of the
Antichrist that wasn’t, and yet is
The notion of an Antichrist is as old as
Christianity itself. At no time,
however, has there been so much debate and flurry of publications on this topic
as there have been in recent times. A Google
search reveals that there are more than seven and a half million publications
about Antichrist. Even if one were to do
nothing but read for the rest of his life he would still only cover a fraction
of it all.
It seems that every respectable (and not so
respectable) theologian has had something to say on this topic. The question is
how would one select the right reading out of this mountain of publications,
for when much is published much of it is useless too if not downright
dangerous.
Theological writings are like a two edged
sword. It is rare to find a theologian,
a biblical scholar, a Church devotee, that is totally dispassionate when
writing on religious topics. Self-interest often runs amuck in such publications,
clouding their reasoning, especially so since the Bible does not yield its
mysteries to those who use it for aggrandizing or commercial purposes.
One must never forget that behind the Bible there
is a living Power who guides or confuses people, depending on the purpose of
their study.
Isa 28:9
"Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand
the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from
the breasts?
Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a
little."
Isa 28:11
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this
people,
Isa 28:12
To whom He said, "This is the rest with which You may
cause the weary to rest," And, "This is the refreshing";
Yet they would not hear.
Isa 28:13
But the word of the LORD was to them, "Precept upon precept,
precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a
little," That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared
and caught.
Isa 28:14
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, . . .”
Yes, many people who have just been weaned from
milk, and not been up to the task, have ended up being “broken and snared and
caught” in trying to use the Bible for their own purpose.
Unfortunately, they do not go down to perdition
alone, but take many unwary people with them.
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.
Consider the multitude of Churches and their doctrines. They are as varied
and contradictory as they could be, and yet, they all claim to have the Bible
as their inspiration.
It is not for nothing that Jesus Christ and His Apostles warned the
disciples to beware of self-interested people who claim to be ministers of Christ
but who in fact are deceivers.
"Take heed that no one deceives you” for “many false prophets
will rise up and deceive many”. They
“will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the
elect”, said Jesus Christ in His famous prophecy about the end time (Mat.
24).
Apostle Pail had even stronger words about such people.
Act 20:28
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He
purchased with His own blood.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you,
not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30
Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things,
to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Rom 16:17
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses,
contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord
Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech
deceive the hearts of the simple.
The reason we have had so many publications about Antichrist recently
is because we live at a time when he is supposed to make his appearance into
the world. People need protection
against him, and they could only get that in a church, their Church. We will prove to you, from the Scriptures
that this is one of the greatest deceptions this world has ever seen.
Not long after Barrack Obama was elected to the White House office, we
received this.
“BARACK
HUSSEIN OBAMA IS THE ANTICHRIST”
“Coming out of Africa, through the European
Illuminati, a subject of the Queen of England, backed by the Vatican, empowered
through the Israeli Mossad, Communist/Marxist groomed!
WAKE UP,
OH YOU PEOPLE! THE HOUR OF GREAT JUDGEMENT IS UPON THIS NATION; AND UPON THE
WHOLE WORLD! EXTREMELY IMPORTANT MESSAGES FROM OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. FIRST
MESSAGE FROM OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. (Emphasis
here and elsewhere in this quote in the original).
November
15, 2008
My
Blessed Child, I am your Father Yahweh, yea Jehovah, Most High God! My Little
One, hearken unto Me! Listen and write as I say, that all may be the wiser!
For, a time of great trouble is upon the whole world! A time when nation shall
rise up against nation, families against families, a time wherein one’s
greatest enemies may be in his own household! A time of great want, of famine,
of global wars, pestilences, and diseases as never seen before! A time when
very powerful families of great evil shall stand up against one another, with
one out to destroy the other! A time when Satan does, indeed devour his own
tail, that his head may be crowned! Oh, yes, you have seen such a thing, such
an artwork with Satan devouring his own tail, and at the same time that he
devours his own tail, a crown is put upon his head.
Now, My
Little One, take note! Look through these glasses and through these new lenses,
which I now put on your eyes; and tell Me what you see!
“My
Father, I see black boots, like those of Hitler, shiny and new, but large, long
and wide! And, for now, I only see the boots.”
“But,
look upward, My Child, what do you see?”
“My
Father, I see that the boots belong to Barack Hussein Obama! And, also, my
Father, I see that he is dressed as a Nazi! He is wearing a Nazi uniform and
over his heart and on his left pocket is a Nazi emblem! He wears a green beret
and on the left side of this beret, but near the middle of his forehead is
another Nazi emblem. He carries a baton; and emblazoned on the end of it is
also a Nazi emblem. Oh, my Father, this is not good!” “Yes, my Child, through his calm demeanor,
through his use of clever words, he has deceived the whole world! But, do not be
deceived, My Little One! Now, when I change the lenses in these glasses, what
do you see?” “My Father, I see a bright
candle! It is indeed very bright; and I can neither see past it or around it.”
“FROM THE MOUNTAIN PROPHECIES BOOK TWELVE
CHAPTER FOURTY-EIGHT” (www.prophecies.org).
We hope it is as
obvious to you as it is to us that this person has not yet been weaned from
milk, even though he, or more likely she, speaks from a position of an
elder.
We do not normally
give out other people’s addresses for the simple reason that we want to protect
our readers from unnecessary exposure to potentially dangerous ideas. This
material however is so bad we decided to give out its authorship, both to prove
that it is not our invention, and to warn people of the kind of hallucinations
they are dealing with in this subject.
If anyone gets taken
in by this kind of trash, he deserves his fate.
We do not think this would be the case with our readers, for we consider
them to be the best informed in the world on such matters.
We assure our readers
that Barack Obama IS NOT the Antichrist or whoever this person makes him to
be. He may be a deceived politician, but
Antichrist he isn’t. And there is a very
good reason for that. The Bible does not
speak of a coming Antichrist. Let us
repeat that: there is no prophecy in the Bible that speaks of a coming
Antichrist.
I am sure many a
people’s blood is boiling by now, jumping up and down, thinking that they got
me this time. The fact is that the
notion of a coming Antichrist is pure fantasy, a misreading of the Scriptures by the same people that
have filled this world with false gospels.
Here are the four Scriptures that speak of Antichrist or
antichrists. Take particular note of
their tense.
1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as
you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have
come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
1Jn 2:22
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is
antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jn 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they
are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2 By
this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God,
1Jn 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was
coming, and is now already in the world.
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the
world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a
deceiver and an antichrist.
Can
you see where the problem lay? It is worth repeating that extremely important
verse.
“this is the
spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already
in the world.”
Now, if someone is already in the world, how is he supposed to come
into the future? Has he gone out of the world in order to
come back again? Hardly! “The Antichrist” is none other than the
Devil, or a person that personifies the Devil; “antichrists” however, are
people who deny that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh, in other words, they
are little devils or demons. Now we know
that when Jesus Christ overcame the world, He cast that creature out of heaven.
Joh 12:27
"Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me
from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Joh 12:28
Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying,
"I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."
Joh 12:29
Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had
thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him."
Joh 12:30
Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me,
but for your sake.
Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the
ruler of this world will be cast out.”
And
where did the Devil, the Antichrist, go when he was cast out of heaven? Back to the earth to his natural habitat,
because this world had been given to him from the very beginning:
Luk 4:4
But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE
BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD.' "
Luk 4:5
Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6
And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and
their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to
whomever I wish.
Luk 4:7
Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."
Luk 4:8
And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it
is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY YOU SHALL
SERVE.' "
What
is important about this passage, aside from the fact that one must worship the
Lord and no none else beside Him, is that Jesus Christ did not deny Satan’s
claim that this world has been delivered to him and he gives it to whomever he
wishes. It is difficult for people to
accept that this world has been deliberately given to Satan, but this is an
important stage in the process of salvation.
Consider the following clarification from Apostle Paul.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I
am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I
do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
Rom 7:16
If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is
good.
Rom 7:17
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Rom 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to
will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Rom 7:19
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will
not to do, that I practice.
Rom 7:20
Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells in me.
Rom 7:21 I
find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Rom 7:22
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
Rom 7:23
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O
wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25 I
thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Rom 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then, those who are in the
flesh cannot please God.
Is
that clear? Flesh, by its nature, belongs
to the Devil, while the Spirit belongs to God, and the two shall never
merge. Antichrist, therefore, is none
other than the Devil personified. Not only that, but the Bible tells us that he
has a throne in this world.
Rev 2:12
"And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things
says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:
Rev 2:13
"I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.
And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in
which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where
Satan dwells.
Rev 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who
hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual
immorality.
Rev 2:15
Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which
thing I
Rev 2:16
hate. Repent, or else I will come
to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Pergamos
was a small town which is hardly on the map anymore. And yet, the Scriptures tell us that it is an
important landmark – the place of Satan’s throne. Since this world belongs to Satan, could he
place his throne in a place of such little significance? Certainly not! That throne is set in the most famous
building in the world. Pergamos is
nothing but a pseudonym for . . .
There
are enough clues in the Bible to leave us in no doubt where the Devil’s throne
is. Who, for example are the Nicolaitans who belong to the Church of
Pergamos? The word comes from Nicolas,
Saint Nicolas, Santa Claus. Those who
celebrate the coming of Santa Claus every year are the ones that practice the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And who are
these people? Well, the whole of the
Christian world, except those who belong to the true Church of God.
Christmas is not a biblical Holy Day; it
has never been sanctioned by God, and never will be. Christmas was an ancient
pagan holy day long before the advent of Christianity, celebrating the birth of
Mithra, a mythological pagan figure, not the birth of Christ. God hates it: “you also have those who hold
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”
Christmas is
a holy day of the Devil, proceeding from the throne of the Devil.
And who is Antipas, God’s “faithful martyr, who
was killed among you, where Satan dwells.”
Well, what great biblical figure was killed where
Satan’s throne is? The only Christian
person of renown mentioned in the Bible that was killed outside Jerusalem,
whose place of death we know, is Apostle Paul.
And where was he killed? In Rome
of course!
Is it not obvious that “Pergamos” is a pseudonym
for Rome and the Vatican?
That
institution had been in the world long before Christianity. That is why Apostle John said that Antichrist
was already in the world. In John
chapter 2:18 he said:
1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as
you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have
come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
By
chapter 4, however, we no longer have any ambiguity: the Antichrist was not
coming, but was already in the world.
The
Antichrist already in the world
When
the Apostles wrote their epistles, Christianity had not yet come under the
influence and patronage of the Romans.
But by the fourth century, after the Roman Councils, there was a new
reality. The true Church of God had been
completely eclipsed, and forced underground, and a new form of Christianity was
being imposed upon the Empire. This is
why Apostle John said first that the Antichrist was coming, and then that he
was already in the world. He did not
live to see that change in his time, but he was speaking in prophetic terms
there.
By
the time of the end, this new form of Christianity would be so removed from the
Bible that it would be unrecognizable by the standards of Jesus Christ and His
Apostles.
For
millennia, the Catholic Church forbade the people in its territory from owning
or reading the Bible. Those who
disobeyed were severely punished, often with death.
Do
you understand now why? Its hierarchy
knew who they were, and that they were practicing a false religion, and were
determined to keep that secret under wraps.
The end, when the truth would be revealed, was too far away to worry
about. They were not going to let that
spoil their party, the good life they were having in this world.
The
Christianity of the Catholic Church, and of all the Churches that proceeded
from it, is not the Christianity of the Apostles of Jesus Christ: not in
doctrines, not in Holy Days, not in Commandments, and not in practices. This is why The Christian Herald has been preaching a return to the original
faith, a return to the Christianity of the early Churches and the true Gospel
of salvation.
During
their day, Jesus Christ and His Apostles spoke of a historical figure that
represented danger for them and their followers. They did not mention him by
name, but left no doubt about whom they had in mind.
“Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He
who is in heaven.” (Mat 23:9). Now why
would Jesus Christ say that when the Jews were not calling anyone on earth
(spiritual) Father? Whom did He have in
mind? A nation that had a “Padre Patriae”, a “Father of the Nation”, a “Holy
Father” – a nation that was having dominion over Palestine and Judea at that
time! He and His Apostles went out of
their way to avoid an open conflict with the Romans, and that is why they never
mentioned their spiritual leader by name.
Apostle Paul said this to the Church in
Thessalonica.
Th 2:1
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering together
2Th 2:2 to
Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or
by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
2Th 2:3
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come
unless the falling away comes first, and
the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
2Th 2:4
who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is
worshiped, so that he sits as God in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Do
you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
2Th 2:6
And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own
time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is
taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8
And then the lawless one will be
revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy
with the brightness of His coming.
There
was a man of sin, a lawless one, who sat as God (“Holy Father”) in the temple
of God, whom he could not name: “Do you not remember that when I was still with
you I told you these things?” Now, no one was sitting as God in the Jerusalem
temple, therefore Apostle Paul could not have been referring to Jerusalem. And
if not Jerusalem, where else was one sitting as “Holy Father” in the temple of
God? Obviously in Rome, the place of Satan’s throne!
The Scriptures say that the identity of the man
of sin would be revealed in the end time, at the return of Jesus Christ, not
that he would come in the end time. That
is a huge difference, which seems to have escaped those who have written about
Antichrist.
The
return of Jesus Christ is preceded by the kind of trials that we see in the
world at present. These culminate in a Great Tribulation that will threaten the
very life of this planet.
Those
who speak of a coming Antichrist in this context, when this creature is, and
has been, in the world ever since the time of the Apostles, are doing nothing
but deceiving their readers! In trying
to pin this tag on someone else, they are obscuring the identity of the real
Antichrist.
Are
they aware that they are doing the work of the Antichrist? Their spirit
certainly is!
Those
who do not know who the Antichrist is by now, will never know it and will be
caught unprepared by the return of Jesus Christ. That would mean losing their salvation
forever.
One
cannot introduce concepts into the Bible that are not there, for that would put
him in conflict with Jesus Christ. No
one should ever think of doing that.
Rev 22:18 For I testify to
everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to
these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone
Rev 22:19
takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20
He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming
quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Rev 22:21
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Amen indeed!
1Co 10:1 And, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.
1Co 10:2 And all were baptized to Moses in the cloud
and in the sea,
1Co 10:3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
1Co 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink; for
they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
1Co 10:5 But with many of them God was not well
pleased, for they were scattered in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 And these things were our examples, that we
should not be lusters after evil, as they also lusted.
1Co 10:7 Nor should we be idolaters, even as some of
them, as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up
to play."
1Co 10:8 Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them
fornicated, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
1Co 10:9 Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also
tempted Him and were destroyed by serpents.
1Co 10:10 Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and
were destroyed by the destroyer.
1Co 10:11 And all
these things happened to them as
examples; and it is written for our
warning on whom the ends of the world have come.
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.
To make sure that He was not misunderstood, He repeated that
warning.
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
Mat 24:24 it.
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.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they will die; But
the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is
forgotten.
Ecc 9:6
Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;
Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun.
Rom 11:32 For
God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on
Rom 11:33
all. Oh, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and
His ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34
"FOR WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD? OR WHO HAS BECOME HIS
COUNSELOR?"
Rom 11:35
"OR WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM AND IT SHALL BE REPAID TO HIM?"
Rom 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are
all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Mat 12:30
He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me
scatters abroad.
Mat 12:31
"Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven
men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Mat 12:32
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven
him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him,
either in this age or in the age to come.
1Co 1:19 “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND
BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT."
1Co 1:20
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1Co 1:21
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know
God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save
those who believe.
1Co 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
2Jn 1:10
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him
into your house nor greet him;
2Jn 1:11
for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
I thought to myself, do I end my discussion right here and leave this
woman with her highly blasphemous beliefs, or do I try to reason with her. I know, from experience, and the Scriptures,
that when someone’s mind has been taken over by the Devil, any attempt to
reason with them is fruitless. However,
for the sake of the following Scriptures, which tell us to use our judgment in
dealing with such people, I decided to counter her arguments, lest she thinks
she is wise in her own eyes.
Pro 26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
Lest you also be like him.
Pro 26:5
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
So I gave her The Christian
Herald No 5 in which I have explained at large how Jesus Christ was both
divine and human, hoping that she might read it carefully, compare it with the
Bible, and reconsidered her position, but it wasn’t to be. Her pastor assured her that their church is
right and anyone who is not ordained in their church cannot have the
truth.
People fail to understand what a powerful grip Satan has on those who
let him take hold of their minds and hearts.
Denying the divinity of Christ is as blasphemous as denying that God
created this world.
Here are just a few Scriptures that attest to the divinity of
Christ:
Mat 1:18
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ was conceived not by a man, but by God, by the Holy
Spirit. Therefore He had a Spiritual
element in Him from the very beginning, unlike any other human being. The following Scriptures point out unambiguously
not only that He was born of God but that He was God Himself, the very Creator
of the world.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He
was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that
was made.
Joh 1:4 In
Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it.
Joh 1:9 That
was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
Joh 1:10
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world
did not know Him.
Joh 1:11
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Joh 1:12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Joh 1:13
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Consider also the following statement from
Apostle Paul?
Php 2:4
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for
the interests of others.
Php 2:5
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, being in the form of God, did not
consider it robbery to be equal with God,
Php 2:7
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and
coming in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Furthermore, Jesus Christ Himself assured us that He and the Father
were One while He was still in this world living the life of a human
being.
Joh 14:10
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The
words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the
Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Joh 14:11
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else
believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
Joh 14:12
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do,
because I go to My Father.
Joh 14:13
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
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 dwells with you and will be
in you.
Joh 14:18
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Joh 14:19
"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you
will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
Joh 14:20 At that day you will know that I am
in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he
who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest
Myself to him."
Joh 17:11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those
whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
One can hardly think of a greater blasphemy than that a ‘Church of Christ’ would deny the
divinity of its Savior. But such is the
nature of our world that every imaginable doctrine and falsehood is being
preached under the cover of Churches.
Educators deny God with their theory of evolution, while religionists
deny Christ with their false doctrines.
The theory of evolution and the denial of Christ have set this world on
a sure course to perdition. One should
never forget what God said about the end time.
Mal 4:4
"Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I commanded him in
Horeb for all Israel, With the statutes and judgments.
Mal 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Mal 4:6
And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the
hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with
a curse.
For two decades, we have called on the world to keep the Commandments
that God gave to Moses at Mount Horeb, and return to Him in heartfelt
repentance and worship if it is to be saved from “a curse” (‘utter destruction’
a more correct translation).
We saw that the world was heading in the wrong direction, and since no
one was doing anything about it, we stood up and proclaim the importance of
God’s Commandments and the need to for a reconciliation with our Creator God,
hoping that along the way other people would join us in this work of love for
the world, but that was not to be. We
did not know then what we know now, that the Devil has developed such a grip on
the world that the world has become immune to the truth of God.
When Israel departed from the laws, statutes and commandments of God,
it lost its status as the “chosen people”, lost its identity, lost God’s
protection, and lost the land that He gave them, and they became lost among the
nations. If it weren’t for the
unconditional promises that God made to the Patriarchs, Israel would have
vanished from the face of the earth, but for their sake, and for the purpose of
end time prophetic fulfillments, He brought some of them back to their
ancestral land in the Middle East.
There is, however, another sin, besides the
wholesale departure from God and His laws that is now threatening the survival
of the human race. The fate of Sodom and
Gomorrah is well known for their rampant homosexuality. Not many people know however that one of
Israel’s tribes also came close to vanishing from the face of the earth because
of this sin. Given the importance and
immediacy that this sin represents for the world at present, we are giving you
the entire biblical passages that deal with it.
Jdg 19:1
And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in
Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim.
He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
Jdg 19:2
But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him
to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months.
Jdg 19:3
Then her husband arose and went after her, to speak kindly to her and
bring her back, having his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. So she
brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young woman saw
him, he was glad to meet him.
Jdg 19:4
Now his father-in-law, the young woman's father, detained him; and he
stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank and lodged there.
Jdg 19:5
Then it came to pass on the fourth day that they arose early in the
morning, and he stood to depart; but the young woman's father said to his
son-in-law, "Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go
your way."
Jdg 19:6
So they sat down, and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the
young woman's father said to the man, "Please be content to stay all
night, and let your heart be merry."
Jdg 19:7
And when the man stood to depart, his father-in-law urged him; so he
lodged there again.
Jdg 19:8
Then he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart, but the
young woman's father said, "Please refresh your heart." So they
delayed until afternoon; and both of them ate.
Jdg 19:9
And when the man stood to depart—he and his concubine and his
servant—his father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him, "Look,
the day is now drawing toward evening; please spend the night. See, the day is
coming to an end; lodge here, that your heart may be merry. Tomorrow go your
way early, so that you may get home."
Jdg 19:10
However, the man was not willing to spend that night; so he rose and
departed, and came opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). With him were
the two saddled donkeys; his concubine was also with him.
Jdg 19:11
They were near Jebus, and the day was far spent; and the servant
said to his master, "Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of
the Jebusites and lodge in it."
Jdg 19:12
But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside here into a
city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel; we will go on
to Gibeah."
Jdg 19:13
So he said to his servant, "Come, let us draw near to one of these
places, and spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah."
Jdg 19:14
And they passed by and went their way; and the sun went down on them
near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
Jdg 19:15
They turned aside there to go in to lodge in Gibeah. And when he went
in, he sat down in the open square of the city, for no one would take them into
his house to spend the night.
Jdg 19:16
Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening, who
also was from the mountains of Ephraim; he was staying in Gibeah,
whereas the men of the place were Benjamites.
Jdg 19:17
And when he raised his eyes, he saw the traveler in the open square of
the city; and the old man said, "Where are you going, and where do you
come from?"
Jdg 19:18 So he said to him, "We are passing
from Bethlehem in Judah toward the remote mountains of Ephraim; I am
from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; now I am going to the house of
the LORD. But there is no one who will take me into his house,
Jdg 19:19
although we have both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and
wine for myself, for your female servant, and for the young man who is
with your servant; there is no lack of anything."
Jdg 19:20
And the old man said, "Peace be with you! However, let
all your needs be my responsibility; only do not spend the night in the
open square."
Jdg 19:21
So he brought him into his house, and gave fodder to the donkeys. And
they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
Jdg 19:22
As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city,
perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to
the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came
to your house, that we may know him carnally!"
Jdg 19:23
But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them,
"No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this
man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage.
Jdg 19:24
Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine;
let me bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them as you please; but to
this man do not do such a vile thing!"
Jdg 19:25 But the men would not heed him. So the man
took his concubine and brought her out to them. And they knew her and abused
her all night until morning; and when the day began to break, they let her go.
Jdg 19:26
Then the woman came as the day was dawning, and fell down at the door of
the man's house where her master was, till it was light.
Jdg 19:27
When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house
and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door
of the house with her hands on the threshold.
Jdg 19:28
And he said to her, "Get up and let us be going." But there
was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and
went to his place.
Jdg 19:29
When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine,
and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all
the territory of Israel.
Jdg 19:30
And so it was that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done
or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt
until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!"
Jdg
20:1 So all the children of Israel came
out, from Dan to Beersheba, as well as from the land of Gilead, and the
congregation gathered together as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
Jdg 20:2
And the leaders of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, presented
themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot
soldiers who drew the sword.
Jdg 20:3
(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone
up to Mizpah.) Then the children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did
this wicked deed happen?"
Jdg 20:4
So the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and
said, "My concubine and I went into Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to
spend the night.
Jdg 20:5 And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and
surrounded the house at night because of me. They intended to kill me, but
instead they ravished my concubine so that she died.
Jdg 20:6
So I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her
throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel, because they
committed lewdness and outrage in Israel.
Jdg 20:7
Look! All of you are children of Israel; give your advice and
counsel here and now!"
Jdg 20:8
So all the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will
go to his tent, nor will any turn back to his house;
Jdg 20:9
but now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: We will
go up against it by lot.
Jdg 20:10
We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the
tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of
every ten thousand, to make provisions for the people, that when they
come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done
in Israel."
Jdg 20:11
So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together
as one man.
Jdg 20:12
Then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin,
saying, "What is this wickedness that has occurred among you?
Jdg 20:13
Now therefore, deliver up the men, the perverted men who are in
Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel!"
But the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren,
the children of Israel.
Jdg 20:14
Instead, the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to
Gibeah, to go to battle against the children of Israel.
Jdg 20:15
And from their cities at that time the children of Benjamin numbered
twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah,
who numbered seven hundred select men.
Jdg 20:16
Among all this people were seven hundred select men who were
left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not
miss.
Jdg 20:17
Now besides Benjamin, the men of Israel numbered four hundred thousand
men who drew the sword; all of these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18
Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to
inquire of God. They said, "Which of us shall go up first to battle
against the children of Benjamin?" The LORD said, "Judah first!"
Jdg 20:19
So the children of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against
Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men
of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21
Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day cut
down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites.
Jdg 20:22
And the people, that is, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and
again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in
array on the first day.
Jdg 20:23
Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until
evening, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, "Shall I again draw near
for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin?" And the LORD
said, "Go up against him."
Jdg 20:24
So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the
second day.
Jdg 20:25
And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day, and
cut down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the children of Israel; all
these drew the sword.
Jdg 20:26
Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and
came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the LORD and fasted
that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings
before the LORD.
Jdg 20:27
So the children of Israel inquired of the LORD (the ark of the covenant
of God was there in those days,
Jdg 20:28
and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in
those days), saying, "Shall I yet again go out to battle against the
children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?" And the LORD said,
"Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your
Jdg 20:29
hand." Then Israel set men
in ambush all around Gibeah.
Jdg 20:30
And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on
the third day, and put themselves in battle array against Gibeah as at the
other times.
Jdg 20:31
So the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were
drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the
people, as at the other times, in the highways (one of which goes up to Bethel
and the other to Gibeah) and in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
Jdg 20:32
And the children of Benjamin said, "They are defeated before
us, as at first." But the children of Israel said, "Let us flee and
draw them away from the city to the highways."
Jdg 20:33
So all the men of Israel rose from their place and put themselves in
battle array at Baal Tamar. Then Israel's men in ambush burst forth from their
position in the plain of Geba.
Jdg 20:34
And ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah, and the
battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not know that disaster was
upon them.
Jdg 20:35
The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel
destroyed that day twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites; all these drew
the sword.
Jdg 20:36
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. The men of
Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they relied on the men in
ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:37
And the men in ambush quickly rushed upon Gibeah; the men in ambush
spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
Jdg 20:38
Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in ambush
was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,
Jdg 20:39
whereupon the men of Israel would turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun
to strike and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said,
"Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle."
Jdg 20:40
But when the cloud began to rise from the city in a column of smoke, the
Benjamites looked behind them, and there was the whole city going up in
smoke to heaven.
Jdg 20:41
And when the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin panicked,
for they saw that disaster had come upon them.
Jdg 20:42
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the
direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and whoever came
out of the cities they destroyed in their midst.
Jdg 20:43
They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled
them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east.
Jdg 20:44 And
eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.
Jdg 20:45
Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon;
and they cut down five thousand of them on the highways. Then they pursued them
relentlessly up to Gidom, and killed two thousand of them.
Jdg 20:46
So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men who
drew the sword; all these were men of valor.
Jdg 20:47
But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of
Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
Jdg 20:48
And the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin, and
struck them down with the edge of the sword—from every city, men and beasts,
all who were found. They also set fire to all the cities they came to.
Jdg 21:1 Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at
Mizpah, saying, "None of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a
wife."
Jdg 21:2
Then the people came to the house of God, and remained there before God
till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly,
Jdg 21:3
and said, "O LORD God of Israel, why has this come to pass in
Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?"
Rev 6:9
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those
who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
Rev 6:10
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy
and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the
earth?"
Rev 6:11
Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them
that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of
their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were,
was completed.
Rev 6:12 I
looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake;
and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
Rev 6:13
And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late
figs when it is
Rev 6:14 shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is
rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Rev 6:15
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders,
the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and
in the rocks of the
Rev 6:16
mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and
hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
Rev 6:17
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
Rev 16:12
Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates,
and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be
prepared.
Rev 16:13
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the
mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the
false prophet.
Rev 16:14
For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to
the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of
that great day of God
Rev 16:15
Almighty. "Behold, I am
coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments,
lest he walk naked and they see his shame."
Rev 16:16
And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Rev 16:17
Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud
voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is
done!"
Rev 16:18
And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a
great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since
men were on the earth.
Rev 16:19
Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup
of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Rev 16:20 Then every
island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21
And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about
the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail,
since that plague was exceedingly great.
TONY JONES,
PRESENTER: Dr James Hansen heads NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Science. The
institute has been publishing global temperature data since 1987 and is now one
of the key sources of data for climate scientists.
Hansen's own
testimony to the US Congress in 1988 brought world attention to global warming.
His latest book Storms of my Grandchildren carries the subtitle, "The
truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity". He joins us from New York. Professor James
Hansen, thanks for joining us.
JAMES HANSEN, CLIMATE
SCIENTIST, NASA: Sure, glad to be with you.
TONY JONES: Now
you're accusing governments of lying through their teeth even as they sign up
to large emission reduction targets for Copenhagen. Why so pessimistic?
JAMES HANSEN: Well
it's very easy to show that they are either lying or kidding themselves because
all you have to do is look at the geophysical data. You know, the governments
all around the world now agree that we're going to have to stabilise
atmospheric composition, carbon dioxide in particular, at a relatively low
level.
And if you look at
how much carbon there is in oil, gas and coal, what you quickly realise is that
oil and gas is already going to be enough to get us up to approximately the
dangerous level. The only way we can solve the problem is by phasing out coal
emissions and prohibiting unconventional fossil fuels like tar sands and oil
shale. But in fact, if you look at
what's happening, the United States just signed an agreement with Canada to
make a pipeline to carry oil from tar sands to the United States, and Australia
is expanding its port facilities to export more coal. And coal fired power plants are built all
around the world. Oil is even being squeezed out of coal. So there's absolutely
no way that the world can meet the kind of targets that they're talking about
for future decades. So they're just putting out numbers, you know, goals which
absolutely cannot be met. If you're going
to use that coal, then you would have to tell Russia to leave its gas in the
ground and tell Saudi Arabia to leave its oil in the ground but nobody's
proposing that and you know they wouldn't do it anyhow.
TONY JONES: You've
also described the whole Copenhagen approach as fraudulent because of its,
quote, "ineffectual cap and trade mechanism". Now why do you say
global emissions trading won't work?
JAMES HANSEN: Well we
can prove very easily that cap and trade with offsets is not going to work. We
tried that with Kyoto and the global emissions actually accelerated, even the
rate of growth increased after the Kyoto Protocol. A few countries cut their emissions a bit but
as long as the price of fossil fuels is the cheapest energy, then they're going
to be used by somebody. So this cap in trade and offsets, that's, basically
what this is, it's like the indulgences of the Middle Ages, when the Catholic
Church would sell forgiveness for sins.
This was great for the bishops, they collected a lot of moolah, and it
was great for the sinners, because they got forgiven and they could still go to
heaven or at least they thought they could.
That's what's happening in Copenhagen. Developed countries are coming
and they're looking for these offsets so they can continue business as usual,
they can continue their sinning, but developing countries, well they're happy
to go along with that if the developed countries give them some money, you
know, for climate adaptation or for the offset mechanisms if that will result in
some money going to developing countries.
So that's what's happening. You've got both parties making this kind of
a deal, and who's getting the short end of the stick? Our children and
grandchildren, because the emissions are not going to decline. In fact, they'll
continue to increase. That's as plain as you can see that very easily.
TONY JONES: There's
been a huge debate in Australia over emissions trading. Are you saying that
even with the best will in the world an emissions trading scheme in Australia
will be ineffectual.
JAMES HANSEN:
Absolutely. These cap and trade trading schemes are a terrible idea. You can
see what they do. They are a way to continue business as usual because they
include these offsets, for example. They're not attacking the fundamental
problem. Who they're good for is the big banks. In the United States it's going
to be Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, the trading companies. They have
trading groups within their bank who are very skilled and they're going to make
money, and where does the money come from? It comes from the public. There will
be increased energy prices, big banks will make money, but the problem will not
be solved. There will be little reduction in emissions. Unless you attack the
fundamental problem, you cannot solve the problem. And the fundamental issue is
that fossil fuels are the cheapest energy. You must put a price on carbon
emissions. And the way to do that, and to make it acceptable to the public and
actually very beneficial to the public, is to return the money that's collected
from a carbon tax, and that tax needs to be applied at the source, at the mine
or the port of entry. You then
distribute that money to the public, so that they will have the money to invest
in more efficient vehicles, in insulating their homes, and that would encourage
innovations, innovators would develop carbon free or low carbon energy
sources. That's the way that you can
drive the system to slowly phase out fossil fuels, but the cap and trade
doesn't do that at all, and it's impossible. As long as fossil fuels are the
cheapest energy, you're not going to phase them out.
TONY JONES: Now
you've proposed what you call a uniform rising price on carbon; effectively a
global carbon tax. Now it's a simple approach but it would require carbon
tariffs to be levied against those who refuse to put a price on carbon. But
isn't that a serious problem? Won't it lead to trade wars?
JAMES HANSEN: No, in
fact it is far simpler. As we saw in the Kyoto Protocol, you cannot get all the
countries to agree, you have to bribe them one by one to try to get them to
sign up to the Kyoto Protocol or a Copenhagen follow up. But, in the case of a carbon price, which is
simple and honest, it's a much easier task. All you need to do is get the major
players to agree to put a carbon price on. And then if any countries don't want
to do it, well then you put a tariff on the products that you import from those
countries that are made with fossil fuels. In effect, most countries would then
decide, well, we would rather have our internal carbon tax because then we get
to collect the money rather than the other country. That is much simpler than
cap and trade.
TONY JONES: Can we
talk about the science of global warming and climate change now, because as
we've gotten closer to Copenhagen, the sceptics have become much louder.
There's been a fierce backlash against the science. What do you think is going
on here?
JAMES HANSEN: Well,
the science, as you know, has become very clear. The evidence for climate
change around the world is widespread. The Arctic Sea ice melting, glaciers
receding all around the world, climate zones are shifting, the subtropics are
expanding, and that's affecting Australia, by the way, as well as the
south-west United States and the Mediterranean region, and that's a reason why
we have more extremes, including heatwaves and fires. But also, when we have rain, it is heavier,
because warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour. We see the climate change all
over the planet, there's no question about that.
TONY JONES: But why
do you think there's been a revival of scepticism against the science? You must
have been disturbed yourself recently by the leaked email exchanges between
your fellow scientists at Britain's climate research unit. Now sceptics are using these emails to
support their case that scientists are trying to hoodwink us, that scientists
are falsifying data or hiding away evidence that disproves their arguments.
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
these are very desperate efforts by the contrarians and those who are
supporting the business community that wants to continue business as usual.
But, you know, the data that is used to determine the temperature change over
the last century or so, that data is available to everybody.
If there was anything
wrong with the analyses that showed the magnitude of this warming, don't you
think that these contrarians would quickly show, do their own analysis and show
that there really wasn't any warming? Of course not because they know very
well. You know, they've tried to examine
our data and they did find one flaw, which turned out to be 3/100ths of a
degree and was an easily explained mistake, but that's the kind of thing,
they're looking for nitpicking. They try to find small things and then they
question the integrity of the scientists. But in fact, there's the evidence for
climate change, and the analysis is very strong. It's true that in some of
these email exchanges that some of the scientists did some things which I think
they probably regret. For example, we should always make our input data
available to the community, to anybody, so that they can check our analysis.
But, in fact, we've been doing that for many years, and as I say, nobody can
find anything that disproves our analysis.
TONY JONES: Okay well
one of the published emails we're talking about goes to the key part of the
sceptics argument that since 1998, the hottest year on record, carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere kept going up, but the temperature didn't keep going up with
it. Now you've been bombarded, I
understand, with scores of messages along those lines from people who want you
to repent and admit that global warming is a hoax. So how do you respond to
them?
JAMES HANSEN: You
know, if you look at this global temperature curve and smooth it over a few
years you'll see that it's continued to increase over the last decade. And in
fact, it's not true that 1998 was the warmest year. 2005 was the warmest
year. The British analysis shows 1998 as
the warmest year because they exclude polar regions, because there are no
weather stations there or very few. But there are other ways to estimate the
temperature in the polar regions and in fact, because of the decreased sea ice
in the Arctic it has been warmer and warmer in the Arctic. And when you include these polar regions, it
turns out that 2005 was the warmest year. And when you average over a few years
you'll find that the temperature curve has continued up. And besides, you don't
expect the temperature to go up every year.
There's a lot of natural variability in the system primarily due to the
tropical El Nino/La Nina cycle. And now we are moving into the El Nino phase,
so it's a pretty good bet that, first of all, this year is going to be one of
the warmest years, 2009, and 2010 will probably be the warmest year on the
record.
TONY JONES: Is there
already evidence for that? I mean are you seeing early data from your global
temperature recordings?
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
we see the data up to now, and we know that the global temperature tends to lag
a few months behind the tropical temperature. So it's because the El Nino
started a few months ago, it's likely to have its greatest effect on 2010, but
it's already having an effect this year making this year some place between the
second and the fifth warmest, it depends on the November and December data,
which we don't have yet.
TONY JONES: Okay, can
you tell us how the Goddard Institute takes and adjusts these global temperatures
because sceptics claim that urban heat centres make a huge difference; that
they distort global temperatures and they make it appear hotter than it really
is. So do you adjust, in your figures,
for the urban heat zone effects?
JAMES HANSEN: We get
data from three different sources and we now, in order to avoid criticisms from
contrarians, we no longer make an adjustment. Even if we see there are eight
stations in Alaska and seven of them have temperatures in the minus 30s and one
of them says plus 35, which is pretty obvious what happens, someone didn't put
the minus sign there, we just, we don't correct that. Instead we send an email or letter or a
letter to the organisation that produces the data and say, you'd better check
the Alaska temperatures, because we don't want to be blamed for changing
anything. But as far as adjusting for urban effects, we have a very simple
procedure. We exclude urban locations,
use rural locations to establish a trend, and that does eliminate - though
urban stations do have more warming than the rural stations, and so we
eliminate that effect simply by eliminating those stations, but it's very clear
that the warming that we see is not urban, it's largest in Siberia, and in the
Arctic and the Antarctic, and there aren't any cities there, and there's
warming over the oceans, there are no cities there. So it's not urban warming
that's just nonsense.
TONY JONES: Well if I
understand you correctly your biggest fear now is that these built in
temperature rises will trigger what you call feedback mechanisms. Can you
explaining how they work, and what are the implications of them?
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
well that's what makes climate a really dangerous situation, because of the
inertia of the system. It takes the ocean a long time to warm up, it's four
kilometres deep, and it takes icesheets a long time to get started to move,
they're very thick and have a lot of inertia. The problem is that as these
changes begin to occur, and they are beginning to occur - Greenland is losing
ice faster and faster and Antarctica is beginning to lose ice at a rate of
about 150 cubic kilometres per year - as you get to a certain point, you can
get to a point where the dynamics of the system begins to take over. If the
icesheets begin to collapse, by that time it's too late. You've passed the
tipping point and the icesheet is going to end up in the ocean. So, that's one
of the tipping points. Another one is methane hydrates. We're beginning to see
methane bubble out of the tundra as it's melting. There's a lot more methane hydrates on
continental shelves. As the ocean warms that methane hydrate can also begin to
release methane, which is a very strong greenhouse gas and can cause amplifying
feedback which makes the global warming much larger. And this is not idle speculation, because we
can look at the history of the earth. And in past global warming events we have
seen those kind of amplifying feedbacks which then make the change extremely
large.
TONY JONES: Okay,
well you're talking about what you find from the examination of ice core data.
Is there a comparable period in history, the history of the planet that is,
where warming accelerates due to these feedback mechanisms, and do you get much
more rapid sea level rises during that period?
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
well, in the relatively recent paleoclimate, coming from the last ice age to
the present interglacial period that we've been living in for 10,000 years,
when that icesheet, the big icesheet on North America began to disintegrate,
sea level went up five metres per century. That's one meter every 20 years for
several centuries. So once an icesheet begins to melt and begins to
disintegrate, things can move very rapidly.
TONY JONES: Okay
let's go quickly through a couple of the other key arguments put forward by the
sceptics. Why worry about carbon dioxide when water vapour is a stronger
greenhouse gas and actually occurs naturally?
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
that's the screwiest argument which keeps being made again and again and again.
The amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is determined by the atmosphere's
temperature, everyone should know that. Look at the difference between winter
and summer. As you go to a warmer
climate the atmosphere holds more water vapour because at the places where the
humidity reaches 100 per cent the water vapour falls out as water or snow. And
therefore, as the planet becomes warmer, the atmosphere holds more water
vapour.
That's why we get
heavier rain falls as the planet gets warmer. So this water vapour is an amplifying
feedback. It makes the greenhouse effect much stronger. But it's not something
that just changes on its own accord; it changes in response to the temperature
changes.
TONY JONES: Okay, if
I understand it correctly your argument is that climate change is not only
about droughts, but that effect you're talking about will cause much more
frequent and much more severe storms; is that correct?
JAMES HANSEN: Yeah,
the, both extremes of the hydrologic cycle must increase, become more intense
as the planet becomes warmer. At the times and places where it's dry, the
increased heating of the surface makes it hotter and drier. On the other hand, the oceans, the places
where you have water, the increased heating evaporates more water, so the
atmosphere holds more water vapour and at the times when you get rainfall you
will get heavier rainfall and greater floods, so the extremes of the climate
increase, the extremes of the hydrologic cycle. Now as far as storms are
concerned, the storms that are driven by latent heat - that means
thunderstorms, tornados, tropical storms - the strongest ones will get stronger
because there's more fuel. The water vapour provides the fuel for those types
of storms. Not all of them will be stronger,
but the strongest ones will be stronger than the strongest ones now. But in
addition to that, and one thing I talk about in my book, Storms of my
Grandchildren, I'm talking about the mid-latitude storms, the fact that as the
icesheets on Greenland and Antarctica begin to melt more rapidly than they are
now, they will discharge ice fast enough that it will cool the surface of the
ocean, nearby ocean, in the North Atlantic and in the circum Antarctic
Ocean. That will cause the temperature
gradient between low latitudes and high latitudes to increase, so the storms
that are driven by horizontal temperature gradients will become stronger, and
these can be very damaging storms, this is like the storms that hit the
Netherlands and England in the 1950. They
can do enormous damage. So, yes, it's true that all the storms that we can
think of will become stronger as the climate becomes warmer.
TONY JONES: James
Hansen, one final question: what's your estimate; how long do we have before
the planet reaches one of those tipping points that you're talking about and
global warming is irreversible? And if that happens, what are the
consequences?
JAMES HANSEN: Well,
you know, we are probably, we're already into the dangerous level of carbon
dioxide and it's going to increase more. If we would phase out the coal
emissions over the next 20 years, then CO2 would peak at something like
425ppm. Doesn't look like we're starting
to phase out coal though, so it may go higher than that. We're going to go well
into the dangerous zone, and some things are going to happen out of our
control. But that doesn't mean we should give up, because whether we get a sea
level rise of one metre, or 25 metres makes a huge difference. What we will need to do once people really
see what's happening, is we're going to need to restore the planet's energy
balance, or make it negative, and you do that by reducing the amount of these
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and so the planet begins to cool off a bit.
And then, even though we're going to get some icesheet disintegration anyhow
and we're going to lose some species because we're already pushing some of
them, we're putting a lot of stress on many species, but we don't, that doesn't
mean we should give up and decide we're willing to give up all of them.
TONY JONES: James Hansen,
we're going to have to leave it there. We thank you very much for coming to
join us right on the eve of the Copenhagen conference.
JAMES HANSEN: Thank
you for listening. Thanks. (ABC, Lateline, December 7, 2009)
Mal 4:4
"Remember the Law of Moses,
My servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With the
statutes and judgments.
Mal 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the LORD.
Mal 4:6
And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the
hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest
I come and strike the earth with a curse.
THE CHRISTIAN HOLY DAYS FOR THE YEARS 2010 - 2012
|
|
2010 |
2011
|
2012 |
The
Passover (Pesah
– Nissan 14) Unlike the Jews, who used to kill the Passover lamb “at the twilight”
of Nissan 14 (meaning in the evening towards Nissan 15), we, Christians,
observe the Passover when our “Lamb” – Jesus Christ – was sacrificed.
That happened on the afternoon of Nissan 14, before the twilight of Nissan
14, meaning that we keep it a little earlier than the Jews. We
commemorate His death, not His supper, which occurred the previous evening,
as some churches do. The time when His body was broken, not when He broke the
symbolic bread. |
|
29
March |
18
April |
6
April |
Days of Unleavened Bread (Nissan 15 – 21) On the first and seventh days there shall be holy
convocations. No customary work shall be done
on these days. |
|
30 March
– 5 April |
19 April –
25 April |
7 April – 13 April |
Pentecost (Shavuot – Sivan
6) |
|
19 May |
8 June |
27
May |
Feast
of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah –
Tishri 1) |
|
9
Sept. |
29
Sept. |
17
Sept. |
Day of
Atonement (Yom Kippur –
Tishri 10) |
|
18
Sept. |
8
Oct. |
26
Sept. |
Feast
of Tabernacles (Succoth – Tishri 15 – 22) On
the first and the eighth days there shall be holy convocations. No customary work shall
be done on
these days. |
|
23 Sept. –
30 Sept. |
13 Oct. –
20 Oct. |
1 Oct. –
8 Oct. |