COUNTDOWN TO THE GREAT
TRIBULATION
“The
Russian Prime Minister, Primakov, declared today at
the world economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, that
although Russia is currently preoccupied by serious economic difficulties,
Moscow remains a great power whose views must be considered in global politics
discussions. He said that Moscow opposes
a ‘unipolar’
world - an apparent reference to the preeminent position held by the USA.
In
spite of its current economic difficulties, Russia is still a strong military
power, with great resources and military potential, he said. Although its current economic problems will
take at least a year to resolve, they are a temporary phenomenon which would
not prevent Russia from playing an active role in international diplomacy.” (Radio Free
Europe, February 1, 1999).
It seems an awfully long time
since the Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeni Primakov, made that statement, yet that was only earlier
this year. Our times are moving so fast it is hard to keep up with world
developments anymore. Russia is now
having its third Prime Minister since then.
We have been expecting this
kind of assertiveness from the Russian leaders for some time now, and when it
came it did not surprise us. But it
raised a few eyebrows among those who have written Russia off as a superpower
years ago.
Ever since the Soviet Union
was signed out of existence in 1991, we have continually warned the world that
Russia would rise once again and be the main player in the end-time nuclear
holocaust -
known in the Bible as the great tribulation.
So when we heard of Primakov’s statement, we
were curious what the mainstream media had to say about it. This is what we found in The Australian:
“It would take Russia at least a year to pull
out of its economic crises, but its economic woes would not prevent it playing
an active role in international diplomacy, Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov said at the weekend. He told the World Economic Forum annual gathering
that Russia’s economic problems were a “temporary phenomenon” and even if “it
will take time and probably more than a year to get out of these dire straits .
. . it will not do anything to prevent Russia playing an active role” in
international diplomacy. In the Middle
East, in Kosovo” and elsewhere “we are going to play a positive role in all
these places”, Mr. Primakov said. “The difficult economic situation does not
create the best conditions in which to pursue an active foreign policy. We want to use our influence in order to
stabilize the situation.” (The Australian, February 1, 1999).
Can you detect the
differences between the two accounts? No mention of Russia’s great military
potential, or its opposition to a “unipolar” world in
The Australian. In other words, no mention of its claim to superpower status
alongside the USA. Nothing but a benign claim to playing an active role in
international diplomacy in order to “stabilize the situation”.
Since the beginning of our
work, it has been our policy to send our magazines to national and religious
leaders, and to media representatives, as part of our efforts to witness the
restored Gospel of the Kingdom of God to as many people as possible. Early in our work, we received a reply from the
religious writer of The Australian who told us among other
things that he “always answers letters”.
We took that to mean that he wanted us to continue sending him our
magazines, which we did. That was the
first and last we heard from him, but that was not the end of our
communication.
In our very first edition, we
revealed that the time was ripe for the fulfillment of a major biblical
prophecy: the visit to Israel of the head of the Catholic Church. This is what we wrote then.
“Because
three major world religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam -
claim [Jerusalem] as a central place for their faiths, the only possible
solution is to make that an international city. That way we would also have the
conditions for a Pope to visit that city. Did you know that no Pope ever
visited Jerusalem in two thousand years of Christianity? Only one Pope will God
Almighty allow to step foot on that land, and most likely he will come to
inaugurate the ‘new era of peace!’ When
that happens, be ready for Armageddon.” (The Christian Herald, No 1, 1990, p. 16).
Only a few months later, the
Vatican announced that the Pope would indeed like to visit Jerusalem as “a
messenger of peace”. We were taken by
surprise by that announcement because we did not expect it to come so
soon. As it turned out, that event was
still almost a decade away. But after a
few false starts, we know for sure now that that event is scheduled to take
place sometimes in the year 2000. In
subsequent editions of The Christian Herald, we discussed the implications of that visit, and explained
that it would take place after a new leader took over in Russia from
Yeltsin. We understood from biblical
prophecies that Yeltsin would not be the man responsible for the end-time
nuclear holocaust (For a detailed analysis of those prophecies see The Christian
Heralds Nos
But then we were taken by
surprise by an article in The Australian, signed by its religious editor,
which said that the Pope’s visit would take place no later than 1995. Being an ordained preacher, we assumed that
he had inside knowledge about this event.
So for a while, that put us in a conundrum - we just
could not see how that could happen so soon.
But when that date passed and his prediction did not eventuate, it
became obvious that he had expressed not an informed opinion, but his own
personal desire. He was very anxious for
that visit to take place as soon as possible.
Why? Because that would have made
us false prophets. Russia could not have had a new leader by then, and the Pope’s
visit would not have fulfilled the most important prophecy of our time.
Afterwards, we noticed a
peculiar change in the editorial policy of this newspaper. As we continued to point out the perilous
condition of the world, and the increasing tribulations it was experiencing
since the beginning of this decade, which coincided with the beginning of our
work, this newspaper began to play the Devil’s advocate.
Natural disasters? Nothing unusual compared to previous
times. Environmental degradation? Nothing that cannot be repaired. Danger of nuclear holocaust? The world has entered a peaceful and
prosperous new age. Overpopulation? The earth could accommodate many times more
people than it does now. Famine? Only a matter of distributing the resources
evenly. Warming of the planet? The earth
is experiencing one of its many cycles.
And so they went, the more we pointed out that these are the preceding
signs and stages to the great tribulation, the more they reassured their
readers that there is nothing to worry about.
Nothing in the world seemed to
disturb these people. But in their
effort to present a rosy a picture of the world, they emaciated and sanitized
their paper so badly, one could no longer get an accurate picture of the world
from its pages. So we had no choice but
to give up wasting out time on their newspaper.
We relied instead on The Sydney
Morning Herald , by far the most informed
and insightful newspaper in Australia, and on a handful of other local and
international publications. But when it
came to Primakov’s statement, even those at the SMH seemed to
take fright by ignoring it altogether.
This was the more surprising since only days earlier they acknowledged
in an important article that western media made a mistake in the way it looked
at Russia. This is what they said:
“There are
sinister echoes of the rise of National Socialism in moves for a Slavic
union. Its
hardly surprising that Western media keep missing important – and troubling –
political trends in Moscow; it just reflects our total preoccupation with
Russia’s financial meltdown. Such
preoccupation with economics might have been excused in the heady days of
President Yeltsin’s power. The trouble is that its not just Yeltsin but an
entire era is fading from the picture, and a new and dangerous one looms while
we refuse to see its omens. One can’t
help but recall the Western press of the early 1930s, still engrossed in the
Weimar Republic’s financial agony, on the verge of the Nazi takeover of
Germany.
Some of the
omens ignored by our media include the visit to Russia of Vojislav Seselj, the Vice-Premier of Serbia, as well as his
sensational appeal for a Slavic Union of Russia, Yugoslavia and Belarus. Of course, Seselj
is habitually called the “mad dog” of Serbian nationalism, an “irreconcilable”
next to whom even Slobodan Milosevic looks like a moderate. What’s really important,
though, is that in the Russian city of Yaroslav, Seselj’s appeal got a standing ovation.
Missed as well
was the Belarus President Alexander G. Lukashenko’s
depiction of Ukraine as a betrayer of the common Slavic cause. Seselj and Lukashenko are politicians, not amateur travellers. Unlike
our media, they must have smelled change in Moscow’s political air. Why else
would they bother suddenly forging an alliance with Russia’s own
“irreconcilables”, the anti-Western nationalists who have worked hard for the
last seven years trying to provoke a confrontation with the West?
For all their
ravings about the Zionist conspiracy deliberately ruining Russia, these
gentlemen were until now of limited value to their Serb and Belarus brethren.
With Yeltsin in the Kremlin and lacking a credible and popular leader, they had
no chance to change radically Russia’s foreign policy. Not any more, though,
not when they are rallying behind a formidable presidential contender in Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow. If so, their political program would seem to
deserve some media scrutiny. Especially the points that are of such concern to Seselj and Lukashenko:
- The immediate
Anschluss of Belarus, which for Russia would be the
same as Austria’s consolidation with Germany in 1938.
- The return to
Russia of the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol (compare it with Hitler’s demand for
the return of Danzig on the eve of World War II).
- The creation
of a Slavic Union of Russia –Belarus, Yugoslavia and Ukraine, which Lukashenko intends to lead.
If the “treasonous” Ukrainian leadership refuses to join the ranks, Seselj and Lukashenko will
threaten a civil war – 10 million Russians, after all, live in Ukraine.
So what happens
if Luzhkov wins the presidential elections? Given
that he is one of the most fervent champions of incorporating Belarus as well
as of the return of Sevastopol, some kind of Russian-Ukrainian confrontation
would be on the cards. If that occurs, its hard to imagine the US not intervening on behalf of
Ukraine. And here we see clearly what Seselj and Lukashenko are up to – US intervention is all that the
“irreconcilables” need to turn Russia into a Serbia-in-making.
Russia would be
ruined economically, just as Serbia is.
Yet, again like Serbia, Russia would be fuelled by an all-consuming
“patriotic” fervour of imperial restoration. It’s easy to envisage what the
emergence of such a nuclear mega-Serbia would mean. Just imagine the mayhem
that Iraq in the Middle East or Serbia in the Balkans might create if allowed
to operate with impunity behind a Russian nuclear shield.
Yes, this is a worst
case scenario. The Russian
“irreconcilables” may not come to terms with Luzhkov
– though it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t.
And Luzhkov himself may be defeated in the
elections (though it’s hard to guess by whom). Still, it’s hardly wise to give
him a helping hand by sticking to the course designed by the International
Monetary Fund, which generates only misery in Russia and nationalist outrage
towards the West. It’s not too late to realise
that what the West has been doing to Russia in the last seven years is a carbon
copy of what it did to Weimar Germany in the 1920s. Should we be surprised if
identical policies produce identical results?
The whole thing looks
more bizarre when we recall that a remarkable generation of Americans after
World War II rejected those failed Weimar policies of financial manipulation in
favour of a solid strategy of reconciliation of former enemies – a strategy
crowned with success in both Japan and in Germany. We didn’t give them money
then that could be stolen just as it has in Russia. We modernised their industries instead. Why not follow George Marshall and Dean
Acheson, fashioners of the Marshall Plan? Why refuse to face the fact that
radical reform is needed, not just by Russia’s economy but in our own policies
as well?
First things first, however. Right now our main
preoccupation in Moscow must be to assure that in the next five years there is
no Russian Milosevic in the Kremlin – if only because there must still be a
Russia after 2000 willing to accept a reformed Western policy.” (Alexander
Yanov, Sydney Morning Herald, December 30,
1998).
So, “the
Western media keep missing important – and troubling – political
trends in Moscow”. Isn’t this what we
have been saying for nearly a decade now?
But nobody took us seriously because we looked at the world in light of
biblical prophecies, and you can’t take seriously a man who says that the world
is proceeding exactly as God had determined thousands of years ago, can
you? But then, when were God’s people
taken seriously by this world?
FALSE PROPHETS AND PROPHECIES
“Today, we refuse to learn from the signs of
history. And some of those signs are
happening inside that very same nation - Germany! Our peoples are again
refusing to see what is really happening. Germany is prophesied to rise one
last time, again to be the enemy of America and Britain (Isa.
10:5-7; “Assyria”
is the ancient name of Germany). God helped us in World War II. But God has
prophesied that He will oppose us in World War III, unless we repent. “Any good watchman looks for disquieting
signs and warns his people. God has given me a watchtower from which to warn
our people today.” (The
Philadelphia Trumpet, January 1999).
This is what Gerard Flurry
wrote in his magazine The Philadelphia
Trumpet of January 1999. If you do
not know who Gerard Flurry is, you will find out shortly. Sufficient to say here that judging by the
speed with which he expands his religious empire, and the number of television
stations that carry his message, he appears to be the most successful preacher
in the world at the present.
As you can see, according to this
man, it is not Russia and China that represent a great danger to the world, but
Germany. So sure is he of this fact,
that he gave us biblical references to check them for ourselves. So let us do just that, let us see what
"Woe to
Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose
hand is My indignation.
I will send
him against an ungodly nation, And against the people
of My wrath I will give him charge, To seize the spoil, to take the prey, And
to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Yet he does
not mean so, Nor does his heart think so; But it is in his heart to destroy,
And cut off not a few nations.”
Can you see Britain, the USA,
and World War III in this prophecy? Or can you see a Germany capable of “treading
down like the mire of the street” both Britain and the USA in a very short
time? Yet this is what this man wants us
to read in this passage. Or at least,
this is what he reads in this passage.
It is true that Germany was
the Assyria of old, and that this nation was the rod of God’s anger through
much of history, the
First and Second World Wars being only the most recent examples, but Germany
does not feature as a main protagonist in the end-time global tribulation. One of the prophecies dealing with that time,
which Gerard Flurry conveniently ignores, is found in the book of Ezekiel. See if you can identify which nations it
refers to, and whether Germany is among them.
Ezek
38:1 Now the word of the LORD came to
me, saying, "Son of man, set your face against Gog,
of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy
against him, and say,
Ezek
38:3 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
"Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of
Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
Ezek 38:4 "I will turn you around, put hooks into
your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all
splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them
handling swords.
Ezek
38:7 "Prepare yourself and be
ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard
for them.
Ezek
38:10 "On that day it shall come to
pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:
Ezek
38:11 "You will say, 'I will go up
against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a
peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and
having neither bars nor gates';
Ezek
38:12 "to take plunder and to take
booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again
inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have
acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
Add to this the following
prophecy from the book of Revelation, dealing with the same event, and you have
an even better picture of which countries it might refer to.
Now even if you find it hard
to accept that Rosh, Mesheck, and Tubal
are Russia, Moscow and Tobolsk, as some people do,
there are other factors in these statements which identify Russia, and its
allies as the most likely protagonists in this end-time scenario.
- First, its location in the “far north”. Look at a globe and see which country is far
north of Israel, Germany or Russia?
- Second, look at its allies: Persia, Ethiopia, and
Libya. Persia is today’s Iran. The Iranian leaders never stop talking about
eliminating Israel. They are being feverishly armed, not by Germany, but by
Russia. The same is true of Libya. Ethiopia still has a leftist Government. Primakov, a former
KGB chief, has maintained close links with Saddam Hussein. He is the darling of many left leaning people
and leaders around the world who keep hunkering for the good old communist
times.
If you think that the aim of
world revolution has come to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union,
think again. The battle has merely shifted
ground from the battlefield to the home. The shot gun, the machete, and the
rope have been joined by the film, TV, radio, computer, printed media, and the
education of your kids. The center of
revolution is no longer Moscow, or Beijing, or Havana, but Hollywood, and the
Education Departments of your own Government. They no longer aim to grab your
material possessions and turn them into collective property, but the
destruction of values, beliefs and philosophy that have held families together
since the advent of civilized society.
Parents are appalled at what their children learn and bring home from
school these days. Kindergarten and
primary school children know more about sex than their parents knew when they
got married. A permissive environment is
the surest way to destroy our society and prepare the groundwork for their
revolutionary aims.
Even the Russians who helped
bring down the old repressive Soviet system are having second thoughts about
what they got themselves into - a recycled old Russian
feudal system.
At a recent meeting between
the leaders of Russia and China, President Yeltsin put his hand over his chest
and said that China is very close to his heart.
The two countries discovered that perhaps the old system served them best,
if only it could be refined and ironed out.
These countries have been courting each other with renewed vigor lately?
“Leaders
unite to protect borders. Facing a growing threat from armed Islamic
fundamentalists, the leaders of Russia, China and three Central Asian nations
have signed a pact aimed at promoting security along their vast mutual borders.
“The issue in question is the creation of a peace zone that would be unique for
Asia along the common border of our five countries,” said Russian President Mr Boris Yeltsin.” (SMH, August 7, 1999).
“China-bound. Russia’s
President Boris Yeltsin will visit China in the northern autumn for a second
meeting with President Jiang Zemin,
the official Xinhua news agency said at the
weekend. Beijing and Moscow are opposed
to a “unipolar” post-Cold War world dominated by Washington.” (SMH,
August 30, 1999).
“Russia to sell jets to
China in $3billion deal. Russia has concluded a huge deal to sell
advanced fighter planes to China according to reports from Khabarovsk,
the region where the Sukhoi-30 aircraft are being
made. . . If confirmed, the deal fits
into China’s strategy of edging closer to Moscow.” (SMH, August 9,
1999).
We have come a long way since 1992
when President Yeltsin, hand in hand with President Bush, declared that Russia
and the USA were no longer enemies but allies.
Yevgeni Primakov is not Russia’s Prime Minister anymore, but he has
emerged as a strong contender for next year’s Presidential elections. Interestingly enough, the current Prime
Minister, Vladimir Putin, is also a former chief of Russia’s Security
apparatus. Which tells
you who pulls the strings in Russia these days.
- Third, the army of two hundred million people is coming from
the north-east across the Euphrates, not from the west from Germany. Germany could not gather an army of two
hundred million people even if it co-opted the whole of Europe west of Russia
into its camp, let alone only ten central European nations, whereas an alliance between Russia, Iran and
China would make that a fait accompli.
Now let us consider what would
be at stake for Germany to become such a colossal power. First it would need to develop a large
arsenal of nuclear weapons. Then it would
need to build their means of delivery - an enormous array of ballistic missiles,
aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, destroyers, troop carriers, etc. - and a defensive system so
accurate and powerful as to destroy all incoming nuclear missiles and bombers
from Britain and the USA. And that
assuming that these two nations do nothing to upgrade their already awesome
nuclear capabilities. At present, no
country on earth could build such a defensive system, the USA being merely in
the initial stages of developing its Strategic Defense System. If a nuclear confrontation were to erupt
between these two countries, Britain alone could do enough damage to Germany to
cripple that country for ever. The
surviving population would have an impossible task surviving the nuclear
contamination, let alone taking care of the injured, the irradiated, even the
dead, in a country with ruined cities and devastated infrastructure.
And yet, Gerard Flurry assures
us that Germany is about to cripple Britain and the USA instead.
Britain’s nuclear capabilities
are not directed against the likes of Russia, China, or some other far away
power, against whom it would have little hope of winning a nuclear war, but as
a deterrent against closer neighbors, Germany being the most obvious one. But after their unfortunate experience with
Hitler, it is hard to imagine that the people of Germany would allow their
democratic system to be undermined again by a lunatic who would drag them into
a suicidal war.
Nuclear war requires above all
else large uncontaminated area to serve as refuge for the survivors. That is why only countries the size of
Russia, China, the USA, and possibly India, could ever countenance such a war. Right now, Russia, unlike Germany, has all
the ingredients in place. It has a vast
territory; a system which is inimical to the West; a religion which calls for
the restoration of the old empire; and it is piling up even more sophisticated
nuclear weapons on top of an already bloated military arsenal. And, unfortunately for the West, it also has
the motive to launch a preemptive strike, for more and more of its politicians
and military leaders are blaming the West for the economic morass in which it finds
itself. All it needs now is a leader who
listens to these disgruntled voices, and you have the great tribulation. Soon,
it will get that one too. Many Russian
generals believe that enough of their people can survive a nuclear war to be
able to rise to world prominence again.
That is why the United States takes this threat very seriously.
“It is almost
10 years since the Berlin Wall came down and people believe that the Cold War
is over. Not so. The US Department of Energy has never conceded that the
possession and possible use of nuclear weapons is an outdated and obsolete
concept, and it is presently funding a program to design, build and test new
nuclear weapons at a cost of $4.5 billion a year over the next 10 to 15 yeas,
which exceeds the annual average spending at the height of the Cold War. So extraordinary is this new endeavor that
the department’s Assistant Secretary of Defense Programs, Mr Victor
Reis, described it as “a scientific and technical challenge perhaps as
formidable as the Manhattan Project".
This concept originated in 1994 when President Clinton announced a
Nuclear Posture Review. calling for nuclear forces to
remain a cornerstone of US defense posture for the foreseeable future,
directing the Energy Department to design, fabricate and certify new nuclear
warheads.
Two years
later, on September 24, 1996, Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT).
Now the
nuclear weapons labs - Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia
- are designing and building huge supercomputers that will simulate actual nuclear
testing, while at the same time testing sub-critical quantities of plutonium at
the Nevada nuclear test site, thereby directly violating the spirit and the
letter of the CTBT.
Extraordinarily complex and expensive scientific experimental facilities
are on the drawing board and under construction at the labs for
"virtual" nuclear testing. These include the Dial Axis Radiographic
Hydrodynamic Test Facility,
Advanced Hydrotest Facility, National Ignition Facility, Advanced Radiation Source and the
Atlas Power Facility. Several of these
machines are designed to simulate the turbulence within the Plutonium trigger
in the nanoseconds before explosion. This is called hydrotesting.
Other exotic
scientific procedures include high energy evaluation, gap analysis, spallation/ejection, aging evaluation, new design
evaluation, dynamic material properties, gas cavity. studies, fission ignition
and burn, and radiation transport.
The nuclear
Scientists at the labs will also study nuclear performance in flight,
electromagnetic pulse, pulsed power source, simulation of radiation
environments, stockpile to target sequence and hydrodynamics of solid rocket
fuel.
In all, America Is planning to develop a new arsenal
of “modernised" weapons, many of low or moderate
yield, to be fitted to an array of faster stealthier, longer range delivery
platforms with sophisticated electronics, fully integrated into a 2lst century "battlefield” controlled by satellite
surveillance, remotely deployed sensor arrays and precision targeting.
According to
military documents, the US is scheduled to maintain an arsenal of 10,000
nuclear weapons under START II - yet be ratified by the Duma in
Moscow - enough to produce nuclear winter and the end of most life on earth by
a factor of 10.
In short,
America still maintains its strategic weapons on a high state of alert and will
use them first if necessary.
- Since 1994,
in fact, the Department of Energy has already designed and constructed a new
"earth penetrating" nuclear weapon and has plans to build more new
types of weapons. It is also moving
towards the possible development of a pure fusion bomb, which will not require
the use of fission materials. This is an extremely serious proposition because
arms control verification is dependent upon the satellite detection of
fissionable isotopes. So pure fusion development, if successful, will end the
global process of arms control.
During the
Cold War, nuclear weapons were only to be used against other nuclear nations -
the Soviet Union or China. But US policy has changed. Now these new weapons are
to be used against non-nuclear countries that possess "weapons of mass
destruction" -classified as chemical, biological or nuclear. The firewall
has been dismantled and any tiny country is now a target for the terrible might
of thermonuclear weapons.
"Manhattan Two" programs have already been initiated by the
four other declared nuclear nations - England, France, China and Russia. The
last has already conducted two subcritical tests and
France is preparing to do so. These nations, of course, almost always emulate
the conduct of the US. The Department of
Energy has also initiated a five-year grant of $20 million a piece to five
universities, to train a new generation of nuclear weapon specialists to work
with the most advanced nuclear science and technology in the world, hoping that
these young people will devote their lives to the development of ever more
sophisticated atomic weapons.
The five
universities are Stanford, University of Chicago, University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Utah and the California
Institute of Technology. These extremely
dangerous developments have come about because of the awesome political power
of the nuclear scientists, a Congress which is inattentive, and a President who
has been otherwise involved, unable or unwilling to focus on the possibility of
nuclear-free future for our children and grandchildren.
The most
serious consequences will be the development of both "horizontal" and
"vertical” proliferation. Because the US is violating the CTBT and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for the
nuclear nations to disarm,
non-nuclear nations will be encouraged to build and test their own
nuclear weapons. and the nuclear nations, as previously
noted, will develop ever more sophisticated nuclear devices. If the US does not accept the overwhelming
will of the American people - 87 per cent of whom favor nuclear disarmament -
and recognize the rapidly
growing worldwide movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons I
predict that within a decade, 10 more nations, such as India and Pakistan, will
have developed their own nuclear arsenals and, within 20 years, there will be a
nuclear war. Such a cataclysmic event,
according to General Lee Butler, former commander-in-chief of the US Strategic
Air command, will be one "transcending time and space, poisoning the earth
and deforming its inhabitants". We
must not, cannot, let this happen.” (Helen Caldicott
– author of Nuclear Madness, What Can You Do - Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 1999).
Now lest you think that the USA alone is villain in this case, this is
what the Russians have been doing lately too:
“In a rare
meeting of the Kremlin Security Council devoted to nuclear weapons policy,
President Boris Yeltsin has approved a new blue print for beefing up thousands
of short-range or tactical nuclear weapons that were taken out of service
unilaterally earlier in the decade, officials said. The decision was announced by the Security
Council secretary, Mr Vladimir Putin, who said it had nothing to do with the
conflict over Kosovo. However, other
sources said the decision clearly reflected
Can you see now why Jesus
Christ said that His return, and the great tribulation, will take the world by
surprise? Those who ought to know
better, are deceiving the world into a false sense of security by focusing
people’s attention away from the real danger, and towards a country which is
not even a nuclear power, and which has unilaterally renounced nuclear
weapons. If we have to wait for
Flurry says that he sees
“disquieting signs” coming from
During the Balkan conflict
earlier this year, not once did he speak against the atrocities committed by
the Serbs against the Albanians of Kosovo, yet all the time he blamed Germany
for what was happening in that country.
In his twisted reasoning,
At the height of that
conflict, in his May 1999 edition of The
Philadelphia Trumpet, Germany was mentioned directly or indirectly in no
less than 23 pages of the 28 that his magazine contained.
He thinks of himself as a
prophet of God, yet shows no sympathy for the hapless victims of gang rape
(women and girls even below the age of puberty), of torture, starvation,
wholesale slaughter, and mass deportations.
He and his ministers would have you believe that Jesus Christ cannot
return to this earth before a new temple is built in
The effect of this preaching
is to hide the true identity of the “abomination of desolation”, and cause
people to look elsewhere for the fulfillment of this prophecy, and thus be
unprepared for their Savior’s
return. We have amply
documented from historical and biblical sources, that this is none other than
the head of the forth “beast” of Daniel’s prophecies - Pontifex
Maximus.
Mystery
of the
Before this year, we knew
nothing about Gerard Flurry and his church, except that he was just another
offshoot of the Worldwide Church of God. But then, a friend of ours, knowing that our
teachings were diametrically opposed, handed us some of his publications and
asked us to comment on them. It was then
we discovered that we were wrong to have dismissed this man so lightly in the
past. He does not want to be considered
just another offshoot of the WCG; he claims nothing
less than the mantle of Herbert W. Armstrong, and the leadership of the
Philadelphia Church of God.
Before the death of its
founder, Worldwide Church of God members believed that their church was none
other than the Philadelphia Church of God of the book of Revelation, but even
Herbert W. Armstrong hesitated to make that official, fearing perhaps what
other churches may think, or that they might scoff at the idea. Not so Gerard Flurry. He did away with all pretenses and came out
into the open. After considering all
the facts, we believe that he is right.
He is indeed the rightful inheritor of Armstrong’s mantle, and the head
of the Philadelphia Church of God.
On the back of the title page
of his Philadelphia Trumpet he makes the following
statement:
“The Philadelphia Trumpet has no
subscription price -
it is free. This is made possible by the
tithes and offerings of the membership of the Philadelphia Church of God and
others. Contributions, however, are
welcomed and are tax deductible in the
He “holds fast” to the
traditions established in the “true church” by Herbert W Armstrong. He did well to put the words “hold fast” in
inverted comas, but forgot to do the same with the words “true church”. After the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, when
his sins, excesses, and false doctrines were exposed to the world, not one of
his top evangelists wanted to have anything to do with him anymore. They either
took their flocks and created new “Churches of God”, or set about to dismantle
everything that he stood for. Then, out
of that chaos, rose a white knight, whom hardly anyone knew, who determined to
preserve the memory of his mentor and restore his religious empire. Hence, the
“For over 50
years, the late Herbert W. Armstrong taught a strong prophecy message which
included God’s prophecies about a “beast” power comprised of ten nations or
groups of nations (Dan. 2:28-43;Rev. 13). That
multi-national religion-led superpower is now rising to the forefront of world
economic news before our very eyes, and will soon dominate the world and all of
its inhabitants (Rev. 13:16-17). A
European economic and military powerhouse led by
It was Herbert W. Armstrong
who first began the polemic against
When he saw
After his death, if some of
his followers had doubts about his preaching, they were quickly forgotten when
they saw the catastrophic collapse of the
Rev 3:7 "And to the angel of the church in
Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, "He
who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one
opens":
Rev 3:8 "I know your works. See, I have set
before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little
strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
Rev 3:9 "Indeed I will make those of the
synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie; indeed I will
make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
Rev 3:10 "Because you have kept My command to
persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon
the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
Rev 3:11 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast
what you have, that no one may take your crown.