SITTING ON
A VOLCANO
"‘Peace,
peace!' When there is no peace. ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.” (Jer.
6:14; 8:11).
“They
have seduced My people, saying, "Peace!' when there is no peace.
“The
prophets... prophesy... and see visions of peace when there is no peace;
therefore you shall no longer envision futility nor practice divination; for I will deliver My people out of
your hand, and
you shall know
that I am
the LORD.'' (Ezek 13:10, 16, 23).
Peace in Bosnia; Peace in Chechnya; Peace in Sri Lanka; Peace in
Northern Ireland; Peace in Cambodia; Peace in Rwanda; Peace everywhere. Almost all of a sudden, the world is awash
with peace. Even in the Middle East, an
area that has not known peace for nearly 50 years, since the establishment of
the State of Israel in 1948, peace has broken out with the signing of the peace
accord between the Palestinians and the Israelis. What if people continue to die in most of
these places long after they have been declared “peaceful”, if politicians tell
us that they are at peace now what are we supposed to do but to believe
it? The families that keep loosing their sons in this “peace” might wish that they
were at war.
After the accord, the Palestinian authorities received arms to enforce
peace in their areas. And what happened
this year when Israel opened a tunnel near the Al-Aqsa
Mosque? Those guns were turned on the Israeli soldiers themselves. When asked to comment about it, Shimon
Perez, the architect of that peace, said: “Peace is not poetry! Peace is not a
song!” (Lateline,
ABC TV, Oct. 10, 1996). And we who
thought that peace were poetry and a
song!
Politicians - a wonderful breed of people - have given us a new meaning
for the word “peace”. They made sure
that we know exactly what they mean when they talk of peace. Yet, strangely enough, the Bible does not
condemn them for giving the world a false vision of peace, but the
“prophets”. Why? Because traditionally national leaders have not
been responsible for people’s spiritual education, for giving them a vision of
the future and telling them what life is all about. This has been the role of the prophets, a
role which they have conveniently abandoned exactly when their voice needs to be
heard the loudest.
The Bible ascribes the title of “prophet” to anyone who holds a
spiritual position and is involved in preaching or teaching spiritual matters.
In Old Testament times, God made a clear distinction between Israel’s national
leaders and its prophets. The prophets were God’s messengers, and the leaders
His executive bodies. This was to become
a model for all nations, but the system has failed not only in Israel, but also
in the entire world. This is why God says that the time will come when the
present politico-religious systems will be replaced by a new, universal system,
in which the leaders will play the roles of both priests and kings.
Rev 1:1
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His
servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it
by His angel to His servant John,
Rev 1:2
who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus
Christ, to all things that he saw.
Rev 1:3
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this
prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is
near.
Rev 1:4
John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace
from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who
are before His throne,
Rev 1:5
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the
dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood,
Rev 1:6
and has made us kings and priests
to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Rev 5:6
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four
living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had
been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of
God sent out into all the earth.
Rev 5:7
Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on
the throne.
Rev 5:8
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the
twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden
bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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."
It is a well-known fact that messianic religions expect major prophetic
developments around the turn of this Millennium. Cynics however say that there is no
difference between this and the end of the first Millennium. Many people
expected major developments then, yet nothing happened. But how right are they, is there no
difference between then and now?
In the first case, people’s expectations were based on the fact that
religious deception had already covered the world, and the Church of God had
suffered major persecutions and been forced underground. The true believers saw that as an omen and
an opportune time for the return of Jesus Christ. They hoped that the much waited for
Millennial Kingdom would be established then and there, and they would be saved
from their troubles. Yet their expectation proved to be in vain. Why?
The reason is quite simple: their understanding of biblical prophecies
about the end of this age proved to be very limited. All major biblical prophecies have been
written in such a way that they could be understood only in the context of
their own time. The difficulty with this
prophecy came from the fact that some of the signs connected with the end of
this age have been manifest in the world ever since the time of Jesus Christ.
This is why, throughout the history of Christianity, there have been people who
have fallen victim to premature expectations.
When we look at the most comprehensive prophecy about the end of this
age, we find that the theme of religious deception runs through it from the
beginning to the end. This could easily
have led people to believe that the return of Jesus Christ was possible at any
time. As long as they did not become
disheartened and lost their zeal, or abandoned their struggle, this was not
necessarily a bad thing, for it kept them on their guard. This time however is different. There is
ample evidence that virtually all the signs leading to the conclusion of this
age have been fulfilled except the one about the “abomination of desolation”,
and this is now in the final stages or its preparation. Let us have a look at that prophecy:
Mat 24:1 Then Jesus went out and
departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings
of the temple.
Mat 24:2
And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?
Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another,
that shall not be thrown down."
Mat 24:3
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him
privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will
be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
Mat 24:4
And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one
deceives you.
Mat 24:5
For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive
many.
Mat 24:6
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not
troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not
yet.
Mat 24:7
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And
there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Mat 24:8
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Mat 24:9
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you
will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
Mat 24:10
And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate
one another.
Mat 24:11
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mat 24:12
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Mat 24:13
But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mat 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a
witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Mat 24:15
"Therefore when you see the 'ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,' spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
Mat 24:16
"then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Mat 24:17
Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his
house.
Mat 24:18
And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
Mat 24:19
But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in
those days!
Mat 24:20
And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
Mat 24:21
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the
beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22
And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for
the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
Mat 24:23
"Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or
'There!' do not believe it.
Mat 24:24
For false christs and false prophets will rise
and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Mat 24:25
See, I have told you beforehand.
Mat 24:26
"Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not
go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.
Mat 24:27
For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so
also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:28
For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
Mat 24:29
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Mat 24:30
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the
tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other.
Mat 24:42
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
We are much too familiar with religious deception, wars, famines,
pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions, lawlessness, and the like, things which
have been fulfilled many times over during the centuries since the time of
Jesus Christ. But nothing equals what
has happened this century when it comes to wars and rumors of wars, and what
has been happening in the last few years, since we started this work, in regard
to pestilences, famines and natural disasters.
As if on clue, these things have intensified
to such an extent that it is not uncommon now to hear people in authority talk
about the real possibility of extinction of all life on earth. Here is a sample of how bad things are out
there in the world:
“DISASTROUS YEAR. MUNICH: The world was shaken by a record
number of natural disasters in 1995, with damage from floods, earthquakes,
storms and volcanic eruptions trebling to $244 billion compared with last year,
according to Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer.” (Reuters,
Sydney Morning Herald, December 29,
1995).
From 1990 until last year the damage from these disasters has been
between $80 and $100 billion a year, in itself way above previous
averages. This year, the damage from
floods in China alone has been estimated to exceed $100 billion. This is why the end of this Millennium is
different from the first. But there is one other major factor which was not
present at the end of the first Millennium: the existence of nuclear weapons
which could destroy life on earth in one big conflagration.
Russia may have collapsed economically, but its strategic forces still
pose awesome destructive power. What is
happening in that country at present is hard to imagine even by the standards
of third world countries. A catastrophe
beyond imagination. After his
re-election, President Yeltsin appealed to his countrymen to pay their taxes so
that the government can pay the soldiers and workers who have not been paid for
months. In other words, Russia’s
infrastructure is such that the government cannot even collect the money it
needs to keep the country going.
Can anyone imagine what would happen if the American or European workers
and soldiers were not paid for months?
Now what will those hungry people, with their finger on the nuclear
trigger, do when hunger reaches their bones?
Or what will the man who will soon replace Yeltsin do to pull the
country out of its mire? We all know what Zhirinovsky said he would do if he
became president. He would force the West Europeans to pay. If the Israeli
people suffered grievously during the Second World War to be entitled to the
billions of dollars that have been pouring into the country since then, the
Russians suffered more, he said. The
West breathed a sigh of relief when he failed in his bid for the Presidency,
but who knows what the new leader will do to help his countrymen? One thing is sure, things cannot continue
much longer the way they are now. In 1993,
in the No 3 edition of The Christian Herald, we wrote:
“The former Soviet Union gave us Chernobyl then it collapsed. The world breathed a sigh of relief in the
hope that the Cold War and the danger of nuclear confrontation were over. What the world did not know then was that the
legacy of communism is just as catastrophic for the world as the danger from
its nuclear arsenals: "Russia's
nuclear-powered submarines and ice-breakers pose a greater danger of nuclear
accidents than do its atomic power plants, according to Jane's Intelligence
review" (The Sun-Herald,
Aug. 8, 1993).
People who are environmentally conscious know about the devastation
caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
But how many people know that in the vast Russian wilderness, four times
that amount is being spilled every day from the decaying antiquated oil
installations? The damage done to the
environment by the oil spill and its many accompanying fires is
incalculable. The topsoil is being
destroyed and the ground below, which was permanently frozen, is beginning to
melt. Scientists fear that this will
affect the global climate. Already in
1990, the temperature in the Arctic Circle reached 40 degrees Celsius, eight
degrees above the normal.
On the political scene, things are hardly better. The West has put all its hopes in President
Yeltsin's ability and determination to introduce democratic reforms in
Russia. But what will happen when he is
no longer on the scene? He is in poor
health, and while there seem to be no obvious contenders who can step in his
shoes and continue his reforms, there are many powerful rivals who call for the
restoration of Russia's empire. On the
economic sphere, the one great resource that gives Russia its hard currency and
keeps its grossly outdated industry going is oil. But now it has been estimated that its oil
reserves will dry out within a decade.
What will the political and military leaders do when they see their
people being decimated by hunger and their nuclear arsenal brought to nothing
for lack of fuel? The dangers coming
from that part of the world are yet to be comprehended.”
We are already seeing the people of Russia being decimated. The question
is how long will they meekly accept their fate?
Having been brutalized psychologically and physically by seventy years
of communism, they need a little time to rise again. Make no mistake about it,
rise they will, because God Almighty has given them a great role to play at
this time.
Now compare what we wrote in 1993 with the current state of the world in
regard to oil reserves and supplies:
“Running on empty” “All numbers are wrong - that much we know. The question is: “by how
much?” ask international petroleum geologists Dr Colin Campbell and Dr Jean Laherrere at the beginning of their landmark, but
controversial, study of the world’s oil supply.
In a report for oil industry analysts Petroconsultants,
the two turn the conventional view about the continuing availability of cheap
oil on its head, drawing conclusions that market conditions are fast
approaching for another oil price shock similar to the two in the 1970s that
played havoc with the world economy.
Unlike both industry and government forecasts, the data in the
Swiss-headquartered Petroconsultants’ report brings
forward the timing of the peak in world oil production by several decades, from
the middle of the next century to as soon as 2000. They forecast a sharp decline in the supply
of cheap-to-extract crude oil thereafter. . .
US Department of Energy deputy assistant secretary Dr Joseph Roman was
quoted in a news report last January as saying: “it’s pretty clear there is
going to be another oil crisis some time. I would say in the next 10 years”. .
.
At the time of the first oil
shock in late 1973, the world had consumed 250 billion barrels of oil out of a
total estimated global reserves of about 1800 billion barrels. By 1995, it had consumed 800 billion barrels,
with consumption running at 25 billion barrels a day and only about 7 billion
barrels a year being discovered in new fields.
. .
Without cheap oil, economic globalization would come to a shuddering
halt and many of the private tollways either proposed
or being built would become uneconomic, especially if the price of crude oil
was to double or triple - as Campbell believes it will do once the crunch
approaches.” (The Australian, Oct. 24, 1996).
Does anyone remember what effect the rise in oil prices in the 1970s had
on the world economy? Third world
countries became bankrupt overnight and the USA turned from being the world’s
biggest creditor to the world’s biggest debtor nation. At present, the USA owes more than 6
trillion dollars and is unable to pay even the interest on that amount. Each year part of the interest is being added
to the main with the result that the debt keeps growing with no end in sight.
One way the Americans could slash that debt is by devaluing the dollar. But that would mean an astronomical rise in
inflation and an end to the much-vaunted American way of life. Like the Germans before Hitler came to power,
the Americans would go shopping with bags of money to buy one loaf of
bread. But such things could not happen
in America, could they?
The reason the American economy has been running smoothly so far is that
foreigners have been pouring money into the country. Why? Because the United States offers a safe and
secure environment. Safe and secure,
that is, until the next crunch or until they get a leader who says enough is
enough - let everyone pay their way.
Now if the first oil crunch had such a devastating effect on the world,
what will the next one do? Bear in mind
that the first time there was still plenty of oil around and only the price
increased. But this time not only will
the price go up, the oil sources will begin to dry up too. The question is, will the leaders take the
necessary measures to prepare their countries for this eventuality, or will
they wait until they are forced to do so?
The place to start would be with agriculture. At present this is in a
shambles worldwide. While parts of the
world experience famine and starvation, others waste enormous amounts of
resources on poor farming practices. The
next oil crunch will put an end to economies of scale in farming. That is
because such farming relies heavily on petrochemicals.
What happened in Russia after the collapse of communism, when the
farmland became littered with abandoned machinery, will happen in the rest of
the world. A nation can survive without
advanced industry, but not without farm produce. The worldwide trend of people moving from
country to city will reverse, and farming will once again become an honorable
occupation. Now given the importance of
that report you would think that such information would make front-page
headlines in the world media. Or, if not front-page, maybe the second or the
third pages. Or even the ninth and tenth pages where world events are usually
reported. But no, that article was
buried on page 27, in the business section amidst the usual chain of trivial
business news and advertisements. You
see, that kind of information in not for the general consumption. It is for the
business leaders who know how to take such news in stride and keep quiet about
it lest they rock the boat and loose their jobs. If
the general population knew about what lies ahead they might stop buying those
cars and bring the industry to a standstill.
Have you ever wondered why they keep on building cars that are unsuited
for the purpose for which people use them?
They have enough power to carry two tons when they only need to carry a
few people, and can travel at speeds that exceed 200 kilometers an hour when
the speed limit is usually half that.
They could slash fuel consumption by building cars that are slower and
safer, instead of those destructive petrol hungry machines that appeal to the
hotheads who should not even be on the road.
The world would slow down and be a safer and more enjoyable place, and
people would find time to talk to each other instead of being on the run all
the time. But since the leaders are
unlikely to engineer such changes of their own volition, nature will force it
on them. Nature or, shall we say,
God? There is a reason why the Bible
talks about the need for a great tribulation at the end of this age. The world
simply needs to be cleansed of its pollutions and its polluters.
Notice how shortly after the Gospel is witnessed to the world God will
destroy “those who destroy the earth”:
Rev 11:3
And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy
one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."
Rev 11:4
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5
And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and
devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in
this manner.
Rev 11:6
These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of
their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to
strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.
Rev 11:7
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the
bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9
Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will
see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to
be put into graves.
Rev 11:10 And those who dwell on the
earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another,
because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Rev 11:11
Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered
them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
Rev 11:12
And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up
here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
Rev 11:13
In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city
fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were
afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14
The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
Rev 11:15
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven,
saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our
Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
Rev 11:16
And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on
their faces and worshiped God,
Rev 11:17
saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is
and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and
reigned.
Rev 11:18
The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the
prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And
should destroy those who destroy the
earth."
Now are these things mere coincidences?
Is it so difficult to understand that we are living in those times? What this passage indicates is that the Great
Tribulation, which will “destroy those who destroy the earth”, will erupt
shortly after the two witnesses finish their mission and are killed by “the
beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit”.
The question many people would want to know is who is this “beast”? We have written extensively on this topic
(See The Christian Heralds Nos. 3
and 4), so we won’t spend time on this now; sufficient to say here that this
has been identified with the one who holds the title of Pontifex Maximus. Here
is a passage which we wrote in 1993, which has particular relevance at this
time:
“Jesus Christ said that if we want
to be the sons of God we must love even our enemies . . . This raises the
question, must we forgive the "abomination of desolation" and the
false prophet? The answer could only be
‘yes’. They are the enemies of the
people of God, but Jesus Christ told us to love our enemies, and since we are
His followers we obey Him. We do not
avenge ourselves on anyone, regardless of what they may have done to us. Vengeance belongs to God (Rom. 12:19). We lay our problems and burdens before Him
and before our Savior, knowing that "all things work together for good to
those who love God" (Rom. 8: 28).
“At the time of writing this article, it was announced that the Israeli
government has extended a formal invitation to the Pope to visit that
country. The Pope is said to have
accepted the invitation with tears in his eyes.
It will be the first time in the history of Israel that a Pope has
visited that country and its capital Jerusalem.
A visit to Jordan and parts of Jerusalem in 1963 by Pope Paul VI, can be
discounted as having served any prophetic purpose for the following
reasons: (i)
Daniel's prophecies are about the Jews and the people of God, not about the
Arabs. (ii) At that time it was not
known who the "abomination of desolation" was, or where the holy place
located. Since Jesus Christ said that if
people are not aware of their sins they are not held accountable, Pope Paul VI
could not have profaned the holy place even if he happened to pass unwarily
over it. (iii) Jesus Christ said that
when the "abomination of desolation" stands in the holy place, it
would be the beginning of the great tribulation and the end of this age. Since neither of these events has occurred,
that visit could not have fulfilled the prophecies associated with the end of
this age. However, when the present day
Pontifex Maximus goes to Jerusalem and steps on the holy ground, it is a
different story.
The significance of this event is
well known because we have sent this magazine to the leaders of all nations,
including the Pope and other religious leaders.
How soon after this event do we expect to see the world plunged into
catastrophe? We cannot tell. All we can do is quote what Jesus Christ
said. You draw your own conclusions from
this . . . Bear in mind that 1997 is the last year of what we call the ‘age of
man’ - six thousand years since the creation according to the chronology of
Bishop Usher - and the beginning of a new age, the last thousand years called
the Millennial Kingdom. This transition
cannot happen overnight. The years
immediately prior to and following this event are fraught with danger for the
world.
There are people who have gone to great lengths to calculate the exact
date of the return of Jesus Christ. Most
of the dates they have come up with revolve around that year. We believe that even if this is correct, it
is a very dangerous practice. Jesus
Christ said that it is not for us to know the exact date of His return, that
only God knows that (Matt. 24:36). And
that for a very important reason: human beings are to be ready to receive their
Lord at any time. Setting dates could
cause them to lose their guard and be caught unprepared. Anyone who tries to outguess God places himself
in competition with Him, and that is a sin.
Jesus Christ spoke in general terms about the signs leading to that
event, and we advise you to read the entire 24th chapter of the book of
Matthew. The only sure sign He gave as
indicating the imminence of those events, is the one about the "abomination
of desolation" standing in the holy place.
That is the one discussed and revealed in the pages of this magazine for
the first time. It is not a mere
coincidence that God has revealed this mystery to us now just prior to its
fulfillment and so close to the conclusion of this age. This is a sign that He is about to intervene
in world affairs, to bring humanity to account for its waywardness. The Polish priest who is now in the chair of
Pontifex Maximus does not have to be the man who profanes the holy place. He can drop his garbs, get on his knees
before the Almighty, not before the statue of Mary or whatever, declare that he
was not aware of what he stood for, ask for forgiveness, then run from that
place as fast and as far as he can go.
He can let another take his place, for there are many people who care
little about pleasing God, and more about pleasing themselves. Anyone who goes to Jerusalem as Pontifex
Maximus and steps on the ground in which Jesus Christ shed His blood, conscious
of what that gesture means, makes himself the "abomination of
desolation." That sin will not be forgiven in this world or in the world
to come.
‘For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the
adversaries. Anyone who has rejected
Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose,
will he be thought worthy who has TRAMPLED THE SON OF GOD UNDERFOOT, COUNTED
THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT BY WHICH HE WAS SANCTIFIED A COMMON THING, AND
INSULTED THE SPIRIT OF GRACE?’ (Heb. 10:26-29, emp. added).” (The Christian
Herald, No 3, pp. 38, 39).
If you wonder what is wrong with Pontifex Maximus and why he is such a
despised figure in the Bible, this is why:
a) He was the spiritual leader of the Roman Empire at the time Jesus
Christ was crucified, and is held responsible for that act and for countless
other crimes against the people of God.
Bear in mind that this is a title and an office, and Jesus Christ
referred to this, not to a specific individual.
People have the choice of taking on this mantle or not. It is not imposed on them. They freely do so,
knowing full well what that means.
b) One of the main characteristics of people in this office has been
their infatuation with idols. The men
who have held this position have raised idolatry to a fine art. The effect this has had on their followers
has been devastating. Notice:
Rom 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Rom 1:19
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it
to them.
Rom 1:20 For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
Rom 1:21
because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God,
nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish
hearts were darkened.
Rom 1:22
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like
corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Rom 1:24
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their
hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Rom 1:25
who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Rom 1:26
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women
exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom 1:27
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in
their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and
receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Rom 1:28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Rom 1:29
being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
Rom 1:30
backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31
undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Rom 1:32
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such
things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those
who practice them.
Have you ever wondered why the Catholic Church and its priests have been
embroiled in so many homosexual scandals?
This biblical passage should give you an idea. Next time you see the
images of “corruptible men-- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping
things” adorning their buildings think of the words of Apostle Paul.
c) One of the greatest blasphemies human beings can commit is assuming
one of God’s titles. Jesus Christ specifically told his followers: “Do not call
anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven”? (Matt 23:9). What title has Pontifex Maximus
assumed for himself? “Holy Father”. What do his followers call him? “Holy
Father”. Do they honor Jesus Christ when
they so blatantly do what He told them not to do? Yet, they still call themselves
Christians.
Do you see now what Apostle Paul meant when he wrote?
2Th 2:1
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2Th 2:2
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.
d) In October this year, the Pope delivered a lecture to the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences in Rome in which he said that: “Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was
‘more than a hypothesis’” (Sydney Morning
Herald, Oct. 5, 1996). Charles Darwin was an atheist. So the man who goes around the world as
“Universal Shepherd”, who sits in the temple of God as “Holy Father”,
challenges God to His face, defies the Lord whom he claims to serve, undermines
the Bible publicly, and honors at atheist who has done more to destroy people’s
faith in God than any other man in history except Pontifex Maximus
himself.
Is it a mere coincidence that at this particular junction in world
history, as this age draws to a close, that this man reveals himself for who he
is and what he stands for by upholding an anti-God philosophy? Can you see now why Jesus Christ said that
when this man will stand on the ground in which He shed His blood, the world
will explode into a tribulation such as the world has never seen?
The Vatican announced recently that next year - in 1997 - Pontifex
Maximus would visit Jerusalem.
The world is indeed sitting on a volcano ready to explode.
RELIGION UNDER MORTAL
ATTACK
‘But even if we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let
him be accursed.” (Gal 1:8). “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms
himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to
their works.” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
Has science finally landed a fatal blow to religion? Darwin’s theory of evolution did not prove to
be the mortal danger many people thought it would - future generations will
wonder in disbelief how so flimsy a theory should have taken hold of a world
that prided itself in being enlightened and progressive - but recent scientific
discoveries in the fields of medicine, molecular biology and psychology have
rocked religion to its core and thrown in disarray some of its most cherished
beliefs and practices.
Scientists are now telling us that human behavior and attitudes are not
so much the result of education, environment and social influences, as the
product of one’s own biological make-up.
In-born genes determine not only our physical shape, but also our
character, sexual orientation, predisposition to crime, moods, etc.
“Genes are
suddenly seen as being responsible for everything, from poverty to privilege,
misdemeanors to murder. I seem to recall watching television one night and seeing
a man on murder charges offer as a defense the presence of a ‘criminal gene’ in
his family . . . “The problem with
genetics and this new particulate understanding of ourselves, it occurred to
me, is that it’s at once so central to who and what we are and yet so beside
the point of just being us, of going about the business of living.” (Charles Siebert, “Living With Toxic
Knowledge”, SMH - Good Weekend Magazine, March 9,
1996).
If this is true, if nature rather than nurture determines who we are and
what we do, then the traditional notions of salvation must be discarded, and a
more adequate explanation for the purpose of human life must be found. We have been led to believe that salvation
depends on people’s ability to repent and change their way of life. But if
people are beholden by their nature to a way of life which is not conducive to
repentance, what purpose does it serve preaching to them about salvation? People cannot be saved if they cannot repent,
and they cannot repent if nature rather than logic rules their life. What these scientific discoveries have done
is turn traditional wisdom on its head, open a Pandora's box which many thought
was closed long ago, and turn the clock back thousands of years - to the very
beginning of the debate of free will versus predestination. In the final analysis, this is what the
current debate is all about.
Since ancient time people have wondered, searched, debated, and fought
over the question of the purpose and destiny of human life. At the root of it all is the question of
salvation - is this the result of free will or predestination? Each of these notions ascribes a different
role to God and to human beings. If
predestination is true, the destiny of human life is entirely in God’s hands
and salvation is a grant from Him. But
if free will is true, then man is master of his own destiny and salvation is a
reward for the good use of his free will.
Over the years, the tendency has been a move away from predestination,
and towards free will.
Ancient people were particularly fond of predestination, ascribing all
things to divine powers - fortune and misfortune alike. But modern religions
are more kind to God. They lay the blame for man’s misfortunes entirely at
man's feet. This, of course, is where
the problem lies. Science is now telling
us that this is not the case: people are committing all sorts of misdemeanors
and anti-social acts, or are leading unconventional life styles (e.g.,
homosexuality), not because they freely choose to do so, but because they have
been programmed that way from their mother’s womb. The question is, can religions afford to be
seen to be constantly contrary to science? At stake are not only the
reputations of many people, but also the reliability of the Bible and the faith
of billions of people. Put simply, the
inspired Word of God and true science cannot be at odds with each other. That is why we must establish once and for
all whether science or religion is right, whether science and the Bible are
indeed at odds with each other, whether religions and the Bible are in
agreement, and whether salvation is determined by man’s free will or by divine
providence. For this reason, we will
have a careful look at what the scientists have been saying lately, at what the
churches have been preaching, and at what the Bible has had to say on these
matters from the very beginning.
Here are some of the reports
of the scientific discoveries that have led to the current controversy:
“Mean gene’ theory
sparks racism controversy in US” “Are some kids born
to be bad? Can there be a ‘treatment’ to
block them from murder? These explosive questions are back. And the even more explosive answer, in some
quarters, is yes.
The renewed debate is sending chills down the spines of those who fear
it will bring a Brave New World of mind control to the children of America's
violent inner cities. The issue, which has simmered for decades, owes its
latest revival to a University of Maryland conference this weekend on the
eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, about an hour from Washington. The conference for the first time will gather
scholars from a wide array of disciplines to discuss the ethical implications
of research seeking a genetic foundation for violence and other criminal
behavior. Authors of the research and
their supporters say it is hardly sinister.
"Almost every day, we're hearing about a gene for this and a gene
for that," says David Comings, a medical geneticist at the City of Hope
Medical Centre in Duarte, California.
If you can have a gene for obesity, it certainly can become acceptable
that a gene can be involved in violent behavior." But opponents say the research raises the spectre of Nazi eugenics - the science of breeding people
in quest of a superior human race. They
foresee frightening possibilities such as compulsory genetic screening,
sedation and sterilization, and believe the research discriminates against
blacks.” (The Sunday Telegraph, October 1, 1995).
“The brains behind
our sex life”
“Homosexuals, heterosexuals and transsexuals are born, not made, claims
a leading United States neuroscientist who says that sexual orientation is
wired into the brain before birth.
Research shows that sexual preferences can be detected in tiny
structures in the limbic or emotional, centre of the brain, according to
Professor Roger Gorski, of the University of
California at Los Angeles School of Medicine.
The differences are produced in the womb, said the man who first
discovered 20 years ago that the brains of male and female mammals are
different. The findings raise the
possibility that in the distant future sexual orientation may be open to
medical manipulation. ‘This work is at
the very beginning but it’s profound,” said Professor Gorski,
adding that the events which produce homosexual, heterosexual and transsexual
brains probably result from a ‘complex’ interaction’ of sex hormones, genes and
environmental circumstances. But sex
hormones are vital to setting the orientation of the unborn child, said
professor Gorski.
A hormonal alteration at a given time in development might alter one
component of brain function which could lead one to become homosexual or
transsexual. That’s the theory.’
Professor Gorski told the Herald that his
research - along with that of Dr Simon Le Vay,
formerly with the Salk Institute in California, and Dr Richard Swaab of Amsterdam - shows that these changes appear as
differences in tiny structures in the brain called the interstitial nucleus of
the anterior hypothalamus (INAH).” (SMH, Oct. 27, 1995).
“Genetics link with
petty crime claimed” “London: Pimping and petty theft appear to be genetically conditioned -
but a person’s genes have little influence on their propensity for committing
crimes of violence, according to research unveiled at a controversial
scientific meeting in London yesterday. Two American studies comparing
identical twins, who share the same genes, with non-identical twins, have
supported the contentious suggestion that some criminals may be born, not made”
(SMH, Feb. 15, 1995).
“The Common Face of Evil” “In 1993, Dr Lyll
Watson sat in on the trial of the two English schoolboys charged with murdering
the toddler James Bulger. Though this killing convulsed a nation,
perhaps the sharpest impression made on the best-selling author and biologist
came from outside the court, where "terrifying lynch mobs were howling for
blood". "These were perfectly
ordinary people, neighbours and friends of the family, suddenly behaving like
something out of the wild west frontier," Dr Watson recalled in Sydney
this week.
The famously unorthodox scientist understood that parents reacted in
this way because of a fear that the child tortured to death beside a railway
track could have been their own. But he
also asserts: "I think an even larger part of that [the mob's reaction] is
this real fear that it could have been your children doing the killing. That's much more frightening." In this comment, and in his latest book, Dark Nature, Watson, 57, up-ends one of
the articles of faith of Western civilisation - the
innocence of childhood. (It was the Bulger trial that
sparked his interest in writing a book about evil.) In Dark
Nature, he asserts that there is a biological equivalent of original sin,
and that if we don't confront this, current social and environmental upheavals
will draw us irrevocably towards a new barbarism...
Humans, like animals, are genetically
programmed for a ruthless selfishness that is often bad or evil. Or, as
Watson puts it: “Every child is born with genetic instructions which say, 1. Be
nice to insiders because they're your own people, you share genes with them; 2.
Be nasty to outsiders because you don't (share genes with them); and 3. Cheat,
lie, steal, kill to get your own way."
Crucially - and unlike animals - humans have long realised
the importance of suppressing evil impulses, and of acquiring the pragmatic
altruism necessary for workable societies.
But as we approach a new millennium, Watson thinks the tremendous
pressures of overpopulation, poverty and social dislocation increasingly put us
at the mercy of primitive genetic urges - and not just in war zones such as
Bosnia...
The author, whose previous subjects have included the nature of crowds,
the paranormal and the wind, found himself reflecting on mass murder (and even
pack rape among ducks) because he thinks theologians, moral philosophers and
criminologists have failed to understand the nature of evil. He admits his findings are "cavalier in
some ways because many theologians have thought about this very carefully, but
they haven't come to any useful conclusions.
They are tied by religious necessity to believe that everything that is
good comes from God, and everything that isn't comes from the devil. They have created this polarity, which is
wrong. We all have good and bad in us. Every one of us" (The Weekend Australian, November 4-5, 1995)
“The Secrets Twins Tell Us” “The evidence is finally in from
a battery of tests on separated twins. And they challenge our most cherished
beliefs about human nature... A set of
identical twin girls were surrendered to an adoption agency in New York in the
60s. The twins, who are known in
psychological literature as Amy and Beth, might have gone through life in
obscurity had they not come to the attention of Dr Peter Neubauer,
a prominent psychiatrist at New York University's Psychiatric Institute.
Neubauer, who was also an
adviser to the adoption agency, believed that twins posed such a burden to
parents, and to themselves in the form of certain developmental hazards, that
adopted twins were better off being reared apart from each other.
It was clear that such a separation would also offer Neubauer
exceptional research possibilities.
Studies of twins reared apart are the most powerful tool that scholars
have for analysing the relative contributions of
heredity and environment to the make-up of individual human natures. Identical twins are rare, however, and twins
who have been separated and brought up in different families are particularly
unusual... Broadly speaking, the differences
between the girls as they grew older would be a measure of the validity of the
most fundamental assumption of analytical psychology, which is that - and, in
particular, our family background - shapes us into the people that we
become.
The agency that placed the children shortly after their birth informed
each set of potential adoptive parents that the girl they were adopting was
already involved in a study of child development and strongly urged the
adoptive parents to continue it.
However, neither the adopted parents nor the girls themselves were ever
told that the subject of the study was twins... The girls were adopted into families that
were, in certain respects, quite similar - both were Jewish and lived in New
York State... All in all, the research
team characterized Amy’s family as a well-knit threesome - mother, father and
son - plus an alienated Amy. It was a
family that placed a high value on academic success, simplicity and emotional
restraint. Beth’s family, on the other
hand, was sophisticated and full of energy - “frenetic” at times. It tended to put more emphasis on material
things than on education. Clearly, Beth was more in the centre of her home than
Amy was in hers... In almost every
respect, Beth’s personality followed in lockstep with Amy’s dismal development.
Thumb-sucking, nail-biting, blanket-clenching, and bed-wetting characterized
her infancy and early childhood. She became a hypochondriac and, like Amy, was
afraid of the dark and of being left alone. She, too, became lost in
role-playing, and the artificial nature of her personality was even more pronounced
than Amy’s.
She had similar problems in school and with her peers. On the surface, she had a closer relationship
with her mother than Amy had with hers, but psychological tests revealed a
longing for maternal affection which was eerily the same as her identical
sister’s. Beth did seem to be more
successful with her friends and less confused than Amy, but she was also less
aware of other feelings.
The differences between the girls seemed merely stylistic; despite the
differences in their environments, their pathology was fundamentally the
same. Did their family lives men so
little? Were they destined to become the
people they turned out to be because of some genetic predisposition towards
sadness and unreality? And what would
psychologists have made of either girl if they did not know that she was a
twin? Wouldn’t they have laid the blame
for the symptoms of her neurosis on the parents who raised her? Finally, what did all this say about the fundamental
presumptions of psychology? But the
story has a darker and more threatening side and this may be the real secret of
its grip on our imaginations. We think
we know who we are. We struggle to build
our characters through experience; we make ourselves unique by determining
what we like, what we don’t like, and what we stand for. The premise of free will is that we become
the people we choose to be. Suppose, then, we meet an Other who is, in every
outward respect, ourself. It is one thing to imagine an identical Other
who, having lived a separate and dismal life, has been marked by it and become
different from us. But what if, in spite
of all the differences, we and the Other arrive at the same place? Isn’t there a sense of loss? A loss not only of identity but of
purpose? We are left wondering not only
who we are but why we are who we are.
The Neubauer twin study is just one among
thousands that have raised these questions.
Over the past decade, there has been a tidal wave of twin-based scholarship. Recent studies of twinship
have challenged our most entrenched views of human development and have
capsized cherished beliefs about human nature - in particular the bedrock
notion that character is created by experience.
But then, twins have been confounding humanity from the earliest times -
almost as if they were a divine prank designed to undermine our sense of
individuality and specialness in the world.
If twins are important to science because they allow us to ask how much
of our nature arises from our genes and how much from our circumstances, the
answers have equally profound implications for social policy. The hallmark of
liberalism is that changes in the social environment produce corresponding
changes in human development. But if people's destinies are written in their
genes, why waste money on social programs?
Even matters that would seem to be entirely a reflection of one's
personal experience, such as political orientation or the depth of religious commitment, have been shown by various twin
studies to be largely under genetic influence. ... And yet twins may have a different lesson to
teach us. It may be threatening to see
ourselves as victims of our genes, but that may be preferable to being victims
of our environment. A trait that is
genetically rooted seems somehow more immutable than one that may have been
conditioned by the environment. This seems to leave aside the possibility
of free choice - or even consciousness of choice at all. And yet people who are aware of their natures
are constantly struggling with tendencies they recognize as ingrained or
inborn. It makes little difference how
such tendencies were acquired, only how they are managed. If it is true that our identical clone can
sort through the world of opportunity and adversity and arrive at a similar
place, then we may as well see that as a triumph of our genetic determination
to become the person we ought to be.” (Sydney
Morning Herald, Nov. 4, 1995).
Well, there you have it! There
cannot be much argument about it. It is quite obvious that these findings are
accurate, reliable and convincing. They
are based on extensive research and carry the signatures of renowned
personalities in the fields of medicine, biology and psychology from as far a field as Marylands, Los
Angeles, Amsterdam, New York, Baltimore and London. The evidence that all human beings are not
equal, that some are predisposed from their mother’s womb to anti-social
behavior is so overwhelming it cannot be dismissed even with the perennial “more
research is needed”.
These discoveries will have a great impact on human society. Governments
will want to know whether it is wise spending large amounts of taxpayer’s money
on correctional programs for people that get little benefit out of them. Educational authorities will wonder whether
their teaching strategies get the best results knowing that the outcomes are
determined more by the pupils’ natures than by the amount of money, time and
effort spent on them. Insurance
companies will want to screen people to find out those that pose the greatest
risk. Parents will want to know what
will become of their children. Will they
be tempted to terminate their pregnancy if they discover that their children’s
genes predispose them to unconventional behavior - crime, homosexuality, etc.?
But the greatest impact will, no doubt, be felt by religions. The universal message of salvation, which
holds that all human beings have an inborn ability to choose to live a godly
life, preached in its various forms by virtually all religions, is suddenly on
shaky grounds. We now know that human
beings are neither equal nor equally capable of repenting. Some people are predisposed from conception
to live a life that is not conducive to salvation. This means that the traditional message of
salvation has been based on false premises all along. The question is how did religions get it so
wrong? Did they get their message out of
the Bible or out of their own imagination?
This is what we intend to find out now.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia
has divided this topic in three sections: “Predestination in the Bible”,
“Predestination in the Catholic Theology”, and “Catholic Teaching”. One might have thought that “Predestination
in the Bible” is the same as that in “Catholic Theology” and “Catholic
Teaching”, but, apparently, this is not the case. We shall see.
“Predestination in the
Bible” “In the sense that all things are foreknown and foreordained by God,
predestination is coextensive with the providence of God and is a constant
theme of the OT and the NT.
Predestination, in the sense of foreordination of man to glory, is
clearly taught only in the NT.
Predestination is just as clearly taught in the Old Testament, as we
shall show.”
Hmmm! Does this make any sense to
you? “Predestination . . . is clearly taught only in the NT. Predestination is just as clearly taught in
the Old Testament.” If an undergraduate
student went to his lecturer with this kind of logic, you can well imagine what
mark he would get. But these people are
Doctors in Theology, and who can question their wisdom?
“The ‘book’ mentioned by Moses when he said "strike me out of the
book that you have written" (Ex 32.32) is undoubtedly the Book of Life,
which is mentioned also in Ps 68(69).29 and Dn
12.1. But in the NT, when Our Lord says
“Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25.34) or tells His disciples
"Rejoice rather in this, that your names are written in heaven" (Lk 10.20; see also Jn 10.29), He
is teaching predestination.
It is in St. Paul, however, that one finds the most explicit statements
on predestination. ‘Now we know that for
those who love God all things work together unto good, for those who according
to his purpose are saints through his call.
For those whom he has foreknown he has also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the firstborn among many
brethren. And those whom He has
predestined, them He has also called; and those whom He has called, them He has
also justified, and those whom He has justified, them He has also glorified’
(Rom. 8.28-30). In these verses Paul
sees the unique and eternal act of God as involving five decisions: elective
knowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. The first two are invisible and outside of
time; the second two are on earth; and the last is properly in the next world.”
While this passage appears to make a good case for predestination, the
next one makes just as good a case for free will.
“Man's freedom still remains: he must respond to the love and call of
God. Nor in St. Paul's concept is there
any initial confirmation in grace, for he tells the Philippians to work out
their salvation ‘with fear and trembling’ (2.12).”
Then again we are brought back to the notion of predestination:
“In another important passage, Eph. 1.3-14, Paul repeats 10 times that
predestination is ‘in Christ’: ‘He chose us in him before the foundation of the
world’ (v.4); it was done according to the ‘good pleasure of his will . . . to the praise and glory of his grace . . . in
his beloved Son’ (v.5-6). Predestination
is clearly a free act of God, a choosing of all men for glory, in, with, and
through His Incarnate Son. There is no
basis in St. Paul for any doctrine of positive reprobation: ‘For there is one
God, and one Mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all’ (I Tm. 2.5; see also 1 Tm. 4.10; Mt 18.14).”
This is all the New Catholic
Encyclopedia has to say about predestination and free will in the
Bible. Not very much, you would
agree.
If you are confused, you are not alone.
First we were told that God “predestined [us] to become conformed to the
image of His Son”, and then that our “freedom still remains”, then again that
“predestination is clearly a free act of God.”
Now, can one be predestined and retain his freedom at the same time? The
implication is that this topic is not very well covered in the Bible. That is why people need the next two
chapters, “Predestination in Catholic Theology” and “Catholic Teaching”. This is perfectly in line with the Catholic
teaching that the Bible is incomplete.
Catholic leaders maintain that people need the wisdom gained from
tradition and the church “Fathers”, and especially from the revelations of the
Pope, to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For those of us who believe that the Bible is
complete, this is anathema. It would be enough to cause us to abandon any
further study of their sources.
Nevertheless, in our search for truth, we must leave no stone unturned. So let us see what they have to say in the
next two chapters.
“Predestination is the plan eternally conceived by God whereby He
conducts rational creatures to their supernatural end, that is, to eternal
life. Of necessity this plan is very
complex. It must be concerned, first of all, with the ‘supernatural order: its
end, which is eternal life; its means, the complexus
that we term supernatural grace (sanctifying and actual, efficacious and
sufficient grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit). Predestination also closely involves the
divine foreknowledge of future free acts, the exercise of the free will of man,
and divine predilection.”
Catholic theologians have raised the art of prevarication and
obfuscation to a high level. Here we
have a deliberate juxtaposition of the two doctrines. How can predestination involve “the divine
foreknowledge of future free acts, the exercise of the free will of man, and
divine predilection”? By their own
definitions, predestination and free will are opposites and incompatible with
each other.
“Predestination and Related
Concepts” “In its most
general sense, predestination is a decree of God, an inner decision of the
divine wisdom and will, whereby God resolves and determines what He Himself
will bring to pass.”
“According to St. Paul, it is the counsel of the divine will whereby God
works all things (Eph. 1. I 1), or, according to St. Augustine, it is that
whereby He disposes within Himself what He intends to accomplish (Persev. 17.41;
PL 45:1018). In this general sense,
divine predestination has a bearing on all the works of God. Everything that He does and effects is
predestined by Him through an eternal decree before it is carried out in
time. More precisely, however,
predestination signifies the ordination of God by which certain men are led
efficaciously to the attainment of salvation.
On the part of God, this divine ordination involves two actions. There is, first, an act of the divine
intellect, by which God infallibly foreknows which men are to be saved and the
precise means whereby they will attain this salvation.”
“Second, it includes an act of the will of God by means of which He
decrees to save these men in the very fashion that He Himself has planned. For this reason, St. Augustine has defined
predestination as ‘the foreknowledge and preparation of those gifts of God
whereby they who are liberated are most certainly liberated’ (Persev. 14.35;
PL 45:1014).” “According to Augustine,
the object of predestination is salvation, the freeing from servitude of sin,
and all the benefits through which salvation is attained, i.e., efficacious
graces, including the gift of final perseverance. The infallible connection between these
benefits, that is, the means and the freeing from servitude, has its ultimate
foundation in God Himself. The subject
of predestination is all men who are in fact saved.”
Well, what do you make of that?
Would you trust your salvation and eternal life to someone who tells you
that, “they who are liberated are most certainly liberated”, and “The subject
of predestination is all men who are in fact saved”? If people are already saved, why predestine
them any more?
Isn’t this what predestination is supposed to do - to assure them of
salvation?
" . . . Viewed therefore, in its totality, predestination includes
on the part of God the following: (1) the provision of the end; (2) a
determined grade or degree of glory; and (3) the ordination of the means. These three factors are concerned with acts
of the divine intellect. In addition,
there are the following, which are concerned with the divine will: (I) the
first calling of the elect to justification; (2) the decree to confer efficacious
graces; and (3) the decree to confer the final perseverance.”
“Although the act of the divine will is most simple, it nevertheless
does not attain its created objectives in the same way. Hence, predestination has been considered by
the theologians in concepts of varying comprehensiveness.
( 1 ) Predestination viewed in its totality. This is predestination insofar as it is
concerned with the complete series of graces by which man is saved. Predestination in this sense considers the
entire process from beginning to end, from the first calling of a soul to the
way of salvation to the conferral of final glory.
(2) Predestination partially
viewed. This is predestination considered in only one aspect of the entire series
of effects. It is derived from the
division of the entire process of predestination into its logical, component
parts. Thus, one may consider
predestination faith alone, predestination to justification alone, or even
predestination to glory alone.”
The Bible makes no such divisions and differentiations. They complicate the issue by introducing
concepts that are irrelevant, incomprehensible, or plainly unbiblical. It makes one wonder, who are these people
writing for? Obviously not for the
average people like you and me. They have
forgotten that theology is supposed to be expressed in simple language, like
the Bible, so that all people understand it. Did not Apostle Paul write that
God prefers the simple people to those who think that they are wise?
1Co 1:26
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
1Co 1:27
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28
and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God
has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that
are,
1Co 1:29 that no flesh should glory in His
presence.
This chapter is hardly more enlightening than the first one. But, we must not despair, for we are yet to
look at the “Catholic Teaching”. Surely,
they won’t leave millions of their followers in suspense about such an
important matter.
“CATHOLIC TEACHING”
“The mystery of predestination stands in the middle of two extremes each
of which either completely abandons one or the other of its two organically
connected elements, or, at any rate, puts such excessive emphasis on one
that the other is neglected. Either
the independence and self-activity of man is overly stressed to the exclusion
of God's initiation and guidance of man's preliminary steps and continued
progress (Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism),
or the divine initiative and guidance is represented as inexorably driving and
hurrying man along in such a way that his own free movement and advance are
obscured or completely denied (predestinationism).”
“Prior to the time of St. Augustine the Fathers of the Church were not
preoccupied with the problem of predestination.”
This is a very important statement which tells us much about the state
of affairs in the early church. It
forces us to ask why is it that predestination and free will were not a major
issue with the early Christians? Could
it be that they knew the answer? We shall find that out soon.
“It was the bishop of Hippo who first treated the mystery exhaustively,
with the theological decisiveness so characteristic of him.
From 418 until 531, there took place in the Western Church many grave
controversies concerned with explaining the ultimate foundation for the
salvation of those who are saved (the elect) as well as ascertaining the reason
for the condemnation of those who are in fact not saved (the reprobate). This theological ferment centered around the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies.
“
Notice that this became a major problem only after “Christianity” became
the official religion of the Roman Empire.
(For a detailed analysis of what really happened then and why so much
“theological ferment” ensued afterwards, see The Christian Herald No 4).
“Pelagianism”
“This heresy denied the necessity of supernatural
grace and consequently did not admit of predestination in the true sense of the
word. It maintained that man, by the
mere use of his free will and by his other natural powers is able to believe
and act in a salutary manner without the assistance of supernatural grace and
thus obtain eternal beatitude. According
to this doctrine, some species of predestination could be admitted. It would be nothing more, however, than the
foreknowledge of God through which He foresees which men will attain salvation
through their own efforts. Consequently
God, through His divine prevision, chooses as the blessed those whom He has
foreseen would be saved solely through their own powers.”
Although the Pelagians come under criticism
here, their theology does not appear to have been very different from that of
present day Catholic theologians. The
idea that God, through His divine prevision, foresees and chooses those who are
saved “solely through their own powers” was present in the previous chapter
too. If human beings have free will and
attain salvation through their own actions, not even God can have foreknowledge
of those who will be saved. By its very
definition, foreknowledge means predestination, and predestination implies the
absence of free will.
“Semi-Pelagianism.” “On the other hand,
Semi-Pelagianism attempted to mitigate the extreme
position of Pelagianism. It affirmed that without the assistance of
divine grace fallen man is unable, by his natural powers, either to be
justified or to posit acts that would be meritorious of eternal life. But above all else, the universal salvific
will of God must be maintained. It was
felt that this salvific will would really be denied, unless it was unequivocally affirmed that the ultimate foundation for the salvation of the saved and the
condemnation of the reprobate is to be found in the good use or abuse of human freedom. If God truly and sincerely desires all men to
be saved, He must, on His part, will the salvation of all with a complete
equality and indifference. He must show
no favoritism or special preference regarding the salvation of one man over
that of another. If this were not the case, then the salvation
of one man and the damnation of another would he directly due to God's
action alone. This would destroy any
semblance of a universal salvific will and would be unjust.”
Do human beings have the right to judge God by their own standards? Has He not made it clear that He does not
give men the right to define or question His sense of justice? What did Apostle Paul write in his epistle to
the Romans?
Rom 9:17
For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I
HAVE RAISED YOU UP, THAT I MAY SHOW MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MAY BE
DECLARED IN ALL THE EARTH."
Rom 9:18
Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Rom 9:19
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has
resisted His will?"
Rom 9:20
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing
formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like
this?"
Rom 9:21
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make
one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Rom 9:22
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction,
Rom 9:23
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of
mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
Rom 9:24
even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
It is obvious that whatever differences there may have been between the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians,
they had one thing in common: they both believed in salvation through the good
use of one’s free will.
“Semi-Pelagianism claimed, therefore, that
Augustine's basic principle, of the gratuitous predilection and preelection of God being the ultimate reason for the salvation
of the elect, is irreconcilable with the dogma of the universal salvific
will. The ultimate foundation for
salvation must be found in man, not in God.
Man, though he is fallen, is able through his own natural powers to
desire and ask for salvation. He is able
to believe and thus posit the first step in the process of salvation, which is
faith. God then comes and confers the
rest, i.e., justification, meritorious acts, and glory. Despite the disparity
between man's meagre natural efforts and the
conferral of the supernatural gifts by God, it is, nevertheless, this unaided
free use of his will directed toward God that is the ultimate reason why one
man rather than another attains justification and salvation.” (The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XI,
Mc Graw-Hill, 1967, pp. 713-715).
So, the Semi-Pelagians, who were supposed to
“mitigate the extreme position of Pelagianism”,
assured us in the end that, “The ultimate foundation for salvation must be
found in man, not in God.” One wonders
what would they have made of these statements:
Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know the way
of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct
his own steps.
Joh 6:44 No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last
day.
THE AMERICAN
ENCYCLOPEDIA
“In Christianity, this is the doctrine that God foreordains, or wills,
some men to eternal life. In its broadest
sense predestination is God's providence or plan for all things toward
reestablishing harmony with him. More
narrowly, it is the doctrine of election, holding that some men are elected,
or chosen, by God to fulfil his purpose. "Election" usually refers to chosen
groups and individuals, while "predestination" tends to refer only
to individuals. Predestination is based
on the Old Testament concepts of Israel as God's chosen people and of chosen
persons such as judges, prophets, and kings. It is further developed in the New
Testament concept of the church, or body of believers, as the elect. Paul is especially concerned with the
predestination of individuals (Romans 8:28-30).
The Bible does not make clear, however, how many are to be saved. On the one hand, God wills salvation for all
(Matthew 18:14; John 3:16; Romans 11:32; 1 Timothy 2:4). On the other, the very concept of the chosen
means some but not all (Luke 18:7; Romans 11:8); and there is the further
implication that "some" means "few" (Matthew 22:14). This ambivalence presents the problem of why
a wise, merciful, just God can permit or will that not everyone should be
saved.
A further problem arises in that Paul and other biblical authors insist
that predestination to salvation is by God's free gift of grace undeserved by
sinful man. Yet they also maintain that
it does not deny man’s free will and responsibility.
Christian thinkers since biblical times have wrestled with these
difficulties. Augustine was one of the
earliest to develop the doctrine, but he left room for much
reinterpretation. At one extreme is the
deterministic doctrine of double predestination, which holds that God grants irresistible
grace to those sinful men whom he predestines to salvation and withholds it
from those others, no more sinful, whom he predestines to damnation. Such a view, originally stated by a 5th
century priest, was developed by Luther and especially by Calvin, who maintained
that sinful man has no right to question the justice of God's arbitrary
actions. At the other extreme are
universalist views that deny or modify predestination by maintaining that a
just God desires salvation for everyone. Pelagianism,
a 4th century doctrine opposed by Augustine, held that man can attain salvation
through his own effort, without grace.
Semi-Pelagianism held that grace is
necessary, but man must request it on his own initiative. God predestines those whose merit he
foresees. According to Arminianism, developed in the 16th century, God knows who
will freely choose his resistible grace and who will reject it, but he does not
will their rejection. Arminianism, adopted by Methodists, modified most
Protestant teaching. The Catholic view,
stated most concretely by Aquinas, tries to maintain a balance between the
extremes. It holds that God wills
salvation for all and offers sufficient grace to all, which man can freely
reject. But God also grants an
additional, irresistible, efficacious grace to the elect predestined to salvation. The coherence of these juxtaposed doctrines
is a mystery. Predestination is part of
Judaism and Islam in the broad sense
that everything is under God's providence.
Islam also teaches individual predestination, which on the popular level
is fatalistic and on the theological level is linked with free will in a
mystery.” (American Encyclopedia, 1992, Vol. 22, p. 536).
This pretty well sums it all up: “The coherence of these juxtaposed
doctrines is a mystery” not only in the Catholic Church, but virtually in the
theology of all who have tackled this subject.
We are no closer to knowing whether salvation is a matter of divine
providence or a reward for one’s good actions now than we were at the beginning
of our search.
“PREDESTINATION IN NON-CATHOLIC
THEOLOGY”
For this purpose, we return briefly to the New Catholic
Encyclopedia. We found out this
encyclopedia to offer a better explanation of non-Catholic theology than their
own sources.
“At the very beginning of this article it should be clearly stated that
actually there is no single doctrine concerning predestination that would be
acceptable to all branches of Protestantism.
Therefore, it would be inaccurate and ill advised to present this
article as being the Protestant theology of predestination. All that one can do is treat of historic
Protestantism as it has faced the problem of predestination, i.e., trace the
theories of election and reprobation that can be found in the main currents of
Protestantism as it has flowed through the history of the past 400 years . . .”
“Martin Luther” “The two men who
played key roles in the early history of Protestantism, Martin Luther
(1483-1546) and John Calvin, were both deeply influenced by the theological
thinking of the centuries previous to those in which they lived. St. Augustine, as understood by them, was a
great influence. So were Gottschalk of Orbais in the 9th century and, more proximately, John Wyclif in the 14th.
Luther, in his earlier years at least, maintained as extreme a doctrine
of predestination as Calvin himself was later to profess. This is important to note since, by and
large, modern Lutheranism rejects the extreme approach to predestination that
was so emphatically taught by its founder.
There are some who claim that in his later years Luther mitigated his
doctrine of predestinarianism to a less rigid form
of predestination. Actually, however, it
seems that although there is a difference in the technical terminology utilised by Luther in the first and later form of his
theology, nevertheless the later form does not constitute a radical departure
from his earlier conception.
When Luther first began to grapple with the problem of predestination,
about 1509 or 1510, he accepted the solution that was common among the
schoolmen, that predestination is in some way to be explained by God's
foreknowledge of man's conduct. But upon
more assiduous study of the Bible and St. Augustine, Luther gradually
underwent a complete reversal of opinion and finally professed the doctrine of predestinarianism, which he claimed to be the true teaching
of the Bible as well as of St. Augustine.
The most complete sources concerning Luther's teaching on
predestination are his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and his work De servo arbitrio
(The Will Enslaved), the latter being written in answer to Erasmus's attack
on his doctrine, De libero
arbitrio (Free Will). Essentially, the doctrine
contained in these works may be summarised as
follows. There exists on the part of
God an irrevocable election of some souls to eternal beatitude and positive rejection
of the rest, who go to eternal perdition.
As proof, Luther gives Paul's references to the scriptural stories of
God's election and rejection in the three cases of Isaac and Ismael, of Jacob and Esau, and of David and Saul. According to Luther, all objections to
predestination, as he understands it, come from human reason and not from the
wisdom of God. The objections:
1. Man has been given a free will by which he can earn either merit or
demerit. (Luther replies that man's will in itself has not the least ability to
secure justification, because the will itself is
totally corrupt, totally unable to choose anything but sin. Indeed, the will is not free but captive.)
2. Predestination, as held by Luther, is inconsistent with the teaching
of Sacred Scripture, which states (I Tm 2.4) that "God our Saviour . . .
wishes all men to be saved." (Luther's reply is that all such statements
are realised properly in the elect. One must make a distinction between “the
apparent will" and "the hidden will" of God. It is interesting to note that in his
translation of I Timothy Luther renders the above as "God wills that all
be assisted."). (The New Catholic
Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, Mc Graw-Hill, 1967, p.
715).
Luther started well, but in the end he stumbled over the notion of
divine justice. When he could not explain it, he decided to change the
Bible. His remodeling of I Timothy 2:4
from, “God our Savior . . .wishes all men to be saved”, to, “God wills that all
be assisted”, places him on a collision course with Jesus Christ, who gave a
strong warning to anyone who dared to tamper with the Scriptures. (Rev. 22).
Luther’s “apparent” and “hidden”
wills of God are also non-biblical.
Friedrich Richter quoted Luther as having said that, “God acts according
to an arbitrary will, and there is no telling what He will do”. (Martin Luther and Ignatius Loyola,
trans. from German by L. Zwinger, Newan
Press, 1960, p. 103). Any wonder that
people have lost their faith in God and in His sense of justice? Other people who have written on this topic
include Huldrych Zwingly,
Phillip Melanchton, Jacobus
Arminius and Karl Barth, none of whom having been able to resolve the dichotomy
between predestination and free will or adding anything new worth mentioning
here.
FREE WILL IN
THE JEWISH THEOLOGY
“Free will, a philosophical and theological notion referring initially
to the observation that man is able to choose between a number of possible
courses of action, becoming, through his choice, the cause of the actions which
he selects. Among philosophers some
accepted this observation as the true account of how men act, while others held
that though man appears to be free to choose, his actions are, in fact,
compelled, either by God or by laws of nature. While there were some Jewish
philosophers who inclined toward a deterministic position, the majority
affirmed that man, through choice, is the author of his own actions. Jewish philosophers generally considered a
doctrine of free will as indispensable for accounting for man’s moral
responsibility for his own actions, and they considered it necessary for
explaining God’s justice in punishing evil-doers. Closely related to the notion
of free will are those of divine providence and divine omniscience.”
As was the case with their Catholic and Protestant counterparts, Jewish
theologians also stumbled over the question of divine justice. While some people inclined towards
predestination, the vast majority believed that only free will could hold
people morally responsible for their actions and explain divine justice. Encyclopedia
Judaica, from which we took this quote, went on
to list a long line of theologians who have written on this topic. Here are the views of some of the most
prominent:
Philo. “The question of the
freedom of man’s will is discussed in a number of places, but his position on
this matter is not sufficiently defined . . . Pilo's
notion of man’s free will contains a certain innovation in contrast to
traditional Greek philosophy, since Aristotelians, for example, tended to view
man’s free choice as a defect and deficiency, contingent on his material
being.”
Saadiah Gaon. “It appears that
according to Philo, there is almost no connection between the notion of man’s
free will and the problem of divine justice. In contrast, Saadiah,
who was heavily influenced by Mu’tazilite philosophy,
maintains that the idea of God’s justice necessarily implies the freedom of
man’s will.”
Bahya
Ibn Paquda. “He briefly presents the ideas
of those who believe that all of man’s actions are predetermined by God, as
well as opposing views, which maintain that man’s will is free. He reaches the
conclusion that whoever delves into this question must fall into error.”
In Talmud and Midrash. “The doctrine of free will, expressed in the idea that man is free to
choose between good and evil, was at the core of Pharisaic outlook. Josephus
indeed characterises the differences between the
Pharisees and their Sadducean and Essene
opponents as between those who accepted both the freedom of man and divine
providence (the Pharisees), those who ascribed everything to chance, denying
providential guidance (the Sadducees), and those who denied human freedom,
maintaining a doctrine of predestination (the Essenes).”
In Modern Jewish Thought. Mordecai Kaplan
believes that the idea of free will as it was formulated in the past is out of
step with the spirit of the present which looks for causality in everything. He
therefore interprets the doctrine of free will as the expression of the idea
that there can be no responsibility without freedom. The problem of freedom
therefore becomes a spiritual one having to do with the significance of
individuality and selfhood on the one hand, and liberation of personality from
self-worship and desire for power, on the other.” (Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol
7, 1971, pp. 126 - 132).
And so it is that our search through religious literature led us to
nowhere. Theologians of all persuasions,
from ancient time to the present, have embraced the belief in free will, not
because God has revealed it to be so, but because they reasoned that this is
the only way to reconcile man's moral responsibility for his actions and God's
notion of divine justice.
This places them at odds with science.
As we’ve seen, the latest scientific discoveries, which we established
are both credible and irrefutable, tell a different story. It is not free will
that determines who will or will not be saved, but one’s own genes and
make-up.
This raises serious questions about the theologians' credibility. But all is not lost, for we are yet to look
at the wisdom of the academic theologians.
Since they are not bound by religious dogma, and always speak the truth
with authority, they must surely have found the answer and come to the rescue
of their religious counterparts.
ACADEMIC SOURCES
Two academic theologians who published their views in the prestigious Sophia magazine gave a new twist to this
debate recently. First, David Basinger, of John
Wesley College, Michigan, said:
“The orthodox
(classical, traditional) Christian God is usually described as a transcendent,
infinite, totally self-sufficient
being. It should therefore not be
surprising that orthodox Christians affirm the following four statements: (1) God exists, (2) God is omnipotent, (3) God is omniscient, and (4) God is wholly
good. But such theists also acknowledge
that, (5) Evil exists.
Some philosophers have claimed that to affirm (1-5) is self
contradictory. The orthodox Christian,
it is argued, must deny one of the five statements in question or abandon his
belief in the existence of the orthodox God.
In response, the Free Will Defence (FWD) is often proposed. This theodicy has a number of variants, but
the most sophisticated seem to incorporate the following line of reasoning:
(6) God cannot bring it about that a moral agent (human or non-human) do
X and yet X be freely chosen.
(7) Free choices can result in either good or evil consequences.
(8) Therefore, an omnipotent God
cannot create any co-possible set of free moral agents without also bringing
about the possibility of evil.
. . .
(14) The existence of a created universe containing moral agents who
freely perform both good and evil actions and contains more good than evil
overall is a more valuable state-of-affairs than the existence of a created
universe containing only robots who must always do what is right or a
state-of-affairs in which there is no created universe at all . . . A number of these premises can be (have
been) challenged most notably (6) and (14).
But my purpose is not to discuss the soundness, nor even the validity,
of (6-20). I am concerned rather with the relationship between the concept of
divine omnipotence entailed by the FWD and the concept of divine omnipotence
implicit in orthodox Christian thought.
I shall argue that these two concepts are fundamentally incompatible and
that, even if such were not the case, the FWD would be of very limited apologetical value for the orthodox Christian theist . .
.
The FWD (free will defence) is normally proposed to circumvent well
known problems surrounding the affirmation of (a-c). The basic strategy, we have seen, is to
attempt to transfer responsibility for the possibility (or actual occurrence)
of gratuitous evil from God to free moral agents by denying that God can bring
it about that moral agents always freely make the decisions he desires them to
make (i.e., by affirming (6)).
But if the free will accorded moral agents is responsible for the
possibility (or actual occurrence) of gratuitous evil, in what sense can it be
said that God maintains control over his created universe? . . . According to the FWD, because God cannot bring it about that moral agents
always make the free choice he desires of them, God cannot create any copossible set of free moral agents without also bringing
about the possibility of gratuitous evil for which he is not responsible. In other words, the Free Will Defender must
acknowledge that in any given universe containing free moral agents, some
events might occur which his God does not desire but cannot prohibit (e.g.,
instances of gratuitous evil resulting from the free choices of moral agents) .
. . I believe the FWD successfully
demonstrates that no being can both create a world containing free moral agents
and insure that that such agents will always freely choose to do right (i.e.,
successfully demonstrate that the Free Will God cannot create just any
logically possible state-of-affairs he can conceive) . . . We must conclude then that the FWD has
functioned as an abused overused apologetic tool for the orthodox Christian. As
a response to the traditional logical problem of evil, it is an irrelevant
solution to the main issue and a trivially true response to the issue to which
it is usually addressed. This is not to deny that the concept of a FWD is coherent.
But even this fact is of limited value to the orthodox Christian since the
concept of a Free Will God is incompatible with the type of omnipotent being to
which such a theist must give allegiance.”
(“Christian Theism and the Free Will Defence”, Sophia, Vol. 19, July 1980, pp. 20-33).
There are a number of problems with Basinger’s
theology. First, as you may have
noticed, he contrasts man’s free will with God’s omnipotence, rather than with
predestination. Why so? Because predestination is linked with
salvation, and salvation is not a topic of discussion among academics. To paraphrase the words of one of their own,
who said, “Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do” (Bertrand
Russell, Thinking about thinking) -
Academics would sooner die than acknowledge salvation. In fact they do.
Second, Basinger’s conclusions are based
entirely on his own reasoning. Not once
did he refer to the Bible to support his views.
He believes that he can find the truth about God, human beings and the
universe without looking, at least out of curiosity, into those books which are
said to be inspired by God. This is what
passes as academic wisdom these days.
Third, given his mastery of the Scriptures, not unexpectedly, he makes
sweeping generalizations which are contrary to what the Bible teaches. He assures us that: “no being can both create
a world containing free moral agents and insure that such agents will always
freely choose to do right”, because such a world can only contain “robots”. Had he known the power of God and His plan
for mankind, or the history of Christianity, he may have understood why
thousands of people have given their lives to become “robots” in a world which
contains no evil, yet in which they enjoy complete freedom of the will.
Basinger says that the
present world is perfect because human beings have free will. Their ability to
commit evil is his guaranty of that.
Now, given the fact that they have used their freedom to bring the world
to its present sorry state, is this really such a great virtue? Would it not have been better if human beings
had been conditioned by God to always do what is right, just, good, true, and
live in a harmonious, clean and peaceful world, than to benefit from such
freedom and live in a world in which the law of the jungle prevails?
Why is it imperative that people
commit evil in order to prove that they have freedom of the will? Is it not
more reasonable to expect that left on their own, thinking people would use
their power of reasoning to create conditions that ensure the preservation of
life rather than the wanton destruction we see all around? What do all these things prove? Either that human beings are shortsighted
fools, or that they have unwittingly been driven by forces which are inimical
to their survival.
Basinger found himself a
critic in Thomas P. Flint of the
University of Notre Dame (“Divine Sovereignty and the Free Will Defence”, Sophia 23, July
1984, pp. 41-52).
Unfortunately, his writings exhibit all the weaknesses of Basinger, plus a few of his own. He agrees with Basinger
in most points, but takes issue with him in the question of free moral agency
and God’s omnipotence. He says that
these are not incompatible because God had a choice: He could have avoided the
situation in which His omnipotence is being questioned by not creating human
beings in the first place.
This may be a convenient explanation, but one can hardly answer a fact
with a hypothesis. The fact is, God did create the world, placed human beings
in it, then allowed them to commit evil and bring catastrophe upon
themselves.
The question is why, and how can they get out of it? How can they save themselves from their
present sorry condition? Can they do it
on their own, through the exercise of their own will power, or do they depend
entirely on God’s grace for their salvation?
Since no source has given us a satisfactory answer, our only choice is
to go directly to the Bible.
THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR
FREE WILL
There are not too many passages in the Bible which directly support the
idea of free will, but the few that are, are invariably quoted by those who
subscribe to this belief. The most often quoted example is found in the New
Testament, in one of Apostle Paul’s epistles:
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling;
Since men can work out their own salvation, the reasoning goes, they
must have free will.
Another powerful example, this one in the Old Testament in the book of
Deuteronomy, says:
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth
as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your
descendants may live;
These two statements form the main support for
the belief in free moral agency. For
people to be able to work out their own salvation or choose between life and
death, they must have freedom of the will.
Therefore it can be said that this doctrine is based on solid biblical
principles. Other examples which support
this doctrine, are usually associated with God’s warnings that if people commit
wrongdoing, and transgress His statutes and commandments, they will be
punished. The argument being that He
would not punish them if He did not consider them to be morally responsible for
their actions. There are many such
examples in the Bible, and we cannot look at them all, but here are some which
are typical.
Jer 5:1 "Run to and fro
through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; And seek in her open places
If you can find a man, If there is anyone who executes judgment, Who
seeks the truth, And I will pardon her.
Jer 5:2 Though they say, 'As
the LORD lives,' Surely they swear falsely."
Jer 5:3 O LORD, are not
Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, But they have not grieved; You
have consumed them, But they have refused to receive correction. They have made
their faces harder than rock; They have refused to return.
Jer 5:4 Therefore I said,
"Surely these are poor. They are foolish; For they do not know the
way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.
Jer 5:11 For the house of Israel
and the house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with Me," says the
LORD.
Jer 5:12 They have lied about the
LORD, And said, "It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, Nor
shall we see sword or famine.
Jer 5:13 And the prophets become
wind, For the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them."
Jer 5:14 Therefore thus says the
LORD God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My
words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.
Jer 5:15 Behold, I will bring a
nation against you from afar, O house of Israel," says the LORD. "It is
a mighty nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do
not know, Nor can you understand what they say.
Jer 5:16 Their quiver is
like an open tomb; They are all mighty men.
Jer 5:17 And they shall eat up
your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat.
They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and
your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust,
with the sword.
Jer 5:18 "Nevertheless in
those days," says the LORD, "I will not make a complete end of you.
Jer 5:19 And it will be when you
say, 'Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?' then you
shall answer them, 'Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in
your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.'
In the end, both Israel and Judah paid heavily for their
disobedience. The conclusion being that
they had freedom of the will and exercised it wrongfully. A conclusion which could also be drawn from
the following passage:
Eze 36:17 "Son of man, when
the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways
and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary
impurity.
Eze 36:18 Therefore I poured out
My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with
which they had defiled it.
Eze 36:19 So I scattered them
among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged
them according to their ways and their deeds.
Eze 36:20 When they came to the
nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them,
'These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of
His land.'
Eze 36:21 But I had concern for My
holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever
they went.
Eze 36:22 "Therefore say to
the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "I do not do this for
your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have
profaned among the nations wherever you went.
Eze 36:23 And I will sanctify My
great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned
in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,"
says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
The idea that man has free will and is in charge of his own salvation,
correlates well with modern philosophy which holds that man is the center of
his universe and master of his own destiny.
By judicious use of his will, he can either save or destroy himself.
The role of the Holy Spirit has been diminished to the point of almost
total exclusion from the process of salvation.
As Friedrich Richter pointed out, “In time, the work of the Holy Spirit
loses its universal character and is limited to the subjective experience of
the individual. Rationalism eventually
supplants the Holy Spirit with the spirit of man.” (Op. cit., p. 109).
THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR PREDESTINATION
The most obvious examples of predestination also come from Apostle Paul,
the one who provided the ammunition for those who believe in free will too.
Eph 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who
are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
Eph 1:2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ,
Eph 1:4
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
Eph 1:5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph 1:6 to
the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the
Beloved.
Eph 1:7 In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to
the riches of His grace
Eph 1:8
which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
Eph 1:9
having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good
pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
Eph 1:10
that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth—in Him.
Eph 1:11
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according
to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His
will,
Eph 1:12
that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His
glory.
Rom 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Rom 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30
Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called,
these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
You can see that here, unlike in previous examples in which the words
“free will” or “freedom of the will” or “free moral agency” were never used,
but merely implied, the word “predestined”
is specifically mentioned several times.
Other statements indicate that God has a Book of Life in which He wrote
the names of those who are to be saved before the world was created. In other words, they were predestined to be
saved before they were born.
Luk 10:20 Nevertheless do not
rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven."
Mat 25:34
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of
My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world:
Php 4:3 And I urge you also, true
companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement
also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of
Life.
Rev 17:8
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the
bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will
marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of
the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
This idea is also found in the Old Testament:
Exo 32:31 Then Moses returned to
the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have
made for themselves a god of gold!
Exo 32:32 Yet now, if You will
forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have
written."
Exo 32:33 And the LORD said to
Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
Exo 32:34 Now therefore, go, lead
the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel
shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I
will visit punishment upon them for their sin."
Other examples that support the idea of predestination include the
following:
Mal 1:1
The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Mal 1:2
"I have loved you," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'In what
way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" Says the
LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved;
Mal 1:3
But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For
the jackals of the wilderness."
Apostle Paul amplified this in his epistle to the Romans:
Rom 9:13
As it is written, "JACOB I HAVE LOVED, BUT ESAU I HAVE HATED."
Rom 9:14
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
Certainly not!
Rom 9:15
For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE
MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE COMPASSION."
Rom 9:16
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of
God who shows mercy.
Rom 9:17
For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I
HAVE RAISED YOU UP, THAT I MAY SHOW MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MAY BE
DECLARED IN ALL THE EARTH."
Rom 9:18 Therefore
He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Rom 9:19
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has
resisted His will?"
Rom 9:20
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing
formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like
this?"
Rom 9:21
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make
one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Rom 9:22
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction,
Rom 9:23
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of
mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
Rom 9:24
even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
These examples not only prove predestination, but emphasize the fact
that it is the will of God which determines who is to be saved and who is not,
rather that the will of man. “He has
mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.” Our problem comes from the fact that Apostle
Paul seems to have contradicted himself. Could he be so lose in his thoughts as
not to realize that in one place he supported free will and in another place
predestination? Something isn’t right,
but what? Since predestination has a stronger biblical case than free will, we
have no choice but to go back to the Bible and examine once again those
Scriptures that appear to support free will.
FREE MORAL AGENCY,
OR
FREE MORAL DECEPTION?
Before we look again at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which assured
us that people can work out their own salvation, we will have a brief look at
another Pauline statement which just as strongly seems to deny this fact.
Rom 9:30
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
Rom 9:31
but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the
law of righteousness.
Rom 9:32
Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it
were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
Rom 9:33
As it is written: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STUMBLING STONE AND ROCK
OF OFFENSE, AND WHOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME."
Here, Apostle Paul speaks of two kinds of righteousness: one attained by
faith and another by works of the law.
Righteousness by works of the law can be equated with working out one’s
own salvation: both ideas relying on people’s active involvement in working out
something that leads to their salvation.
Now while work can be a reflection of one’s faith (''Show me your faith
without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”, James 2:18),
work can never generate the faith required for salvation because this is a gift
from God: “For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9).
This creates a major problem for those who use Philippians 2:12 as proof
of free will in man. How can one work
out his own salvation if this is entirely dependent on God’s grace and gift of
faith? The Scriptures never contradict
themselves, yet those who preach free moral agency would have us believe that
they do. How then can we explain that
statement in the epistle to the Philippians?
Let us have another look at it.
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
Php 2:13 for it is God who works
in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Did you notice the difference? We
were naughty here in that we quoted the entire verse rather than just part of
it. The result is nothing short of
electrifying. All of a sudden the free
will case is on a shaky ground. Rather
than proving free will, or free moral agency, or whatever they call it, this
verse proves the very opposite - it proves predestination.
Those who have used this verse to “prove” freedom of the will have
invariably stopped at the word “trembling”.
They have left out the most important part of the verse, the one which
qualifies it and gives it proper meaning:
“for it is God who works in you
both to will and to do for His good pleasure”.
Now if it is God who, at His own pleasure, puts it in human heart to
will and to do something, how can anyone claim that they do it out of their own
volition? Isn’t it rather obvious that
whatever human beings do it all comes from God?
What about the example in Deuteronomy, have theologians placed a veil
over people’s eyes with this one too?
Let’s see.
Deu 30:15 "See, I have set before
you today life and good, death and evil,
Deu 30:16 in that I command you
today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His
commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply;
and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth
as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your
descendants may live;
Deu 30:20 that you may love the
LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for
He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in
the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to
give them."
Again, can you see the miraculous metamorphosis taking place when we
look at the whole passage rather than just part of it, and do a little
independent thinking? When God set
before His people life and death, He did not give them a choice between one or
the other, He commanded them to
choose life. Now I suggest to you that a
command is not a choice.
Think of a parent who places an apple and a pear in front of his child,
then commands him to choose the apple. If the child stretches out his arm to
take the pear he gets a smack on his hand.
The father repeats the exercise as many times as it takes for the child
to learn the lesson and always take the apple.
Now is that a choice? This is
exactly what our heavenly Father does with us, His children. He places life and death before us, and then
commands us to choose life. Every time
we choose death by sinning, He chastens us, and then gives us a new chance. Notice:
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,
Heb 12:2
looking unto Jesus, 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 REBUKED BY HIM;
Heb 12:6
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 a father does not chasten?
Heb 12:8
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.
God places life and death before His children, then chastens and trains
them until they learn their lesson. Is
it not clear then that when God commands people to follow a certain course of
action, they have little freedom but to obey?
Deuteronomy is another example of a Scripture that has been used for the
wrong purpose. Like Philippians, rather than proving free will, it proves
predestination. Now what about the other
examples? Again, let us have a look at
them in their context.
Jer 5:1 "Run to and fro
through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; And seek in her open places
If you can find a man, If there is anyone who executes judgment, Who
seeks the truth, And I will pardon her.
Jer 5:2 Though they say, 'As
the LORD lives,' Surely they swear falsely."
Jer 5:3 O LORD, are not
Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, But they have not grieved; You
have consumed them, But they have refused to receive correction. They have made
their faces harder than rock; They have refused to return.
Jer 5:4 Therefore I said,
"Surely these are poor. They are foolish; For they do not know the
way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.
Jer 5:11 For the house of Israel
and the house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with Me," says the
LORD.
Jer 5:12 They have lied about the
LORD, And said, "It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, Nor
shall we see sword or famine.
Jer 5:13 And the prophets become
wind, For the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them."
Jer 5:14 Therefore thus says the
LORD God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My
words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.
Jer 5:15 Behold, I will bring a nation
against you from afar, O house of Israel," says the LORD. "It is
a mighty nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do
not know, Nor can you understand what they say.
Jer 5:16 Their quiver is
like an open tomb; They are all mighty men.
Jer 5:17 And they shall eat up
your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat.
They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and
your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust,
with the sword.
Jer 5:18 "Nevertheless in
those days," says the LORD, "I will not make a complete end of you.
Jer 5:19 And it will be when you
say, 'Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?' then you
shall answer them, 'Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in
your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.'
Now notice what happens if we add the next four verses to this passage:
Jer 5:20 "Declare this in the
house of Jacob And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
Jer 5:21 'Hear this now, O foolish
people, Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not, And who have ears and
hear not:
Jer 5:22 Do you not fear Me?' says
the LORD. 'Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the
bound of the sea, By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And
though its waves toss to and fro, Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar,
yet they cannot pass over it.
Jer 5:23 But this people has a
defiant and rebellious heart; They have revolted and departed.
Jer 5:24 They do not say in their
heart, "Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former
and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the
harvest."
If “this people has a defiant and rebellious heart”, who made them that
way if not God? Remember: “The king's
heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; he turns it
wherever He wishes.” (Prov. 21:1), and, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not
in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jer.
10:23). But also: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and
it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try
the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit
of his doings.” (Jer. 17:9-10). The
next example tells us very clearly who determines what kind of heart is in
human beings and how that can be changed.
We will not quote again Ezekiel 36:17-23 but will go straight to verses
24 to 36 of this chapter.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you from
among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own
land.
Eze 36:25 Then I will sprinkle
clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
filthiness and from all your idols.
Eze 36:26 I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do
them.
Eze 36:28 Then you shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be
your God.
Eze 36:29 I will deliver you from
all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and
multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.
Eze 36:30 And I will multiply the
fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never
again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.
Eze 36:31 Then you will remember
your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe
yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations.
Eze 36:32 Not for your sake do I
do this," says the Lord GOD, "let it be known to you. Be
ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!"
Eze 36:33 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
"On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also
enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt.
Eze 36:34 The desolate land shall
be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by.
Eze 36:35 So they will say, 'This
land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted,
desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.'
Eze 36:36 Then the nations which
are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined
places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it,
and I will do it."
As long as the people had a heart of “stone” they continued to go after
other gods, but when God put “a new
heart and a new spirit” in them, they
became His people and they no longer departed from His ways. The message could not be clearer: God allows
human beings to stumble and see the limitations of their ways until they turn
to Him with humility in prayer and worship and admit that apart from Him they
can neither survive nor save themselves.
Christians can take comfort from the fact that there is no conflict
between the latest scientific discoveries and the Bible. The conflict is only between science and
those who have been preaching a false doctrine and a false gospel. They have chosen the easy way out of a
difficult situation. In spite of all the
evidence to the contrary, they have abandoned predestination in favor of free
will because this absolved them of any further need to explain divine
justice. It became very easy for them to
place all the blame on human beings and make them morally responsible for all
the evil in the world. Then they sat on their laurels until science came along
and exposed their deception.
The problem therefore is not in finding an answer to the question of
free will versus predestination - science and the Bible are in agreement that
predestination is a fact - but in explaining the notion of divine justice in
view of the fact that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3-4), and that He “shows no partiality” with
human beings (Acts 10:34), when we know that some people have been predestined
to be saved and others to be damned.
Since human beings have not been able to come up with this explanation,
our only choice is to go before the throne of God and seek the answer directly
from Him. This is what we intend to do
now.
HEAVENLY SUPPER
“It is doubtless not profitable
for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago
– whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know,
God knows – such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man – whether in the body
or out of the body I do not know, God knows – how he was caught up into Paradise
and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2
Cor. 12:1-4).
The occasion: a meeting of the Imperial Executive. The location: God’s Imperial Palace. The place: the Banquet Hall. Around a horseshoe shaped table, the guests
are seated on the outside and the attendants are serving them from the
inside.
At the head of the table, shining like the sun, God Almighty is flanked
on the right by Jesus Christ and on the left by the Holy Spirit. The guests, shining like stars, include Abel,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, Job, other
patriarchs and prophets, John the Baptist, the Apostles, other saints.
The attendants, impeccably dressed and moving graciously, are serving
exquisite, mouth-watering delicacies. When I asked one of them why it looked
like a Chinese banquet, he said that it just happened to be the turn of the
Chinese to provide the food and the Japanese the drinks. Last time it was
Italian food and German drinks. Next time it will be Indian food and Australian
drinks. Each nation has a chance to show
its culinary expertise and delicacies.
When the banquet is over, he added, you will sit down with us and enjoy
some of these delicacies too.
The meal was conducted in a cordial atmosphere, with toasts being
offered by various speakers.
Wherever one looked, the eye was dazzled by architectural splendor never
seen by human eye.
A round ceiling, decorated with exquisite paintings, was resting on
ornamental double columns which formed private alcoves between them. In one of these alcoves, a chamber orchestra
filled the air with soft soothing melodies.
From another alcove, I watched and took note of the proceedings.
In the middle of the ceiling, a glass cupola revealed a deep blue sky and
soaring colorful birds.
The room, located on the second floor, offered a beautiful panorama of
colors from landscaped beds of flowers and tropical plants. A few hundred
meters away, white sandy beaches and a sea of crystal clear water stretched
almost as far as the eye could see. In
the far background, however, one could faintly see the outlines of snow capped
mountain picks. From the Palace, a river of living water made its way towards
the sea just as the Bible explains.
Rev 22:1
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was
the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit
every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
On the beach, people were sunbathing, surfing and frolicking in the
water. A group of children were playing
with fish which instead of running away seemed to enjoy their company. Some children were performing balancing acts
on the back of whales and dolphins.
Near the Palace, in an open field, deer, gazelles and lions were grazing
peacefully together just as the Scriptures say the Kingdom of Heaven will be
like.
Isa 11:6
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie
down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
Isa 11:7
The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Isa 11:8
The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child
shall put his hand in the viper's den.
Isa 11:9
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.
A little dog and a couple of deer kids were playing a catch-me
game. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
animals, people’s pets, were given a place in the Kingdom of Heaven?
I remembered a discussion between a lady and her priest regarding the
fate of animals. Her little dog, which
she loved, died in an accident. She
asked her priest whether she will ever see it again. No, he said, “because animals have no souls
and cannot go to heaven. They are here
for our use, and when they die they are finished.”
She became very upset and started crying. Her friend, who was sitting nearby, tried to
console her: “Most certainly animals go to heaven.”
“How would you know, said the priest?”
“Because without pets heaven would not be heaven!”
He walked away pondering upon the woman’s answer.
Another priest told me once that when he was a seminarian it was only in
the third year that he was introduced to the Bible. Most of their time was taken by learning the
church’s doctrines and how to administer the parish. This explains why priests
of mainstream religions are so weak in the Scriptures.
So, what is the truth, has God created the enormous variety of life
forms in the animal world for our enjoyment in this temporary world only, and
will He deny us such pleasures in His eternal Kingdom? Is it unreasonable to think that God will
rejoice in making His children happy by reuniting them with their pests from
this life? After all, did not Jesus Christ say that with God all things are
possible? (Matt 19:26). But what about the soul, if animals have no soul how
could they be resurrected for the Kingdom of God?
The answer is not difficult to find if people leave out their
preconceived ideas and accept the Bible to its face value. When God created the world and breathed life
into His creatures, He used the same word 'nefesh', meaning soul, for both animals and humans. This is what the New Catholic Encyclopedia says:
“In its most ordinary present day usage, the term soul (Lat. anima),
when used alone, refers to the human soul; to say soul is to mean human soul.
If one intends to speak about other sorts of soul, he uses expressed
qualifiers; e.g., he says plant soul, or animal soul. There is nonetheless a use of the term soul that means simply a
principle of life, or a source of life activities, at least that of
nourishing. According to this usage,
soul designates the mark of a living thing, or what separates the living from
nonliving.” (New Cat. Enc., 1967, Vol. 13, p.447).
So, use of the term soul simply means a principle of life for both
humans and animals.
And here is what the Encyclopaedia Judaica says:
“The personality was considered as a whole in the biblical period. Thus
the soul was not sharply distinguished from the body. In biblical Hebrew the words neshamah and ruah both meant
“breath” and nefesh
refers to the person or even the body (cf. Num. 6:6). (Enc. Jud. 1971, Vol. 15, p.172).
If the same term refers to both person and body, it can refer as much to
humans as to animals.
Now compare this with Wilson’s Old
Testament Word Studies:
“The animal life, or that principle by which every animal, according to its
kind, lives; hence life, vital principle, animal spirit, which is often
translated soul, or spirit . . . The rational soul, mind, animus, as the seat of the feelings, affections, emotions of
various kinds.”
If soul is the seat of feelings and affections, then clearly animals
have soul. Any observant pet owner would
tell you that animals have feelings and affections, and show signs of pleasure,
anger, curiosity and intelligence. This
is confirmed by Vine’s Expanded
Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
“Soul Psuche
denotes the breath, the breath of life, then the soul, in its various
meanings: (a) the natural life of the
body, Matt. 2:20; Luke 12:22; Acts 20:10. . . Lev. 17:11 . . . (h) persons, individuals, Acts 2:41, 43;
Rom. 2:9; of animals, Lev. 24:18, lit., “soul for soul”. . . (j) an animate creature, human or other, I
Cor. 15:45; Rev. 16:3, . . . The
language of Hebrew 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing
between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their
activities.”
Here we have a very important observation, and admission that people
have not been able to distinguish between soul and spirit; but more on this
later. First let us look at what
Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, recorded in the Bible about
humans and animals:
Ecc 3:18 I said in my heart,
"Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they
may see that they themselves are like animals."
Ecc 3:19 For what happens to the
sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so
dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over
animals, for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go to one place: all
are from the dust, and all return to dust.
Solomon saw no difference between men and animals - they both go in the
same place. So then, if people go to
heaven is it unreasonable to expect that animals could go to heaven too, or at
least people's pets? The fact is that
as in so many other points, theologians have misunderstood the role of the soul
too. They have confused 'soul' with
'spirit' and 'Holy Spirit'.
All living things, human and animal, have soul, but not all have a
spirit. The Bible speaks of the spirit in man as distinct from his soul:
Job 32:8
But there is a spirit in
man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD against
Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation
of the earth, and forms the spirit of
man within him:
Zec 12:10 "And I will pour on
the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me
whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his
only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
Zec 13:2 "It shall be in that
day," says the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off the names
of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also
cause the prophets and the unclean
spirit to depart from the land.
Notice how idolatry is linked with “unclean spirits” and the Holy Spirit
with the “Spirit of grace and supplication”. Human beings are under the
influence of one or the other at all times.
Here is further proof:
Num 14:24
But My servant Caleb, because he
has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into
the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
1Sa 16:14
But the Spirit of the LORD departed
from Saul, and a distressing spirit
from the LORD troubled him.
Job 15:11 Are
the consolations of God too small for you, And the word spoken gently
with you?
Job 15:12
Why does your heart carry you away, And what do your eyes wink at,
Job 15:13
That you turn your spirit against
God, And let such words go out of your mouth?
Job 15:14
"What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is
born of a woman, that he could be righteous?
Job 15:15
If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure
in His sight,
Job 15:16
How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks
iniquity like water!
From these Scriptures we can draw the following conclusions:
1. In their natural state, there
is no difference between humans and animals - they all have a soul which keeps
them alive.
2. Before they repent and are
'born again', human beings are also under the influence of spirits. These could be benign or “unclean” or
disobedient. These cannot be confused with the soul, for we know that such
spirits can depart from human beings without causing their death. When the soul
departs however, so does life.
3. Of the three - soul, spirit
and Holy Spirit - only the last guaranties eternal life in the Kingdom of
God. The other two are not immortal,
though God can make them so. Ezekiel
18:4 and 18: 20, tell us that the souls that sin shall die, while Revelation
20:10, Ezekiel 28:18 and Jude 1:6-7 tell us that the Devil and his rebellious
spirits will be destroyed into a great lake of fire at the end of this world.
Human beings take on the character of the spirit by which they are
guided. Jesus Christ told His disciples
that, in their natural state, they have no chance of making it into the Kingdom
of God.
Mat 18:1
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Mat 18:2
Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,
Mat 18:3
and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and
become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Even the disciples who followed Jesus did not have a guaranteed place in
heaven in their natural state.
Luk 13:1 There were present at
that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And Jesus answered and
said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than
all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, no; but
unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen on whom
the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse
sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, no; but
unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
The following passage makes it even clearer that human beings are
possessed by hostile spirits that are not conducive to eternal life before
conversion:
Luk 9:51 Now it came to pass, when
the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face
to go to Jerusalem,
Luk 9:52 and sent messengers
before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to
prepare for Him.
Luk 9:53 But they did not receive
Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when His disciples
James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah
did?"
Luk 9:55 But He turned and rebuked
them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
Luk 9:56 For the Son of Man did
not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to
another village.
This is why human beings need the presence of the Holy Spirit to be able
to come out of the disastrous condition in which they had fallen as the result
of sin. Animals do not sin. Nor could they take a conscious decision to
repent and be baptized in order to receive the Holy Spirit. They only do what God has put it in their
hearts to do, unlike human beings who often do what they ought not to.
So while all living things need a soul to be alive, human beings, made
of carnal nature, come under the influence of disobedient or unclean spirits
from the moment they are born. Here is
proof from both the Old and the New Testaments.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
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 8:1 There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do
not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account
of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who
do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For
those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit.
Rom 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace.
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.
Rom 8:9
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His.
Rom 8:10
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom 8:12
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh.
Rom 8:13
For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live.
Rom 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Rom 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
Rom 8:16
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of
God,
Rom 8:17
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if
indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Rom 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the
revealing of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because
of Him who subjected it in hope;
Rom 8:21
because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now.
Rom 8:23
Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the
adoption, the redemption of our body.
Jesus Christ was a Man born of carnal nature like you and me, but He had
the seed of the Holy Spirit in Him from conception, and that gave Him the power
to keep under control the pulls of carnal nature and withstand Satan's
temptations.
As humans grow and become conscious of their condition, and become aware
of the possibility of eternal life in a better world, they must ask God to
grant them the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).
The act of repentance, conversion, baptism and laying on of hands by
people who possess the Holy Spirit results in them receiving the Holy Spirit
too. From then on they begin to develop
a new character, one which eventually allows them to become “free moral agents”
in the Kingdom of God, not in this world.
In this world no one is a free moral agent. People are either guided by their natural
rebellious spirit, or by God’s Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is what makes Christianity different
from other religions. True Christianity,
that is. Other religions have no such
concepts. That is why the Bible says
that there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved:
Act 4:8
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of
the people and elders of Israel:
Act 4:9 If
we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what
means he has been made well,
Act 4:10 let
it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by
Him this man stands here before you whole.
Act 4:11
This is the 'STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED BY YOU BUILDERS, WHICH HAS BECOME
THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.'
Act 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Animals do not need to go through trials in order to develop a new character. They are led by instinct, not by spirits, and
God can change that, without the need for repentance, baptism and laying on of
hands. The Scriptures make it clear that
in the new world, where there will no longer be disobedient spirits, human beings
would have developed a new character, and animals will be given a new
instinct.
Isa 65:17
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former
shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Isa 65:18
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create
Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.
Isa 65:19
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping
shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.
Isa 65:20
"No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor
an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred
years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
Isa 65:21
They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant
vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 65:22
They shall not build and another inhabit; They shall not plant and
another eat; For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My
people, And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23
They shall not labor in vain, Nor bring forth children for trouble; For
they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, And their
offspring with them.
Isa 65:24
"It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall
feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be
the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain," Says the LORD.
Many animals and pets have suffered grievously at the hands of cruel
people. They too demand their justice.
The Kingdom of God cannot be established until all injustices and
injuries done to any of God’s creatures have been atoned for.
Jesus Christ said “for every idle word men may speak, they will give
account of it in the day of judgment.” (Matt 12:36). If men will give account for every idle
word, how much more will they give account for every evil thing that they have
done? Therefore people ought to be
careful how they treat their animals, for in the Day of Judgment they will
certainly give account of their actions.
As I was meditating on these matters in my hiding place in the alcove,
it occurred to me that being so close to the Father and the whole Heavenly
Executive I could go and discuss these things with Them. That is, if I gathered
enough courage to go and present myself, in my filthy condition, before
them. But when I turned around and
looked at the Father, He was looking at me with a benign smile as if to
say: “Son who do you think has put these
thoughts into your head? What you thought is perfectly all right. In My Kingdom there is certainly enough room
for My children’s pets too.”
At that time one of the attendants approached the Father and said: “Father, have you seen what the children have
been doing lately?”
“What son?”
“Can You come to the window to see?”
As the meal was finished and it was time to clean the tables, the Father
said: “All right, let us go to the window and see”.
In an opening, on the side of the palace, a group of children had
gathered an array of animals and were performing a show that would have put to
shame any earthly circus. Two of them
were racing a horse and a giraffe, apparently in an attempt to find out which
run the fastest. It was a dead heat,
though I think the giraffe had just stuck its neck in front. But the animals
did not appear to over extend themselves. I think they were more concerned not
to bounce the children off their back than to set new records.
Other children were playing a balancing act on a beam high up between
two tall trees. Below them, a group of alpacas were forming a soft landing
bed. As I looked closer to see why they
were falling down so easily, I realized that the slippery beam was not a beam
at all but a giant anaconda snake stretched out between two trees.
Other children were flying through the air like trapeze artists, being
propelled by the swinging heads of giraffes set up in a wide circle. Some of the heads did not seem to belong to
giraffes at all but to prehistoric animals like dinosaurs. Indeed, their huge and cumbersome bodies were
largely hidden by the forest, but their heads and necks were surprisingly agile
for their size.
Then one of the children noticed the distinguished audience at the
window and alerted the other children.
They all stopped playing, ran towards the window, knelt down and bowed
their heads in a sign of worship and respect.
Amazingly, the animals followed suit, knelt behind, and they too bowed
their heads.
After a few minutes, the children looked up, and the Father smiled,
clapped His hands, and said: “Well done children!” The other guests clapped too. The children stood up, waved their hands, and
took off in the direction of the lake, running, shouting and calling on their
pets to follow them. When they reached
the lake, they playfully started scrubbing and washing their pets in a
cacophony of joyful noises. On the
shore, a little piglet was crying his heart out trying to say something, but no
one seemed to notice. Then a little girl saw him, came near and asked, “What’s
the matter, babe?”
“I can’t swim, I can’t swim!”
“C’mon dear, I will teach you how to swim”.
“Promise you won’t let me drown?”
“You promise to play with me afterwards?”
“I will, I will,” said the piglet.
“Then I promise not to let you drawn.”
So they went into the water and disappeared among the other children and
animals.
By this time, the guests had returned to their places and were getting
ready for the business section of the meeting.
Much as I would have liked to continue watching the children and their
pets at play, I had to settle down in my corner and take notes of the
proceedings. So here they are, an ‘eyewitness account’ of heavenly proceedings.
HITLER’S JUDGMENT
The Father began by calling everyone to attention. He made a few
comments about the wonderful meal, the great service; the “unexpected” show
presented by the children, and then said, “Let us begin by reviewing the
proceedings in the Judgment Hall”.
Looking at Apostle Peter, He said,
“Last time we decided that you, being the Apostle to the ‘circumcised’,
should judge Hitler, the man who caused the holocaust among your people, while
Paul, the Apostle to the ‘uncircumcised’ should judge Stalin, the man who
decimated the Christians. So how has it
been going?”
“Wonderfully, Father. At times it
was almost comical. But I think we
should see the proceedings on the screen.”
A virtual reality film, projected widely on a wall, showed Hitler raging
and extolling the achievements of his great empire, one which "he had
built with his own hands, but which was betrayed and dismantled by an inferior
race, the rotten Jews, and sold to the filthy Bolsheviks.”
“It wasn’t all that great if it was so easily dismantled and sold by a
handful of people, was it? And how did
this ‘inferior race’ do this to your empire" asked Peter.
“They did it through an international conspiracy organized by the Jewish
bankers and media moguls”.
“Those Jewish bankers of whom you said you would wipe off the face of
the earth if they started another war against your nation?”
“Well, I said that earlier in my reign, but I did not really think they would
actually do it to us again as they did in the First World War.”
“And why did they do these things to you?”
“Because we stood in the way of their empire.”
“What empire?”
"Don't you know it?"
"No, I don't, but I am sure you will enlighten me."
“The Bolshevik empire. What do
you think that was all about?”
“What?”
“It was a Jewish empire in disguise.
The idea was Jewish, the founders were Jewish, the first government was
dominated by the Jews, the security apparatus was in Jewish hands, and the
finances came from the Jews.”
“Given the problems they had among the Gentiles, could you blame them
for wanting to establish a communist empire in which brotherhood and
co-operation was emphasized and religion and nationalism were abolished?”
“Brotherhood and co-operation?
They treated their subjects, their supposed brothers, worse than we
treated our slaves.”
“Could that be possible? What was
the difference between their empire and yours?”
“We were national socialists, and they were internationalists. They
emphasized the supposed equality of all nations while we emphasized the
superiority of our nation. Those who
obeyed us did very well under our rulership.”
“Why do you say ‘supposed equality’?”
“They pretended to be equal, but in fact their subjects became slaves in
their own lands.”
“What is worse, being a slave in your own land or being burned in an
oven?”
“Ah, there you are, you fell victim to their propaganda too. We never burned healthy people. We weren’t fools; we needed them for work. We only burned the sick, the weak, the old,
the young, the gypsy, the homosexuals, the communists, and the
subversives.”
“Is that all?”
“Absolutely!”
“And the Jews?”
“That goes without saying. They
were not people, they were sub-humans.”
“What about the other ‘sub-human’ people, what would you have done with
them if you had won the war?”
“Oh, I would have built a wonderful civilization. My superior Aryan people would have ruled the
world and the other races would have gained their pleasure from serving
them. As the song goes: ‘Germany uber alles’”.
“And the Americans, what would you have done to them?”
“Well, if they had behaved and played by the rules, they would have
retained most of their country and lived in peace.”
“What rules, and what part of the
country would they have lost?”
“The rules set by me and my generals.
They would have had to stop meddling in other people’s affairs, would
have renounced any pretence of greatness, and would have accepted the size of
army and navy I would have dictated for them.
I would have been quite generous to them. They would have lived safely in their own
land and never would anyone have invaded them.
We would have been neighbors.”
“Oh, how is that?”
“Well, you see, the southern belt of their States, from Florida to
California, plus northern Mexico, Hawaii and their other overseas possessions,
would have made a wonderful colony for my generals and their families.”
“All that land for just a few generals and their families?”
“Are you kidding? My whole nation would have become a garrison of
generals. How do you think we would have been able to keep in submission those
inferior Slavic races from the Balkans to the Pacific?”
“Those races that were going to get their pleasure from serving your
Aryans?”
“Precisely!”
“And the British, what would you have done to them?”
“Oh, Britain without America
would have been nothing. But I would
have been generous to them too. I would
have allowed them to live peacefully in their island. Without their empire, of course. They would have been governed by a national
socialist government, and on their throne there would have been a friendly
monarch.”
“Which one?”
“The Duke of Windsor, of course.”
"And France?”
“France would have become part of my Greater Germany. The French Empire, like the British, would
have been incorporated into my Reich.
What a world of happiness that would have been.”
“How unfortunate that those ‘inferior races' dismantled your Reich.”
“Yeah, I knew you would understand me. That’s the most unfortunate thing
that happened in the history of the world.”
“Do you regret any of the things you have done?''
“Like what?”
“Like what you did to the Jews?’
“The Jews? Regret? Yes, I regret! I regret I did not start earlier and finish
them off.”
“Why did you hate them so much?
What have they done to you?”
“What have they done to me? It is
not what they’ve done to me; it is what they have done to the world? They
killed Christ, didn’t they?”
“But Christ forgave them, why didn’t you?”
“Forgive them? Me? What do you think I am God? I never forgive
anyone. Certainly I would never forgive
those filthy mongrels.”
“So you do not repent of anything you have done in your life, do you?”
“Repent, forgive! Why don’t you
ask me to go embrace and kiss them too?
Never! I will never give them the
pleasure of touching me, or even coming near me, even if I have to spend my
life in a concentration camp and end up in an oven as they did.”
“They must be heart-broken to hear you say that. Nevertheless, as you have spoken, so it shall
be done. You shall spend your life in a concentration camp until you are old,
then you shall end up in an oven like your prisoners. And while you are there, some of your own
doctors and fellow prisoners will perform on you the kind of medical
experiments you performed on your prisoners.
Like castrating you and cutting off limbs from you, all live and un-anaesthetized,
then giving cold showers in the dead of winter, so that you may know how your
prisoners felt. Then, as I said, when
you are old and no longer fit for anything, you will be finished off in an oven
alive, and your memory shall be wiped off from the land of the living forever. That should atone for the sins you committed
against mankind and God's creation.”
“This is how we finished the
judgment of this fiend Father”, said Apostle Peter. “We gave him the opportunity to defend
himself, yet all he did was to sink even deeper in the morass of his horrible
crimes. We found no redeeming features
in him at all. We had no choice but to
finish him off that way.”
“You did well, Peter. I don’t
think anyone would have relished the thought of meeting that creature even in
the furthest corners of the universe. Had you decided otherwise, you would have had
to do a lot of explanation to those who were his victims”, said the Father and
adjourned the meeting until next time.
STALIN’S JUDGMENT
At the next meeting, the Father asked Apostle Paul how Stalin’s judgment
went.
“Quite an event, Father." Stalin’s fury was against the Christians
just as Hitler’s was against the Jews. He filled his labor camps with the
Christians just as Hitler filled his concentration camps with the Jews. But shall we see the recording of his
judgment?”
“Of course, let us see it.”
Stalin was seen in his generalisimo attire
being led by two polite attendants to the Judgment Hall, then being offered a
seat in front of the judging panel.
Before sitting down he ordered the attendants to turn the armchair
towards the window. As he sat down, he
yawned widely and said: “Umm, I feel as
if I’ve just woken up from a long sleep.
Anyway, what are we gathered for here today for? No, don’t tell me, let me guess it. We are here to see whom we are nailing to the
wall today.
Who are our latest enemies? You
know, Beria, I think you did a marvelous job with those stubborn Ukrainian
peasants. They drove me crazy with their refusal to join the collective
farm. The idea to starve them to death
was marvelous. It looked as if
everything was natural. Well, we
couldn’t allow a bunch of peasants to stand in the way of glorious
communism. Look, let me make this
absolutely clear: the end justifies the means.
The future of the world depends on us building a perfect society here in
the Soviet Union. This is why we must
show no mercy to the ‘enemies of the people’.
Hah, ‘enemies of the people’, what a joke. But it works. It helped me get rid of my
enemies. And my enemies are your
enemies.
The point is how much is a leader like me worth it? Let’s face it, when a country invests so much
in a leader, it cannot afford to change him often as they do it in the
West. It needs to keep him in power long
enough to make that investment worthwhile.
This is why when I place someone in a position of leadership in any
satellite country, he stays there for life. Or until he crosses me, in which
case he is finished before he knows what happened to him.
Communism cannot be built without a wise and strong leadership. Millions of people in the Soviet Union and in
the satellite countries, and soon in the whole world, trust me and extol my
virtues. This is why no one can stand
in my way – all my enemies end up being crushed.
You know, it’s funny how the world condemns Hitler for his atrocities
against the Jews. I created havoc among
my enemies; I destroyed churches, I imprisoned Christians, and filled labor
camps in freezing Siberia with all who opposed me. My secret police, as you all know, is more
effective than his Gestapo. Put it this
way: who needs gas ovens when you have a place like Siberia. Ten times more people
perished in our prisons and labor camps than did in their concentration camps,
yet no one says a thing about me, while everybody condemns Hitler and his
regime. This is what I call a good
propaganda machine.
Of course, there is one other major difference between us: we won the
war and they lost it. It is the victor’s
justice, but who dares call it that way?
Naturally, the Jews have their brothers - the media barons in America
and elsewhere - to speak for them and to denounce Hitler’s crimes, whereas my
victims have no one to speak for them.
But, that’s life, it’s nobody’s fault.
It’s a pity that that fool, Trotsky, forced me to lay my hand on him and
on a few of his fellow Jews. But in the
end it worked out to their advantage.
They could claim that they were as much a victim of communism as
everyone else.
Can you imagine what would happen if the true history of communism was
ever made public? You know, I laughed
the other day when someone told me the definition of a communist historian: one
who predicts the past. Was it you,
Beria, who told me that? It must have been
you, for I cannot imagine anyone coming to me with that kind of slander at our
historians.
Of course, that is the kind of propaganda Hitler spread about us. That imbecile - he nearly gave it to us. I trusted him and the peace treaty that he
signed with us, yet he crossed me and betrayed us all. I couldn’t recover for
days from the shock of his invasion.
When he proved to be unstoppable in the first few months, and we were so
close to giving in, I nearly fell on my knees in prayer. Would you believe it, me, the atheist, who
abandoned a seminary to become a communist, and killed people for their belief
in God, praying to God for help in my hour of need? Don’t you think that’s
funny? Imagine what my enemies would do
with this kind of knowledge, but how are they ever going to know about it?
Coming to think about it, would any of you ever betray me? See I trust
you with my innermost secrets because I regard you as my friends. Well, I don’t think I need to remind you what
would happen to you if you ever crossed me?
Think of Trotski. He was a lot stronger than any of you. He had the army under him, but it amounted to
nothing, because I had the brains and the ideology. And in this country he who is faithful to the
ideology wins. Think what would have
happened if Hitler had won the war, where would you all be now? You would all be in big trouble, wouldn't
you? Or maybe you would have changed
your colors too. Would you? Would you have become traitors and changed
your allegiance from communism to National Socialism? I see, you’ve all lost your voices now.
This is getting serious; why isn't anyone saying anything? Why are you
all suddenly afraid to speak?”
Startled by the silence, Stalin turned around and faced the panel. He looked intently at the people behind it,
rubbed his eyes, and then looked again.
His face tuned red and he shouted angrily: “Who are you? I don’t
recognize any of you?”
The panel remained silent, some smiling in anticipation of what he might
do when he realized where he was.
He turned around, walked briskly to the window, pulled the veil aside,
and then remained transfixed for a few minutes.
He could not believe his eyes.
Was it a dream; was it reality, what was this?
Through heavy falling snow he could see the stooped silhouettes of human
beings laboring heavily in a Siberian labor camp. Among them, he could recognize many of his
friends and comrades in arms: Lenin, Beria, Molotov, others from his Politburo.
Stunned and in disbelief, his legs began to weaken and his face changed
from red to pale. He turned around,
faced the panel again, and said in a weakening voice: “All right, guys, who are you? Why did you deceive me? Why did you let me reveal all those state
secrets? What power do you represent and who conquered my empire and turned
things up-side down like this?”
“No one deceived you, Stalin”, answered Apostle Paul. “You never gave anyone a chance to
speak. Wasn’t this the rule in your empire?
When you spoke, no one was allowed, no one dared, to interrupt you. So we let you speak your heart out. Out of your own mouth you revealed the crimes
of which you are guilty, and the punishment you deserve.”
“I see, so this is the judgment of God, is it? I should have known. No earthly power could have overturned my
empire. I should have realized that God
had a hand in this disaster. Well, if
you represent God, and if God really exists, why did you not reveal yourselves
to us and stop us from committing all those crimes?”
“God gave everyone an equal chance.
It was a matter of trust, faith and belief. God revealed Himself to those who obeyed Him,
who loved and worshiped Him, and who endured patiently the trials that you
subjected them to. You started well, but
then changed and became a deadly enemy to God’s people. Like everyone else, you had the Bible, and a
lot of people who were willing to show you the way. But instead of listening to them, you
tortured them, killed them, and threw them in freezing prisons and
concentration camps from which few came out alive. Now it’s your turn to taste that
medicine.”
To everyone’s astonishment, Stalin fell on his knees pleading for his
life. “I am sorry; I did not know that
there would be a judgment. Forgive me, please! If I had known I would not have
done what I did.”
“But would it be fair to your victims if we forgave you? Nevertheless, since we cannot turn our backs
on people who seek forgiveness, we will do a deal with you. We will show you as much mercy and
forgiveness as you have shown to all of your victims put together. Surely, that would be enough to save you and
your comrades. Fair enough, isn’t it?”
“I suppose you
expect me to say that this fair, but I know that this won’t save us. We never showed mercy and forgiveness to
anyone.”
“To no one?
You mean to say that in all the years that you ruled that empire, you never
forgave and showed mercy to anyone?”
“Mercy? We did
not build our empire on mercy, we built it on terror! Those who showed mercy to their victims
became victims themselves. I do not know
how your empire can survive if you built it on mercy?”
“Not only
mercy, Stalin, but love, charity, truth, humility, justice, sacrifice, and
whatever other virtues there are that make life worth living. Had you tried these things, your “invincible
empire” would not have collapsed like a house of cards, or a castle built on
sand.
You didn’t
practice these things because you were evil.
You were bent on destroying people not on building them. You deserve
harsher punishment that we can give you.”
Turning to the
guards nearby, Apostle Paul said: “Take
this creature out of my sight and put him where he belongs, alongside his
beloved friends and comrades in that labor camp. Let them rot in there until their days come
to an end and then finish them off in the lake of fire. Then let their names be removed from the
Book of the Living and never be heard of again forever.”
JESUS’ “JUDGMENT”
At the next meeting, Apostle John, who was sitting near Jesus Christ,
opened a little magazine and said: “Lord, have you seen what the ‘free moral
agents’ want to do to you?”
“What, John?”
“They want to judge You again.”
“Do they? And why, pray tell, would they want to do that to Me?”
“Because You let their little sister die, because You did not stop the
massacres in places like Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda, because You allowed famine
and disease in the world and, strangely enough, because you gave them the
freedom to choose between good and evil.”
“Really? And who are those ‘free
moral agents’?”
“The Seventh Day Adventists.”
“The Seventh Day Adventists? Let
Me see!”
“Lord, I ... don’t ... think it
is a good idea to read this.”
“Why not?”
“You won’t like it. They say nastier things than these.”
“Like what?”
“They call Your work a ''messy thing'', they doubt Your wisdom, they
question Your ways, they want to know why You created Satan, why You did not
destroy Adam and Eve, why was it important for humans to choose between good
and evil, etc.”
“Let Me see that magazine” said Jesus angrily as He took it from John’s
hands. Then He read this article:
“No harps for me” . . . “I have so many questions
to ask of Jesus. Why did my older sister
have to die when she was born? Why does
anybody have to die? I'm angry about
death and I want some answers. I'm
looking forward to the time when Jesus can tell me why. And what about events like the killings in
Bosnia and Somalia and Rwanda, and what of famine and AIDS? Why is there pain and suffering? I believe that Jesus is all-powerful. So if He's all-powerful why can't He - won't
He - stop things like Rwanda from happening?
Sure there's a war going on between good and evil. But sometimes it seems like evil is winning.
I get really frustrated because I know Jesus could stop it all right now
if He wanted to. Which brings me to the
main reason why the second coming is important to me. For most of my life I’d thought that when
Jesus comes back all the people who ever lived would be judged. I thought that was the reason for the second
coming. But it's almost the opposite.
I’ve gradually come to the realization that what is really going to happen is
we're going to judge Jesus. We’re going
to look at Him and ask Him those questions.
Why did He even make Satan? Why
did He let sin happen in the first place?
Was His way of handling the whole messy business the best way? Why didn't He just wipe Adam and Eve
out? Was it really important that human
beings be free to choose between good and evil? Look at the massive suffering
that’s happened in this world because we were given free choice. I'm really looking forward to the second
coming of Jesus. I don't expect it to be
easy. After all, it's the end of the
world. But I will finally get to be with Jesus.
I can ask Him all those questions.
I can thank Him for dying for me.
But best of all, I'll be able to relax in His closeness. Jesus is going to be there. And I'm going to be there with Him.” (Trudy
Rankin, “No Harps for Me”, Signs of the
Times, Vol. 110, No 6, p.43).
“So, this is what those who call themselves My ministers are writing in
their publication. And they call it Signs of the Times”. A more appropriate name would be, Signs of
the Adventist Church.”
“What signs would these be, Lord?”
“Blasphemy, ignorance, Satanism.
They plant doubt in people’s hearts about God’s ways and wisdom just as
Satan planted doubt in Adam and Eve’s hearts about God’s intentions in the Garden
of Eden. And are they so ignorant about
the purpose of human life that they don’t know why God created Satan? Don't they know that human beings have to
undergo certain trials in order to qualify for eternal life in a better
world? Who can provide those trials if
not Satan?
Like those academic theologians, they consider this world to be a
finished product and an end in itself.
They do not know that this is a temporary world designed to prepare
people for eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Nor do they know the power of God, how He can resurrect people and
reward or punish them in accordance with the kind of life they lived. Have they forgotten that before that little
girl became their sister she belonged to God and that He can do what He wants
with His creation? As for the suffering
in the world, has anyone suffered more than I have? Yet did I question God’s ways or complain
that He gave Me over to be crucified by wicked people? And for what, for My sins? No, for theirs, yet they want to judge Me
again. What did I say in My moment of
grief: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless
not My will, but Yours, be done.’’ (Luke 22:42). And before I gave up My soul, I prayed to
the Father and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
do.'' (Luke 23:34). Now, instead of
being grateful for having had their sins forgiven, and the threat of death
removed from them, they question God’s wisdom, and want to judge me again.
Well, we shall see who will judge whom.
They think that they are smart by not addressing their questions to God
but to Me, thinking perhaps that they are safe from committing blasphemy. No doubt they remember these words of Mine:
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.
When I was in the world I was the Son of Man. I showed human beings what they could become
if they followed Me. At that time, when
they did not know who I was, they were forgiven for speaking against Me, for
thinking that I was just another person.
But now it is different. They
know, or should know, that after I was resurrected I became One with My
Father. Why do you think I commanded
you not to tell anyone who I was when We came down from the mountain? Remember?
Mat 17:9
Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying,
"Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the
dead."
It was to save people from committing blasphemy. But after I was perfected and raised to
heaven, it became a common knowledge that I was more than the Son of Man, I was
the Son of God, I was God. Therefore
when they speak against Me now, they offend the Father and the Holy
Spirit. And why do they do it? Because they neither know, nor believe the
Scriptures. Their ignorance will cause
them to lose their salvation.
“Which Scriptures are You referring to, Lord?"
“These:
Rom 9:20
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing
formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like
this?"
Rom 9:21
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make
one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
And these:
Ecc 6:3 If a man begets a hundred children
and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is
not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a
stillborn child is better than he—
Ecc 6:4 for it comes in vanity and
departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Ecc 6:5 Though it has not seen the
sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man,
Ecc 6:6 even if he lives a thousand
years twice—but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?
And these:
Eze 37:3 And He said to me,
"Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord GOD,
You know."
Eze 37:4 Again He said to me,
"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of
the LORD!
Eze 37:5 Thus says the Lord GOD to
these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall
live.
Eze 37:6 I will put sinews on you
and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you
shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD." ' "
Eze 37:7 So I prophesied as I was
commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and
the bones came together, bone to bone.
Eze 37:8 Indeed, as I looked, the
sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there
was no breath in them.
Eze 37:9 Also He said to me,
"Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath,
'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
on these slain, that they may live." ' "
Eze 37:10 So I prophesied as He
commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their
feet, an exceedingly great army.
Eze 37:11 Then He said to me,
"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say,
'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'
Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy and
say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the
land of Israel.
Eze 37:13 Then you shall know that
I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought
you up from your graves.
Eze 37:14 I will put My Spirit in you,
and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know
that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the
LORD.'’
Don’t these Scriptures and many more, make it clear that this life is
not the end of it all? As I said, they
don’t know that this life is but a preparation for something better, that God
will resurrect young and old alike and judge them. The people who have died young are in a
better position than those who have grown old and remained ignorant.
These people have not only wasted their life, but also put it to an evil
use. Their writings raise doubt in
people’s hearts about God’s power, ways and wisdom. Doubt, being the opposite of faith, is the
enemy of Christianity, and the death of humanity. What do the Scriptures say about those who
do not believe?
Joh 10:24 Then the Jews surrounded
Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the
Christ, tell us plainly."
Joh 10:25 Jesus answered them,
"I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's
name, they bear witness of Me.
Joh 10:26 But you do not believe,
because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me.
Joh 10:28 And I give them eternal
life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My
hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, who has given
them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them
out of My Father's hand.
Joh 10:30 I and My Father
are one."
Joh 10:31 Then the Jews took up
stones again to stone Him.
Joh 10:32 Jesus answered them,
"Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works
do you stone Me?"
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered Him,
saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and
because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I SAID, "YOU ARE GODS" '?
Joh 10:35 If He called them gods,
to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 do you say of Him whom
the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I
said, 'I am the Son of God'?
Joh 10:37 If I do not do the works
of My Father, do not believe Me;
Joh 10:38 but if I do, though you
do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the
Father is in Me, and I in Him."
Joh 10:39 Therefore they sought
again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
Joh 10:40 And He went away again
beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He
stayed.
Joh 10:41 Then many came to Him
and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke
about this Man were true."
Joh 10:42 And many believed in Him
there.
These people do not believe in Me, for if they did they would believe
the Scriptures and would know this:
Isa 65:17
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former
shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Isa 65:18
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create
Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.
Isa 65:19
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping
shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.
Isa 65:20
"No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor
an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred
years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
Isa 65:21
They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant
vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 65:22
They shall not build and another inhabit; They shall not plant and
another eat; For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My
people, And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23
They shall not labor in vain, Nor bring forth children for trouble; For
they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, And their
offspring with them.
Isa 65:24
"It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Isa 65:25
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like
the ox, And dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain," Says the LORD.
Had these people understood My parables of the talents (Matt. 25), they
would have known that ignorance is not the way to salvation. Those who grow in
knowledge and spiritual understanding receive ample reward, but those who make
no profit will lose even what they have.
They are asking about the events in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the pain,
suffering and evil in the world, and say that, “sometimes it seems like evil is
winning.” Have I not told them that My
Kingdom is not of this world, that these things will happen before I return to
take those who believe in Me to where I am? (Matt. 24; John 16, 17).
Why do they want Me to get involved in a world that is not Mine, but
Satan’s? What did Satan say when he
tempted Me?
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.' "
This world was created the way it is and was given over to Satan so that
people may aspire for a better world.
Those who have set their heart on this world cannot enter the Kingdom of
God. Isn't this what the Scriptures
say?
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."
Jas 5:10
My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an
example of suffering and patience.
Jas 5:11
Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the
perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord
is very compassionate and merciful.
1Pe 2:19
For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one
endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20
For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults,
you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it
patiently, this is commendable before God.
1Pe 2:21
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
1Pe 2:22
"WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH";
1Pe 2:23
who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He
did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
1Pe 2:24
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having
died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
1Pe 2:25
For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Luk 12:29 "And do not seek
what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.
Luk 12:30 For all these things the
nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these
things.
Luk 12:31 But seek the kingdom of
God, and all these things shall be added to you.
Luk 12:32 "Do not fear,
little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luk 12:33 Sell what you have and
give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in
the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
Luk 12:34 For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also.
These people’s heart is set on this world, therefore this is what they
shall have. And to those who want to
judge Me again, and question My ways and My wisdom, this is My answer:
Heb 6:4
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Heb 6:6 if
they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for
themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
ADAM AND EVE’S SIN REVEALED
Lord, what about Adam and Eve? There seems to be a lot of confusion in
people’s minds about their sin. You saw
what the Seventh Day Adventists said:”
“Why did He even make Satan? Why
did He let sin happen in the first place?
Was His way of handling the whole messy business the best way? Why didn't He just wipe Adam and Eve
out? Was it really important that human
beings be free to choose between good and evil? Look at the massive suffering
that’s happened in this world because we were given free choice.”
“You know that certain sections of the Bible are written in symbolic
language and require interpretation”, said Jesus Christ. “Such is the case with
the book of Genesis. The tree of life is
symbolic, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is symbolic, the snake is
symbolic, and so on. But all these
things could be understood in light of ulterior developments and
revelations.
The idea that the forbidden tree was an apple is a late invention and it
is not true. There was no literal tree of life or tree of knowledge of good and
evil. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people
could just eat of a fruit and attain eternal life? I went into the world to show them that
eternal life can be achieved only through the death of the old self and the
rebirth of a new person. That way, death
no longer has any power over a person.
Joh 12:24 Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain.
Joh 12:25 He who loves his life
will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal
life.
Joh 12:26 If anyone serves Me, let
him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves
Me, him My Father will honor.
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."
“True Lord, but what these people are saying is that if Adam and Eve had
not sinned, if they had not been given the freedom to choose between life and
death, there would have been no need for You to come into the world and die,
nor for anyone else to die.”
"Yes, I know that this is what they are saying, but they say so
because they do not know the Scriptures.
Does not the Bible tell them that I was predestined to die for the sins
of the world before the world was created?'
Joh 17:5 And now, O Father,
glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Joh 17:24 "Father, I desire
that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold
My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
Eph 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ,
Eph 1:4
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
Eph 1:5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph 1:6 to
the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the
Beloved.
Eph 1:11
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according
to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His
will,
Eph 1:12
that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His
glory.
Heb 4:3
For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "SO I
SWORE IN MY WRATH, 'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,' " although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world.
1Pe 1:17
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according
to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here
in fear;
1Pe 1:18
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like
silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from
your fathers,
1Pe 1:19
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot.
1Pe 1:20
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you
1Pe 1:21
who through Him believe in God, who raised Him
from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1Pe 1:22
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure
heart,
1Pe 1:23
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
So then, if the works of God were finished from the foundation of the
world and I had been foreordained to die for the sins of the world before the
world was, if God has chosen His people before the foundation of the world and
has determined that they must be born again in order to receive the Holy Spirit
and made ready for eternal life, how can anyone say that things could have been
different if Adam and Eve had not sinned?
Is it not obvious that I died for their sins too, and that they were
expected to sin?
How did God know that they were going to sin? He knew it from the fact that they did not
have the Holy Spirit. They had the
spirit of the world, a spirit which is in bondage to Satan and not obedient to
God. Notice:
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.
Rom 8:9
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His.
Rom 8:10
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom 8:12
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh.
Rom 8:13
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Rom 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Rom 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
“The problem with Adam and Eve was not that they sinned, but that having
done so they did not face up to their responsibility. In other words, they did not repent of it,
but blamed someone else for it.
Being the first humans they knew that they had a greater responsibility
than the people that would follow them.
When they sinned, they did not just disobey and dishonor a human being
but their Creator God. By preferring
Satan’s advise to that of their heavenly Father, they elevated Satan to
equality with Him. That is why their sin
can not be forgiven.”
“Lord, we understand this now, but what about the trees? If they were
not literal trees, what were they?”
“Aha, you must tell Me this.”
They looked at each other and shook their heads as a sign that they had
no idea.
“All right boys let us get back to the Bible. What is sin?" said Jesus as He broke the
silence.
“The breaking of the law”, answered Apostle Paul.
"Right, Paul! Now which law did they break? Let us discuss every
commandment.
‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’ (Ex. 20:2-3). Could they have broken this
commandment?”
“They did accept Satan before God, but the context of their rebellion
indicates that this was not their sin.”
“Correct! What about the second commandment: ‘You shall
not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to
the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to
thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20:4-6).
“This was not their sin either.
They had no reason to make any idols, and probably did not know how to
make them anyway. ”
“Right again. What about the
third commandment: ‘You shall not take
the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless
who takes His name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7).
“No, this wasn’t their sin either” answered Apostle Paul.
“And the fourth commandment?
‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ (Ex. 20:8).
“Clearly, this was not their sin either”, answered Apostle Thomas.
“Right, Thomas! So then, the first
four commandments, which regulate man's relationship with God, were not the
cause of Adam and Eve’s fall. Therefore their sin must have come from breaking
one of the commandments which regulate human relationships, and since there
were no other human beings on earth it must have had something to do with the
relationship between them. So what could
they have done that constituted such a grievous sin? Which commandment did they break?”
“None of them seem to have been broken, Lord,” said Apostle Thomas
again.
“Can you explain, Thomas?”
“Well, the fifth commandment says:
‘Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the
land which the LORD your God is giving you.’ (Ex. 20:12). They had no human parents, therefore this
commandment is ruled out.
The sixth commandment: ‘You shall
not murder’ (Ex. 20:13), could not have been broken because they had no one to
murder.
The seventh commandment: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ (Ex. 20:14),
could not have been broken because there was no one to commit adultery
with. The eighth commandment against
stealing (Ex. 20:15), the ninth against bearing false witness (Ex. 20:16), and
the tenth against coveting the things that belong to one's neighbor (Ex.
20:17), could not have been broken for exactly the same reasons - there was no
one against whom they could have done these things.''
“So they did not sin then?'' said Jesus.
“No, Lord, they did sin, but we cannot tell how?”
“Tell Me Thomas, and also the rest of you, were these the only
commandments God gave humanity? What
about the laws regarding sexual conduct in the book of Leviticus and
elsewhere? What did Adam and Eve do
immediately after they sinned?”
“They hid themselves from God, they covered their sex organs, and became
shameful.”
“Right! Now why do you think they
did that Thomas?”
“Perhaps because their sin was of a sexual nature?”
“Precisely! Now what could two
human beings - a husband and wife, in this case - do that would constitute
sin?”
“Oh, no. I can’t believe it
... they didn’t!”
“They didn’t what, Thomas," asked Apostle Peter.
“Can’t you see it, Peter?”
“See what?”
Jesus and the Father smiled as the two Apostles engaged in a little
fracas.
“Can’t you see why they covered their sex organs and became shameful?
They committed sodomy and felt dirty, that’s why.”
They gasped in disbelief and fell back in their seats.
“But what about the Garden of Eden and the trees of life and of the
knowledge of good and evil. What are they, Lord?" asked Thomas.
“Symbolically, the Garden of Eden is the woman” answered Jesus. “Her sexual organ represents the tree of life
- that’s where life comes from with human beings. Her anal organ represents the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. Good when it
is used for the purpose for which God intended it; evil when it is used
unnaturally.
Eve allowed Satan to plant doubt in her heart about God’s
intentions. He made her feel curious
about sodomy. She started wondering why
God would want to prevent them from doing something that would make them
wise? The more she toyed with the idea
that by sinning they would become wise and immortal like God, the more
difficult it became to withstand Satan's influence. In the end she decided to
"liberate" herself and her husband from the ‘shackles’ imposed by God
and told Adam about it. Adam shuddered
at her suggestion at first, but faced with her rebellion and insistence he
relented and did what she wanted.
Now although this sin is not specifically listed among the Ten
Commandments, there are plenty of warnings in the Bible of what happens to
those who engage in it. This sin is so
abhorrent in the eyes of God, that those who practice it place themselves
outside the human realm. Nevertheless,
there is hope for those who repent of it.
Remember what I said when I was into the world?
Mat 11:20
Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had
been done, because they did not repent:
Mat 11:21
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you,
Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes.
Mat 11:22
But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
Mat 11:23
And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to
Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
Mat 11:24
But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment than for you."
Mat 11:25
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and
prudent and have revealed them to babes.
Mat 11:26
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.
“So, those who have been entrapped by Satan, but who repent, have
nothing to fear - they will be cleansed of their sins through faith like
everyone else. I have died for all
sinners, and I have power to save all who repent and believe in My power of
salvation.
Satan was very fond of this sin.
It could have stopped humanity in its tracks before it even had a chance
to establish itself. But God intervened
and restrained him, and gave humanity another chance. Don't you know what happened in the world by
the time of the end? This sin became so
widespread, it was even defended by legislation by national and international
governing bodies, so that it became a crime to speak against it. Those who did so paid heavily for it. This is why the world had to be cleansed a
second time - only that this time it would be by fire not by water.”
WHOSE ‘TOYS’
ARE WE?
Apostle John, who was shuffling through the pages of another magazine,
turned to the Father this time and said:
“Father, have You seen what the Charismatics
are preaching?”
“What, John?”
“That they are not Your ‘toys’, and that salvation must be a matter of
choice.”
“Oh, really? And who are these Charismatics, John?”
“Those whom Paul taught to babble in tongues.”
“What are you talking about?” jumped Apostle Paul.
“Don’t tell me you do not know what they have done with your writings?”
answered Apostle John.
“They have done what? You are in charge
of the library and the archives, so tell us.”
“They babble like mad when they come together and say that it is the
spirit who inspires them to do so.”
“Inspired by a spirit they may be, but not by the Holy Spirit. Did I not tell them that if there are people
who speak in foreign tongues they must do so in an orderly manner and not
unless there are other people who can interpret?
1Co 14:23
Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak
with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers,
will they not say that you are out of your mind?
1Co 14:27
If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most
three, each in turn, and let one interpret.
1Co 14:28
But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let
him speak to himself and to God.
“O, they have interpreters, no worry about that. They bubble too.”
“But if they babble in incomprehensible tongues, what do they interpret,
and who understands them?”
“That is what I would like to know too.”
“That vile creature, Satan, twisted my words and deceived these people
just as he deceived Adam and Eve.''
“Let Me read what these Charismatics are
saying" said Jesus as He grabbed the magazine from John’s hand.
“Priceless Pearls. Did you make any resolutions
this New Year? Is there some old acquaintance, some continuing problem or past
failure, that you'd like to forget?
In a court of law, you have to pay the price for the past. New Year resolutions and singing "should
auld acquaintance be forgot" won't save you. Even if the judge wants to be merciful, you
can't go scot-free. The judge has to
make you an example of what happens when people do wrong.
In God's court you can receive both justice and
mercy. He wants to make you an example of what happens when people do
good. He knows all the problems and all
the failings. He longs to make all
things new. But we're not His toys - it has to be our
choice. We have to choose to plead
guilty and accept that He paid our price on the cross. We
have to choose to bury the past and ask Him to make all things new.
"And I will not remember your sins.
Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that
you may be acquitted." (David Green, The
Berowra Telegraph, NSW, May 16, 1996; emphasis added).
“I see”, said Jesus when He finished reading it. “First they are encouraging people to keep
Pagan observances such as their ‘New Year’, then they preach that people must
be able to choose: “Choose to plead
guilty” and “choose to bury the past”, because “we are not His toys - it has to
be our choice”.
“Well, if they want to choose I will let them choose. Then I will see how good their choosing has
been. This preacher does not know that
people can’t choose to be saved, that it has to be an initiative from God:
Joh 6:44 No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last
day.
Joh 6:65 And He said,
"Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has
been granted to him by My Father."
Eph 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
“Like Adam and Eve, they do not want to trust Me and rely on Me for
their salvation”, said the Father. “They want to be able to make their own
choice - they want to be ‘free moral agents’.
So let them be! Satan wanted to be a free moral agent too, and ever since
he has been teaching those who listen to him to follow suit.
If they want to be able to choose, we must give them that
opportunity. They have already
distinguished themselves by ‘choosing’ to babble in tongues, as if I do not
understand normal languages. Have I not
created people's tongues? What makes
them think that I am happy to listen to their unintelligible utterances?
Since they did not want to be My ‘toys’, they will find out in due
course whose ‘toys’ they became."
With this, the Father adjourned the meeting until next time.
DIVINE JUSTICE
At the next meeting, Abraham, who has been following the proceedings
quietly in his corner, looked to the Father and said:
“Father, can I also ask you a question?”
“Of course, My friend!”
“We, who lived in the Old Testament times, are somewhat in the dark
about many of these things for we did not have the knowledge that became
available in the New Testament. I am
still having difficulty understanding one thing. The Scriptures say that You
show no partiality with anyone (Rom. 2:11), and that You desire all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4)?”
“Not only do I desire them to be saved, I make sure that they are being saved", said the
Father. Notice:
Rom 8:38
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Rom 8:39
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“But, Father, if some people are predestined to be saved and others to
be damned, doesn't this go against the principle of impartiality?”
“I condemn no one to death, son! They condemn themselves. I cannot save those who do not believe.”
Rom 10:11 For
the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO
SHAME."
Rom 10:12
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
Rom 10:13
For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED."
“Those who do not call on the
name of the Lord cannot be saved.
Salvation is for those who are righteous, and righteousness comes
through faith. You yourself gave them a
good example. Have you seen what Paul
wrote about you?
Rom 4:1
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to
the flesh?
Rom 4:2
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God.
Rom 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS
ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Rom 4:4
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Rom 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Rom 4:6
just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God
imputes righteousness apart from works:
Rom 4:7
"BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS ARE FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS
ARE COVERED;
Rom 4:8
BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD SHALL NOT IMPUTE SIN."
Rom 4:13
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
“I understand this Father, and yet the Scriptures also say that faith is
a gift of God: ‘For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’
(Eph. 2:8). Why then is this gift made
available to some and not to others?”
“Oh, you are mistaken here, Abraham.
This gift is made available to all human beings, but not all of them
avail themselves of it. Have a look at
this parable.
Luk 19:12 Therefore He said:
"A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a
kingdom and to return.
Luk 19:13 So he called ten of his
servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I
come.'
Luk 19:14 But his citizens hated
him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man
to reign over us.'
Luk 19:15 "And so it was that
when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these
servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might
know how much every man had gained by trading.
Luk 19:16 Then came the first,
saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'
Luk 19:17 And he said to him,
'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little,
have authority over ten cities.'
Luk 19:18 And the second came,
saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'
Luk 19:19 Likewise he said to him,
'You also be over five cities.'
Luk 19:20 "Then another came,
saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a
handkerchief.
Luk 19:21 For I feared you,
because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap
what you did not sow.'
Luk 19:22 And he said to him, 'Out
of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I
was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did
not sow.
Luk 19:23 Why then did you not put
my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with
interest?'
Luk 19:24 "And he said to
those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has
ten minas.'
Luk 19:25 (But they said to him,
'Master, he has ten minas.')
Luk 19:26 'For I say to you, that
to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he
has will be taken away from him.
Luk 19:27 But bring here those enemies
of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before
me.' "
“This parable shows that everyone receives the same gift. The next one
shows why some people make good use of it while others don’t.”
Mat 13:3 Then
He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow.
Mat 13:4
And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds
came and devoured them.
Mat 13:5
Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they
immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
Mat 13:6
But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root
they withered away.
Mat 13:7
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.
Mat 13:8
But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty.
Mat 13:9
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
Mat 13:10
And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them
in parables?"
Mat 13:11
He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Mat 13:12
For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance;
but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Mat 13:13
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see,
and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And
in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'HEARING YOU WILL HEAR
AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND, AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE;
Mat 13:15
FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF
HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES
AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND
TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.'
Mat 13:16
But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they
hear;
Mat 13:17
for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men
desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you
hear, and did not hear it.
Mat 13:18
"Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
Mat 13:19
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it,
then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
This is he who received seed by the wayside.
Mat 13:20
But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy;
Mat 13:21
yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when
tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Mat 13:22
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and
the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he
becomes unfruitful.
Mat 13:23
But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and
understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty."
“Right, Father! So if I understand it right, all human beings
receive gifts which they are expected to put to good use and increase their
value. Some do and some don’t. Those whose seed fall on good ground and
bring forth fruits are the ones who are predestined to be saved, and those who
have no depth, whose seed falls by the wayside, on stony places or among thorns
are the ones who become unfruitful and are damned.”
“Right! Now what is wrong with that?”
“But if their fate is determined before they are born, what about those
who end up being damned?”
“This has been a great mystery, Abraham.
And yet the answer has been in the Scriptures all along. Take a look at this parable now:
Mat 13:24
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of
heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
Mat 13:25
but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and
went his way.
Mat 13:26
But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also
appeared.
Mat 13:27
So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
Mat 13:28
He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do
you want us then to go and gather them up?'
Mat 13:29
But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the
wheat with them.
Mat 13:30
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."
' "
“So what does this tell you, Abraham?”
“That some human beings are not your people. But if they are not yours, whose people are
they, Father?”
“Well, again, what do the Scriptures say in this regard?
Joh 8:44 You are of your
father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it.
Act 13:10
and said, "O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of
the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting
the straight ways of the Lord?
1Jn 3:8 He
who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the
devil.
De. 13:13 Certain men, the
children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the
inhabitants of their city,
saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known. (KJV)
1 Sam 2:12, Now the sons of Eli were
sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD. (KJV)
“But Father, what is the difference between one human being and another,
between Your children and Your Adversary’s children? How would one know who is who?”
“The Scriptures tell you the difference. Notice:
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 thornbushes or figs from
thistles?
Mat 7:17
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad
fruit.
Mat 7:18 A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Mat 7:19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire.
Mat 7:20 Therefore by their fruits you will know
them.
Mat 7:21
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Mat 7:22
Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your
name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
Mat 7:23
And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!'
“Two important things are emphasized in this passage: first, that human
beings are known by their fruits, and second, that although they all look alike
on the outside, they are not all human beings on the inside.”
“What are they LORD?”
“Whatever the Scripture calls them:
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.
Mat 7:6
"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear
you in pieces.
Mat 12:34
Brood of vipers! How can you,
being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks.
Mat 23:13
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up
the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you
allow those who are entering to go in.
Mat 23:14
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows'
houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive
greater condemnation.
Mat 23:15
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land
and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a
son of hell as yourselves.
Mat 23:23
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe
of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the
weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you
ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
Mat 23:24
Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
Mat 23:25
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the
outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and
self-indulgence.
Mat 23:26
Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the
outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are
full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mat 23:29
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build
the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
Mat 23:30
and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
Mat 23:31
"Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons
of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.
Mat 23:33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you
escape the condemnation of hell?
“Well, we thought that these were just figures of speech, Father.”
“Figures of speech? Do you think that
I would allow anyone to call My children ‘savage wolves’, dogs', ‘swine’,
‘vipers’, and the like? We don’t play
word games in the Bible, son. When I say
that someone is a ‘savage wolf’, a ‘dog’ a 'swine', or a ‘viper’, that is what
he is at heart.
These are the people who have been predestined to be damned before they
were born. They have been taking
advantage of My children from the very beginning, causing them all sorts of
trials and indignities?”
“But Father, if the Devil and his followers are responsible for these
things, why did You not destroy both him and them from the beginning?”
“Because I needed them, son. My
children could not have caused the sufferings needed for creating the right
character in their brothers - those who were predestined to be saved. My children are known for their love, mercy,
humility, cooperation, compassion and spirit of sacrifice, whereas Satan’s
children are known for their ruthlessness and desire to advance to comfortable
positions at the expense of those who stand on their way. Remember what the Scriptures say:
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."
Psa 119:64 The earth, O LORD, is
full of Your mercy; Teach me Your statutes.
Psa 119:65 You have dealt well
with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.
Psa 119:66 Teach me good judgment
and knowledge, For I believe Your commandments.
Psa 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.
Psa 119:68 You are good,
and do good; Teach me Your statutes.
Psa 119:69 The proud have forged a
lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole
heart.
Psa 119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease, But I delight in Your law.
Psa 119:71 It is good for
me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.
Psa 119:72 The law of Your mouth is
better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
“My children know that this has
been the only way of attaining eternal life, but such talk is foolishness with
Satan’s children. My children hated
their life, but Satan’s children loved theirs. That is why the first receive
eternal life in My Kingdom, while the latter eternal damnation in the lake of
fire.”
“Now I understand why the following Scriptures speak in these terms
about Your righteousness, Father:
Rev 16:5
And I heard the angel of the waters saying: "You are righteous, O
Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged
these things.
Rev 16:6
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, And You have given them
blood to drink. For it is their just due."
Rev 16:7
And I heard another from the altar saying, "Even so, Lord God
Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments."
WHO CREATED
THE DEVIL?
“Father, would You, please, allow me to ask You just one more question?’
“You may ask Me as many questions as you like, Abraham."
“What would You have done if Lucifer had not rebelled against You and
become Your Adversary? Who would have
created the trials needed to develop Your children’s character?”
“Well, if it wasn’t Lucifer it could have been Michael or Gabriel.”
“I do not understand!”
“Isn’t it obvious, son, that I created the Devil? After I created the three leading cherubs I
determined that one of them must become My Adversary. And so, I gradually increased their power,
beauty and wisdom until one of them snapped.
Lucifer became vain, corrupted his ways and compared himself with Me. I then sealed them all in that position:
Michael and Gabriel became My great obedient cherubs, and Lucifer My great
Adversary. After I unceremoniously cast
him down to earth, he mobilized his angels and rebelled against Me again. He wanted to elevate himself to My position,
but when he saw that he could not reach Me, he went after My creation. He caused so much havoc in the old world, I
had to destroy and cleanse it of its filthiness through a flood. That was the
time of Noah’s Flood.
Satan did not realize that in everything he did he was fulfilling My
plan. Unfortunately sometimes he went
beyond what I expected, causing more damage to the world and more pain to My
children that I would have liked.
Nevertheless in the end it all worked out well. My children rose to the occasion by
withstanding his wiles, thus proving themselves worthy inheritors of eternal
life in My Kingdom.
When Satan saw that he could not usurp My position here in heaven, he
installed himself “like the Most High”
in a temple down on earth, attributing himself My title of “Holy Father”. He did on earth what he could not do in
heaven, and from that position he deceived the whole world.”
“Father”, said Apostle John, “if You were in control of this process and
it all worked out according to Your plan, why do the ‘free moral agents’ say
that Satan created himself? Have You seen
what one of their great prophets wrote?”
“GOD DID NOT CREATE THE DEVIL, but a beautiful, perfect superangel. But God
did give to His angels free moral agency – minds that were free to think and
reason--the right of free choice . . .
So God did NOT create a devil. He
created a cherub, Lucifer--and Lucifer transformed himself into a devil by
rebellion against the Government of God!” (H. W. Armstrong, Did God Create A Devil? Worldwide Church
of God, Pasadena, California. Emphasis
in the original).
“This is part of Satan’s deception, son.
He influenced his ministers to believe that I am a God with a broken
heart, that he created himself against My will, and that he wrecked My
creation. Did you not see how they bemoan the fact that evil appears to win the
battle for the souls of human beings, not understanding that everything has a
purpose and that this world is only of a temporary nature? Satan has the ability to place his thoughts
into the minds of his children, just as I have the ability to place My thoughts
into the minds of My children. As the
Scriptures explain:
Luk 12:11 "Now when they
bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about
how or what you should answer, or what you should say.
Luk 12:12 For the Holy Spirit will
teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
Joh 8:44 You are of your
father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it.
Joh 8:45 But because I tell the
truth, you do not believe Me.
I placed My mind in Jesus when He was a human being, and because He
obeyed Me in all things, even to death, He earned the right to become My Son,
and My equal. Compare this with what
Satan did: he wanted to become My equal not through obedience but through
rebellion. I have no problem with My
children being thought of as My equals.
As long as they understand their position and respect Me for who I am -
their loving and benevolent Father - and know that everything I created was for
their benefit, it is all right with Me.
What do these Scriptures mean?
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.
Php 2:9 Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Php 2:10 that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those
under the earth,
Php 2:11 and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.
Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
Php 2:13 for it is God who works
in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Php 2:14 Do all things without
complaining and disputing,
Php 2:15 that you may become
blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Php 2:16 holding fast the word of
life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or
labored in vain.
“This is why I subjected My
children to such intense trials and tribulations. Placing My mind in them and conditioning them
to always do what is right, and think the way I would think in any given
circumstance, has not been easy. But
when all is done and over, My children will never rebel against Me, for that
would mean I am rebelling against Myself. Nor will they remember the old
problems anymore:
Rev 21:1
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:4 And
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death,
nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have
passed away."
Rev 21:5
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things
new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and
faithful."
Rev 21:6
And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely
to him who thirsts.
Rev 21:7
He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he
shall be My son.
Rev 21:8
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
“The problem with Satan’s children”, continued the Father, “is that they
refuse to submit themselves to the kind of trials that would allow Me to place
My mind in them. They want to be free to
do what they want in this life, and then they want to “go to heaven when they
die”. To use one of their expressions:
‘they want to have the cake and eat it too’.
Sorry, it does not work that way: it is one world or the other.
Since I cast Satan down to earth, he believes and behaves as if he has
the freedom to do what he wants, and has inspired his servants to believe and
do the same. That is why they are
obsessed with 'free moral agency'. But, of course, this is only an
illusion. No one is free to do what he
wants. People either do what I inspire
them, or what Satan inspires them. My
children believe Me; his children believe him.
My children have placed their life at My disposal; his children have
placed their life at his disposal. The
tragedy comes from the fact that they all think they serve Me. They do not know
that they are deceived. But that is
their fault, for they have not tested the spirits as the Scriptures say they
should.
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.
My children know, believe and allow Me to be in control of their lives,
just as his children want to be free to choose for themselves. In other words, My children believe in
predestination, his children believe in free moral agency. What they do not know is that no one can
cross from one side to the other. They
were all sealed to be that way from before they were born.
One of the characteristics of Satan’s preachers is that they always
quote Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 to prove that he created himself against My
will, but avoid like the plague the more important, and more direct, Scriptures
which prove that I was, and am, in command of everything:
Pro 16:4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes,
even the wicked for the day of doom.
Lam 3:38 “Out of the mouth of the
most High proceedeth not evil and good?” ( KJV)
Deu 32:39 'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no
God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is
there any who can deliver from My hand.
1Sa 2:6 "The LORD kills and makes alive; He
brings down to the grave and brings up.
1Sa 2:7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He
brings low and lifts up.
Isa. 45:7 “I form the light, and
create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these
things.” (KJV).
Exo 4:10 Then Moses said to the
LORD, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You
have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of
tongue."
Exo 4:11 So the LORD said to him,
"Who has made man's mouth? Or who
makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?
Exo 4:12 Now therefore, go, and I
will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."
Deu 29:2 Now Moses called all
Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your
eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his
land—
Deu 29:3 the great trials which
your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.
Deu 29:4 Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and
ears to hear, to this very day.
Isa 30:20
And though the Lord gives
you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers
will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.
"They wanted to absolve Me of every evil in the world, and in so
doing they played right into Satan’s hands.
He is now feared by more people than I am, even though the Scriptures
make it clear that people ought to fear Me not Satan.
Deu 5:29 Oh, that they had such a
heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that
it might be well with them and with their children forever! (See also Jer. 32:37-42; Matt.
10:20; Rev. 19:5).
With this the Father brought the meeting to an end until next time.
GOD IN THE
WORLD
At the next meeting, Apostle Paul began by asking the Father the
following question:
“Father, it must have been a terrible experience for You to see Jesus
hanging on that cross?”
“It certainly was, son!”
“Did You ever wish that it was You rather than Him then?”
The Father and Jesus smiled broadly knowing very well what Apostle Paul was
getting at.
“Of course, I did it, Paul!”
“Excuse me for saying this, but why did You not go into the world
Yourself instead of sending Your Son, Father?”
“Oh, I did that too, son!”
“I know You did it, like when You met Abraham at the time of Sodom and
Gomorrah. As the Scripture says:
Gen 18:20
And the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah
is great, and because their sin is very grave,
Gen 18:21
I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according
to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know."
“But what I mean is why did You not go
down and live the life of a human being from birth to death, like Jesus
did?”
“I did that too, son!”
“You did it? Then why don’t the
Scriptures speak about You as they speak about Jesus?”
“Oh, they speak about Me too, but not to the same extent!”
“Which Scriptures, Father?”
“You know, Paul, if anyone should have known this, I would have expected
it to be you.”
“Sorry, Father, this beats me too.”
“All right, boys, I can see that you are all in the dark about
this. Tell Me now; what is the meaning
of these words?”
Rev 4:8
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes
around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!"
“Where do you think I was supposed to go, on holiday? No, in the world!”
“But then, if this refers to You, it means that You went into the world
three times. When was that, Father?”
“Before I tell you that, let us establish something important about this
prophecy. The words, “was and is and is to come” indicate the timing of the
revelation of this prophecy. The word
"is", is showing us that it will be revealed during My second time
into the world. As for its historical
setting, have a look at the following Scriptures, from the Old and the New
Testaments, and tell Me what you think they mean?”
Jer 3:14 "Return, O
backsliding children," says the LORD; "for I am married to you. I
will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to
Zion.
Jer 31:31 "Behold, the days
are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah—
Jer 31:32 not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke,
though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
Jer 31:33 But this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Heb 8:6
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is
also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Heb 8:7
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place
would have been sought for a second.
Heb 9:11
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with
the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
Heb 9:12
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He
entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Heb 9:16
For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be
the death of the testator.
Heb 9:24
For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are
copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of
God for us;
Heb 9:25
not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the
Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—
Heb 9:26
He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the
world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself.
Heb 9:27
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Heb 9:28 so
Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for
Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
“If I understand it right,
Father, the God of the Old Testament became the Lord of the New Testament. Because You had a Testament with earthly
Israel, You needed to die in order to be free to create a New Testament with
spiritual Israel. Therefore Jesus Christ
was none other than You. That must have
been the first time You went into the world.
But when were the second and the third times, and what purpose did they
serve?”
“Very well, Paul. To answer your
question you must first tell Me what the purpose of creation is?”
“To reproduce Yourself!”
“Correct! One person became a
Trinity. Three people in perfect harmony
at the top followed by a large number of children, such as you, each with their
own role, position and rank in My Kingdom.
Now do you remember the following discussion between Jesus and His
disciples?
Mat 20:20
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling
down and asking something from Him.
Mat 20:21
And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him,
"Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the
other on the left, in Your kingdom."
Mat 20:22
But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you
able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are
able."
Mat 20:23
So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My
left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by
My Father."
“Jesus knew about the Trinity and spoke about it later when He told His
disciples to go and make disciples of all nations:
Mat 28:18
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been
given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Mat 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
“Jesus had a free hand to appoint the Twelve Apostles, but He knew that
the two positions, on His right and on His left, were
of a different status and rank. He knew
that they were reserved for people who would undergo the kind of trials and
tribulations that He Himself did – trials which were far greater than those
reserved for the ordinary people. What
did the two disciples say when Jesus asked them whether they were able to drink
the cup that He was about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that He
was going to be baptized with? They
said, ‘We are able.’ And were they
able? What happened when He was
arrested, judged and crucified? Did they
go and stand alongside Him to be judged and crucified with Him? They all
abandoned Him. Jesus knew that they
would not be able to stand such trials until they received the Holy Spirit, but
He was not going to enter into a long discussion with them then, for He knew
that they would not have been able to understand it anyway.
So then, the first time I went into the world I took the identity of
Jesus Christ or, as Jesus wisely put it, the identity of a “Son of Man”. Jesus Christ became the Savior of the world;
He became My alter ego, so to speak.
The second time, I became Elijah, the Restorer of all things. The third time is yet to come.”
“Can I venture a guess here that the third time You will go into the
world it will be for the Holy Spirit, and that You will take the identity of a
woman, and that this will happen at the end of the Millennium?”
“You are absolutely right, Paul.”
“But Father, Jesus said that, “Elijah is coming first and will restore
all things?” (Matt 17:11). If You
restored all things and You were Elijah, how were people supposed to know who
You were and listen to You?”
“They did not need to know who I was.
They should have listened to anyone who spoke the truth in My name. But when I restored the Gospel of the
Kingdom, they competed with Me by putting even more effort into spreading their
false gospels.
As for the identity of Elijah, what do the Scriptures say?”
Mat 27:46
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is,
"MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
Mat 27:47
Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said,
"This Man is calling for Elijah!"
Mat 27:48
Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with
sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
Mat 27:49
The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to
save Him."
Mat 27:50 And
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
“Those who heard Jesus call ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani’
knew that He was calling on Me. “Eli”
means “Elijah”. ‘This Man is calling for
Elijah!’ they said. These things were
plainly written for all to see and believe.”
“Father, Jesus presence in the world was manifested by miracles. How was Elijah’s presence manifested, for
clearly it was not miracles?”
“No, and there is a good reason for that. At the time of Jesus, there was still a
strong belief in God in the world. They
knew about the Messiah, and believed that He would appear to save them from
foreign domination. The Jews always
looked for the wrong kind of Messiah.
When Jesus appeared and did not do what they expected of Him, they lost
faith in Him and crucified Him. But, of
course, that was expected of them.
Messiah had to live the life of a human being, to show the world the way
of salvation, then be crucified and earn the right to sit at My right
hand. By the time of Elijah, however,
there was precious little faith in God in the world. Satan had deceived the world that there was
no God, that everything was created through ‘evolution’. As Jesus said: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really
find faith on the earth?''(Luke 18:8).
Elijah’s mission, therefore, was to show people their errors, and warn
them of impending catastrophe.
Now have a look at Zechariah 11 and see another proof of My presence in
the world.
Zec 11:4 Thus says the LORD my
God, "Feed the flock for slaughter,
Zec 11:5 whose owners slaughter
them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am
rich'; and their shepherds do not pity them.
Zec 11:6 For I will no longer pity
the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. "But indeed I will give
everyone into his neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king. They shall
attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand."
Zec 11:7 So I fed the flock for
slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs:
the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.
Zec 11:8 I dismissed the three
shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
Zec 11:9 Then I said, "I will
not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those
that are left eat each other's flesh."
Zec 11:10 And I took my staff,
Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made
with all the peoples.
Zec 11:11 So it was broken on that
day. Thus the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was
the word of the LORD.
Zec 11:13 And the LORD said to me,
"Throw it to the potter"—that princely price they set on me. So I
took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the
LORD for the potter.
Zec 11:14 Then I cut in two my
other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and
Israel.
Zec 11:15 And the LORD said to me,
"Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.
Zec 11:16 For indeed I will raise
up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off,
nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still
stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
Zec 11:17 "Woe to the
worthless shepherd, Who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his
arm And against his right eye; His arm shall completely wither, And his right
eye shall be totally blinded."
“This passage speaks of ‘shepherds who do not pity’ their flock, of ‘two
staffs: Beauty and Bonds’, and of a ‘foolish’ and ‘worthless’ shepherd who eats
the flesh of his sheep. Now who do you
think is the staff called ‘Beauty’?”
“Undoubtedly, Jesus Christ.”
“And ‘Bonds’?”
“Now that You told us these things, and seeing that Beauty and Bonds are
of equal status, 'Bonds' must be You.”
“See, it isn’t all that hard to find Me in the Scriptures if you put
your mind to it, is it?”
“No, Father, it isn’t!”
“Now it is not for nothing that ‘Bonds’ and the foolish and worthless
shepherd are spoken of in the same chapter.
‘Bonds' was the victim of that shepherd too. Satan thought that by making Me destitute in
a foreign land I would not survive to complete My mission, thus condemning the
world to utter destruction. He did not
know that I was not made of a mettle that gave up easily in the face of
adversity as his servants did. In spite
of the numerous obstacles he set before Me, I not only completed My mission of
restoring and preaching the Gospel as a witness to all nations, but exposed his
ministers for what they were and the false gospels with which they filled the
world.”
“Father, one of the major problems in the world at the time You were
there, was the breakdown of family life. Did You experience that too?”
“Yes, I did it, son! I had to
experience everything the average person experienced.”
“But Jesus said that people were not to divorce their wives except for
sexual immorality?”
“He said that, but He said nothing about wives leaving their husbands. I
did not divorce My wife, she left Me.”
“Why did she leave You?”
“She could not cope with my determination to stay with the work in spite
of the problems that it caused us. Like
Lot’s wife, she looked back and failed. We endured many trials and
deprivations, and when she saw that it brought us no reward and no one joined
and helped us, she left.
At first I found it hard to cope with it, but then I understood that this
was in the Scriptures too. Don’t they
speak of God’s divorce from an unfaithful wife and remarriage to a faithful
one? After she left Me, a faithful
person joined Me and helped Me finish the work.
That was the time when women demanded their freedom and the right to
rule over men. A real revolution took
place in the world then, one that lasted for the entire Millennium. Having seen the condition into which men have
brought the world, they decided to take the reigns
into their own hands. And, as you know,
it took them one thousand years to do what men have done in six thousand
years. But it had to happen so that they
all understood the measure of their own abilities. But these things are in the Scriptures too,
and I would think you know about them.
Isa 4:1
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, "We
will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; Only let us be called by your
name, To take away our reproach."
Isa 4:2 In
that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; And the fruit
of the earth shall be excellent and appealing For those of Israel who
have escaped.
Isa 4:3
And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains
in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded among the living in
Jerusalem.
“This scarcity of men happened after the Great Tribulation, when many people
died, and after the “Branch” returned and made Jerusalem the capital of the
world.”
“But, Father, Jesus did not experience marriage, so why did You?”
“Jesus did not experience marriage because He had to remain holy and
untainted by the world. I had to experience not only the pain of marriage and
divorce, but the sting of sin too. Jesus
overcame the world from a position of holiness; I overcame it from a position
of worldliness. No one could come to us
and say that we did not know what life was like out there in the real
world.
After Jesus fulfilled His mission, it was no longer one’s sins that
counted, but one’s willingness to repent and change. From the moment I did
that, I grew in knowledge and understanding until I understood who I was.”
“Whose mission was more difficult?”
“Both missions were very difficult. Jesus can speak for Himself. We did not go into the world to duplicate
each other’s work. We had entirely different missions, but none was easy.”
“When did You understand who You were?
Was it from Your childhood?”
“No! I grew up not knowing who I was until quite late in life. I could
not be entrusted with such knowledge until I was ready for it. It was the same
with Jesus and with all My children.
Think of yourselves: when did you realize that you were destined to
become My children and major figures in My Kingdom? Not until you endured the trials that
prepared you for such positions.”
“What did You do when You realized who You were? Did You tell people
about it?”
“No! I only told them that I was the servant of Christ doing the work of
God, which was true anyway.”
“Why did You not tell them the whole truth? You could have made it easier for Yourself by
letting them help You.”
“I could have made it
easier for Myself? Don’t you know what
they did to Jesus when they found out who He was? First they did not believe Him, then, when
they perceived that He was indeed who He said He was, they crucified Him. Fortunately, that happened right as He
completed His mission. It was the same
with Me. No one believed Me until My mission
was nearly complete.”
“Not even the leaders of Your Churches?”
“The leaders of My Churches were the real problem then. Don’t you
remember what you said would happen after you departed from the scene? Here is a reminder:
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.
“So those ‘savage wolves’ took
over the Churches just as I predicted, did they?”
“They certainly did it, son, and caused major ravages among the
faithful. When I spoke to them they not only
refused to help Me, but rejected Me and caused Me major problems. There is a
similarity between what happened to Jesus and what happened to Me. He went to His own - the Jews - and His own
rejected Him; I went to My own - the Christians - and My own rejected Me.”
“Why did they reject You?”
“Because they expected miracles from Me, not knowing that these were not
part of My mission. My presence in the
world was accompanied by major disasters, but since they no longer believed in
God, they did not believe that I could cause these things either.”
“Who did they think was causing these things then?”
“Nobody! They just called them
‘natural disasters'. Everything was
‘natural’ in those days: earthquakes, volcanoes, famines, pestilences. Even the
creation of the world and the appearance of life on earth happened
‘naturally’. Or as they would put it,
things just ‘evolved’.”
“And the leaders of Your Churches believed these things?”
“Yes, and preached them. They
preached evolution in its various versions: theistic evolution, gradual
evolution, evolution through jumps, evolution with gaps, punctuated
equilibrium, etc. They mixed truth with
falsehood, just as Satan did in the Garden of Eden when he deceived the first
humans and set the world on the course of perdition. I had difficulty reaching the ordinary people
with the true Gospel because their leaders held them captives with their
deceptions. So I witnessed it to the
national and religious leaders, putting the responsibility on them. They will have to answer why the people were
in such spiritual darkness and did not know what was happening in their midst
until the Great Tribulation came and took them all by surprise. I spoke to them
about these things not once or twice, but several times.
The leaders of ‘My Churches’,
instead of checking the Scriptures to see if I what I was saying was right,
blinded themselves to the truth by looking for errors and faults in My
work. And they found plenty. It was part
of My work to make mistakes, just it was part of My mission to show them that
it was never too late to correct oneself.
That was the time of the so-called ‘information explosion’. One had a hard time shifting truth from falsehood. The important thing was to stay close to God
by continuously praying and studying the Scriptures. Repentance and willingness to change and grow
in the Spirit meant life, while stubbornness and refusal to change meant
death. They choose death rather than
life.
They stumbled over the fact that My mastery of their language was not
perfect, not knowing the Scripture which said that, ‘with stammering lips and another tongue he
will speak to this people.’ (Is. 28:11).
I exasperated Myself trying to learn their language so that they could
understand Me, yet instead of appreciating My efforts they took that as a sign
of weakness and proof that I was false.”
“The Holy Spirit could have taught You the language instantly, as He did
with the Apostles at the beginning?”
“He certainly could, but then what would have been different between Me
and other people? Could I claim that I
underwent the kind of trials that they went through, plus a lot more, and that,
like Jesus, I also overcame the world in the end?
I started My life from a position of poverty and weakness, but I had an
intense desire to know and discover the truth, and I persevered until I found
it. Then, like Jesus, I held on to it until I paid for it with My life.
“What about the people who baptized You, did they not see the
transformation in You?”
“Oh they saw it, but they allowed Satan to put envy, jealousy and malice
in their heart and instead of joining Me they persecuted Me.
They looked for reasons why I could not be whom I said I was just as the
leaders of Jesus’ time looked for reasons why He could not be whom He said He
was. Astonishingly, the main reason they
did not believe in Me was that none of the other leaders believed either. Thus, they reinforced their own prejudices
and encouraged each other not to believe in what was so blindingly obvious,
forgetting that this was exactly what happened to Jesus too. Here are the Scriptures:
Joh 7:46 The officers answered,
"No man ever spoke like this Man!"
Joh 7:47 Then the Pharisees
answered them, "Are you also deceived?
Joh 7:48 Have any of the rulers or
the Pharisees believed in Him?
Joh 7:49 But this crowd that does
not know the law is accursed."
Joh 12:35 Then Jesus said to them,
"A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where
he is going.
Joh 12:36 While you have the
light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These
things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
Joh 12:37 But although He had done
so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,
Joh 12:38 that the word of Isaiah
the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED
OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?"
Joh 12:39 Therefore they could not
believe, because Isaiah said again:
Joh 12:40 "HE HAS BLINDED
THEIR EYES AND HARDENED THEIR HEARTS, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES,
LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL
THEM."
Joh 12:41 These things Isaiah said
when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.
Joh 12:42 Nevertheless even among
the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not
confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;
Joh 12:43 for they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God.
“What are You going to do to
these people, Father?”
“Nothing that they have not done to Me.”
“And then will You face them again and grant them a place in Your
Kingdom knowing full well what they did to You?”
“Certainly not, son! Do you think
that these empty shells will ever be able to withstand the kind of trials that
they put Me through? Not even half that,
son, so have no fear that I or you or anyone else will ever see their faces
again.”
STATE OF
THE WORLD
POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Shimon
Perez on the meaning of the New World Order
“The road to peace call
for a great deal of sacrifices; it includes very much setbacks, failures, disappointments,
yet when I have a look backwards... my God we are changing the Middle East and
will have to continue to change it...
We live in an entirely
changed world. The sources of strength and the sources of wealth are no longer
material. They are not national, they
are not geographical, they are not, as I said, material; they are totally a
matter of the intellectual capacity of a nation: the level of science, the level of
technology, the investment in education, the free flow of information, the motivation.
Now all those elements, do not have borders. Science does not need a visa to
travel from one country to another country.
And technology doesn’t go through customs. It flows around. So are, unfortunately, the dangers. We went
over from a world of enemies to a world of dangers. The difference is enemies
have a given land, have a frontier, have an identity card, have a uniform, have
a fortification. But when you have a
good look at the missiles, do they respect borders? When you have a good look at
the non-conventional arms, are they being impressed by the frontiers or the
size of the land? And if you have a good
look at fundamentalism, all this is floating all over the places. So really, in the future the identity of a
nation will be cultural rather than strategic.
And if you want to make sure that you live in a secure surrounding, you
have to cooperate. Guns cannot win
wisdom; guns cannot replace wisdom. And
if you want to be strong and wealthy, you have to make a revolution in your
habitual way of thinking.
In politics, it is not
the biological age, but the ideological age that counts. I know many people who
are young in age but old in thinking. I know people who are old in age and yet
fresh in their way of thinking. About the
free economy, nobody has a choice, the whole world - the whole educated world -
is going for a market economy. Because there are no frontiers, you have a
global economy. Because there are no
frontiers, you have multinational companies.
We live in a world in which companies are more important than countries.
Because of the new age, science is playing a major role. So what is all those
talks about free economy? There is no alternative to a market economy, If you
want to compete, and if you want to raise your standard of living. Now look at what’s happening around
“Israeli alert at threat of Iranian attack” “JERUSALEM: Claims by
the United States Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, that Iran is
intensifying plans for a terrorist attack on Israel ahead of next week's
elections have renewed speculation that Israel will respond with a direct
attack on Iranian installations. . . The
conventional wisdom had been that further loss of Israeli life would blow away
the election chances of the Labour Prime Minister, Mr Peres, who is regarded by
the
“US acts to block Chinese missiles” “THE Clinton administration is demanding
that Russia and Ukraine rebuff covert Chinese attempts to buy advanced
intercontinental missile technology that would give China the capacity to
threaten American cities. "There
have been communications at high levels to both the Russian and the Ukrainian
governments of our very specific concern on this," the United States
Defence Secretary, Dr William Perry, said yesterday. The administration was "being very
direct ... the demarche to the Russians and
“Tough foreign minister plans to lift Russia’s world
profile” “MOSCOW:
The appointment of Russia’s spy chief as the new Foreign Minister created some
quivers in the West, but sent no shock waves. . . When Mr Yeltsin toughened his foreign policy,
the West was left guessing as to how tough it really was. Mr Primakov's
appointment has cleared the doubt. The
appointment sends a strong message that
“NATO growth” ”THE Polish President, Mr Kwasniewski,
wrapped up three days of talks yesterday with the firm conviction that the
United States will help his country become a member of NATO by 200 1. Mr Kwasniewski,
who met with the
“
“At Stalin’s museum, the truth remains purged” “TIME has stopped in
Depicting Stalin as a
man of culture, one exhibit explains how he took an interest in the translation
of a famous Georgian poem, Knight in a
Tiger's Skin, into Russian. Stalin made notes in the margins of the
translated copy, which is displayed under glass. The year was 1937, but there
is no mention of the poets and writers Stalin sent to the camps and to their
deaths that year. The onset of World War
II is depicted with photos of brave Soviet soldiers rushing to the front. Nothing is said about the secret prewar protocols
between Adolf Hitler and Stalin that divided up
“From Washington, with Love” “AFTER numerous
wars-by-proxy in Africa and elsewhere, we have become .accustomed to the idea
of the mercenary - the professional military man or airman who hires out his
services to a cause in which he might or might not believe. Now, apparently, we are entering the age of
the political mercenary, bringing with him not weapons but the full armoury of focus groups, polling, marketing and
advertising. A report in the current
issue of Time magazine tells how a
group of professional American political advisers (including a close adviser to
President Bill Clinton) helped Boris Yeltsin win the Russian presidency. It is
interesting but also slightly chilling.
There is probably nothing wrong with political experts selling their
wares on the international market - the Liberals and Labor have used American
and British experts in
As one of Yeltsin's
Americans is reported to have said: "Secrecy was paramount. Everyone realised
that, if the Communists knew about this before the election, they would attack
Yeltsin as an American tool." Well,
yes. But Yeltsin and his Russian
advisers probably didn't appreciate that Americans - and particularly those in
politics - have big mouths. That the
whole story has now been told to Time surely
doesn't stop the Russian Communists, or any other opposition group, from
claiming now and forever more that Boris Yeltsin is a tool of the
Americans. The report is careful to
claim that President Clinton had no direct involvement in the recruitment of
the American team but also says blithely that, when they needed help, they
could get it from the White House.
Considering that Yeltsin is at best erratic and at worst sometimes out
of action for days or weeks on end, this close involvement of high-level
Americans is at the very least a reckless exercise in gamesmanship. Yeltsin may well have been the best candidate
from the West's point of view (probably from
“The hard men in Yeltsin’s shadow” “Boris Yeltsin has secured a second term in
office but as his health deteriorates his rivals are maneuvering to take his
place... General Alexander Lebed, the
newcomer with political instinct, seems to be President Yeltsin’s favourite, at
least for now. He has the loyalty of the
army and control of the military and security apparatus... General Lebed does no have the money and the right people yet. But he is busily building a huge edifice of
power within the Kremlin. His powerbase
is the Security Council, whose role and powers he wants to define so widely it
would be like an alternative to Mr Chernomyrdin's government within the
Kremlin, pursuing its own policies in every portfolio area. As president, his
style would be more confrontational, imposing his will rather than negotiating
a compromise. He tried to bring back the
post of vice-president for himself - a plan immediately resisted by Mr
Chernomyrdin because it would enable Lebed to inherit the mantle if the
President died in office. For the West,
the real worry about General Lebed is the fact that the military-industrial
sector has a vested interest in increased militarism and boosted weapons
production. Having won a second term, Mr
Yeltsin does have one power which eluded generations of Tsars and Soviet ruler
who died in office, were deposed, murdered by their relatives, assassinated or
brutally executed. He has the chance to decide the manner and timing of his
departure with dignity, an idea which is entirely new in Russian politics...
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” Nicholas II, the last
Tsar. The Tsar was forced to abdicate in
the February 1917 revolution. He and his
family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in the basement of their
prison house in Yekaterinburg, on
- Vladimir Lenin, the
revolutionary. He was incapacitated by a stroke in 1922, and although formally
head of state he lived at a sanatorium, suffering two more strokes before he
died in January 1924.
- Joseph Stalin, the
iron fist. After 30 brutal years, including farm collectivisation,
the famines, the introduction of the gulag, and the Great Terror of the 1930s,
he died in 1953, six days after a massive stroke.
- Nikita Khrushchev,
the judge of Stalin. In 1064, he was summoned by the Central Committee and
removed from office against his will on the pretext of “subjectivism and
voluntarism”.
- Leonid Brezhnev, the
stagnation leader. Brezhnev was
seriously ill for many years, while Soviet authorities covered up his heart
problems. He died in 1982 when complications set in after a chill.
- Yuri Andropov, the
disciplinarian. The KGB chief, he was already sick, with an artificial kidney,
when he took office, and spent six months of his 15-month rule in hospital.
- Konstantin Chernenko, the living corpse. He was so sick and frail when
he came to power that he was known as the living corpse. He died in March 1985
after one year in power.
- Mikhail Gorbachev,
the reformer. The first president of the USSR, he helped end the Cold War and
allowed the Berlin Wall to come down, which gained him hardline
enemies in the party. Gorbachev found himself out of a job in December 1991
when Boris Yeltsin signed a secret deal with the leaders of
- Boris Yeltsin, the
democrat. The first democratically elected president in Russian history, he
introduced democratic and economic reforms. Last year he was plagued by health
problems, suffering two major heart scares.
Despite the hardship many Russians are suffering, he won a convincing
victory over the communist leader in
“Beijing plays the Moscow card” “China signed a
landmark treaty yesterday which restores Sino-Russian relations to their pre-1960
level and secures its 4,300-kilometre northern border with three of
“Books of terrible tyranny” “A Requem for Karl Marx” RANK E. Manuel concludes his
survey of the life and opinions of Karl Marx
with a chapter entitled: "Vicissitudes of an Icon". In his lifetime, Marx's teachings achieved
only limited fame and influence. Yet,
after the death in 1883 of the carbuncle-tormented prophet of the dictatorship
of the proletariat, Marxism began to come into its inheritance. By the middle of our century, two immense
empires and many smaller States were being governed (or tormented, perhaps) in
the name of an ideology dedicated to the disappearance of States and
empires. "Vicissitudes of an
Icon" is a brief but marvellously resonant
summation of the paradoxical and anomalous ways various “Marxist"
tyrannies justified inhuman brutality by appeals to the spirit of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. In some circles, it is still fashionable
to claim that the practices of those regimes were travesties of Marx's
teachings and ideals. In his valediction
to the most influential icon of the last 100 years, Manuel adopts a very
different stance: It may seem
heavy-handed to couple Marx with the blood-thirsty tyrants who tortured and
executed millions while mouthing his shibboleths. But the regimes that spoke in
his name derived their justification from the idea that the individual was of
no moment in the period before the dawn of true human history, the coming age
of unalienated labour; and if one Soviet State after
another denied the meaningfulness of individual lives during the transition to
the blessed time, Marx cannot be spared the world-historical verdict of
complicity in their crimes. How far one
of those States was intent on sacrificing the rights and needs of the individual
in the struggle to achieve what Manuel calls "the perfection of communist
man" is vividly illustrated by Vitaly Shentalinsky's account of the contents of some highly
secret KGB files that came to light as the Soviet Empire began to disintegrate
in the '80s. In a chapter dealing with
the career of Maxim Gorky, the bright beacon of Soviet literature, Shentalinsky describes a famous gathering that took place
in
“Devoured by Hatred” “When the Chinese turned to cannibalism during
the Cultural Revolution, they were simply achieving the annihilation of their
enemies in the most totalitarian way, writes Ross Terrill. He argues that that barbarity bodes ill for modern
China.
IN 1967 in the
Hatred was licensed,
annihilation quotas were devised and vendettas found their moment of
opportunity. Knives went in, flesh flew
through the air and the gates of hell opened wide. As the corpses of "class enemies"
became available for consumption, the political elite chose the heart and the
liver, while the masses pecked at the arms and the soles of the feet. Probably more than 100,000 people in the
Autonomous Region (really a province) of Guangxi died in the political violence
between 1967 and 1970. Just in the five
counties investigated by Zheng, hundreds of class
enemies were eaten. Thousands joined in
the eating. Against all odds in a world
where most of the communist bloc has melted away like butter in the sun, the
same Communist Party rules
BEIJING writer
Liu Binyan,
asked by Zheng during a chance encounter on a train
in China why he had not tackled the topic of cannibalism in Guangxi (having
heard rumours about it), replied, "Too
evil." Indeed, Zheng's initial impulse was to
turn aside out of delicacy from the subject.
One can understand why. Scenes
like this abound: "Strolling down the street, the director of the local
Bureau of Commerce [in Wuxuan] carried a human leg
on his shoulder that he was taking home to boil and consume. On the leg there still hung a piece of a
man's trouser." Children of 12 and
13 killed and ate their teachers. A girl
who had killed six people was proudly called "Sister Six"; another,
who had disposed of nine, "Sister Nine". The pots of cannibalism bubbled and boiled in
front of local government offices. In Tongwan district in July 1968, a class enemy named Gao Dazuo was criticised
at a rally, then forced to kneel down to be beaten on the head with a
stick. One tormentor took off Gao's pants in order to cut off his penis. "Let me die first,” implored Gao, "then you can cut it off! But the penis was severed as the victim
screamed. Another attacker cut flesh
from Gao's thigh.
A third cut out the liver.
"The rest of the crowd pushed forward and stripped the body of its
flesh." We, too, may shy away from
this grotesque slice of contemporary history.
It would be a grave intellectual and moral mistake to do so. Zheng's book is one
of the saddest ever written about the People's Republic of
The Chinese (Han)
people regard Guangxi as a place of scenic beauty yet also a slightly dubious
"border region". About 15
million of its 45 million inhabitants are Zhuang, a
round-faced, easygoing people who are the most numerous non-Han race in
“ Wolf’s eye view” ”Vasily
Grossman witnessed the worst of human behaviour
during the 20th century and wrote the truth of what he saw. According to a new
book on his life, this included the revelation that the Holocaust began on
Soviet territory well before the Polish death camps. . . Grossman, a Jew to boot, could realistically,
then, have arrived at few other descriptions of this other than the
"wolfish century ... when people lived like wolves, and wolves lived like
people". Of the many instances of
man's inhumanity punctuated throughout Grossman's essentially cautionary tales,
one that is particularly chilling is a reference to a woman who had eaten her
children during the Ukrainian famine.
"Her face was
human. But her eyes were those of a
wolf," Grossman wrote with the authority of someone who had in all
probability witnessed such uncomfortable horror. (During these times, cannibals
were not rare, even though they knew they would be put to a public death). Yet, for one who had seen the reflection of
the wolf in man's eye, Grossman nonetheless felt the need to chronicle his era,
obviously in the hope that his lifetime of witnessing misery and, literally,
hell on earth could serve as a salutary lesson to the generations to come. "In the cruel and terrible time in which
our generation has been condemned to live on this earth, we must never make
peace with evil. We must never become
indifferent to others or undemanding of ourselves," Grossman wrote. . .
GROSSMAN was the child of two people who happened to be Jews, but felt not
especially so. He was privy to a very
liberal, bourgeois upbringing, studying in
There is considerable
evidence that Grossman, a humanist, was unappreciative of his Jewishness. No doubt
it caused him difficulties in a prejudiced hotbed such as
“Once Again, Why the Germans?” “A new Hitler book misses some
old truths about groups and evil.
HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE
HOLOCAUST? HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE
INEXPLICABLE? There is a new answer, but
it is really an old one. Daniel Goldhagen, a young Harvard professor, has just published Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans
and the Holocaust, a book that has unleashed
a flash flood of protest. Goldhagen's thesis echoes the oldest theme of all. Why the Germans? Because they were Germans. Forget Kant, Goethe and Bach. Start with Martin Luther, a venomous
anti-Semite, and then fast forward down the ages all the way to Hitler. It was all there, deeply embedded in the
culture and just waiting to happen. Oh,
no, retort the postwar Germans. It was
Hitler and his henchmen, a bunch of extraterrestrials, as it were, who hijacked
Professor Freud would
have a field day. "Me thinks the
lady doth protest too much," he might muse. Goldhagen has overargued his case.
But strangely, so have his German critics. A familiar rehash substituting
sensationalism, pedantry and sheer anti-Germanism for
originality, they snort. The tone has
ranged from the shrill to the contemptuous.
Unable to restrain himself, one critic has even indicted all of
“The Demidenko affair” “A
savage and divisive row has broken over the head of a young first novelist,
pitting some of Australia’s intellects against her and each other” "FREELANCE book editor Lynne Segal was
thrilled to be given the job of marking up Helen Demidenko's
manuscript The Hand that Signed the Paper
when it won The Australian Vogel award
for an unpublished manuscript from an author under 35 in September 1993. She was there at the upmarket
Sydney harbourside restaurant when the writer, then
22, seemed teary amid the intoxicating swirl of acclaim from respected writers
such as Patrick White's biographer, David Marr, who spoke that night of Demidenko’s astonishing talent and attributed to her the
"true novelist's gift of entering into the imagination of those she is
writing about". There was no
mention publicly that concern about the book's perceived anti-Semitism
burdened one of the three judges, Australian novelist Roger MacDonald, who
warned in his confidential report to Patrick Gallagher, executive director of
Allen & Unwin the company contracted to publish The Australian Vogel prize winners:
"There will have to be a lot more work on the roots of the Ukrainian anti-Semitism
otherwise this manuscript will be seen with justification as anti-Semitic”. .
. Demidenko’s
critics say there is not enough historical distance between the characters’
voices and the author's voice to give readers what Roger MacDonald calls a
wider moral lens. And they have been
troubled too by statements Demidenko has made in recent
interviews suggesting she endorses her characters' belief that Jewish
communists masterminded the famine that killed 5 million Ukrainians, thus
begetting the hatred that fuelled the Holocaust.
Historians agree that
some of the communists who took part in Stalin's ruthless campaign of
agricultural expropriation in
“US tells China: hands off Taiwan” “The United States revealed
yesterday it had warned China not to attack Taiwan, and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Senator Evans played down fears that friction across Taiwan straight may spark a regional crisis. A spokesman for the US State Department said
any attempt to determine Taiwan’s future by force would be of “grave concern”
to Washington, “and the Chinese government is quite familiar with the views of
the United States and we have reminded the Chinese government at senior policy
level of late of the US policy” (SMH, Jan. 26, 1996).
“Republicans’ Budget plan goes where president fears to
tread” “Mr Clinton may achieve a short term victory
over his Republican rivals, but the broader issue of 1996 budget remains
unresolved. . . Bizarrely for a party
that took control of Capitol Hill last November on a promise of radical change,
the Republicans have in many cases not been radical enough. They have left the biggest program of all,
social security, entirely alone - even tough they had
a cast-iron excuse to prune it, namely the discovery by statisticians that past
cost-of-living increases for pensioners had been too big. They have trimmed spending on Medicare, the health program for the old, but have
mostly avoided the real reforms, notably means-testing, that are needed to hold
back the unchecked growth in federal health
spending. And they have left
whole forests of subsidies and tax breaks, and thickets of welfare for business
and other favourite constituencies, largely untouched by the axe. All these programs would be better candidates
for cutting than two of the programs the Republicans have aimed at, welfare and
Medicaid (respectively, the income-support and health programs for the
poor). In both cases, the Republicans
are seeking to replace individual entitlements with block grants, inviting the
States to find more effective and efficient ways of delivering services to the
needy.
But by immediately
cutting welfare, spending and the Medicaid budget, they undermine the
credibility of the whole block-grant approach.
In the case of Medicaid, some savings could be made, but a cut of 30 per
cent in 2002 risks hugely increasing the number of Americans without health
insurance. Indeed, It Is the least
affluent who will bear a disproportionate share of the pain that the
Republicans would impose. Leaning on the
poor might be justified In the cause of deficit reduction - if there were no
alternatives. But there are, and not
just on the spending side. Congress's
proposed tax cuts, worth $US245 billion ($322 billion) over seven years, are
unnecessary, badly targeted and over-favourable to
the rich. Balancing the Budget is a far
more urgent goal than cutting taxes.” (The
Australian, Nov. 15, 1995).
“Mahathir attacks West for imposing its values on Asia” “THE Malaysian Prime
Minister, Dr Mahathir, sharply criticised Western
countries yesterday for imposing their values on less-developed Asian nations,
saying the West ranked personal freedom above social harmony. In a speech to Pacific-rim corporate and
government leaders, Dr Mahathir also took tacit aim at the
“Malaysian leader as hard on the East as the West” "The truth is that Muslims and Muslim nations
are weak, left behind and dependent on other nations and their people. The administration of Muslim States in this
age is usually weak, backward and often chaotic and disorderly. There Is no Muslim country which can be
considered a major power and respected by the world." If you think this sounds like a hosanna from
some Western triumphalist, think again. It comes from the Muslim prime minister of a
predominantly Muslim, but officially secularist country. The same prime minister has an equally jaundiced
opinion of the West. "The golden
age of Western civilisation is coming to an end
because they have succumbed to their weaknesses. Western civilisation
is waning, and the West no longer has the will to strengthen their own civilisation.
History has always shown that the fall of one civilisation
would be replaced by another, and it is time for the Eastern nations to
overtake the West." Both comments
come from
“Perils of Islamic stereotyping” “The sweeping of
Taliban in Afganistan has again captured the
attention of the world and highlighted the necessity for understanding the role
and potentiality of Islam in world politics.
In this electronic age, the media plays a very important role in forming
people’s opinion. As the international
media is controlled by the West, Islam, and Muslims in general, are portrayed
not infrequently as backward and harsh.
The West needs to appreciate that while the foundation of its values is
secular, Islamic values are based on religion enshrined in the Koran, which require
Muslims to maintain a harmonious relationship with each other in their
day-to-day activities, whether local, national or international. After losing its imperial grip over the vast
territories now occupied by the Muslim countries, the West wishes to maintain
control through cultural hegemony. A
common complaint of the West is that Islam is standing in the way of change and
progress in modern society. But the West
suffers from inhibitions that its cultural heritage and laws are equal to their
supremacy in material well-being and technology. The West sometimes makes the mistake of
identifying a particular culture or practice prevailing in a Muslim country as
Islamic. It needs to be understood by
both Muslims and non-Muslims that Islam is much greater than Muslims
themselves. It is the greatness of Islam which allows flexibility in the way of
life for its followers, provided it is in conformity with the guidelines laid
down in the Koran.” (SMH, Oct. 14,
1996).
“
“Bloody purge after Iraq coup” “Details of a failed
assassination attempt emerged yesterday as Iraqi dictator Sadism Hussein
celebrated what seems to be a comprehensive diplomatic victory over the United
States . . . In less than a week Saddam
has established his authority in Kurdistan and seen the US missile strike
shatter the anti-Iraq alliance in both the Arab world and among the Western
allies. This was underlined yesterday
when members of the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Saudi Arabia failed to
express any support for last week’s American raid . . . The most dramatic
evidence of this was the failure of Britain and the USA to carry the United
Nations Security Council [condemnation of Saddam’s incursion in the Kurd’s
“safe heaven] in the face of vetoes by Russia and
France. “The dirty American is defeated.
“Muslims ‘attack, terrorise
opposition”
“Sarajevo: Opposition party members are being
terrorised and beaten by agents of the
Muslim-dominated Government in a campaign of intimidation which further erodes
any pretence of fairness in the coming local and parliamentary elections here,
according to opposition leaders, senior NATO officers and international
monitors. Detentions, interrogations,
public assaults on party supporters and attacks on political rallies have
prompted opposition leaders in some towns to say it has become nearly impossible
to organise or conduct a campaign for the September
14 elections. "Everyone I know who
supports our party has been called into the secret police headquarters for long
interrogations, some of them repeatedly ... often they are beaten," said
an opposition party organiser from his home in Bihac. In a coffee
shop in the town of
“The Arab world’s time bomb” “No matter what the outcome of the Middle
East peace process, fundamental changes in the social structure of the region
are likely to cause future strife, writes Robert D. Kaplan. We tend to believe, because the Arab-Israeli
dispute occurred in our lifetime, that we have been living through a period of
momentous history. But, in fact, there
has been comparatively little political change in the
“25 African presidents killed in past 30 years” “INTERNAL conflicts in
THE ENVIRONMENT
“Report says grain crisis looming” “Washington: Shrinking amounts of arable land
have caused grain reserves to fall to the lowest level on record, threatening
future food supplies, a study by the Worldwatch
Institute said. The low reserves come as
many analysts predict that food demand will soar to the highest level in
history. In 25 years, the world population
will have increased to 7.8 billion people - 2.2 billion more than today, the study said. "'The challenge is pressing. By 2020, each of the world’s people will rely
on an average of just one-eight of a soccer field to
meet his or her grain needs,” said Mr Gary Gardner, author of the study Shrinking
Fields: Cropland Loss in a World of
Eight Billion. In the US, for example, the expansion of
cities, depletion of irrigation water and erosion have caused cropland loss as
large in area as the State of New
“Global warming - Draught was unnatural, says expert” “Was Australia’s devastating 1990-95 drought not the product
of nature's whim but, in fact, due to the greenhouse effect? One of the world's top climate experts
believes the evidence now strongly points that way. If true, the conclusion gives an alarming
pointer to the potential high costs to
“Growing problem unearthed”
“Something strange has begun to change the growth patterns of trees,
plants and grasses in the northern hemisphere: they're bursting into life in
spring a week earlier than they used to and they seem to be growing an
extraordinary 20 to 40 per cent more.
The finding is further worrying evidence that global climate change
owing to the build-up of atmospheric pollutants - the greenhouse effect - is
gathering momentum. The
“Army evacuates 300,000 as Chinese flood toll rises” “Beijing: The death toll from China’s
devastating floods passed 450 as tens of thousands of troops evacuated 300,000
people from of the worst-struck cities.
The provinces
Devastating floods “
“Typhoon kills 114”
“Beijing: Typhoon Sally killed at least 114 people and left 110 missing
when it slammed into Gangdong Province in southern China on Monday,
officials said yesterday. Losses were estimated at 1.5 billion in
“100,000 flee
floods” “Dhaka: All major rivers were overflowing in
Bangladesh, flooding large areas and forcing more than 100,000 people to flee
their homes to safety, officials said.
Eleven people were killed in the flooding last week, local newspapers
said.” (AP, SMH, July 8, 1996).
“Killer floods leave millions homeless” “
“Killer storm” “
“The typhoon season
has caused the worst flooding in decades in
“76 dead or missing as Korean floods worsen” “Seoul: At least 76 South Korean soldiers and
civilians were reported killed or missing yesterday after two days of heavy
rain triggered landslides and left about 30,000 people homeless, officials
said. "We expect more casualties as
many areas were left with telecommunications and roads cut off," said Mr
Kwon Yong-Suk, a spokesman for the Central Disaster
Agency. Forty-four South Korean soldiers
and 14 civilians were yesterday confirmed dead.
Another eight soldiers and 10 civilians were missing in a spate of
landslides and rain-related accidents that also left about 80 people injured. The President, Mr Kim Young-Sam, flew back
from a summer holiday and called an emergency meeting of top aides. More than 50 centimetres
of rain has hit the central and northern areas of the Korean peninsula since
Friday night. Meteorological officials
also reported heavy downpours in
“UN warns world of big dry to come” “
“Chinese quake kills over 200” “Beijing, Sunday: One
of the deadliest earthquakes to hit south-west China in years has killed 210
people, injured more than 3,700 and left tens of thousands of survivors huddled
outdoors for fear of more tremors, officials said today. Squads of hundreds of soldiers and police,
backed by teams of doctors, were searching for survivors through the rubble of
mud-brick homes and remote mountain villages around Lijiang,
about 2,000 kilometres south-west of
“Rural mice plague a living nightmare” “SOMETIMES Wes Kerslake feels like an actor in some B-grade horror
movie. "It's the squeaking behind
the walls that really gets on your nerves," the beefy
“Quake deaths” “Fourteen people were killed and 226 injured
by an earthquake that struck inner Mongolia yesterday, toppling houses and
shaking northern
“Snow puts out huge blaze” “ULAN BATOR: The
Mongolian army fired rain-making shells into the sky yesterday, triggering a
15cm snowfall that put out a huge fire threatening to engulf the capital. The snowfall extinguished the blaze 30km from
“1000 feared dead in Bangladesh’s doomsday tornado” “I THOUGHT it was the end of the world ... Al
hell broke loose," local businessman Mr Lal Miah, 50, said after surviving a tornado that killed more
than 400 and flattened thousands of homes when it struck four villages in
remote northern Bangladesh with apocalyptic force. Mr Miah was one of
an estimated 32,000 people injured by what one survivor described as a
"funnel of fire" that ploughed, through homes, plucked human, beings
into the sky and turned innocent rice seeds into lacerating missiles. I started praying before I became
unconscious," Mr Miah said. "There is nothing left for us to start
life again ... It was the worst storm I have ever seen." A district official said: "A vast area
has been sucked up by a huge whirlpool.
Nothing is standing." As the
official death count rose yesterday to 442, officials said they feared the toll
could approach 1000 as bodies still lay scattered around. . . The fierce but short-lived storm struck late
on Monday, with winds estimated at up to 150kmh ripping though the Tangail district, about 120km north of the capital,
Dhaka. The subdistricts
of Bashail, Gopalpur, Kalihati and Sakhipur took the
brunt, officials said. In Mirikpur, bodies still lay scattered amid ruins and
uprooted trees as rescue workers tried to help trapped survivors first and send
them to hospitals. But the village,
along with several others nearby, has been eradicated from the map. Trees have
been uprooted, corrugated iron roofing sheets torn into pieces, as if they were
pieces of cardboard. "There was a
hailstorm, then heavy rains and suddenly we heard growling sounds. . . Before
we could understand anything our house was blown away by something that looked
like a tunnel of fire," a survivor said.” (The Australian, may 16,
1996).
“Weather blamed for food crisis” “WARMER temperatures, erratic weather and
soaring population growth had contributed to a global food shortage, a
“The hunger that gnaws at the soul of
“What the world doesn’t need now is love, sweet love” “NEW YORK: If life felt a little more crowded
in 1995, you had good reason - the world's population jumped by 100 million
people, the biggest 12-month increase ever.
And that, the United Nations Population Institute announced yesterday,
is not good news if current rates continue and broad ranging birth control
policies are not implemented. Institute
president Werner Fornos said unless family planning
was actively promoted and supported, the world's population would reach a
staggering 14 billion from the current 5.75 billion by 2015. "Some three billion young people will be
entering their reproductive years in this coming generation," he said at a
news conference. "How well these young people are able to implement the
awesome responsibility of parenting will make the difference between our
setting a course for an environmental Armageddon in the 21st century or a
better quality of life." But Mr Fornos said the challenge was a very big one. Ninety per cent of 1995's growth was in poor
countries already torn by civil strife, social unrest and "brutal
poverty". If birth control policies
were successfully developed and implemented worldwide, the globe's population
would stabilise to a far more sustainable eight billion by 2015. To explain the dramatic size of the problem,
Mr Fornos compared the
“Halve world’s fishing fleet, scientist warns” “THE capacity of the
world's fishing fleet would need to be reduced by up to 50 per cent before
sustainable levels could be reached, an international fisheries congress was
warned yesterday. Dr Pamela Mace, a
fisheries scientist at the United States National Marine Fisheries Service,
told the Second World Fisheries Congress in
(The Australian,
July 30, 1996).”
“Endangered Animals”
A
quarter of world mammals species at risk, survey finds. An international conservation organisation’s analysis of endangered animals has produced
some alarming results. Rick Weiss takes a walk on the wild side. Washington: A quarter of the world’s mammal
species are threatened with extinction, and about half may be gone in as little
as a decade, according to the most complete global analysis ever compiled. The report, which leading conservationists
described as surprising and frightening, was released on Thursday by the IUCN -
World Conservation Union, the recently renamed international body which has
collected endangered species data for more then 35
years. Unlike previous compilations of
the group’s red list of endangered species, the latest version uses a newly
adopted set of objective criteria for endangerment, scientists said. The new
system suggests previous estimates of the number of endangered species
worldwide may well have been too low.
The United States Interior Secretary, Mr Bruce Babbit,
called the report “probably the most thorough” scientific assessment of the
state of the world’s wildlife ever. “It clearly indicates that unless people of
all nations make extraordinary efforts, we face a looming natural catastrophe
of almost biblical proportions,” he said.” (SMH,
Oct. 5, 1996).
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
“Progress is a two way street” “The concept of
progress contains elements of good and evil, says Moshe Gutnick,
while Peter Slezak believes the world has almost
Orwellian overtones. We live in a time
like no other. Every day we progress in the realms of science and technology
in ways unimaginable. Last year's science fiction is this year's fact,
yesterday's dream is today's reality. We
can walk on the moon, shuttle back and forth into space; we have eradicated smallpox
from the world; we are fighting cancer on all fronts. Many of the childhood diseases that were so
debilitating only 50 years ago rarely show their ugly face - polio, tetanus and
others ... But have we really progressed?
Bubonic plague ravages parts of
The power of the atom
can be used to create weapons of mass destruction, yet its energy can be
harnessed for the common good. It is not
knowledge itself which is good or evil, but humankind's application of that
knowledge. If then, knowledge is neutral t can be
applied either for good or evil, what
was the sin Adam and Eve? Judaism
teaches further insight into that famous story in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge
on the eve of the Sabbath and the fruit was not Michelangelo's apple, but fruit
of the grapevine. If they would have
held out only until Friday night they would have been commanded by God to take
those grapes, squeeze the juice from them and sanctify the Sabbath with their
nectar. The failure of Adam and Eve was that
they did not realise that the gift of Knowledge was
only obtainable if its application was in accordance with the will of God. The Garden of Eden was a place where
Knowledge was used only in accordance with God's will. When they partook of the knowledge in
contravention of God's will they were driven from the garden. From that day
on, mankind has been faced with the challenge of the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge. When man uses knowledge for
good, he creates for himself a world which has the potential to be a Garden of
Eden. When he abuses knowledge and
forgets the divine direction, then not only is he driven from the garden but he
creates a hell on earth. We must recognise that all our scientific and medical progress and
advance must be governed by a higher law;
before we taste of that fruit, each time we must analyse
whether we are partaking in accordance with the will of a higher morality, or
whether it is to service evil, oppression or personal power and
discrimination. Progress - the Tree of Knowledge - has grown and grown. We
have in the past 50 years advanced more than in the entire history of
mankind. We can expect that knowledge to
continue to grow exponentially. The
fruit is before us. Are we going to
create the Garden of Eden or bring about a hell on earth? The choice is ours.” (Moses Gutnick, President of the Rabbinical
Council of NSW ).
PROGRESS is one of
those words whose reassuring connotations inspire confidence and doubts when
some questionable policy is to be foisted upon us. After all, who could be against progress?
Thus economic growth, industrialisation and technological
development are all equated with progress.
The very possibility that these might be harmful becomes not merely
implausible but unthinkable. The appeal
to "progress", as to "democracy" and "freedom", is generally fraudulent, used as a substitute
for rational argument. For example, in
debate about the environment we see what George Orwell called the connection
between politics and the debasement of language. Today’s purveyors of Newspeak, the proselytisers for progress, have inverted logic an reversed
the meanings of ordinary English words.
Thus, concern for private profit is "realism" but concern for
nature's survival is "green hysteria". Environmentalism merely an
"ideology", while benefit of the powerful an privileged is
"progress". Orwell would have
been impressed. Modern science, some
say, not the supreme achievement of the human intellect, but one cultural
practice among others. Our preferred
myths have no better credentials than Zeus on
Again we see language
used as an instrument for concealing or preventing thought rather than for
expressing it. In these fashionable
circles, not only literature but the products of science are "texts"
as well. "Truth" is
relative. Theories, perhaps even the
world, are supposed to be "socially constructed" and scientific
success is a matter of "extracting compliance" rather than
intellectual assent. On this score,
astrology deserves equal time in the classroom with astronomy. If uttered outside the seminar room, these
ideas would be symptomatic of clinically severe derangement. We can scarcely afford such assaults on
reason since it appears that we have a less tenuous grip on rationality than
previously thought. In view of the dire
problems facing the world, both the corporate and the "intellectual"
subversion of our residual rationality are not merely pathological but
suicidal. (Peter Slexak
teaches in the School of the History and Philosophy of Science at UNSW). (SMH, July 29, 1996).
“Poets live longer and love better” “THE romantic image
of the poet as a tortured soul is wildly off-target, according to a
psychiatrist. Poets are more troubled by
manic depression, but less prone to alcoholism or sexual problems than other
writers, claims Dr Felix Post. "My
theory is that poets write about their feelings, about love and about nature,
which is much less stressful than writing about other people's joys and
tragedies," he said. "Charles
Dickens, for example, was so gripped by his writing that he used to cry over
death scenes." Dr Post, who
recently retired from the
“Sacrifices to the cult of victimhood” “Hey, it’s okay to be
insufferable at work, says Robert Lusetich. In the
It all began when a
gaggle of politicians wanted to do the right thing. Or to be seen to be doing the right
thing. In order to prevent Americans
with physical disabilities from being discriminated against by their
employers - a fine notion - Congress passed the
“Mardi Gras straight ban” “Heterosexuals will be
banned from
“Mardi Gras for all”
“I READ with interest that heterosexuals will be banned from the Gay and
Lesbian Mardi Gras party (or, at least, must apply for admission). While this may not be discriminatory it
certainly is exclusionary and does untold harm to the ideal of acceptance and
harmony, that, I believe, we should be aiming for as a community. Having attended both Carnivale
in Rio De Janeiro and Mardi Gras in New Orleans in the past two years, I feel
sorry that a potentially great event that all Sydneysiders
and Australians would love to celebrate, our own Mardi Gras, is continually
constrained and tainted by the small-minded attitudes of its organisers, and not allowed to flourish into a truly
communal event. Justin Paoloni (The
Sun-Herald, May 5, 1996).
“India leads world’s AIDS toll” “VANCOUVER: India has quickly emerged as the
country with the largest number of people infected with the AIDS virus, only a
few years after it was first detected here.
The head of the United Nations AIDS program, Dr Peter Piat, said on Sunday that more than 3 million of
“AIDS fears” “Vancouver: EASTERN Europe may face a
"catastrophic" surge in HIV infection in the next few years due to an
explosion in intravenous drug use and unprotected sex, according to AIDS
officials from the region. Syphilis and
several other sexually transmitted diseases are raging through many of the
former Soviet republics, and experts fear HIV now at a very low level relative
to the rest of the world - will mirror this trend soon.” (The Australian”
“Gays celebrate court victory” “WASHINGTON: American
homosexuals celebrated their biggest victory in a decade yesterday when the Supreme
Court ruled as unconstitutional Colorado's attempt to ban laws protecting gays
men and women from discrimination.
Gay-rights activists were thrilled by the ruling, which gave them a
powerful weapon to fight a backlash against homosexuality. "This is an outstanding moral
victory," the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign said. Six of the Supreme Court's nine Justices said
“Very foundation of our society at risk - Gay couple ban” “WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives
has voted to outlaw gay marriage in federal law, even if a State decides to
allow same-sex couples to marry. The
chamber voted 342-67 to pass the Defence Of Marriage Act yesterday. The Act is a measure conservatives introduced
to head off a
“Farm was paedophile resort: ex
resident” “A prominent Sydney gay nightclub manager and
founder of the gay newspaper Campaign had
taken a homeless 14-year old boy from Wollongong to his South Coast farm and had
sex with him for six to eight months, the Police Royal Commission heard
yesterday. That boy, now 32, known as
W83, said yesterday he had been introduced to the manager, WI7, by the former
lord mayor of
“WORLD IS OUR
WITNESS” “FOREIGN correspondents based in
“Capitalism
may yet be
a ‘dinosaur’ “In his latest book, The Future
of Capitalism, Lester Thurow borrows the
biological expression, "punctuated equilibrium", to explain the
dynamics of the current global economic condition. This is rather an apocalyptic proposition in
that "punctuated equilibrium" refers to when the normal extended
evolutionary process is replaced by a sudden environmental change and what has
been the dominant species dies out to be replaced by some other species. Evolution takes a quantum leap. Natural selection, which normally works on
the margins, suddenly alters the core of the system. The best known example of this is the
extinction of the dinosaurs that had dominated the Earth's surface for 130
million years, only to be replaced in a relatively short time frame by
mammals. It is Thurow's
contention that the global economy is now undergoing a similar experience, that
the dominant culture of capitalism is exposed to a collection of forces which
are now imposing a dangerous acceleration on the normal gradual evolutionary
process. Thurow
argues it is quite possible - though by no means certain - that capitalism as
we know it, may face the same fate as the dinosaurs. T'hurow, who is a
professor at the MIT's Sloan School of Economics, has made something of a name
for himself down the years as a controversial populariser
of rather scary economic scenarios. As
such, he incurs the wrath - and even the contempt - of some of his academic
peers, who feel his commercial instincts sometimes overwhelm his
scholarship. However, Thurow has served a useful role by pushing major economic
issues into the popular marketplace. One
of his earlier works, for example, The Zero
Sum Game, explored the implications of continuing with income
redistribution policies as economic growth slowed down. The theme reappears in his latest book,
though it is now part of a much more wide-ranging exploration of the
implications rising from the inherent contradiction between capitalism and
democracy. The former is an economic
culture which promotes inequalities, while the latter is a political system
based on the notion of equality. In the
relatively brief history of capitalist democracies, the contradictions have
been defused by other factors at work such is the acceptance within nation
States of a social contract, the delivery of which was actually assisted by the
Organisation structure of capitalism which is now
changing. The presence of alternative
economic systems such as communism, was an important factor in maintaining a
socially acceptable balance between capitalism and democracy, in that
successful capitalists accepted State intervention as preferable to the
alternative system. Now communism has
collapsed - as feudalism and fascism did before it - the balance of power
within capitalist democracies is shifting. This process is being reinforced by
the technological revolution which has created the era of what Thurow calls man-made brainpower industries, which have the
social consequence of creating much more atomistic and individualistic
societies. A critical by-product of the
emergence of brainpower industries has been a growing inequality in wages. The decline of traditional social
institutions such as the family unit and the role of organised religion, has
seen a shift in popular culture where mores are determined by cultural forces
such as television, which celebrate consumption at the expense of thrift. Then there is the impact of demographics,
where political institutional arrangements that in the past softened the hard
edges of Darwinian capitalism, are now having the opposite effect as aging
affluent societies struggle to service their welfare systems. This challenge is exacerbated by the
development of a global economy where technology transfer is destroying the
traditional pattern of comparative advantage between nation States. At the same time the spirit of international
co-operation, which was a defensive but positive response to the period of the
Cold War, is breaking down. In his
litany of forces now impacting on the global economic scene, Thurow includes his belief that inflation has now been
defeated. Because central banks continue
to behave as though this is not the case; economic growth is being
unnecessarily inhibited. The very fact
that capitalism is now the one successful economic system, suggests to him
uncomfortable historical analogies with similar periods. Pharaonic, Roman,
medieval and mandarin economies also had no competitors and they simply
stagnated for centuries before they disappeared. The threat to capitalism is not of an
alternative system but of social disorganisation and
civil disorder. In the
“CHINA - Jiang banks on moral clampdown” “BEIJING: The Chinese Government is to launch
a major campaign this year to combat what it sees as a slump in the moral and
ethical standards of the country's 1.2 billion citizens. The Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, has staked considerable political capital on the
outcome of the "spiritual civilisation"
campaign which win be unveiled at the Communist Party's annual conference in
September. According to Professor Yan Shuhan, of the party's central school, it has been 10 years
since members last adopted a comprehensive ideological code, and it needs
updating. "The environment has
changed and there is now a greater appreciation of the need to enhance
spiritual civilisation," Professor Yan told the
Herald.
"We believe that is the key to the full development of our
country."
Western diplomats say
this poses a threat to the party's grip on power, and that the leadership's
solution is to reinforce political education through a concerted campaign of
public awareness. According to Professor
Yan, fast-paced economic growth has brought a raft of problems including
environmental degradation, poor moral standards and wayward attitudes among
young people. "In future we will
seek a more coordinated development," he said, adding that what was being
proposed was not unlike the theory of sustainable development. However, because of the one-party rule in
“We’re risen apes, kin to all that lives, even tomatoes” “HUMAN beings were
not "fallen angels" but "risen apes", kin to everything
that lives, Australia's most controversial anthropologist, Dr Derek Freeman,
said last night. Dr Freeman, the
emeritus professor of anthropology at ANU [Australia’s National University] who
in 1983 achieved international fame in debunking Margaret Mead's anthropological
theories based on her Samoan research, said it was now "utterly
clear" that man was the product of evolution and that this would change
all of our long-established assumptions about ourselves. Speaking to the Sydney Institute, Dr Freeman
said work on the human genome, and on the genomes of other forms of life, had
shown that we were kin to everything that lived. "This radical transformation in human
understanding I call the new evolutionary enlightenment and I confidently predict
that, because it is based on fully tested scientific knowledge, it will far
outshine the enlightenment of the 18th century," he said.” (The
Australian, July 10, 1996).
“$1.2 trillion loot”
“Manila: Organised crime gangs earn $US1trillion ($1.2 trillion) a year
in profits worldwide and are now so economically powerful they pose a threat to
developing countries, a United Nations official told a conference here. Crime profits include $US1 billion laundered
through global financial markets every day, said Mr Eduardo Vetere,
head of the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division.” (Reuter, SMH, April 12, 1996).
“The me society” “The United States is in recovery but its sense
of community remains badly wounded. Yes,
there are more lots of new jobs but the number of working poor is expanding.
Self-sufficiency is in, civic concern is down and welfare is in retreat.
One of the
INCREASES in the
rewards for success and the consequences of failure in the
“Black or white: poverty is not working” “RACE and culture are
less important in determining a child's future than having a parent with a job,
according to a 20-year landmark study which forces a major rethink of
government support programs. Every child
born in the south-west
“Have we lost the courage to deal with straight talk?” “Edmund Burke observed
that politics is but morality writ large; Alexander Yakovlev,
at one time Mikhail Gorbachev's closest adviser, bemoaned the fact that Soviet
society had yet to "overcome the obstructions of falsehood"; and
Australian bishops and businessmen are urging federal politicians to be more
truthful. Although, in the wake of the
1993 election, the Australian advice comes ill from either source and John Hewson's fate can but raise doubt about the efficacy of
truth, instinctively I k now that ministers and aspiring ministers should heed
it. The greatest moral casualty of
this campaign, however, is not truth, but courage. Truth is at least somewhat protected by an Opposition
that is cautious about saying anything that could be misrepresented, and by
some regret for the gross misrepresentation of the goods and services tax at
the last election. I can't decide
whether to be glad or sorry that bishops and businessmen have not yet found
the hypocrisy to insist that politicians become braver. The tragedy of Australian politics is that no
politician is game to level with us. We ought not to mind a bit of straight
talking: it should be apparent that
Will the moral vacuum
lead on to the eventual demise of our civilisation as
it did, say, the Romans? I can't answer
such big questions, but I do know that the amorality that has infected
Australian politics is not totally different from the immorality that infected
the politics of ancient
Myth of women’s oppression” “Could it be that feminism was based on a
misreading of history? THE moral foundation of feminism is the assertion that
women are, and historically have always been, oppressed by men. This telling hypothesis has given women the
right to demand social change and to claim special favours
for women as a disadvantaged group. But
what if the hypothesis of universal oppression of women were, after all,
incorrect - a huge mistake? Feminism is
a middle-class movement and, looking back from the vantage point of the 1990s,
it seems more likely that the real source of "rage" was not a
universal injustice inflicted on women, but an effect of the industrial
"blip" of two decades of full employment in the 1950s and 60s, which
meant that domestic labour became unavailable for middle-class homes. The injustice was a work status inequality
within the middle-class household, for while husbands continued to perform
"class-appropriate" white-collar work outside the home, their wives
found themselves saddled with class inappropriate manual labour within it -
cleaning and cooking which had previously been done by domestic help.
It is a well-nigh
universal rule that wives are of the same social class as their husbands and
perform work of the same status.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, middle-class husbands
engaged in white-collar professional and managerial work in business and industry,
while their middle-class wives engaged in similarly white-collar professional
and managerial work in the domestic household.
The work of the middle-class wife was not insubstantial. Until well into this century, the
middle-class household was in size not unlike a small business. There was plenty of practical overseeing for
a middle-class wife to do, in addition to her important
"professional" work of socialising,
educating and guiding her children into adult life. In addition, middle-class women kept open the
networks of community relationship which make a thriving community, and laid
the foundations of what became universal primary education, the social work
profession and the welfare State.
Although a shortage of domestic labour was experienced during World War
I (widely discussed as "the servant problem"), there was no
suggestion at that stage that middle-class women should do manual domestic work
themselves. During and immediately after
World War II, the typical middle-class household had either a young live-in
maid or daily older women for specific jobs, such as washing and ironing,
mending and cleaning. But by the 1950s,
with full industrial employment, domestic help had become virtually
unobtainable and the young middle-class wife found herself alone in the
kitchen. In the brave, new egalitarian
postwar age, it was ideologically unfitting to resent manual work. But work-status inequality in marriage is no
triviality, and the major practical and ideological claims of feminism can be
seen as efforts to circumvent it - equal employment opportunity, long-day
childcare and identity of gender roles in the performance of both housework and
the care of children. Husbands, men,
unwittingly became the villains of the piece, the oppressors. ALTHOUGH they had not deliberately
engineered full industrial employment in order to deprive their wives of
domestic help, nevertheless in each wife's personal experience, her husband, in
his traditional role as breadwinner, was free to depart to his whitecollar job, leaving her holding the baby, in a
household which, despite some new labour-saving devices, would not function
unless she did the dirty work. The
feminist misdiagnosis of the injustice to (middle-class) women resulted in the
prescription of a dangerous and inappropriate therapy: the withdrawal of
middle-class women from the education, socialisation
and supervision of their children - a white-collar occupation which was the
core of their earlier role in the home - while they sought alternative
white-collar employment in the public workforce. The continuing debate over childcare, three
decades on, is witness to the unease which it arouses, despite our best efforts
of professionalisation and quality control. Recent
studies have found that 96 per cent of Australians think that mothers of
pre-school children should not be in fulltime work and that 40 per cent of
parents believe working mothers are "the cause of many problems in
society". It has now become clear
that women want to nurture and rear their children to an extent which
interferes with their whole-hearted participation in the workforce on a par
with men. They even, it seems, like running
their households and their homes, although not all women want to do the
physical work. As a result of
feminist-promoted government policies, which make it almost impossible for
most families to maintain their material and cultural standards on a single
income, women have been in an unmitigated state of conflict and overwork for
more than two decades. Despite a return
of high unemployment, ideology and family policy place barriers in the way of a
solution in terms of paid domestic help.
Meanwhile the real and essential public work of middle-class women, originally
amateur (in the sense that it was done out of personal commitment), has been professionalised as social work, community services and counselling, but has proved less effective in this form. It is still largely done by women, but can no
longer be easily combined with the supervision and nurturing of a maturing
family. Our society is experiencing
considerable worry over its failures in the acculturation of its children, as
seen in youth violence, suicide, drug abuse, homelessness, precocious
sexuality and crime. Adolescents with
preoccupied mothers are thrown very much on their own meagre
resources, and these disturbing signs reflect a lack of socialisation;
but above all, they represent the despair of abandonment. It is urgent that a means of returning to
women the opportunity of re-engagement with the rearing of their children, not
just in early childhood, but through adolescence to their crucial launching
into adulthood, should be found.
Feminist social theory has, perhaps through a misreading of history,
nurtured contempt for the traditional, and perhaps unavoidably differing, tasks
of men and women in the raising of children, with the result that they are now
performed neither with conviction nor well.”
“Dr Lucy Sullivan [the author] is
a research fellow with the Centre for
Independent Studies. This article is
extracted from a new book to be
published by the CIS in May”. (The Australian, April 17, 1996).
“Gorilla mum saves tot”
“VISITORS at Chicago Zoo looked in horror yesterday as a toddler fell
more than four metres into a pit, landing near seven gorillas. But an unlikely hero emerged as spectators
called for help, expecting the worst for the three-year-old boy lying battered
on the concrete below. A female gorilla, with her own baby .clinging to her
back, lumbered over to the boy, cradled him in her arms, carried him to a
doorway and laid him at the feet of waiting paramedics. Zoo officials said Binti-Jua,
a rare western lowland gorilla who bad received training on how to be a good
mother, appeared to act out of purely maternal compassion for the child. The boy, who had appeared to be unconscious,
was alert and crying when the paramedics picked him up. Zoo keepers trained fire hoses on the other
gorillas to prevent them approaching Binti and the
boy.” (The Sun-Herald August 18, 1996).
HEALTH
“Tea taken to heart”
“Toss out the coffee plunger and top up your tea pot. Mounting evidence suggests that compounds
found in tea, especially the green variety, may protect against heart disease
and some cancers, while there is strong evidence some coffees can boost
cholesterol levels. CSIRO scientists are
planning
“Food warning” “A leading health expert has warned that
Australia is under threat from a food poisoning outbreak which has killed eight
people and left 8000 children and adults ill in Japan. Dr John Hirshman,
of the
“Cholera epidemic seeps Malaysia” “KUALA LUMPUR: One of the worst cholera
epidemics in Malaysia's recent history has prompted Malaysians to ask how the
disease could spread so rapidly in a country that prides itself on its rapid modernisation and progress in the field of health and
hygiene. In just over a week since
“40m have virus” “New
Delhi: About 40 million Indians have been infected with the potentially
deadly hepatitis-B virus, Dr J.J. Gill, a virus specialist, warned a medical
conference in the southern city of Bangalore.
“Video games ‘affect health’” “Tokyo: About 30 per cent of children who
play video games develop headaches, eye strain and other health problems during
or directly after a game session, a recent study has found. In some cases negative effects were
experienced as early as 10 minutes into a game session, said Dr Masahisa Sato, paediatric
neurologist at the
“Child obesity TV link”
“Washington: A majority of cases of childhood obesity can be linked to
excessive television viewing after a study released by the American Medical
Association found children who spend more than five hours a day watching
television are significantly more likely than others to be overweight. Sixty per cent of obesity in children in the
study, which examined a national sample of 746 children between the ages of 10
and 15, was linked to extended television viewing.” (The Australian, April 15, 1996).
“Ban cot blankets, says SIDS expert” “Bed clothes for use
in babies' cots, including sheets and blankets, should be banned from sale to
help reduce the risk of cot death, according to a leading researcher. Dr Susan Real, a visiting consultant at the
Women’s and Children's Hospital in
“Asthma risk from mobiles” “Radiation from
mobile phones may make asthmatics more susceptible to attacks, research
shows. Tests by a researcher at
‘Phones may radiate brain ‘hot spots’’ “HEAVY users of mobile
phones may be damaging more than just their image. Research reveals that as much as 70 per cent
of the microwave radiation they emit is absorbed by the head, prompting fears
the phones may be a health risk. The
findings come as the European Commission prepares to publish the first
recommended "safe" levels for radiation emitted by mobile phones and
other telecommunications devices. Nearly
all phones on the market exceed these limits.
Three unpublished studies by leading academics appear to confirm safety
concerns. According to the findings,
energy absorbed by the head when using a phone creates "hot spots" in
the brain. The first evidence to link mobile
phone emissions with health risks is likely to provoke intense debate. While the industry insists that emissions are
too low to be hazardous, a new nickel and steel fibre phone cover, which the
makers claim blocks up to 90 per cent of emissions, is about to be
launched. Mobile phones - both analogue
and digital use microwaves of a similar type to ovens, at a different frequency
and lower power. Scientists had
previously assumed the energy absorbed by the head was evenly distributed, but
the latest research suggests the waves can concentrate in "hot
spots". An expert in microwave radiation,
Dr CameHa Gabriel, who sits on Cenelec
- the
“Live to be 150”
“People could be to be 150 if they cut their calorie intake by a
third. Tests on insects, rodents and
monkeys fed a balanced diet containing less calories had lower body
temperatures and slower metabolism. The
National Institute of Aging said intake should be reduced from about 3000 to
2100 calories a day to obtain similar results in humans.” (The
Daily Telegraph, May 2, 1996).
“Deadly Organism In British Milk”
RELIGION
“God’s Hidden Message”
“Researchers have proof that every word of the Bible has divine
inspiration. Israeli researchers using a computer say they
have found encoded messages in the Bible, giving new support to the belief that
the book's every word is divinely inspired.
The researchers say in the Book of Esther they found a reference to the
hanging of 10 Nazi war criminals on
It is 50 days between
Passover and Shavuot (the Christian holiday Pentecost). Farmers were told to work the land 49 years
and rest it on the 50th year. Katz says
by skipping letters at intervals of 26 they found Elohim,
another Hebrew name for God, hidden 147 times among the letters of the Book of
Genesis. He said the probability of it
happening by chance was about one-in-two-million. Computer programmer Dr Eliyahu
Rips, a Hebrew University mathematician, found the name of Aaron the high
priest hidden among the letters in the first part of Leviticus 25 times. He
says the probability of that happening is one-in-500,000.
Esther 9 is the story
of how Queen Esther demanded the hanging of the 10 sons of Haman who were
enemies of the Jews. Hidden among the
names of the sons were letters of the Hebrew date for 1946 - the year the Nazis
were hanged. According to newspaper
reports at the time, Julius Streicher, one of the
Nazis, shouted just before his hanging, "Today is Purim 1946." Purim is the Jewish holiday celebrating
Esther's triumph. The date of the hanging
of the Nazis,
“A Faith To Suit” “Between 1987 and 1991, the number of
Buddhists in
“Hell of a
queue” “
“Theologian allows Pill for nuns at risk of rape” “
“Young love: it’s a crime” “
“Aids help weary Pope with cross” “ROME: A tired-looking Pope John Paul
presided on Good Friday at a solemn “Way of the Cross" procession around
Rome's an Colosseum, leading the world's 960 million
Roman Catholics in commemorations of
Christ’s crucifixion. The 75-year-old
Pope led the traditional ceremony around the candle-lit amphitheatre where
early Christians were martyred. However,
for the second year running, he walked slowly carried the cross for only the
first part of the procession. The Pope, who still limps noticeably from a
leg operation two years ago, was helped the rest of the procession by a nun
from
“Vatican educator questions teaching” “THE Vatican's papal
education adviser has questioned the use of a popular teaching theory adopted
in many Catholic and government schools, claiming it is undermining the work
of the church. Cardinal Pio Laghi, Prefect of the
Congregation for Catholic Education in
“Catholic wealth must go: academic” “THE Catholic Church would have to consider
divesting itself of its wealth and power and become "poor, inclusive and
non-dominating" if it wanted to continue espousing core gospel values into
the next century, a leading Catholic scholar claimed yesterday. Associate Professor Marie Joyce, of the
“Down side of
celibacy” “As a student of the Bible, I believe that paedophilia within the Roman Catholic church (S-H 21/4),
has been a direct result of the doctrine of celibacy. A priest is cast out of he marries but if he
is a paedophile he is often just given counselling at some retreat. Paul the Apostle warned against celibacy when
he wrote: “Now the Spirit speaks
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, devils.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot
iron; Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from meats...” 1 Timothy
4:1-3. If a man decides before God not
to marry so that he might give his time to serving the Lord, that’s good, but
when it is taught as a doctrine that must be obeyed, then that’s against God,
who ordained marriage. Even Martin Luther (1483-1546) realised
that truth.” (The Sun-Herald, April
28, 1996).
“Changing
the shape of priesthood” “We do not
just want to ordain women, we want to change the shape of the priesthood.” (A
prominent Catholic nun. ABC TV, Compass,
“Cardinal raises prospect of marriage” “The man widely
tipped as the next Pope, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, says there is "no
theoretical problem" preventing sexually-active married men from becoming
Roman Catholic clergy. On a visit to
Sydney, Cardinal Martini, the Archbishop of Milan, told the Herald yesterday that "celibacy is
not necessarily linked to the priesthood", and the Church could
"make some changes, some adaptations" to its present approach. The Cardinal's remarks will renew debate
among Catholics over whether reversing the
I HAVE much sympathy
with Father M. Shadbolt (The Clergy Always The
Clergy, Letters, 21/4), but I acknowledge that those who put themselves up as
moral guardians have to put up with flak when they are seen to be as human as
the rest of us. The Catholic Church
received me as one of its own more than 56 years ago, and I have had reasonably
intimate contact with nuns, brothers and priests (but, alas, not bishops) ever
since. I don't think it will surprise
anybody to hear that the vast majority are decent people, and many of them
leave me in awe at the love they showed their fellow human beings - a brother
who devotes his life to victims of AIDS, a nun who cleans public lavatories so
as to relieve her order of the burden of supporting her, priests who spend six
nights a week visiting the squats in town to bring coffee and human
contact. Please do not condemn the
majority for the sins of the few. But if
you want to condemn those bishops and other leaders who used their power to
move the problem somewhere, to cover up and obfuscate, I find it hard to defend
them. It is their actions that have
caused the media to home in on Catholic sexual abuse even though the number of
cases involving brothers and priests is proportionately less than those
involving health professionals, psychotherapists and others with power over
women and children. Wake up, Your
Graces, who were among that lot! As well
as compounding the suffering of the innocent, you have failed to support the
vast majority of decent people (clergy and lay) who put into practice what you
presume to preach.” (Letters, The Australian,
May 3, 1996)
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royalpriesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that' ye should shew
forth the praises of him who hath
called into his marvellous
light." (I Peter 2:9)
“Archbishop must quit: abuse victim” “A VICTIM of sexual
abuse in a Catholic primary school yesterday called for the resignation of
Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop designate, Dr Georg Pell, because of his
association with a paedophile priest in 1973. The call came as the victim’s former
principal at Ballarat's St Alipius
primary school Christian Brother Robert Charles Best, was given a nine-month
suspend jail sentence by the Victorian County Court for unlawfully and
indecently assaulting an 11-year-old student 1969. The Best sentence accompanied the lifting of
a suppression on the trial of another Christian Brother, Edward Vernon Dowlan,
who taught at the same school. Dowlan was jailed for nine years and eight months earlier
this month after pleading guilty to 16 counts of indecent assault on 11 boys at
Christian Brothers colleges between 1971 and 1982. He will serve a minimum of six years
jail. The two sentences complete a dark
history for the St Alipius boys. At the same time that Best and Dowlan were teachers, the local parish priest was Gerald
Francis Ridsdale, one of
“Sex abuse: Brothers to pay $3.5m” “In one of the biggest class actions in Australia's
legal history, the Christian Brothers have agreed to pay $3.5 million to 210
men who allege the Brothers physically and sexually abused them as
children. Under a nationwide deal just
reached to settle the class action, each of the 210 claimants will receive a
flat $2,000 payment from the Catholic Church, but those who can prove they were
abused will be eligible for further compensation of between $10,000 and
$25,000, depending on the level of abuse. . . The man representing the victims
in States outside Westem Australia, Mr John Hennessey,
said the final package was "a national disgrace" but one which the
men felt they had to accept or receive nothing at all. "This has been the greatest trauma of
our lives," said Mr Hennessey. All
claimants are veterans of Christian Brothers' institutions in
“Society hypocritical about child abuse, says cardinal” “Child abuse by the
clergy is linked to the wider issue of sexual permissiveness in society, says
Cardinal Carlo Martini, the Archbishop of Milan, the man sometimes touted as
the next Pope. Sexual abuse by priests
was a warning to society that it could not be permissive about sexual conduct,
he said in
“Challenge the myth, change the world, Reverend is one of
a kind” “Asked to categorise
herself as a Christian, the Reverend Mara Di Francesco says she's a charismatic
Anglo-Catholic, fundamentalist, evangelical, liberal, feminist Italian. "In other words, I'm a mixture of a lot
of things," the Rev Mara said. "I don't like to be put into a
box." And there certainly wouldn't
be a pre-fab box to take her - the Rev Mara is most
definitely one of a kind. Tomorrow night
the vibrant
“Missal Of Massacre And Myth” “THE very best that parents can do for their
children in these troubled days, says
the Very Rev Dean Lance Shilton, the Anglican Dean of
Sydney, is to read a modern translation of the Bible and send the children to
Sunday School (21/10). But what can
parents and children find in any translation of the Bible? Nothirg but
never-ending God ordained killings, rape and pillage, divine acts of gross
injustice and inconsistency, barbarous laws, unfulfilled prophecies and
threats, contradictions, absurdities, atrocities, stupid and conflicting
repetitions of the same stories and, in footnotes, shameless admissions of the
translation. The Bible has brought
nothing but death and disaster to the world.
This monstrous missal of massacre, myth, mystery and muddle, must be Kept out of the schools.”
(Alan F. Parkinson, The Weekend Australian, 26-27 October, 1985).
“Charles church doubt”
“London: Prince Charles has long lost interest in the Church of England
even tough he will become its head when he becomes
king, former archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie believes . . . The prince’s interest in “new age” philosophy
is also said to concern the church . . . A biography of Lord Runcie by Humphrey
Carpenter also reveals that the man who married the Prince and Princess of
Wales in 1981 has admitted he considered the couple ill-matched and knew the
marriage had been arranged simply to produce an heir to the throne . . . Extracts from the book have already caused a
stir with the gay community because Lord Runcie admits he feared being stabbed
in the back by homosexual clergy because he was heterosexual” (The Daily
Telegraph, Sept. 9, 1996).
“Everything is God-ordained” “In my letter, Missal Of Massacre And Myth (26/10), I said that the Bible reeks with "God-ordained
killings, rape, and pillage." Arthur Negus (5/11) now offers to give to the Matt Talbot Hostel $50 for every
instance of God-ordained rape I can find
in the Bible. If we believe the Bible,
everything is God-ordained. “All things
are decided by fate. It was known long ago what each man would be. So there is no use arguing with God about
your destiny" (Ecclesiastes
“Church must fight menace within: report” “Internal divisions,
falling attendance and the ageing of its traditional community are
contributing to the decline of the Anglican Church, once the nation's biggest
single denomination, a new report says.
Despite attempts to broaden its appeal, it says the Church no longer
reflects
“Scientology sect gets a bollocking” “The Church of Scientology, the bizarre cult
founded by the late Lafayette Ron Hubbard, is reeling from setbacks in the
“Sexuality report threatens church unity” “A CONTROVERSIAL
“Homosexuality and the church: Heresy charge lost in gay
ordination case” “
“There is no freedom
in homosexuality. It’s like having your soul in chains.” (U Turn Anglia, SBS TV, Sept., 1996).
“Bible basher attacks gays on the Web” by Ann Lamoy in
Kansas City “Old-fashioned Bible
thumping hit cyberspace last week when the Reverend Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka in the United States went
online. The church has established a Web
page, with the help of
“Bible bashing: Islamic evangelist’s Easter show of
defiance” “SHEIKH Ahmed Deedat
takes the stage at the Sydney Town Hall tomorrow night, on the most solemn day
of the Christian calendar, to deliver a message many churchgoers will regard
as an affront, given at a time deliberately calculated to provoke them. Deedat is a South
African Muslim missionary who is determined to fulfil
an evangelistic role among the Australian people. He dismisses objections to the timing of his
lecture, titled Easter: A Muslim Viewpoint.
Deedat regards the Crucifixion of Jesus as
"crucifiction" and says that Islam, which
rejects the death and resurrection of Jesus, is "a necessary corrective to
the Bible". Dr Gordon Moyes, head of
“My family ‘s veil of tears” “My father walks
through the door. My mother, sister and
I run, hide, pretend we're cleaning or sleeping. He’s so big and so scary. His full grizzly beard,
the spot of baldness on his head, a perfect fit for his self-acquired crown.
His huge, fierce brown eyes always bloodshot, a temper equivalent to a wild
dog. He hides his identity as a
businessman in the community. Under the
social mask lies an authoritative, strict and narrow-minded man. It's his way or no way, and everything
according to him is for the sake of Islam.
His violence and barbaric control of his daughters and wife are
justified in the name of Allah by the Arabs in the community who admire
him. They have turned a blind eye to our
black eyes. My mother is in the kitchen,
preparing the meals, ironing the clothes, doing the dishes for my father and my
brothers. Under the traditional Islamic
veil, which covers her from head to toe, her skin is as white as ice, her body
craves to see the sun. Her legs, webbed
with varicose veins, mark the scars from the tiredness of her life. Her heart aches from depression, her eyes are
swollen from sadness. She runs the
household and is always there for her family.
She is a woman with a voice that is never heard and who has learnt to
deal with her life. Who am I? A woman
with a voice who is never heard, but who will not accept this sort of
life. Being the eldest of eight
children, a great deal of responsibility was placed upon me. Being a girl, I
also had to maintain my family's reputation.
I had to listen, obey and never question. I had to wear the Islamic veil, not for the
sake of Islam, but because of what people would say. My father's greatest fear was that his
daughters might elope with a non-Muslim man. How could he explain his kingdom
to people he had no control over? I
allowed my father's religion and culture to control me because I knew the consequences
of disgracing the family honour: death.
And if murder is committed, a cultural plan goes into action, so the
perpetrator is helped to escape to his country of origin. I could not fight the king but silence became
my power. Unfortunately, still, he does not know who I am, but what he thinks I
am. All bow. The king has a successor: my chosen
husband. At 16, I agreed with my father
that marriage was the answer. I thought
it was the perfect escape from my prison home.
My husband has the smile of a prince but his big white teeth conceal the
blackness within. He was the man who
would take my problems away. He was the
man who would give me unconditional love and care, the things I craved. His hands were the first to caress me
sexually, the first to caress me violently. His temper was volcanic, erupting at any
time, and his words lashed at my soul.
He became the man who wounded my body, my heart, my brain. He used my weakness against my father as his
power to manipulate and blackmail me into submission. I further tolerated the abuse because of the
genuine fear of being murdered and having my children kidnapped and taken to a
country where I would receive no access, a country where women have no
rights. Violence and control are such a
vicious cycle and I was trapped once again.
Today, in my country, Australia, I stand before my Judge, to judge.”(SMH, July 17, 1996).
“Middle East - Kuwaiti Christian convert’s ‘death
sentence’” “A Kuwaiti convert to Christianity declared
an apostate by an Islamic court has said the ruling is in effect a death
sentence and that he fears for his life.
Mr Robert Hussein, 45, a businessman, said: "Everyone is asking for
my death. A man has a right to live. Everyone has accused me of apostasy. This is a matter of life or death ... They
sentenced me to death on May 29."
That day the Shi'ite Family Court, ruling on a
private civil suit brought against Mr Hussein .by three Islamic lawyers,
declared him an apostate, in the first such finding by a court in the
conservative
“Autopsy rules offend Muslims” “NSW's Muslims have branded aspects of the
State's coronial system as "highly offensive" to Islamic practice and
beliefs, and want a partial exemption from the "indiscriminate" use
of autopsies on their dead. The Islamic
Council of NSW has called for changes in NSW laws to prevent Muslims who die
from old age, chronic illness, car accidents or other non-suspicious
circumstances from being subject to autopsy.
The council’s chairman, Mr Ali Roude, said
Muslims were not asking for "special treatment", just recognition of
their “special needs". "Islam
does not allow any unnecessary mishandling or mutilation of the dead body,
whether for medical or other curiosities," he said. Islam advocates the same-day washing and
burial of the dead - a religious practice made impossible by the autopsy
process, which takes at least 24 hours.
The dead are believed to be traumatised by
being naked in front of a stranger and to feel pain when handled. Muslims agreed that in some cases, autopsy
was necessary but were beyond reason when the cause of death was clear, Mr Roude said.
"Just because the soul has departed, it does not mean that the body
is valueless nor totally disassociated from the deceased." Mr Roude said the
community had a funeral director on 24 hour-call, guaranteeing burial within
hours of death to give the dead "peace and lessen the emotional effects"
on the family. The council has discussed
the issue with the State Government and the Ethnic Affairs Commission, which is
planning to review the State's coronial system next year to see if it fully
respects the religious and cultural practices of
Freedom, fundamentalists ‘both losers’ as court orders
divorce” “Cairo: A Muslim woman facing divorce because
a court found that her husband's writings insulted Islam said the ruling was a
blow to freedom in Egypt and would hurt the cause of fundamentalists. The court yesterday ruled in favour of the
Muslim fundamentalist lawyers who brought the case, demanding that Dr Nasr Abu Zeid divorce his wife because his scholarly writings showed
he was no longer a Muslim and so could not be married to a Muslim woman. “They (the lawyers) are the losers," Ms lbtihal Younis said. "What they did has outraged people who
were neutral and inflamed the world against them”. . . In
“Tibet: Tea and sympathy for Dalai Lama rattles China” “London: China's
campaign to justify its continuing human rights abuses in Tibet has hit a snag,
with a decision by the Queen Mother to invite the Dalai Lama to join her for
tea. The invitation from the most
popular member of the royal family is the first time
The Dalai Lama will
also meet the Foreign Secretary, Mr Malcolm Rifldnd,
during his one-week stay in
Order to shun husband evens the Jewish score” “An ancient biblical law invoked in
"This sends out
an important message for other recalcitrant husbands," said Ms Blu Greenberg, a
“Islam’s born-again virgins forced to pay a high price” "The number of operations restoring the
hymen went up by 25 per cent between 1965 and 1995, especially in
Phoolan Devi - the famous outlaw dacoit “Bandit Queen” on the
fate of
“We want the right to
our husbands. But parents, either out of greed or poverty... poverty makes you
weak. At the age of 11 I was married to
a man of thirty. I failed to grasp the
meaning of marriage. That shouldn’t happen. Girls must be consulted. If girls are educated and protected, parents
will consider them an investment. The girls will be able to get jobs and not be
forced to slave away for someone. Brides
won’t be burnt to get more dowries. Many
girls from poor families are raped. They are robbed of their prestige.” “What is life like as a law cast here in
When I was 14 my
cousin and the village elders implicated me in a robbery case. The police arrested me. Before that I didn’t
know about the police. They bashed me
and did other things with me. Later when
cruel people did atrocious things to me I thought the police were
all-powerful. But the police at the
station and the rich landlords work out an agreement amongst themselves. The poor don’t get a chance to get
ahead. We don’t know where
“I don’t think there
is anything in the Bible to prohibit the ordination of women.” A newly ordained woman priest in the Anglican
Church. (ABC TV, Feb. 10, 1996).
“Let your women keep
silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be
submissive, as the law also says. And
if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for
it is shameful for women to speak in church.”
(1 Cor
“I desire therefore
that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest
apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls
or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with
good works. Let a woman learn in silence
with all submission. And I do not permit
a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman
being deceived, fell into transgression.
Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in
faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” (1 Tim 2:8-15).