19“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 26For
you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called. 27But 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; 28and 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, 29that no flesh should glory in His
presence. 30But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for
us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—31that,
as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor.1:19, 26-31).
“It is not a mere coincidence that at this particular
juncture in world history, life is being threatened from several
directions. People who know little about
biblical prophecies talk about the precarious condition of life on this
planet. This correlates well with the
prophecies of Jesus Christ who foresaw a calamitous end for this world.
Are we not living in those days now? How much worse must things get before
humanity realizes that it is heading towards catastrophe? The world has reached
the saturation point as far as population is concerned. The environment simply can no longer support
the ever-increasing population. It has
been estimated that within a generation the world population will double, then
in less than a century it will double again. It will then continue to double
within an ever-reducing cycle.
One scientist
remarked that if the world survives to reach that level, life conditions would
become so miserable that death would be preferable to life. Well, for millions of people even now
merciful death would be preferable to a hellish life. For those dying of starvation and disease in
About a decade ago, when images of starvation emerged from
What would it be like when every country and every city in the world has
doubled in size? The environment is
already dying. Can the world support
such an increase when many resources are already in short supply? Can the world afford not to turn to God while
He may still be found? Perhaps it is
already too late.
What were considered alarmist predictions a few decades ago, not only
have been fulfilled, but exceeded many times over. We are now learning about world problems that
only a few years ago were unheard of. A
decade ago no one knew of AIDS. Half a decade
ago there was no talk of the thinning of the ozone layer. These problems alone pose catastrophic
dangers. AIDS is threatening to destroy
the regenerating power of many nations.
The thinning of the ozone layer is posing a threat to the vegetation and
the microscopic marine organisms, the very support of life on earth, in addition
to whatever harm they may do directly to human beings. In February this year scientists raised the
alarm when they discovered that the depletion of the ozone layer is much worse
than previously thought:
"New finding of ozone depletion were so
alarming, the scientists said, they decided to release them before completion
of the data analysis in late March. “Everybody should be alarmed about
this," said Michael Kurylo, a research manager at the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA).
"We're seeing conditions primed for ozone destruction. It's in a far worse way than we
thought." (Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 5, 1992).
Apocalyptic times are well and truly upon us, yet people
would not repent so that God may spare the world of these cataclysms. Can you
see now why the sun is scorching the earth, and human beings suffer as a
result?
"And men were scorched with great heat, and
they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did
not repent and give Him glory." (Rev.16:9).
Governments are unable to address these problems because they require
painful solutions. The people that elect
them are more concerned with the pain of hunger than with restoring the
ecological balance. Difficult problems
are often postponed and left for the next government to solve with the result
that little is achieved. Often they
prefer not to raise such concerns in public at all. Out of sight is out of mind. No one realizes that these problems will get
much worse and will not be solved unless and until people turn to God.
How many people remember the events of 1991? Aside from the Gulf War and the ecological
and social disasters that it created, how many know that in terms of natural
disasters 1991 broke almost every record since record keeping began more than a
century ago?
The US Congress allocates an annual percentage of its budget every year
for emergency situations, to help those nations that suffer calamities and
natural disasters. By May 1991, the sum allocated for the entire year was
already exhausted. There were droughts,
famine, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, mudslides, etc., too many to
be listed. Who remembers, for example,
when approximately a third of
How many people know that large
tracks of the
People believe that communism failed.
Communism never failed, atheism did!
Communism never failed because it has never been tried. What they practiced in the
Soviet communism failed, but so has American capitalism. Such is the vulgarity of capitalism that at a
time when a company like General Motors is closing down dozens of factories and
laying off thousands of people, it grants its retiring Chairman an annual
pension of $US1.2 million. The Chairman
of Chrysler, who has an allocated salary of $4.5 millions, went to
No social conscience on the part of those who clamber their way to the
top. No Christian concern for one's
fellow human beings from the leading citizens of the, supposedly, number one
Christian nation on earth. Has no one
ever told these people that "it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
Where are the spiritual leaders of that nation? What have they achieved? Why are they silent in the face of such
blatant greed and exploitation? Or are
they part of the same mentality?
The country wonders why its economy is faltering so badly. Unfettered capitalism is just as unchristian
as totalitarian communism. Soviet
communism has collapsed; now watch for the collapse of capitalism. Those who believe that the
This author grew up behind the “Iron Curtain” where a great part of his
education involved indoctrination about the “glorious future the
Out of that atheistic nightmare, God had to bring someone at enormous
personal sacrifice to preach His Gospel to the world, because those who had it
all the time made a mockery of it by turning it into a money making venture.
The
At a time when the world is facing the test of survival, few people
understand that there is a connection between current problems and the
spiritual decline of the world. Even the
Churches of God, who once prided themselves in their ability to understand the
prophecies of God, have fallen silent.
At the time that their input is needed more than ever, they are engaged
in an internecine war that is sapping their strength from within.
Once again, as it has happened throughout history, God has raised people
from the lowest levels of society to do His work. The message that John the Baptist delivered
to ancient
“1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the
wilderness of
So
repent, for the
(The Christian Herald No 2, pp.
7-9).
“10And he said to me, “Do not seal
the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. 11He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is
filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous
still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
12“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is
with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First
and the Last.” (Rev.22:10-13).
15“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and
evil, 16in 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. 17But
if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and
worship other gods and serve them, 18I announce to you today
that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in
the land which you cross over the
I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing,
therefore choose life, said God. And
what did they do? They chose death and
that is why they lost their mission, their nation, and themselves. Ever since that time, they have been
wanderers in the world.
“But I want to
remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6And
the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He
has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great
day; 7as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a
similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and
gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire.”(Jude 1:5-7)
It is not a mere coincidence that as the world has given
itself to the same sins as
“1But there were also false prophets among the people, even
as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and
bring on themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow
their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be
blasphemed. 3By covetousness they will exploit you with
deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their
destruction does not slumber. 4For
if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to
hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for
judgment; 5and did not spare the ancient world, but saved
Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and turning
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to
destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would
live ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:1-6).
Why
do human beings ‘follow destructive ways’, and not the ways of God? And why are
those who preach the Word of God and the true Gospel of salvation being ignored
and persecuted, while the purveyors of deadly gospels are being honoured and
rewarded? How did we know as early as
1992, when we published TCH No 2,
that humanity had entered the age of troubles connected with the end time? We knew it from the Bible, and from
prophecies like the following one.
4“But
you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end;
many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” . . . 9And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the
words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10Many
shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly;
and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” (Dan.
12:4, 9-10).
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. 10And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Mat. 24:9-13).
How wonderfully these prophecies reflect our time. First they tell us that when these things happen it will be the time of the end. ‘Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.’ Isn’t this a reflection of our modern age when transport and knowledge are so widespread? Then we are told that none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Where are the wise that understand these things? And if they understand them, why are human beings still in ignorance about their meaning? Why are they not turning to the only source that can save them from these impending catastrophes? Because the wise of Daniel are different from the wise of Apostle Paul (quoted at the beginning of this article).
The wise according to the knowledge of God understand what is happening in the world, whereas the wise according to the knowledge of this world are blindly leading humanity to perdition. It is not a mere coincidence that as the world is being devastated by global warming and climate change, the spectre of nuclear annihilation has raised its ugly head again.
"However, I
have been to re-education camp - spending 4½ years as a university
president." His remark drew laughs and applause. His sharpest response to
Putin was gently couched. "Russia
is a partner in endeavours," Mr Gates said. "But we wonder, too, about some Russian
policies that seem to work against international stability, such as its arms
transfers and its temptation to use energy resources for political
coercion."
Throughout the
rebuttal, and in a longer discourse on how the US's European allies must help
rebuild Afghanistan and remain engaged in the fight against terrorism, Mr Gates
mentioned Mr Putin only once by name. That came when he said he had accepted an
invitation from Mr Putin to visit Moscow.
Mr Gates cast himself as a geopolitical realist and drew a knowing laugh
when he focused on Mr Putin's assertion that the US and its allies were
dividing Europe. "All of these characterisations belong in the past,"
Mr Gates said. "The free world versus those behind the Iron Curtain. North
versus South. East versus West. And I am told that some have even spoken in
terms of old Europe versus new."
The US has asked Japan not to arrange a meeting between the
Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and the Defence Minister, Fumio Kyuma, an apparent
response to Mr Kyuma's criticism of US policy, Kyodo news agency reported. Last month Mr Kyuma irked the US by saying
it was wrong to start the war in Iraq. Mr Cheney is scheduled to meet the chief
officers of Japan's Self-Defence Forces during a visit next week. (Thom Shanker, The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2007).
While the US
deals with velvet gloves with its Russian adversary, Putin makes incessant
preparations to challenge America’s dominance of the world.
Shanghai Co-operation Organisation – ‘timely and
visionary’ “THE Shanghai Co-operation Organisation,
whose members and observers represent half the world's population, signalled at
its annual summit yesterday its determination to play a central role in global
energy politics. Russian
President Vladimir Putin urged the formation of "an
It indicated a change in tack by
sending its Petroleum and Gas Minister, Murli Deora, to the summit, and has
decided to join
In his address to the summit, Mr
Ahmadinejad commended steps "to turn the
Mr Putin told his Iranian
counterpart after the summit that he wanted to discuss a European proposal for
"
[Notice, ‘Slavic’ not Christian. While the other cultures are designated by their religion, the Slavic one is not].
Illustrating this spirit, the presidents appeared at a press conference, giving speeches but not allowing questions.
The leaders signed 10 agreements
that sought to institutionalise growing collaboration, ranging from banking to
education to economic collaboration, with
Mr Hu urged the members to
"strengthen strategic co-operation" against the "three
evils" - separatism, terrorism and extremism - including through
intelligence exchange and communication.
He proposed a non-aggression treaty between
Did you notice how many members
this ‘timely and visionary’ organisation has?
Ten – all of them avowed anti-Israeli:
Is this the ten-nation ‘beast’
that
“Trilateral Forum to Counter
“The Foreign Ministers of
Ever since it came to power, the
Bush administration has been telling the world that it is in friendly terms
with
How many people have heard of the
Shangahai Co-operation Organisation? Not
many people for sure, because western media has either ignored it, or said very
little about it. Yet this is the ‘timely and visionary’ organisation that Putin
is incessantly cultivating to counter
And there is another reason why
this organisation has received so little attention. While we have been saying that
It is not a mere coincidence either that at this particular junction in world history, when biblical prophecies tell us to expect major world developments, that drought is devastating the world on an unprecedented scale. And yet, there are still skeptics who say that, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, all these changes are within normal climate variations.
“Man is cooking the planet” “SCIENTISTS have
now found the connection between man-made carbon emissions and global warming, proving
once and for all that human activity is changing the world.
And scientists have debunked the myth that
global warming is simply a global cycle, saying that according to its cycle the
earth should be in a period of cooling, not warming. The stunning find is to be released in the
final report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (
For the past six years 2,000 of the
world's leading climate scientists - climatologists, glaciologists,
meterologists, oceanographers and other specialists, have studied all known
scientific literature on climate change, with the findings to be released
Friday. In all, three reports making up
the fourth assessment of the
"Confidence in the assessment of the
human contributions to recent climate change has increased considerably since
the
- 11 of the earth's 12 warmest years since
1850 have occured since 1995.
- Indications are the earth's temperature
will rise three degrees celsius by 2100, with a possibility it could be as high
as six degrees. This could be catastrophic, with a similar temperature shift
marking the last ice age 12,000 years ago.
- It is virtually certain (99 per cent
probability) that carbon dioxide levels and global warming is far above the
range naturally varying in the atmosphere over the past 650,000 years.
- It is virtually certain that human
activity has played the dominant role in this.
- It is likely that human activity is
responsible for other observed changes to the earth such as ocean warming and
melting of the Arctic sea ice. The
This risk is mainly because of potentially
disastrous "positive'' feedbacks which could accelerate rising
temperatures.
In other words, because the world is
warming, increasing evaporation from the oceans has caused atmospheric
concentrations of water vapour over the sea - by 4 per cent since 1970.
This increased water vapour is a powerful
greenhouse agent, and exacerbates the greenhouse effect.
However it is not all doom and gloom, with
the report saying there are many "positive feedbacks''.
As for claims that this global warming is simply
part of the earth's natural thermal cycle, the report says: "These changes
took place at a time when non-anthropogenic forcing factors (ie, the sum of
solar and volcanic forcing) would be expected to have produced cooling, not
warming. "There is increased
confidence that natural internal variability cannot account for the observed
changes, due in part to improved studies demonstrating that the warming
occurred in both oceans and atmosphere, together with observed ice mass
losses.'' (Paul Kent, The Sunday
Telegraph, 30 Jan. 2007).
Professor Vincent, who studies Arctic
ecosystems, travelled to the newly formed ice island and was amazed at what he
saw. "It's like a cruise missile has come down and hit the ice
shelf," he said. "Unusually warm temperatures definitely played a
major role. It is consistent with climate change." The collapse was picked
up by the Canadian Ice Service, which notified Luke Copland, head of the new
global ice laboratory at the
“A
planet on the edge”
“They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their
fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming. Captured on film by Canadian
environmentalists , the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken
ice. Although the magnificent creatures
are well adapted to the water, and can swim many kilometres to solid land, the
distance is getting ever greater as the Arctic ice diminishes. …
Scientists have observed that in the struggle for survival, the bears –
and females especially – are now much thinner. Scientists believe that four bears which
recently drowned off the coast of Alasca had simply been unable to cope with a
violent Arctic storm.
The plight of the bears was higghlighted as the prospect of a gloomy future
emerged from leaks of the most comprehensive report into global warming yet
undertaken. Concluding that it is
“highly likely” that mankind is to blame for climate change, it talks of more
droughts, torrential rains, shrinking Arctic ice and glaciers, and raising sea
levels for at least the next century. And it warns that the effect of a
build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will last far longer.”
The report, from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, draws
on the work of 2500 researchers from more than 130 nations and is the most
comprehensive overview of climate change for policy-makers. It claims that global warming is “very
likely” caused by human activity. … Two participants, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that the group approved the term “very likely” in previous
sessions. That means they agree that
there is a 90 per cent chance that global warming is caused by human
activity. The last report, in 2001, said
global warming was “likely” caused by humans.
There had been speculation that the participants might try to change the
wording this time to “virtually certain” – which means a 99 per cent
chance. The report is considered an
authoritative document that could influence governmental and industrial policy
worldwide.” (Bill Mouland, Sunday
Telegraph, Feb. 04, 2007).
“Scientist's
warning: carbon dioxide eating the planet” “The global level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has alarmed scientists
by growing strongly for the last four years in a row. "That's unprecedented," said Paul
Fraser, chief research scientist at the CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research
division. Describing the trend as
"a clear manifestation" of the world's increasing hunger for fossil
fuels, Dr Fraser said: "We are in line for the carbon dioxide future that
we hope to avoid, a one-to-three degree rise in temperatures over the next
century."
Last year carbon dioxide levels grew by two parts per million, or 0.54 per
cent, twice the rate of the early 1980s. Atmospheric nitrous oxide, produced
by fertilisers and land clearing, also soared last year, rising one part
per billion, or 0.3 per cent. And
artificial greenhouse gases, including hydrofluoro-carbons, introduced during
the 1990s to replace chlorofluorocarbons, set a growth record, up seven parts
per trillion, a 5.3 per cent increase.
The CSIRO said 2005 "was a record for increases in green-house gas
heating, the main driver of increasing surface temperatures". Dr Fraser
said that with carbon dioxide emissions, "normally we have one or two
years of high growth, followed by one or two years of lower growth". This
comes from the oceans and the biosphere - including trees and plants - soaking
up enough of the gas to take the edge off increases. However, sampling by the Bureau of
Meteorology in Tasmania showed the normal pattern of higher and lower growth rates,
called modulation, had failed to appear in the last four years. Instead, annual
carbon dioxide increases had been consistently above average. "That's a
surprise," said Dr Fraser, adding it would be extraordinary if the
modulating effect of the oceans and the biosphere failed to kick in this year.
However, the environment's ability to absorb the gas could eventually be
overwhelmed. The only solution was "emitting less carbon dioxide", he
said. Options included switching to
solar, wind, nuclear, hydro or hydrogen power. Dr Fraser, who will present the
findings at this week's CSIRO climate meeting in Sydney, said it was for
politicians to choose which option, or options, should be adopted. "As
scientists, we have to keep putting the facts up."
His good news was that methane - "the second most important gas
responsible for the enhanced greenhouse effect" - had not grown for six
years. The decline resulted from industry, particularly mining, reducing leaks.
And ozone damaging gases declined again last year, continuing a trend that
began in 1997.” (Richard Macey, The Daily
Telegraph, May 16, 2006)
and the peaking of oil supply - set to drag us into the abyss”
“We are about to experience the convergence of three of the great issues confronting humanity. Climate change, the peaking of oil supply and water shortage are coming together in a manner which will profoundly alter our way of life, our institutions and our ability to prosper on this planet. Each is a major issue, but their convergence has received minimal attention.
“Population is the main driver. In the 60 years since World War II, the
world population has grown at an unprecedented rate, from 2.5 billion to
6.5billion today, with 9 billion forecast by 2050 [That is a highly optimistic underestimate. For if in 60 years the
world’s population had almost trippled, why should it grow by only a third in
the next 50 years? Ed.]
“That growth has triggered insatiable demand for natural resources, notably
water, oil and other fossil fuels. Exponential economic growth in a finite
world hitting physical limits is not a new idea; we have experienced limits at
a local level, but we have either side-stepped them or found short-term
solutions, becoming overly confident that any global limits could be similarly
circumvented. Today, just as the bulk of
the world's population is about to step on to the growth escalator, global
limits emerge that are real and imminent. The weight of scientific evidence
points to the fact the globe cannot support its present population, let alone
an additional 2.5 billion, unless we embrace change.
“Climate change, peak oil, water shortage and population are contributing
to a "tragedy of the commons", whereby free access and unrestricted
demand for a finite resource doom the resource through over-exploitation. The
benefits of exploitation accrue to individuals, whereas the costs are borne by
all. “Examples at local level abound,
include overfishing and interrupting river flows for farming and irrigation.
One mark of a mature society is that equitable solutions are found to the
"commons" dilemma, and we have been relatively successful in doing
this at local level. However as these issues become national and global,
solutions become harder. For climate change, peak oil and water, the ultimate
"commons" is the earth's atmosphere which we have been using as a
garbage dump for carbon and other emissions.
As Aristotle said: "What is common to the greatest number has the
least care bestowed upon it. Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all
of the common interest." In an underpopulated world this may not matter,
but in our overpopulated world it is disastrous.
“Solutions require that we move beyond narrow national self-interest, take
a global view and place our society and economy on a genuinely sustainable
footing. Sustainability, "meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs",
encompasses the entire basis upon which global society operates, not just the
environment. It requires realigning our ethical framework, moving away from the
winner-take-all individualism which has created so many of the
"commons" problems, to a more co-operative individualism, where
managing the global and local "commons" is paramount. “Rather than the
negative, focusing on supposed job cuts and fear of change, we should focus on
the positive: we have a unique opportunity to set humanity on a new course,
built around an ethical renaissance and sustainable societies. Undoubtedly
there will be pain in the short term as conventional politics, economics and
business models are turned on their head. However, the tools and technologies
to solve these problems are available, the cost is less than we have been led
to believe, and the benefits greater. Further, change can be achieved rapidly
given the right impetus.
“Historically, this has rarely happened without a crisis. Fortunately the
trinity are about to trigger that crisis with a prolonged period of
"creative destruction" which will radically transform society and
economy whether we like it or not. Our stark choice is either to embrace the
tipping point bearing down upon us, seizing the opportunity to build a
sustainable future, or fudge the issue, try to muddle through in the
time-honoured manner and increasingly lose the ability to control our own
affairs. For Australia, along with many
other countries, water is the priority. Resolving the water crisis will be the
first test of whether we can combine long-term vision and principled leadership
with the need to take the hard decisions quickly enough to stave off impending
disaster. If so, it will stand us in good stead to tackle the even greater
tasks ahead.” (Ian Dunlop, former oil, gas and coal industry executive, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 Oct. 2006).
“Frightening reality we face” “SYDNEY is
looming as one of the world's major climate change casualties, with
temperatures expected to soar 50 per cent higher than the average rise forecast
for the entire planet.
For the first time, Australian scientists have charted in detail the
impacts on the nation's largest metropolis of man's insatiable demand for
energy and burning of fossil fuels. The
Daily Telegraph today exclusively reveals the landmark CSIRO report
commissioned by the State Government which - for the first time -
specifically details the impact of climate change on NSW. It paints a picture of a city baking under
average temperatures almost 5C higher than now - which will kill 1300
people a year - and one battered by extreme winds and permanent
drought. NSW Premier Morris Iemma said
the report's findings were alarming.
"This might sound like a doomsday scenario, but it is one we must
confront,'' Mr Iemma said . . . "I
do not want my kids to ask me in 10 years time why I didn't do more to address
the issue of climate change.''
The CSIRO report warned that the city must work out
how to adapt quickly, with the impacts of human-caused global warming now
apparently inevitable. "The future
climate of Sydney is likely to be warmer and drier,'' the report says.
"Such trends would also increase evaporation, heat waves, extreme winds
and fire risk. "Nevertheless,
despite this trend towards drier conditions, the possibility of increases in
extreme rainfall events remain.
"Although average changes in temperature, rainfall and evaporation
will have long-term consequences for the catchment, the impacts of climate
change are more likely to be felt through extreme weather events.'' Climate change forecasts for the coastal
zone put Narrabeen and Collaroy on the hot zone for storm- inspired sea surges
of about 22m - which would inundate homes. Freak surges of 110m would be
catastrophic. "Such increases in
storm surge in conjunction with sea level rises, would increase the risk of
coastal inundation,'' the CSIRO says.” (Simon Benson, The Sunday Telegraph, Jan. 31, 2007).
“After 10 years, the dithering has to stop” “The
threat posed by global warming is not as bad as we thought. It is
considerably worse. This dire new assessment from the world's foremost authority,
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, predicts
temperatures could rise by as much as 6.4 degrees by 2100 and the seas with
them. But long before this occurs, vulnerable regions such as Australia will
face water crises, ravaged agricultural production and a huge loss of
biodiversity - specifically, the death of the Great Barrier Reef, the loss of
fragile alpine ecosystems and irretrievable damage to the Kakadu wetlands.
For the first time in the
history, the 2500 eminent scientific opinions distilled in the UN report
conclude it is "very likely" human activity has caused global warming
and has as a result triggered a deadly rash of extreme weather events. No
matter what humankind does now, the impact of climate change will be felt for
hundreds of years; once the poison is in the system, nothing can be done to
stop it working its way through. . .”
(Editorial, SMH, Feb. 5,
2007).
“Plenty more fish in the sea?
Don't bet on it”
Closely linked with the problem of
overpopulation, is of course the supply of food for the world’s teeming
masses.
We know that famines are caused by
droughts, but few people envission a famine caused by a scarcity of
seafood. One third of the world’s population
depends on marine food, yet this is what is happening in the world’s seas at
present.
“Enjoy those seafood meals now, because by
2050 there may be no fish, prawns, crabs or other wild sea creatures left to
eat. Marine species are disappearing at
an accelerating rate, posing a serious threat to human health and wellbeing, a
four-year study of the state of the world's oceans has concluded.
Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Canada, said his team's research
showed 29 per cent of seafood species currently fished had already collapsed,
with catches having declined by at least 90 per cent. "If the long-term trend continues, all
fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime - by 2048,"
Professor Worm said. Loss of biodiversity
also reduced the ocean's ability to resist diseases, filter out pollutants and
cope with climate change, the study concluded.
"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's
oceans, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the
productivity and stability of entire ecosystems," Professor Worm
said. "I was shocked and disturbed
by how consistent these trends are - beyond anything we suspected." However, the good news was that biodiversity
could recover quickly if protected marine areas were established. "The data show us it's not too late. We
can turn this around."
“A large team of international scientists and economists was involved in
the study, which is published in the journal Science. They analysed commercial catches between 1950
and 2003 for 64 areas using the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation's database of fish and invertebrate species. “Fisheries were found to be collapsing at a
faster rate in ecosystems with fewer species. Fishery records and sediment
cores for the past 1000 years at 12 coastal regions around the world, including
Brisbane's Moreton Bay, were also examined.
“Steve Palumbi, of Stanford University, a member of the team, said loss
of marine biodiversity made coastal regions more vulnerable to disease
outbreaks and invasive species and reduced the areas suitable as
nurseries. "The ocean is a great
recycler. It takes sewage and recycles it into nutrients. It scrubs toxins out
of water and it turns carbon dioxide into food and oxygen." To carry out this service for the people who
lived along the coast, the waters needed their full complement of plants and
animals, Professor Palumbi said.
“Professor Worm said under 1 per cent of the oceans were protected but the
studies they analysed from 48 protected marine areas showed ecosystems could
recover quickly. "In many cases
species come back more quickly than people anticipated - in three to five to 10
years. And where this has been done we see immediate economic benefits."
Yes, marine ecosystems would recover quickly if protected, but will
they? Australia has been desperately
trying to prevent the long nets of the Asian boats from sweeping the ocean
floor, an extremely damaging practice to marine ecosystems, but without much success. What these scientific reports do not tell us
is that the krill, which is the basic source of food for many of the marine
species, has decreased by 80 per cent in the last thirty years. This is another reason, beside overfishing,
that so many of the world’s fisheries have colapsed.
Ian Dunlop said that, “Given the dominance of short-term pragmatism in our
political and corporate cultures, it is likely our leaders will continue to
procrastinate and not rise to the challenge.”
Exactly what we’ve been saying for years. “The pressure for change,” he continued,
“must come from the community at large”.
Hmmm! I wouldn’t bet on that either. When people scrounge for a living,
they haven’t got much time for the environment. A "tipping point will force a
fundamental realignment of political and corporate attitudes,” he says. Well, we hope so, but we doubt that too. That is because change has occured so fast in
the world, it has passed human ability to stop it, let alone reverse it.
“Keeping a cool head amid warming hysteria”?
“Global warming doomsayers were out and about in a big way recently, but the
rain came in central Queensland, then here in Sydney. January was also unusually cool.
We have been subjected to a lot of nonsense about climate disasters, as
some zealots have been presenting extreme scenarios to frighten us . . . What we were seeing from the doomsayers was
an induced dose of mild hysteria – semi-religious if you like, but dangerously
close to superstition. . . Scaremongers
have used temperature fluctuations over a limited period and in a few places to
misrepresent longer patterns. Warming
evidence is mixed and often exagerated but can be reasurring. Global warming has been increasing constantly
since 1975 at the rate of less than one-fifth of a degree Celsius per decade. .
. Britain’s University of East Anglia
climate research unit found global temperatures did not rise between 1998 and
2005, and a NASA satelite recently found the southern hemisphere had not warmed
in the past 25 years.” (The Sunday Telegraph, Feb. 18, 2007).
This article was written by none other than the head of the Catholic Church
in Australia, Cardinal George Pell.
He must have done a lot of research to find sources that conform with his views
of humanity – that there is no global warming or major climate change to worry
about. He gave as suporting evidence the
rain that fell in central Queensland and in Sydney. And what was the effect of that rain? The following article was in the same edition
of The Sunday Telegraph.
“Only 2 per cent of NSW not in drought” “NINETY-eight per cent of NSW is either in drought on on the brink of
drought, up three per cent from December, NSW Government data shows. The latest figures for January show 96.3 per cent of the state is drought
declared, up from 93.2 per cent in the previous month, while the area in
marginal territory is 1.7 per cent, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald
said today. Only two per cent of the state, in the Grafton and Lismore regions
in the far north of NSW, is experiencing satisfactory conditions. Rainfall since January is unlikely to have
any significant impact on these figures.
"While weekend rainfall was well received in isolated parts of the
state, the vast majority of farmers continue to face tough, dry conditions,''
he said. At the end of January water
storage levels across the state were at just 14.7 per cent of capacity, down
5.7 per cent from December. "We
desperately need more than 100 millimetres of soaking rain in the next few
weeks,'' Mr Macdonald said. He said follow up rainfall was then needed to
enable winter crop planting to occur in autumn and pasture growth for badly
needed stock feed.” (Sunday Telegraph, Feb. 17,
2007).
So in spite of the rain that fell in January, the drought afected area of
NSW grew from 93.2 per cent to 96.3 per cent.
And the Sydney dam water, which was at a critival level before, grew by
only three per cent and it is still at a critical level.
Now does it mean that if widespread rain comes, as it will one day, there
is no climate change and no global warming?
Cardinal Pell says that he feels reasured that global temperature has
increased by only one-fifth of a degree Celsius per decade since 1975. What he does not know is that a two degree
increase in ocean temperatures would wipe out coral reefs around the
world. Much of Australia’s coral reef
has already been bleached because of increse in the water temperature.
He says that “Britain’s University of East Anglia climate research unit
found global temperatures did not rise between 1998 and 2005, and a NASA
satelite recently found the southern hemisphere had not warmed in the past 25
years.”
We do not know whether East Anglia University is a Catholic one, but their
figures are absolutely wrong. Eleven of
the hottest years on record have ocured in the last twelve years. And this year is shaping up as the hottest
year yet.
As for that NASA report, where is it? We would like to see it. It is un-professional to speak about a report
and not quote it or give its reference. It is unforgiveable to misrepresent an
institution. This is what a study by NASA concluded.
“North Pole
Melting Into Sea” “ICE is melting so fast in the Arctic that
the North Pole will be in the open sea within 30 years. . . The researchers, funded by NASA, said the ice
retreat was likely to remain constant until 2024, when the process suddenly
quicken. In 30 to 50 years, they
concluded, summer sea-ice would have vanished from almost the entire Arctic
region. But their forecast may already
be out of date, says Chri Rapley, head of the British Antarctic Survey. He said a recent study suggested emissions were
rising more than twice as fast as in 2000, and this was likely to speed up ice
loss even further. “The study may be an underestimate of when the Artctic
summer ice might be all gone,” he said.
During the past 25 years, Arctic ice has been reduced by 25 per cent.
Scientists have long known that ice reflects heat, and as the quantity reduces
so does the amount of heat that can be bounced away from the Earth. However, the study team from the National
Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, and two US universities,
idenntified warmer ocean currents as an additional factor. Disappearing ice is already causing problems
for polar bears. Other wildlife, including seals, are also likely to
suffer. “We have already witnessed major
losses in sea ice, but our research suggests the decrease over the next few
decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far,”
said Marica Holland, who led the polar warming study.” (The Australian, Dec. 13, 2006).
Isn’t it an insult to honest reputable scientists who have put their career
on line to prove to the world that global warming is far more serious than
previously realised, to say that they are doomsayers and scaremongers? Cardinal Pell could have known the truth if
he wanted to, for this is what the same newspaper published two weeks before
his article appeared.
“State of
Despair, Climate report says NSW will be a disaster zone”
“NSW is in grave danger of becoming a state where
thousands die from heatwaves, rivers dry up and snow disappears from alpine
regions, a new report warns. A detailed forecast of the impact global
warning will have on individual Australian states and capital cities paints a
grim picture of NSW's future as dry and deadly.
The Climate Institute of Australia's report, released in Melbourne yesterday,
explains the local ramifications of a major international report by the United
Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It warns that unless urgent action is taken
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there will be devastating consequences.
Australia is the 10th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and has
recorded a 10 per cent increase over the past 10 years, with a 17 per cent
growth predicted by 2020. Scientists are
demanding new government policies to reduce emissions but Prime Minister John
Howard showed no indication of acquiescing yesterday. Global warming is almost certainly set to
increase by one per cent by 2020. For
NSW, this means droughts will become 70 per cent more frequent and widespread,
while the number of annual heatwave deaths in Sydney will more than double from
176 to up to 417.
Snow-covered alpine regions would shrink by up to 40 per cent and extreme
weather conditions would increase by a quarter. But if the pattern continues and global
warming reaches more than three per cent by between 2060 to 2100, NSW will be a
virtual disaster zone. Dengue fever
would spread into Sydney, flow in the Murray-Darling Basin would fall by almost
50 per cent and there would be more than 1312 heatwave deaths in the capital
every year. Snow-covered alpine regions
would disappear by up to 85 per cent, the Macquarie River basin would drop by
up to 35 per cent and extreme fire weather conditions could increase by about
75 per cent in spots like Coffs Harbour and Sydney Airport. There would also be significantly less
run-offs into many rivers. Erwin
Jackson, advisor to the Climate Institute, believes Australia should be leading
the way in adopting environmentally-friendly policies because it is so
vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
"There is overwhelming support within the Australian community, the
business community and now the scientific community that climate change is a
very serious issue which needs to be addressed,'' he said. "We have already wasted 10 years,
during which time emissions have increased by 10 per cent. We can't look our
children in the face in 20 years time and say we didn't do anything.'' He called on Mr Howard to re-assess his
stance on climate change in light of the new reports. However, the Prime Minister was unmoved by the
findings, which he described as "something we have known for a long
time''. He said Australia would
continue measures to reduce emissions but only in a way that "does
not unfairly hurt or damage the Australian economy and destroy Australian
jobs''. He said nuclear power could be part of the
solution but ruled out signing the Kyoto agreement.” (The Sunday Telegraph, Feb. 4, 2007).
Cardinal Pell said that January was a cold month, yet this is what the same
newspaper published on the same day.
“January
world temperatures highest ever” “World temperatures in January were the
highest ever recorded for that month of the year. "The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the
highest for any January on record,'' according to scientists from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate Data Centre in
Asheville, North Carolina. The combined
global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.85 degrees celsius warmer than
the 20th-century average of 12 degrees celsius for January based on preliminary
data, NOAA said. The figures surpass the
previous record set in 2002 at 0.71 degrees celsius above average. Land surface temperature was a record 1.89C
warmer than average, while global ocean surface temperature was the fourth
warmest in 128 years, about 0.05 degrees celsius cooler than the record
established during the very strong El Nino climate phenomenon in 1998. . . "The presence of El Nino along with the
continuing global warming trend contributed to the record warm January,'' NOAA
said. The unusually warm conditions
contributed to the second lowest January snow cover extent on record for the
Eurasian continent. "During the past
century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate near 0.06 degrees
celsius per decade, but the rate of increase has been three times larger since
1976, or 0.18 degrees celsius per decade, with some of the largest temperature
increases occurring in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere." (The Sunday Telegraph, Feb.18, 2007).
The whole of the Christian world, not to speak of other religions, is in a
denying mood. They do not want to hear
about overpopulation, diminishing resources, global warming, climate change,
peak in oil supply, or anything that might bring their reign to a precipitous
end. It is an insidious plot from the
leading religious institutions of our time to cloud people’s minds with
falsehoods and misrepresentations in an attempt to lull them into a false sense
of security. The tragedy of it is that
they succeed at it. This is why Jesus
said that the Great Tribulation will take the world by surprise, as the people
of Noah’s time were taken by the Flood.
“38For
as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and
did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the
coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mat.
24:38-39).
The world has passed the point of no return. The sooner our leaders realise this, and turn
to the only power that can save humanity now – our Almighty Creator – the less suffering will be in the world,
and the more people will be saved.
“Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and
power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9And
men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has
power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.” (Revelation 16:8-9).
Now not only has this prophecy been fulfilled, but because people have not repented of their evil ways and continued to blaspheme God, things have gotten considerable worse. For this reason we are announcing that this prophecy is now coming to an end, and the following one about to take its place.
“17Then the seventh
angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple
of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18And there
were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake,
such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the
earth. 19Now the great city was divided into three parts, and
the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to
give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20Then
every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21And
great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the
weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since
that plague was exceedingly great.” (Rev. 16:17-21).
Will
people believe us this time? Will they
turn to God and save themselves from this ‘exceedingly great plague’, or will
they continue to sin, blaspheme God, and face His wrath and eternal
damnation? Only a fool would want to
wait another decade and a half to see whether we are right this time too. There just isn’t that time anymore.
This is
how the wise of this world have failed humanity. They have either denied God
altogether, or sent people on wrong paths to find solutions to their
problems. The result is all too clear
for all to see: this world is truly on its last legs.
1Now the word of the Lord
came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2“Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come
up before Me.” 3But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare,
and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of
the Lord. . . .
1Now the word of the Lord
came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2“Arise, go to
5So the people of
1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” 4Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” 10But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” (Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-10; 4:1-11).
When they heard the warning from God they did not say, ‘who is this stranger to tell us what to do and how to live our lives’, as we often hear these days; they repented, fasted, prayed, and worshiped God. The king himself took the initiative and gave an unusual but powerful decree:
“‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do
not let them eat, or drink water. 8But let man and beast be
covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from
his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9Who
can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce
anger, so that we may not perish?’”
While humans were to turn from their evil ways and cry mightily to God, both humans and animals were to fast and be covered in sackcloth. And what happened then? God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and He relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
At no time in history has the world been in greater peril than it is now. Yet there never has been less faith in God than it is now. Why? Because the ‘wise’ of this world have convinced humanity that there is no God!
Has God stopped sending His messengers to the world, when they are needed most, because the world has turned its back to Him? Certainly not! Never before have the Scriptures been preached and explained more clearly, more widely, and more forcefully, than has been the case in the last decade and a half. And what has been humanity’s response to that? Disdain, calumnies, threats and isolation.
We began publishing The Christian Herald in 1990, but the work of the Gospel began in fact in 1973 when I went to the headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God with a message from God. How was I received by the ‘luminaries’ of that Church? Like Jonas by the Ninevites? No, like Paul by the Jews when he began to preach Christ to them.
Like Jonas however, I run away from doing any further work for God when they robbed me and locked me out of my own flat. I could not understand why God let those charlatans treat me that way when all I wanted to do was to show them from the Scriptures the errors in the gospel they were preaching.
Like many of my contemporaries, I assumed that once you start working for God, you get His blessings and protection, when the very opposite happened to me. After all, isn’t this the gospel they are preaching in the churches these days? But that is not the gospel that Jesus’ Apostles preached, for what happened to me is what happened to them long ago.
What made me even angrier was the
fact that I had withdrawn myself from a course in electrical engineering at
One of the questions I am often asked is how does God communicate with me, or I with Him, and how do I know it is He who speaks with me? It is a question that usually comes from mockers and unbelievers, which makes it even harder to explain, for once a person decide to take a position against God, it is virtually impossible to change his mind.
Even the apostles had a hard time explaining their visions or how God dealt with them.
“1It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I
will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: 2I 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. 3And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of
the body I do not know, God knows—4how he was caught up into
7And lest I should be exalted above measure by the
abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger
of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8Concerning
this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from
me. 9And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I
will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am
weak, then I am strong.
11I have become a fool in boasting; you have
compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I
behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. 12Truly
the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in
signs and wonders and mighty deeds. 13For what is it in which
you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to
you? Forgive me this wrong!” (2 Cor. 12:1-13)
Apostle Paul could not explain
his visions of
Now the Corinthians could easily have said, ‘this guy does not even know what he is talking about, and is he teaching us how to live our lives?’ But they didn’t. Instead they listened to him carefully and followed his advice to the letter, so much so that he even had to chastise them later on for going overboard in certain aspects.
In the second paragraph, Paul speaks of a thorn in his flesh given to him by Satan, which God would not remove. Now consider God’s reply to his request: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Had I known this principle three decades ago, or the trials Jesus’ disciples would undergo in their mission for God, I would not have been so disheartened by my misfortune, but rejoice that I was found worthy to receive a similar treatment.
“29But Peter and the other apostles answered and
said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 30The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a
tree. 31Him God has exalted to His right
hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to
33When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to
kill them. 34Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named
Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded
them to put the apostles outside for a little while. 35And he
said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do
regarding these men. 36For some time ago Theudas rose up,
claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He
was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. 37After
this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away
many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were
dispersed. 38And now I say to you, keep away from these men and
let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to
nothing; 39but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest
you even be found to fight against God.”
40And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the
apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak
in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41So they departed from
the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to
suffer shame for His name. 42And daily in the temple,
and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as
the Christ.” (Acts 5:29-42)
Jesus’ disciples suffered trials at the hand of unbelievers, whereas I received them from ‘Christians’. However it did not take long before they too had to contend with false Christians and false preachers.
23Are
they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors
more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths
often. 24From the Jews five times I received
forty stripes minus one. 25Three
times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked;
a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26in
journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of
robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in
perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in
perils among false brethren; 27in weariness and
toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold
and nakedness—28besides the other things, what comes
upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29Who is
weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with
indignation?
30If
I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. 31The
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I
am not lying. 32In
We know that even these days many Christians suffer loss, even of life, in countries that do not accept Jesus Christ, but few Christians realise that over the centuries more true Christians have endured tribulations and lost their lives at the hands of people who falsely claimed to be Christians than at the hands of pagans. This is why I no longer wonder that my baptism of fire occurred at the hands of false Christians. The important thing is to turn those trials to your advantage, to use them to strengthen your faith, and not let them destroy it.
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 3Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has
begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, 4to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5who are
kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time.
6In this
you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been
grieved by various trials, 7that the genuineness of your
faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it
is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation
of Jesus Christ, 8whom having not seen you love. Though
now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy
inexpressible and full of glory, 9receiving the end of your
faith—the salvation of your souls.
10Of this
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of
the grace that would come to you, 11searching what,
or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating
when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that
would follow. 12To them it was revealed that, not to
themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been
reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy
Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into. 13Therefore gird up the loins of
your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that
is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14as
obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as
in your ignorance; 15but as He who called you is
holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16because
it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
17And 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; 18knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received
by tradition from your fathers, 19but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20He
indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in
these last times for you 21who through Him believe in God, who
raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in
God. 22Since 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, 23having
been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of
God which lives and abides forever, 24because, “All
flesh is as grass, And £all the glory
of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away,25 But
the word of the Lord
endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” (1
Peter 1:1-25)
This
would be a good place to finish, with such wonderful words from Apostle Peter,
but three are more things to be said.
Continued Peter:
12Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13but
rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when
His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14If
you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is
blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15But let none of
you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other
people’s matters. 16Yet if anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
17For the time has come for judgment to begin at the
house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be
the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18Now,
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will
the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 9Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God
commit their souls to Him in doing good,
as to a faithful Creator.” (1 Peter 4:12-19)
I spoke
of the trials that Jesus’ disciples endured, but of course, no one endured more
than Jesus Christ Himself. He too
endured them at the hands of those who claimed to be believers – God’s chosen
people – who in so doing thought they did God a service. Isn’t it extraordinary how the worst
murderers put their actions on behalf of God?
It has happened since the beginning of the world, and it is happening
today.
For the people of God however, trials, even loss of life, work towards their betterment. God rejoices when one of His faithful dies. “5Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints.” (Ps. 116:15). Now if God rejoices over our death, shouldn’t we do the same?
This brings us to the second point regarding our means of communication with God. Apostle Paul enjoins us to acquire the mind of God in order to be like Jesus Christ.
“5Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form
of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7but
made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and
coming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of
death, even the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on
earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” (Ph. 2:5).
Now what mind
was in Christ Jesus? The mind of God,
of course! This does not mean that God
transplanted His mind in Jesus Christ, but that Jesus acquired it in the course
of His upbringing. And how did He do
it? By studying the Word of God, and by
being obedient to God!
“1 Blessed are
the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are
those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!
3 They
also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways.
4 You
have commanded us to
keep Your precepts diligently.”
5 I
will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.
16 I will delight myself in Your
statutes; I will not forget Your word.”
(Ps. 119:1-4, 15-16)
65 “You have dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord, according
to Your word.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your
commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your
word.
68 You are good, and do good;
teach me Your statutes.
69 The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will
keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in
Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been
afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
72 The law of Your mouth is better to me than
thousands of coins of gold and silver.”
78 “Let the proud be ashamed, for they treated me wrongfully
with falsehood; But I will meditate on Your precepts.
79 Let those who fear You turn to me, those
who know Your testimonies.
80 Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes, that I
may not be ashamed.”
97 “Oh,
how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
98 You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my
enemies; for they are ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for
Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep
Your precepts.” (Ps.119:65-72, 78-80, 97-100).
There
is no greater lesson on how to acquire wisdom than this one. For nothing indeed could make one wiser than
the Word of God – the very mind of God.
This then is how Jesus Christ obtained His wisdom, His mind of God. And this is how you can obtain it too. Try it, it won’t harm you, and who knows, you
may even surprise yourself with a new mind.
But for this you need faith. And
here is the crux of the problem: faith comes from God too, and for Him to grant
it, you must get on your knees and pray to Him and worship Him in truth and in
spirit. If you are too proud for that,
you will retain your current mind and say good bye to any chance of
salvation.
4But God,
who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even
when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace
you have been saved), 6and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not
of works, lest anyone should boast. 10For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph.2:4-10)
We are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. If you do not believe that you were created
in the image of Jesus Christ for good works, but in the image of monkeys for
the law of the jungle, then you cannot complain of your destiny, which is to be
wiped out from the face of the earth and becoming ashes under the feet of the
righteous.
“17 The
memory of him perishes from the earth, And he
has no name among the renowned.
18 He
is driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world.
19 He
has neither son nor posterity among his people, Nor any remaining in his
dwellings.
20 Those in the west are astonished at his
day, As those in the east are frightened.
21 Surely
such are the dwellings of the wicked, And this is the
place of him who does not know God.” (Job 18:17-21)
1
Do not keep silent, O God of my praise!
For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened
against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying
tongue.
3 They
have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me
without a cause.
4 In
return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to
prayer.
5 Thus
they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.” (Ps. 109:1-5)
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There
is no God.”
They are corrupt, they
have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the
children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They
have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none
who does good, No, not one.
4 Have
all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as
they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord?
5 There
they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the
righteous.
6 You shame the counsel of the poor, But the Lord is his refuge.” (Ps.14: 1-6)
Isn’t this what characterises our world today? They say there is no God, and God says that there is none who does good, that all have become corrupt. O yes, there are many who donate to charities and work for the poor, but they do so for their own glory, on this earth, not for merit in heaven and for the glory of God. Otherwise God would not say that they have all turned aside, that none seek the Lord. But what about the preachers who make so much noise in their congregations, don’t they believe in God and do the right thing as far as God is concerned? This is God’s answer to that:
34 “Wail, shepherds, and cry! Roll about in
the ashes, You leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and
your dispersions are fulfilled; You shall fall like a precious vessel.
And the shepherds will have no way to flee, Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.”
(Jer. 25:34-35).
1 “For
behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all
who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn
them up,” Says the Lord of
hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall
go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
3 You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this,” Says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal.4:1-3).
This then is what faith is all
about: having confidence in the righteous judgment of God and the fact that in
the end the wicked will become ashes under the feet of the righteous. Yes, someone might say,
but these words are about the preachers and the people of ancient
And
He said to them, 24“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25When
once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to
stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He
will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26then
you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in
our streets.’ 27But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you,
where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28There
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the
25“And
indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom
of God, will see my face no more. 26Therefore I testify to you
this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27For
I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. 28Therefore
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. 29For
I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock. 30Also from among yourselves men will rise
up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and
remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day
with tears.”(Acts 20:25-31).
12But what
I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those
who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which
they boast. 13For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14And
no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15Therefore 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
Don’t trust anyone regarding your salvation until you have checked it out in the Bible. For if the world was full of ‘savage wolves’ and false preachers in the time of the apostles, it is infinitely worse now. Have faith only in those who are prepared to have their preaching assessed by the standards of the Bible, for by looking in the Scriptures you will increase your faith too. Because many are those who claim to speak for Jesus Christ and yet deceive their listeners.
“And
Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives
you. 5For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’
and will deceive many.” (Mat. 24:4-5).
5Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the
faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in
you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6But I trust that you will
know that we are not disqualified.” (2 Cor. 13:5-6).
During
one of his public escapades, for which John Paul II became renowned around the
world, television cameras focused on two nuns that prostrated themselves before
him and said: ‘Holy Father increase our faith’! He gave them a wry smile and walked
away. This is what humanity has come to:
prostrate before a human being and ask him to increase their faith. And this from persons who
ought to know better. But what do
the Scriptures say?
10“And I
fell at [the angel’s] feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that
you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your
brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10).
Catholic prelates do not want to talk about prophecy,
especially those of the book of Revelation. (See TCH 14 and 15 to see why). How then can people increase their
faith? This is how: “Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom.
When Apostle
Paul wrote that epistle, books were very expensive. The only way by which
people could increase their faith was to hear the Word of God. These days
however, they can read the Word of God for themselves. Anyone who wants a Bible
can have one.
Of course, they can increase their faith by going to church too, but which church? Which one preaches the truth these days when so many are in opposition to each other and even fighting among themselves? This is why the only sure way of increasing your faith is to have your own Scriptures. Read them and compare them with what they preach in the churches, and with what is happening in the world. In so doing you will avoid the destiny of those who go to perdition because they did not do their home work and blindly accepted the false preachings that are so prevalent in the world today.
Salvation By No Other Name Except Jesus
Christ
“8Then
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and
elders of Israel: 9If we this day are judged for a good
deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made
well, 10let 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. 11This
is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the
chief cornerstone.’ 12Nor is there salvation in any
other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12).
If there is no salvation in any other name but Jesus Christ, in what name do other religions save their people? And how do they know that their spiritual leader is a genuine savior? Has he proven himself by giving his life and taking it back as Jesus Christ did?
17“Therefore
My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18No
one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My
Father.” (John 10:17-18).
Only one man in the history of the world has been on ‘the other side’, so to speak, and come back to tell us the way to eternal life. For that reason the Father loved Him and made Him Lord over both the physical and spiritual worlds.
18“Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go 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, 20teaching 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.” (Mat. 28:18-20).
If Jesus’ followers were to go out into the world and make disciples of all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, could any other religion have such powerful backing to rival the very Creator of the world, His Son and the Holy Spirit? Jesus proved through His sacrifice to be the true Messiah, and Christianity to be His true religion. The Word of God in general and the prophecies of the Bible in particular, have amply supported that claim.
5 “To whom will you liken Me, and make Me
equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and
weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry
it and set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it shall not
move.
Though one cries out to it, yet
it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble.
8 “Remember this, and show yourselves men;
Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old, for
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is
none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure,’
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man
who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it; I
will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do
it.” (Is. 46:5-11).
While Jesus Christ was in the world, He told His disciples why He alone was a good shepherd, and why none of those who came before Him were good shepherds.
7”Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10: 7-16).
None of those who came before Him, and none who came after Him, were good shepherds, for none gave their life for the sheep in the manner of Jesus Christ. No other person in the history of the world has made such a claim and proved it to be true. Therefore saying that all people have the same God and have an equal chance of salvation regardless on what religion they follow is not only a deadly error, but a blasphemy, for it denies the Scriptures in general and the words of Jesus Christ in particular. It would be tantamount to saying that Jesus’ murderers were God’s children and would be saved too. But what did Jesus Christ say?
39”They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our
father.” Jesus said to them, “If
you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40But
now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from
God. Abraham did not do this. 41You do the deeds of your
father.” Then they said to Him, “We were
not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you
would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of
Myself, but He sent Me. 43Why do you not understand My speech?
Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44You 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. 45But
because I tell the truth, you do not believe
This passage, more than any other, spells out clearly that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who are children of God, and those who are children of the Devil. What distinguishes one from the other? Their fruits, obedience to God, and their attitude to life!
The first obey God and value life, while the second obey their father and destroy life. Judged by their physical appearance, they look the same – they are all human beings – but inwardly some are sheep while others wolves. It does not matter what they believe, or whether they think that they serve God; what matters is what they do in this world.
Notice what Jesus Christ said about salvation.
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. 14Because narrow is the gate
and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who
find it. 15“Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous
wolves. 16You will know them by their fruits.” (Mat. 7:13-16).
Now what does that tell you about those who are behind the ecumenical movement that aims to create a universal religion? Whose job do you think they are doing? That initiative is not sanctioned in the Bible, except in the negative sense.
They will not be any more
successful in bringing the whole world under one umbrella now, than the people
who lived before the
“1I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2that I
have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3For I could
wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my countrymen according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites,
to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving
of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5of
whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh,
Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed
God. Amen.
6But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect.
For they are not all
10And not only this, but when Rebecca also
had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11(for the
children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who
calls), 12it was said to her, “The older shall serve
the younger.” 13As it is written, “Jacob I have
loved, but Esau I have hated.”
14What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15For 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.” 16So
then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God
who shows mercy. 17For 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.” 18Therefore
He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19You will say to me then, “Why
does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20But
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?” 21Does
not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel
for honor and another for dishonor?
22What if God,
wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23and
that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which
He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us whom He
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not
My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” 26“And it shall come to pass in
the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called
sons of the living God.”
27Isaiah also cries out concerning
30What shall we say then? That Gentiles,
who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the
righteousness of faith; 31but
It is easier to understand what Apostle Paul spoke about here if you know that the Devil itself was created for a specific purpose.
1 “The
preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is
from the Lord.
2 All
the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the Lord
weighs the spirits.
3 Commit
your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established.
4 The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes,
even the wicked for the day of doom.” (Pr.16:1-4).
What is the lesson in all this? That unless one submits to God in love and humility, not in wanton destruction of innocent life as we see in the world these days in the name of other gods, he cannot be a genuine child of God. And who is a child of God?
1”Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did
not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has
not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And
everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4Whoever commits sin also commits
lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5And you know that He was
manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6Whoever
abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
7Little
children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous,
just as He is righteous. 8He 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. 9Whoever
has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot
sin, because he has been born of God.
10In this the children of God and the
children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is
he who does not love his brother. 11For this is the message
that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12not
as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why
did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s
righteous. 13Do not marvel,
my brethren, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed
from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his
brother abides in death. 15Whoever hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16By this we know love, because He
laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. 17But whoever has this world’s goods, and
sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of
God abide in him? 18My
little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in
truth. 19And by this we know that we are of the truth, and
shall assure our hearts before Him. 20For if our heart condemns
us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21Beloved,
if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22And
whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23And this is
His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and
love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24Now he who keeps His
commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides
in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (1
He who keeps
His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.
Do you know what the sixth Commandment is? 13“You shall not murder.”
(Ex.20:6). Murder is to take innocent
life. It has no justification, and nothing to do with religious dogma or
worldly philosophy. God does not, and
cannot, reside in murderers, and if He is not in you, you are a mere walking
corpse.
No other man has been raised from the dead, and no other man has risen to heaven after resurrection.
Now have a look at the following lengthy statement from Jesus Christ and consider it carefully, for it has important implications about salvation.
35And Jesus
said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36But
I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37All
that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by
no means cast out. 38For I have come down from
heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of
all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last
day. 40And this is the will of Him who sent Me,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.”
41The Jews then complained about Him, because
He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” 42And
they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we
know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43Jesus
therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among
yourselves. 44No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall
all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned
from the Father comes to
61When Jesus
knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to
them, “Does this offend you? 62What
then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are
life. 64But there are some of you who do not
believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe,
and who would betray Him. 65And 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.” 66From
that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no
more. 67Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do
you also want to go away?” 68But
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. 69Also we have come to believe and
know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
70Jesus
answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a
devil?” 71He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the
son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.”
(John 6:35-70).
What do these statements tell you? That people of all religions have an equal chance of salvation? No! But that only those who are drawn by God to His Son, Jesus Christ, do. And on what basis does God draw people to His Son?
“The Lord
looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who
understand, who seek God.” (Ps.14:2)
This is why children of men must become children of God. But what
does God see when He looks down upon human beings? “They have all turned aside, they have
together become corrupt; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (Ps. 14:3).
The reason
none is good and all have turned aside is because they have all been born
corrupt in the first place.
5 “Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in
sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold,
You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You
will make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make
me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide
Your face from my sins, And blot out all
my iniquities.
10 Create
in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a
steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do
not cast me away from Your presence, And
do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Ps. 51:5-11).
We
often hear these days that love means accepting people as they are. You could do no greater harm to people than
not to correct them when you see them doing evil things. If they mind, they are not worth having as friends.
Such an attitude is not from God, but from the Devil, and you would not want to
have fellowship with anyone who is not a child of God.
We are
yet to find anyone who says, please tell us where we are wrong so that we do
not miss out on eternal life. On the contrary,
they are all fiercely defensive of their religion, even though they have never
looked into it to make sure that its doctrines led to life and not to
damnation. The Scriptures tell us that by the time of the end, all churches and
religions would depart from the true path so much that they take arms against
Jesus Christ when He comes to save them.
11Now I saw
heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12His
eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were
many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13He was
clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of
God. 14And the armies in heaven, clothed in £fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
horses. 15Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that
with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod
of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. 16And He has on His robe and on His
thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS
This is the purpose of the
crisscrossing of the world by certain religious leaders these days: not to
prepare the world to receive Jesus Christ with open arms, but to take up arms
against Him. They do that in the name of
the so-called ‘ecumenical movement’.
Why Apostle Peter Could
Not
Have Been the First Pope Of
It is a long tradition in the
Catholic Church that Apostle Peter was its first Pope. Many historians however disagree with it,
pointing out that the first list of Popes was compiled more than a century and
a half later.
“Power and
the glory of papal struggles” “Historians
disagree about the exact number of pontiffs and much else concerning the
papacy. Although the Catholic Church
claims an unbroken line of popes going back to the apostle Peter, tracing it is
like following a meandering river back to the source. For example, the
Like most early historians, he did not include Peter. The first
leader of the Christian community, according to him, was Linus followed by
Anacleus, Clement, Evaristus and Alexander.
No one knew who the next in line was,
so Iranaeus called him Sixtus – six. There have so far been five popes with
that name, so it is a fair bet that the next pontiff will not be called Sixtus
VI.” Popes have been changing their
names as far back as the sixth century. But with monikers like Poppo of Brixen,
Pietro Buccaporca (pig’s snout) and Maurice Burdanus (the donkey), it is easy
to understand why. This has increased
the confusion and discrepancy in an historical record strewn with anti-popes
who were not always bad popes and popes who were not always holy . . . Electing a pope used to be a Spartan affair.
It took 18 prelates meetings in Viterbo three years to agree on Pope Gregory X,
which did in 1271. This was only after
citizens tore off the roof of the palace where they were residing to supposedly
help the Holy Spirit reach the cardinals.
Gregory then decreed that cardinals should be locked up in future
conclaves, with their rations systematically reduced during prolonged elections
. . . But however stressful modern papal
elections, they are nothing compared with the drama of the early centuries of
Christianity, when popes struggles to establish their power as the Roman empire
was collapsing and threats abounded from other cultures and religions. Pontiffs
became absolute monarchs, with their own army, administrations and lands, until
other European kings re-asserted their own rights, shrinking the papacy’s power
and forcing it to revert to its age-old spiritual role.” (The
Daily Telegraph,
The Catholic Encyclopedia however, an
‘authoritative’ source in these matters, gives the following lists of Popes:
1. St. Peter
(32-67) 18.
St. Pontain (230-35)
2. St. Linus
(67-76) 19.
St. Anterus (235-36)
3. St. Anacletus
(Cletus) (76-88) 20.
St. Fabian ((236-50)
4. St. Clement I
(88-97) 21.
St. Cornelius (251-53)
5. St. Evaristus
(97-105) 22.
St. Lucius I (253-54)
6. St. Alexander
I (105-115) 23.
St. Stephan I (254-57)
7. St. Sixtus I
(115-125) -- also called Xystus I 24.
St. Sixtus II (257-58)
8. St. Telesphorus
(125-136) 25.
St. Dionysius (260-68)
9. St. Hyginus
(136-140) 26.
St. Felix I (269-74)
10. St. Pius I
(140-155) 27.
St. Eutychian (275-83)
11. St. Anicetus
(155-166) 28.
St. Caius (283-296) – also called Gaius
12. St. Soter
(166-175) 29.
St. Marcellinus (296–304)
13. St.
Eleutherius (175-189) 30.
St. Marcellus I (308-309)
14. St. Victor I
(189-199) 31.
St. Eusebius (309 or 310)
15. St.
Zephyrinus (199-217) 32.
St. Miltiades (311-14)
16. St. Callistus
I (217-22) 33.
St. Sylvester I (314-35)
17. St. Urban I
(222-30) 34.
St. Marcus (336)
We stopped at Pope 34 – St. Marcus –
for a very important reason, namely that it takes us past the Council of Nicaea
which took place in the year 325. At
that Council, Christianity was supposed to have become officially the religion
of the
We have often discussed this topic in
the past, and those who wish to look at it again can begin with The Christian Herald No 11. Now however, we want to concentrate on the
one item that the Catholic Church claims as its bona fides – the mission that
Jesus Christ gave to Apostle Peter which was supposed to have been passed on to
all Popes after him.
“13When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi,
He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man,
am?” 14So they said,
“Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one
of the prophets.”
15He said to them, “But who do you say that I
am?” 16Simon Peter answered
and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18And I also say to you
that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of
Hades shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mat.
16:13-19).
A mighty mission and great
empowerment Jesus Christ gave to His leading Apostle.
Now it should be easy to prove that
Apostle Peter was the first head of the Catholic Church, because that was a
very advanced period for its time and left behind large volumes of writings –
historical, religious, literary, military, and just about any other subject. It
is from this time also that we have the New Testament. And yet, there is not a single piece of
writing from that period that places Apostle Peter at the head of the Catholic
Church, or indeed anywhere near
Let us leave aside the fact that
historians cannot locate any document which would confirm that Apostle Peter
was the first Pope in
First of all, we must point out that
we do not address Peter as ‘Saint’ but as ‘Apostle’, because the term ‘Saint’
is never used in the Bible as an honorific title, but merely as a descriptive
term of membership in the Churches of God.
The title ‘Apostle’ on the other hand was specifically given by Jesus
Christ to a limited number of disciples who would hold positions of kings and
priests under Him in the
And while we are talking about
titles, Apostle Peter would never have taken upon himself the title of ‘Father’
used these days by Catholic prelates, let alone ‘Holy Father’ so loved by its
Popes. Why not? Because he heard Jesus Christ personally saying, “9Do
not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in
heaven.” (Mat.23:9).
One should never forget also that the
Third Commandment says, “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). If what the Popes are doing
is not taking the name of the God in vain, what is it? The title “Holy Father’ belongs to God and to
Him alone, and that is why any man who presumes to call himself by that tile
commits an unpardonable blasphemy. The title ‘Holy Father’ is found only once
in the Bible, and it was used by Jesus Christ to address His Father in
heaven.
9“I pray for them. I do
not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are
Yours. 10And all Mine are
Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11Now
I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.
Holy
Father, keep through Your name those
whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” (John 17:9-11).
By apportioning for themselves the
title of ‘Holy Father’, the Popes took the role of God, and made it sound as if
Jesus Christ would have prayed to them. Apostle Peter would never have done
that.
The Catholic encyclopedia says that
Apostle Peter took his position of Pope in the year 32, and held it until the
year 67. It does not tell us where it
got that information from, but we know that it did not get it from the Bible,
because the Bible proves the very opposite – that Apostle Peter was never in
It also means that Peter became Pope
while Jesus Christ was still on this earth before He was even crucified.
Why then does the Catholic
Encyclopedia list Peter as Pope in the year 32?
Because it knows that it cannot prove that he went to
In the book of Acts, we find the
following statement: “11But the following night the Lord stood by
him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in
That was the year 60 AD, some 28
years after Peter was supposed to have taken his position as Pope in
Now if Peter was already in
“”20And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where
Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, 21but as
it is written: “To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And
those who have not heard shall understand.”
22For this
reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. 23But
now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these
many years to come to you, 24whenever I journey to Spain,
I shall come to you.” (
Apostle Paul was hindered
at first from going to
Now clearly if Apostle
Peter had already laid the foundation of the
In the conclusion of that
epistle, Apostle Paul greeted and named just about every Christian in that
city. Apostle Peter was not among
them. Notice:
“1I commend
to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, 2that
you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist
her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper
of many and of myself also. 3Greet
Priscilla and
17Now I
urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to
the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18For those who
are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by
smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19For
your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but
I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20And
the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
(Rom.16:1-20).
Apostle Paul is telling the
“brethren” of
“The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman
College of Pontiffs. This was the most
important position in the Ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians,
until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. A distinctly religious
office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized
until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. It was
last held by the Christian Roman Emperor Gratian
until the title passed over to the Bishop of Rome.
Today, "Pontifex Maximus" is one of the titles of the Bishop of
Rome as Pope of the Catholic
Church. As a papal title, the translation Supreme Pontiff is
customary when writing in English, in which the Latin term Pontifex Maximus
refers to the former pagan Roman post. But Latin is still the
official language of the Catholic Church and of the Vatican, and the Latin form
Pontifex Maximus is still used in reference to the Pope when writing or
speaking in that language. The title appears regularly on buildings, monuments
and coins (among other things) dedicated by or otherwise made during each
specific pontificate.”
The Collegium Pontificum or College of Pontiffs was the most
important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this sacred college is
attributed to the second king of Rome, Numa
Pompilius. It is safe to say that the collegium was tasked to
act as advisers of the rex (king) in all matters of religion. The collegium
was headed by the pontifex maximus and all the pontifices held
their office for life. Prior to its institution, all religious and
administrative functions and powers were naturally exercised by the king. Very
little is known about this period of Roman history regarding the pontiffs as
the main historical sources are lost and some of the events from this period
are regarded as semi-legendary or mythical. Most of the records of ancient Rome
were destroyed when it was sacked by the Gauls in 390 BC. Accounts from this
early period come from excerpts of writings made during the Republican Period.”
“The pontifex
maximus was not a real magistrate: he did not serve for a fixed period but for
life, and he remained, officially, a citizen. As the title suggests, the
pontifex maximus was 'the greatest' or chairman of the college of the pontifices,
'priests'. They were responsible for the Roman state cult as a whole and for
several cults in particular, viz. the cults that had no priestly college of
their own (such as the augures, the decemviri sacris faciundis
and the fetiales). The number of
pontifices continued to grow. There were originally five 'real' pontifices,
after the Lex Ogulnia (300/299
The main task of the
pontifices was to maintain the pax deorum, the 'peace with the gods'. To
obtain this goal, they gave advise to the magistrates, interpreted the omens,
controlled the calendar and oversaw funerals. The pontifex maximus was
responsible for a large collection of omens (annales maximi); every
year, he wrote down the celestial and other signs, and added the events that
had followed the omens, so that future generation would be able to better
understand the divine will.
Until the Lex
Ogulnia, all pontifices were patricians; this law introduced the possibility
that plebeians were to be pontifex as well. The
pontifex maximus was elected by the comitia tributa, an assembly of the
people that was divided into voting districts. After 104
Julius Caesar was
elected pontifex maximus in 63
The word pontifex
is sometimes explained as 'bridge builder', but is in fact related to the
Etruscan word pont, 'road', and means something like 'preparer of the
road'. The pope still calls himself pontifex maximus. Because the pontifex maximus was not a real
magistrate, he was not allowed to wear the toga with the purple border.
However, he could be recognized by the iron knife (secespita).
In 381, the Roman emperor Gratian was the first to decline to use the
title of pontifex maximus. It was accepted by the pope.”
We can deduct a few points from these
articles.
1. The title ‘Pontifex Maximus’ had
its origins in
2. Roman religious establishment was
an extraordinarily complex and hierarchical one. On what basis would that establishment have
accepted an alien as its leader?
Remember, Apostle Paul found only a handful of Christians in
3. Although the title ‘Pontifex
Maximus’ had been taken over by the emperors, Roman religious leaders still
retained the titles of rex sacrorum (sacred
or divine king), and rex sacrificulum ('king of the
sacrifices'). These titles speak for themselves.
The first assumed that the Pontiffs’ position was of divine origin, while the
second made them kings of sacrifices. Remember, they even sacrificed humans in
their ceremonial games in those days.
All their public ceremonies had the blessing of the emperor and the
religious leader. The gladiators used
to say to their leader: ‘those who are about to die salute you’, and the
Coliseum would erupt in applause and stand in awe. The emperors took that honor upon themselves
for a while, but long before and after them that honour belonged to the Roman
religious leaders.
On what basis then would a foreigner
like Peter have been elevated to that supreme religious position? And would he have accepted it? It would have
put him in opposition to Jesus Christ who forbade His followers to take such
honorific titles.
4. The Roman religious leader was
also “responsible for the eighteen priestesses of the goddess Vesta”. Would Apostle Peter have accepted to be in
charge of eighteen priestesses of the goddess Vesta? In the first Churches of God, there were no
monks and no nuns. Of the main apostles,
only Paul was celibate and wile he told his followers that it would be good for
them all to be like him, he made no doctrine about it. Apostle Peter, on the other hand, was married
even before he was called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. In his first epistle, written from
This epistle is dated in the year 60.
What was Peter doing in
5. The Roman religious leader was
also responsible for reading omens. And
how did the Romans do that? By looking
at the entrails of animals: chicken, lambs, pigs, etc... Can one imagine an apostle of Jesus Christ
doing such a thing?
It is interesting to note that just
as Paul sent an epistle to the Romans in which he named the Christians of that
city among whom Peter did not appear, he also sent an epistle from
“7Tychicus,
a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell
you all the news about
10Aristarchus
my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you
received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him), 11and
Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for
the
16Now when
this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the
Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from
18This
salutation by my own hand—Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with
you. Amen.” (Col. 4:7-18).
The
epistle to the Colossians was written in the year 64, four years after the
epistle to the Romans. Yet in this time
the Church of Rome instead of growing had diminished. None of the Christians mentioned din the
first epistle appear in the second. And
of course, just as in the epistle to the Romans, the Colossian epistle does not
mention Peter. So in the year 64, just
three years before he was supposed to have been martyred in that city, Apostle
Peter still had not appeared in
Now
have a look at this:
“After these things Paul departed from
This chapter of the book of Acts,
describes events of the year 54 AD. At
that time, Christians had not yet been distinguished from the Jews. In that year, Claudius had commanded all the
Jews to depart from
And if you want still more proof that
Peter never went to
“16Now when
we came to
17And it
came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews
together. So when they had come together, he said to them: “Men and
brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our
fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the
Romans, 18who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me
go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. 19But
when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to
Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. 20For
this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and speak
with you, because for the hope of
‘Go to this people and say:
“Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you
will see, and not perceive;
27 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.”’
28“Therefore
let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles,
and they will hear it!” 29And when he had said these words, the
Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. 30Then Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, 31preaching
the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (Acts 28:16-31).
If
Peter had been in
When
Paul was tried in
“1I
charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2Preach
the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke,
exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own
desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for
themselves teachers; 4and they will turn their ears
away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5But you be
watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfil your ministry.
6For I am
already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is
at hand. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
race, I have kept the faith. 8Finally, there is
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved
His appearing.
9Be
diligent to come to me quickly; 10for Demas has forsaken me,
having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for
Would
Apostle Peter have abandoned Paul also if he were in
After
setting up the first Church in
“1Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” (1 Peter 1:2).
The pilgrims of the dispersion were
the scattered Israelites and Jews who fled from the conquering armies of the Assyrians
and Babylonians. Later, Apostle Peter
went to
The question must be asked: if there
is so much proof that Apostle Paul went to
Because it needed Jesus’ mission to
Apostle Peter to conquer the world, not Paul’s mission to just convert it.
“18And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it. 19And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mat. 16:18-19).
The
“Clemency call for Saddam” “AUSTRALIAN
social justice advocates have supported a
5Surely
for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of
every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every
man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be
shed; For in the image of God He
made man.” (Gen. 9:5-6).
Did you get it? God says that murderers must pay with their
life because they have taken life which was made in the image of God, while the
Catholic Church says that murderers should not pay with their life because they
are made in the image of God.
Now who do you think is right, God or the
Catholic Church? Isn’t it amazing how
many millions, even billions, of people believe the Catholic Church and how few
believe the Scriptures – the very Word of God?
“39They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our
father.” Jesus said to them, “If
you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40But
now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from
God. Abraham did not do this. 41You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of
fornication; we have one Father—God.”
42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you
would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of
Myself, but He sent Me. 43Why do you not understand My speech?
Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44You 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. 45But
because I tell the truth, you do not believe
48Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say
rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8: 39-48).
31“Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32Jesus
answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which
of those works do you stone Me?” 33The
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.” 34Jesus answered
them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? 35If
He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be
broken), 36do 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’? 37If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe
Me; 38but 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.” 39Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but
He escaped out of their hand.” (John 10:31-39).
18“For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because
what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it
to them. 20For 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, 21because, 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. 22Professing
to be wise, they became fools, 23and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and
four-footed animals and creeping things.
24Therefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to
dishonour their bodies among themselves, 25who exchanged the
truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26For
this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged
the natural use for what is against nature. 27Likewise 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.
28And
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; 29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual
immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30backbiters,
haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient
to parents, 31undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving,
unforgiving, unmerciful; 32who, 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.” (Rom.1:18-32).
17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18For assuredly, I say
to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means
pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19Whoever therefore
breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be
called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them,
he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I say
to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven.” (Mat.5:17-20).
“When
Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to
her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned
you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And
Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
(John 8:10-11).
Second, the Scriptures tell us that
God does not change. (Mal.3:6).
Therefore His eternal laws do not change either.
“16If
anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead
to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin
not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I
do not say that he should pray about that. 17All
unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. 18We know that whoever is born
of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself,
and the wicked one does not touch him. 19We
know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of
the wicked one. 20And we know
that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may
know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. 21Little children, keep
yourselves from idols. ” (1John
25“Husbands
love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
her, 26that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing
of water by the word, 27that He might present her to Himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she
should be holy and without blemish. 28So husbands ought to
love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves
himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes
and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30For
we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31“For
this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This is
a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless
let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the
wife see that she respects her husband.” Eph. 5:25-33).
8“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” 15See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph.5:8-15).
10“When Jesus
heard it, He marvelled, and said to those who
followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not
even in
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mat.22:11-14).
3“And I will give power to my two
witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days,
clothed in sackcloth.”
4These are
the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the
earth. 5And 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. 6These 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.
7When they
finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will
make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. 8And their
dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which
spiritually is called
11Now 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. 12And 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. 13In
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.11:3-13).
Jesus Christ left no doubt which day He expects to
find His followers observing when He returns to this earth. This is what He told them when they asked Him
about it.
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), 16“then let those who are in
The reason they must pray that their flight from the Great Tribulation should not occur on the Sabbath is because that is a day of rest and worship, and they are not allowed to carry heavy burdens on that day.
Amazingly, Sabbath observing people are once again embroiled in a fierce debate on how to observe this day.
Two years ago, we received the following email from a congregation that simply signs itself as ‘Blow the Trumpet’
“Dear friends, For nearly two years Blow the Trumpet has pressed God's Church to seriously address the issue of His people dining out on the Sabbath. For the most part leaders have attempted to dismiss this topic as unimportant as well as divisive. Some groups have even directed their members to refrain from discussing it altogether and have actually warned them that failure to conform to the church's position could result in expulsion. Blow the Trumpet has written extensively on this subject and continues to receive words of encouragement from scores of members who have humbly sought God's wisdom on this critical end time issue. We invite their comments and will always respond.
Recently we have received numerous requests to respond to a paper written by the United Church of God, defending this practice. We have done so in a series of articles that can be accessed by clicking the following link: http://blowthetrumpet.org/TheUnitedChurchofGodvsASabbathTest.htm . Respectfully, “Blow the Trumpet.”
We did not reply to this email and paid no further attention to it. We do not enter into discussion with people who write anonymously, or who hide behind epithets or some other subterfuges. Last year, they sent us this email again.
Now you would think that since they had received “encouragement from scores of members who have humbly sought God’s wisdom on this critical end time issue”, they would have enough to settle this question once and for all, but no, they still want our opinion. Well, we will give it to them; we just hope they will like it.
The easiest way to settle this question would be to go to the Jews for to them were given the ‘oracles’ of God, as Apostle Paul called the laws, judgments and statutes that God gave to Moses.
1What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit
of circumcision? 2Much in every way! Chiefly because to them
were committed the oracles of God. 3For what if some did not
believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4Certainly
not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” (
The apostles and the early Churches of God had no doubt which was the correct day of rest and worship, or how to observe it. They kept the Sabbath and worshiped on that day for almost three centuries, until the Council of Nicaea, after which this became a ‘crime’, and the Romans forced everyone to observe the Day of the Sun instead. Emperor Constantine used to worship his sun-god both before and after that Council. This is what Encarta Encyclopaedia says on this topic.
“Constantine was born Flavius Valerius Constantinus at Nis, in
what is now Serbia, son of the commander Constantius Chlorus (later Constantius
I) and Helena (later St Helena), a camp follower. Constantius became Co-Emperor
in 305. Constantine, who had shown military talent in the East, joined his
father in
Following the example of his father and earlier 3rd-century
emperors,
Here now
is a quote from the “Apostolic Letter sent by John Paul II to the Bishops,
Clergy, and Faithful of the Catholic Church on Keeping the Lord’s Day
Holy”. It is a long letter, but we will
resume ourselves to just the most important paragraph on this topic. Please note our inserts in square brackets,
which we will comment upon afterwards.
“The first day of the week: It was for this reason [that
Christ rose on that day] that, from Apostolic times, "the first day
after the Sabbath", the first day of the week, began to shape the rhythm
of life for Christ's disciples (cf.
Now our
comments: The First lie: “From Apostolic times, "the first day after the
Sabbath", the first day of the week, began to shape the rhythm of life for
Christ's disciples (cf.
“1Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given
orders to the churches of
We quoted both first and second verses so as to give a more
complete picture. Apostle Paul gave
instructions to the Corinthians, not to observe the first day of the week as a
Holy Day, but to work on it – to make a collection for the saints in
Second lie: "The first day
after the Sabbath" was also the day upon which the faithful of
We do not contest the fact that they broke bread on the
first day of the week. What we contest
is using this Scripture to turn that into a Holy Day. Since ancient times,
braking bread simply meant having a meal.
18When they
came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come
so soon today?”
19And they
said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also
drew enough water for us and watered the flock.” 20So he said to his daughters,
“And where is he? Why is it that you have
left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” (Ex.2:18-20).
54Then
Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat
bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.”
(Gen.31:54).
This is
exactly what Apostle Paul did at
11“Now when he had come up, had broken bread
and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.” (Acts
They did not break bread because that was a Holy Day, but because they were hungry and needed to eat.
Neither the Jews nor the early Christians broke bread on the Sabbath for religious purposes as do the Catholics and others on Sundays these days. Using this Scripture to prove that Christians worshiped on Sundays is extremely dishonest.
What Apostle Paul did on that occasion had absolutely
nothing to do with taking the ‘Eucharist’ and everything to do with just having
a meal. Taking ‘Eucharist’ was not a
practice in the early Churches of God.
The only time when bread was broken in a religious context was at
Passover, which the Catholic Church does not observe. (See
Third lie: “The Book of Revelation gives evidence of the practice of
calling the first day of the week "the Lord's Day" (
“10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” (Rev.1:10-11).
Where is the connection between this passage and the first day of the week? You will not find the term, “Lord’s Day” connected with the first day of the week anywhere in the Bible. In fact, this is the only place where this term is used. The term, “The Day of the Lord” however is found in many places, and in every case it speaks of a terrible day for humanity. Let us give you a few examples from the three major prophets of the Bible.
“6 Wail,
for the day of the Lord is
at hand! It will come as destruction
from the Almighty. Therefore all hands
will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their
faces will be like flames.
Behold, the day of the Lord
comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners
from it. For the stars of heaven and
their constellations will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its
going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. 11 “I
will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. 12 I will make a mortal more rare than
fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, In
the wrath of the Lord of
hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.” (Is. 13: 6-13).
“For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a
day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; It shall
be satiated and made drunk with their blood;
For the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the
River Euphrates.” (Jer.46:10).
1The word
of the Lord came to me
again, saying, 2“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the
Lord GOD: “Wail, ‘Woe to the day!’ For the day is near, even the day
of the Lord is
near; It will be a day of clouds, the time of the Gentiles.” (Ez. 30:1-3).
So, the Day of the Lord is a day of anguish and pain for the world, a day that is yet to come. It’s time is right at the end of this age, when Jesus Christ returns to set up His Millennium Kingdom. No one knows when that day comes, other than the Father. Neither does any one know in what day of the week it shall fall. So say the Scriptures, and so it shall be, and if anyone tells otherwise he is a liar.
36“But of
that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My
Father only. 37But as the days of Noah were, so
also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and did
not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming
of the Son of Man be.” (Mat. 24:36-39).
Where then did the Catholic Church get the idea that the Day of the Lord falls on Sunday? Not from the Bible.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth lies: “And when
Christians spoke of the "Lord's Day", they did so giving to this term
the full sense of the Easter proclamation: "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Phil
Let us look at these three Bible references and see if they say what John Paul II said they do.
“11and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:11)
“Therefore let all the
house of
3Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking
by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is
Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1Cor.12:3).
Quite extraordinary, isn’t it? None of these Scriptures have anything to do with the Lord’s Day. Clearly this man, or whoever wrote this “Bull” for him, did not know the Bible or hoped that no one would check out these references.
Now let us look at the life of the apostles, and see what day of the week they observed and worshipped on.
11Therefore,
sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day
came to Neapolis,12and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost
city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for
some days. 13And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city
to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and
spoke to the women who met there.” (Acts 16:11-13)
This journey took place in the year 53 AD, two decades after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in what day of the week was Apostle Paul praying with, and preaching to the Gentile Christians of Philippi? On the Sabbath, “as his custom was.”
“1Now when they had
passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there
was a synagogue of the Jews. 2Then Paul, as his custom was,
went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the
Scriptures, 3explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had
to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus
whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4And some of them were
persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the
leading women, joined Paul and Silas.” (Acts 17:1-4).
Here
Apostle Paul was again preaching on the Sabbath, ‘as his custom was’ to both
Jews and Greeks. Now if he were
preaching to the Jews on the Sabbath and to the Greeks on Sunday, the Holy
Spirit would not have inspired the author of the book of Acts to insert the
words ‘as his custom was.’ Paul did not
have one custom for Jews and another for the Greeks. Of course, if in his travels he happened to
meet Christians on days of the week, he could not pass the opportunity to
preach to them on those days. One could preach the Gospel of salvation on any
day of the week, but one cannot work on the Sabbath just because he preached or
used another day of the week for rest and worship.
10Then the
brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to
Here
Apostle Paul preached to both Jews and Greeks, and “many of them believed, and
also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.” The word ‘Sabbath’ is not used but merely
implied, for the Jews would not worship on any other day of the week.
“1After
these things Paul departed from
As his
custom was, Apostle Paul ‘reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded both Jews and Greeks.’
8And he
went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and
persuading concerning the things of the
For
three months in the synagogue, then for two whole years in the house of
Tyrannus, Paul preached to both Jews and Greeks. The Sabbath is not specifically mentioned,
but could he have preached to the Jews on any other day? When he could no longer preach in the
synagogue, he moved to a private house, but did not change the day of worship.
10Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to
Whenever Paul went to a
Now notice something very interesting about the Bereans:
“they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures
daily to find out whether these things were so”.
Can you see why we always tell people to check out in the
Scriptures what people preach? But this is not the interesting point that we
want to make here. What Scriptures were the Bereans searching to find out
whether these things were so? This was
the year 53 AD, and the New Testament had not yet been written. With the possible exception of the synoptic
Gospels, none of the other writings had yet been put on paper. Therefore the Bereans were searching none
other than the Old Testament. And what
were they searching for? The things
regarding Jesus Christ! They did not
search to find out what day of the week was the right day of rest and worship,
because that was not an issue at that time.
For more than two centuries it was taken for granted that the day of
rest and worship was the Sabbath. This
is why the Greeks who sought the true God used to go to the synagogue and
searched out the Jewish Scriptures.
Jesus Christ
referred to His followers as Jews; therefore what was true of the Jews is true
of the Christians.
8“And to the angel of the church in
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”: 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. 9Indeed 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. 10Because 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. 11Behold, I am coming
quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. 12He
who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall
go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city
of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God.
And I will write on him My new name.” (Rev.3:7-12).
Now if Christians are Jews, they must observe the Sabbath, not the Day of the Sun, which the Romans had been observing for millennia before the Christian era. No mater how much Scripture twisting one does, he will never find justification for changing the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday. The fact that Jesus Christ rose from the grave on the first day of the week, did not transform that into a day of rest and worship instead of the Sabbath. God has not given human beings the privilege of choosing for themselves their Holy Days or the day of rest and worship.
It is an extraordinary phenomenon that two thousand years after the advent of Christianity, both Jews by blood and Jews by faith have problems with keeping the Sabbath. Here is the polemic in which the Jews by blood are involved.
This has created
safety fears as members of eastern Sydney's large Orthodox community dodge
traffic on the way to and from local synagogues. The councils had proposed re-programming
traffic lights to create regular, automated pedestrian-signal changes at the
Victoria Rd and Penkivil St intersections at a cost of $1000 each. But the RTA said this would create
unacceptable traffic delays and foster "red light running
behaviour''. "Public transport
would be particularly disadvantaged, as the periods requested coincide with the
Friday-afternoon commuter and Saturday-morning shopping peaks,'' it said in a
letter to Waverley Council. Instead, the
RTA proposed a more expensive compromise solution, despite admitting it was
"not an authority'' on Orthodox religious law. "The RTA is in possession of a new
technology which passively detects pedestrians waiting to cross at signalised
crossings,'' the letter said.
"This
detection method doesn't involve any conscious decision to activate the
signalised crossing phase by the pedestrians - and the precise location of
the detectors wouldn't be apparent to them.''
Rabbi Dovid Slavin, from Bondi, told The
Sunday Telegraph he was seeking more information about how the new
crossing system would work. Orthodox
teaching bans work during the Sabbath, which would include the use of an electrical
device to change a traffic signal. He
said the compromise solution's compliance with religious law could depend on
whether it worked with infra-red motion sensors or with heat sensors. Rabbi Slavin said he had offered to pay the
$1000 cost of the initial proposal. (Jim Dickins, The Daily Telegraph, Dec. 17, 2006)
“Kosher crossing pushes our button” “It just makes my
mind boggle at all the possible scenarios.
They’d eat only cold food on the Sabbath, as cooking is forbidden. Even
then, they can’t take it out of the fridge, as they’re forbidden from carrying.
Then
again, they would have to turn their fridge off, as it is an electrical
device. (Hope their food doesn’t thaw
out in the freezer.)
They’d
probably like to read The Sunday
Telegraph, but as they’re forbidden from handling money, they couldn’t buy
it.
As
they’re forbidden to drive to get it, they’d have to walk – but then they’d be
forbidden from carrying it home .
Naturally,
they can’t watch TV, play DVDs or use mobile phones, as they’re forbidden from
pressing buttons.
They
would have to sit in the dark all night, as they’re forbidden to press the
light switch.
The
sorriest scenario is that the whole Orthodox Jewish community would be unable
to use their toilets, as they’d have to press the flush button. Perhaps they could use an old chamber pot,
but they’d have to carry it. What a
joke! And what a waste of council and
RTA money.” (Judy Kenny , Benora
Point. Letters to the editor, Sunday Telegraph, 24/12/06).
We could not have put it any better. Can you see now how important it is for
people to ‘not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous
judgment’? But for that they need the
Holy Spirit, and He comes only to Jesus’ genuine followers. What
do you think Jesus Christ would tell those Orthodox Jews other than that they
are hypocrites? We can only give them
the answer that Jesus Christ gave to the Pharisees of His day.
21“Jesus
answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. 22Moses
therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the
fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23If
a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not
be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the
Sabbath? 24Do not judge
according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John
7:21-24).
The Jews by blood may be excused for not knowing how to observe the Sabbath, for they have never had the Holy Spirit, and that is why they have been stumbling over this issue ever since the time of Moses, but what do we make of modern day fundamentalist Christians who claim that they have the Holy Spirit and yet still do not know how to observe it?
What does this tell you? That contrary to their claim, the Holy Spirit is not in them. And when the Holy Spirit departs from a people all they are left with is a spirit of confusion and arguments.
They keep sending us emails,
expecting us to enlighten them on this matter, even though they say that
hundreds of other people have replied to them.
Why do they still want our comments if they have the answer from so many
other people? They
claim to be Jesus’ preachers and yet they do not know how to keep the
Sabbath.
We have already written on this
topic a number of times, but the wise men of ‘Blow the Trumpet’ congregation want
to hear from us again. If they were spending less time blowing their trumpet
and more time worshipping God and studying His Word, they might have the answer
too, for Jesus Christ clearly said:
7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks
receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
(Mat. 7:7-8)
They say that they continue to receive ‘words of encouragement from scores of members’ and that they ‘invite their comments and will always respond’. They include us among their ‘friends’ even though we do not know who they are and have not responded to their previous emails. They say that they had already written a series of articles on this topic, but how have they written those articles it they still do not know the answer to it?
Apostle Paul said that there are people who ever learn and never come to the knowledge of the truth.
“1But
know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For
men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having
a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn
away! 6For of this sort are those who creep into households and
make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7always
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (Tim.
3:1-7).
Why do they do it then if Jesus Christ has not sent them, and they are not His true ministers? This is why:
“17Now I urge
you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the
doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18For those who are
such do not serve our Lord £Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech
deceive the hearts of the simple. 19For your obedience has
become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be
wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20And the God
of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” (
They are serving their own belly not Jesus Christ. They are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The problem is that they do not leave it at that, but become teachers of others. And when they get stuck, they can always ask others, or plagiarise them. We know that people have used our writings in their congregations without mentioning their source. Do you think that ‘Blow the Trumpet’ preachers would tell their congregation where they got the answer from if we gave it to them? We have never had problems with observing the Sabbaths or any of God’s Holy Days. And we think our work proves with whom the Holy Spirit works these days.
The problem with preachers these days is that they do not know the Scriptures any better than the Pharisees of old. They do not know where the Old Testament stops and the New begins, or which tenets of the Old Testament are still valid under the New Testament.
Almost all things regarding the Sabbaths and Holy Days are still valid in the New Testament, a fact confirmed by the apostles and the early Churches of God when they observed them.
Now although we do not know who the people from ‘Blow the Trumpet’ are, we are almost certain that they belong to the group of churches that impose Levitical dietary laws upon their members. The Churches of God have been brought right back to square one, having fallen pray to false preachers and ‘savage wolves’ once again. Satan never slips. He is always looking for an opportunity to twist people’s minds and make them see the world his ways. Have a look at this:
1“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will
depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of
demons, 2speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own
conscience seared with a hot iron, 3forbidding to marry, and
commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For
every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it
is received with thanksgiving; 5for it is sanctified by the
word of God and prayer.
6If you
instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have
carefully followed.” (1 Tim. 4:1-6).
We know of no church that does not preach such ‘doctrines of demons’. They may call them ‘lent’, ‘dietary laws”, or whatever, but under the New Testament they are still ‘doctrines of demons’, if they are enforced as religious doctrines.
Now if they stumble in such a
simple and obvious matter, what chance is there that they would understand the
deeper things of the
1“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to
Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from
God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3Jesus answered and said to
him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot
see the
4Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
And as Apostle Paul said:
“12For
though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to
teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come
to need milk and not solid food. 13For everyone who
partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of
righteousness, for he is a babe. 14But solid food belongs to
those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Heb. 5:12-14).
Jesus Christ showed flexibility regarding the manner in which the Sabbath should be observed, but He did not give licence to anyone to do whatever they want on that day. People often use the following Scripture as justification for breaking the Sabbath. Some even use it as justification for changing the Sabbath with Sunday as the day of rest and worship.
“23Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on
the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of
grain. 24And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do
what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25But He said to them, “Have you never read what
David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26how
he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high
priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests,
and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man,
and not man for the Sabbath. 28Therefore the Son of Man is also
Lord of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28).
If Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees did not mean license to break the Sabbath, what did it mean? He introduced certain flexibilities, to be sure, but did that amount to breaking it or changing it from being the day of rest and worship? Certainly not, for He told us that He came to fulfil the law not to destroy it.
7“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the
Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18For
assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle
will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19Whoever
therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so,
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and
teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven. 20For I say to you, that unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”(Mat. 5:7-20).
Whoever breaks
the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called lest in the
“12And
the Lord spoke to Moses,
saying, 13“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying:
‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and
you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am
the Lord who sanctifies
you. 14You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is
holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever
does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his
people. 15Work shall be done for six days, but the
seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work
on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16Therefore
the children of
The Sabbath was, is, and shall remain a sign between God and His people forever. The fact that some unworthy people have taken to observing it too does not change this fact.
Jesus Christ disagreed with the Pharisees on the manner in which it should be observed. This is where the new ‘Pharisees’, are stumbling too. And for the same reason that the old Pharisees did. Their heart is not right before God. For this reason they could never understand the will of God and the Scriptures – the mind of God.
Let us now look at what the Old Testament has to say about the Sabbath.
4Then the Lord
said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people
shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them,
whether they will walk in My law or not. 5And it shall be on
the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice
as much as they gather daily.”
17Then the children of
Those days, cooking for the family was a full time job which took most of the day. Nowadays however, with our modern amenities, one can easily cook a fresh meal in hardly more than an hour, which is not that much longer than setting up a precooked meal. Therefore while the principle of preparing for the Sabbath beforehand still stands, I am convinced that minor adjustments like these are allowable as long as the rest of the Sabbath is observed correctly; and I think I am in tune with the mind of Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. Now have a look at the following Scripture:
"When you come into your neighbour's vineyard, you
may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your
container. When you come into your
neighbour's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you
shall not use a sickle on your neighbour's standing grain.” (Deut.
23:24-25)
If you happen to pass through your neighbour’s vineyard or grain field, you may have your fill, but you may not take any with you. It says nothing about the day of the week in which you can do that, or that you cannot do it on the Sabbath.
Now do you remember what the Pharisees were complaining about? That Jesus’ disciples were plucking heads of grain and eating them while they were passing through a grain field on the Sabbath.
What does that tell you? That they did not know the Scriptures, and that their complaint was a phoney one.
Undoubtedly, Jesus Christ could have told them about this Scriptures, but He knew that one could never win an argument with the hypocrites. He thought of better examples with which to confront them, and they had no answer to that.
This finally brings us to the question of whether people should eat in restaurants on the Sabbath. Well, to do that it would mean to support the people who engage in commercial activities on that day. Restaurants are not hospitals that require work on the Sabbath in serving the sick and disabled. Commercial enterprises however, which are opened on the Sabbath, do so for one reason only – profit. Christians should not encourage them by patronising their venues.
The only other exception that I can think of that I am sure Jesus Christ would approve of is when one is travelling far from home. That however is no licence to indulge in pleasurable activities – games, gambling, etc. – that are normally available to guests in hotels and other such venues.
The Sabbath is meant to be a day of rest and worship, of meditation and introspection, of cleansing one’s soul and of drawing close to God. I doubt anyone would suggest that these could be achieved in restaurants.
The Sabbath should be used for family togetherness. After worship and a good family meal, a walk in a park, in nature, or in any inspiring place, would be appropriate for the Sabbath.
And yes, good television programs could also be inspiring and allowable on the Sabbath.
Passover versus Easter,
Sabbath versus Sunday
It is at
the Council of Nicaea in 325 that both these questions were decided in favour
of Easter and Sunday.
This is
how the Orthodox Church justifies that decision. It is a lengthy quote, but an
important one, for it shows us how similar the Orthodox and Catholic Churches
are on this matter. It also shows us how
faulty their reasoning is.
“The First Ecumenical Synod and the
Feast of Pascha “...not with the Jews” by Archimandrite Sergius”
“THE
VERY REVEREND SERGIUS, former Assistant Professor at the Theological Acadaemy
in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the spiritual Father of the Russian Convent of the Holy
Protection in Sofia, which is under the Omophorion of Bishop Photii of
Triaditza, the sole Hierarch of the True (Old Calendar) Orthodox Church of
Bulgaria and himself a former Assistant Professor at the University of Sofia.
Father Sergius was dismissed from his academic post when he refused to accept
the revised New, or Papal, Calendar, on the occasion of its introduction into
the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. He is rightly considered a confessor of the
Faith by traditionalist Bulgarian believers.
“OF
LATE, a number of Orthodox theologians and clergymen have contended that the
proscription against celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord, Pascha (known in
the Western world by the pagan term “Easter”), “with the Jews” is unknown and
not, indeed, as the Orthodox Church has always taught, an actual decree of the
First Ecumenical Synod convened in Nicaea in 325 A.D. This innovative claim is
based on the argument that the Acts of his council have not been preserved and
that the twenty extant Canons of the Synod do not mention the celebration of
Pascha. In fact, however, in both the epistle of St. Constantine the Great to
those Bishops who were unable to attend the Synod, as well as the letter sent
by the Synod to the Church of Alexandria, there are relevant—albeit,
indirect—data to be found in the specific agreements between the Synod and
the Christians of the Eastern domains
with regard to the common celebration of Pascha by all Christians.
“Unfortunately,
theologians of an ecumenical bent have precipitated from the evidence offered
by these sources a simple affirmation that all Christians must celebrate Pascha
at the same time, ignoring the question of a specific day. Likewise, they
intentionally distort the explicit prohibition of the first Canon of the Synod
held in Antioch in 341—that is, that the Christian Pascha must not be
celebrated at the same time as the Jewish Passover—, misrepresenting its
original meaning: the expression “not with the Jews” is simply interpreted as
an injunction against the calculation of the date for Pascha according to the
faulty system employed by the Jews, at that time, for the calculation of their
Passover. Such groundless arguments are
those of the Very Reverend Professor L. Voronov, in his article, “The Calendar
Issue” and of Professor D. Ogitski in an article, “The Canonical Rules of the
Orthodox Paschalion” (both articles appear in the collection, Theological
Works, published in
“In response to Archbishop
Peter, we might note that not only these late Byzantine interpreters, but also
several Fathers and ecclesiastical writers— contemporaries of the First
Ecumenical Synod or men who lived shortly thereafter—explicitly testify to the
decisions of the Holy Fathers at Nicaea, as regards the issue of celebrating
the Christian Pascha on the same date as the Jewish Passover. We will, then,
examine evidence and data from a number of these Fathers, first and pre-eminent
among them, St. Athanasios the Great, a personal and active participant in the
proceedings of the Nicaean Synod.
* * *
“In two of his epistles, St.
Athanasios touches on the matter of the celebration of Pascha. In a letter to
the Bishops of
* * *
“Volume
XIV,
* * *
“Another important source
that confirms the basic rules for the calculation of Pascha is the collection
of the Paschal Epistles of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, which were
promulgated at the beginning of each year and in which the date for the next
Pascha was announced. A great number of such Paschal Epistles have been
preserved in the works of St. Athanasios the
Great (in the period from 329 to 335) and in those of St. Cyril
of Alexandria (during the years 414-442). Practically all of these epistles
uphold the canonical proscription against celebrating Pascha “simultaneously
with the Jews” and their Passover, since not a single of the Paschal dates
listed coincides with the date of the Jewish Passover.
“Archbishop Peter is
absolutely unjustified in his claim that in “the fourth century, after Nicaea,
the Christian Pascha, Orthodox
Tradition, and the Jewish Passover coincided several times” (ibid.,
p. 79). In support of this false assertion, he cites the French scientist
V. Grumel, who, in his essay “The Problem of the Date of Pascha in the Third
and Fourth Centuries” (Journal of Byzantine Research, Vol. VIII, pp.
165-166), uses a table of Paschal and Passover dates, published by Swartz, for
the nineteen consecutive years between 328 and 346. Only two of the dates in
Swartz’s list are, in fact, Sundays, namely, 329 and 333. With regard to the
first of these dates, 329, St. Athanasios designates April 6 as the date of
Pascha, not March 30,as does Swartz. With respect to the year 333, St.
Athanasios writes that the date of Pascha was moved back, in order to avoid its
coinciding with the anniversary celebration of
* * *
“The late date of Pascha in
387 prompted St. John Chrysostomos, while he was still a Presbyter in
“How forceful, indeed, are
the words that St. John Chrysostomos uses to chastise the Christian
“Judaizers,” and this not only for celebrating Pascha simultaneously with the
Jewish Passover, but for “fasting with the Jews”—an infraction, incidentally,
also explicitly forbidden by the seventieth Apostolic canon: “Whosoever fasts
with the Jews or celebrates with them...should be excommunicated!” Yet
Archbishop Peter, when quoting St. John Chrysosto-mos’ homily on this specific
issue (“To Those Who Fast Before it is Time”), maintains his silence with
regard to the Christian “Judaizers,” and, indeed, at the very beginning of his
article even notes that “...in these discussions, provoked by the peculiar
Paschal practice of the Orientals, no one accused them of being ‘Judaizers’”
[emphasis mine]! … and the
Jewish Passover coincided several times” (ibid., p. 79). In support of
this false assertion, he cites the French scientist V. Grumel, who, in his
essay “The Problem of the Date of Pascha in the Third and Fourth Centuries” (Journal
of Byzantine Research, Vol. VIII, pp. 165-166), uses a table of Paschal and
Passover dates, published by Swartz, for the nineteen consecutive years between
328 and 346. Only two of the dates in Swartz’s list are, in fact, Sundays,
namely, 329 and 333. With regard to the first of these dates, 329, St.
Athanasios designates April 6 as the date of Pascha, not March 30, as does
Swartz. With respect to the year 333, St. Athanasios writes that the date of
Pascha was moved back, in order to avoid its coinciding with the an-anniversary
celebration of
* * *
“The late date of Pascha in
387 prompted St. John Chrysostomos, while he was still a Presbyter in
“How forceful, indeed, are
the words that St. John Chrysostomos uses to chastise the Christian
“Judaizers,” and this not only for celebrating Pascha simultaneously with the
Jewish Passover, but for “fasting with the Jews”—an infraction, incidentally,
also explicitly forbidden by the seventieth Apostolic Canon: “Whosoever fasts
with the Jews or celebrates with them...should be excommunicated!” Yet
Archbishop Peter, when quoting St. John Chrysosto-mos’ homily on this specific
issue (“To Those Who Fast Before it is Time”), maintains his silence with
regard to the Christian “Judaizers,” and, indeed, at the very beginning of his
article even notes that “...in these discussions, provoked by the peculiar
Paschal practice of the Orientals, no one accused them of being ‘Judaizers’”!
“Volume
XIV,
“Some centuries later, St.
Maximos the Confessor (†662) perfected the nineteen-year Paschal cycle by
multiplying nineteen by twenty-eight (the period after which a specific
calendar date returns to the same day of the week, that is, to a Sunday). His
amplification of the Paschal cycle is known as the Great Indiction, a
repetitive cycle of five hundred thirty-two years (that is, 19´28, which=532) comprising the dates for
Pascha for each individual year.
“In Chapter 14 of his
noteworthy work, A Short Clarification of the Re-deeming Pascha of Christ
our Lord (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. XIX, col. 1232),1 St.
Maximos likewise notes: “We who are, by Grace, vouchsafed to keep the Pascha of
Christ, our Lord, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth [I
Corinthians 5:8], allow one day to elapse [in order to celebrate Pascha] when
March 21 falls on a Saturday and that Saturday is the fourteenth day of the
moon. If April 18 happens to fall on a Sunday, and that Sunday is, according to
the Jewish calendar, the fourteenth day of the lunar month, then we allow seven
days to elapse before celebrating Pascha. This is because, within the
thirty-five days between March 22 and April 25, the redeeming day of Pascha is
appointed to be celebrated, according to the canons, not before the former date
or after the latter, by virtue of Church rules and the tradition concerning
these dates.” The Alexandrian Paschalion abides by these same dates to
this day, as well as the absolutely clear proscription, in St. Maximos’
comments, against the celebration of Pascha on the same day as the Jewish
Passover.
“Volume
XIV,
“From all that we have cited
here from the Patristic witness, it is obvious that the arguments put forth by
Archbishop Peter and other authorities, with regard to the meaning of the
canonical proscription
against the celebration of the Christian Pascha simultaneously
with the Jewish Passover, are spurious. There are two apparent reasons for the
“scholarly” myopia of those Orthodox who would trifle with the Patristic rules
for the celebration of the Paschal Feast. First, as is well known, the adoption
of the Revised Gregorian (that is, Papal) Calendar by many Orthodox Churches in
this century was motivated by ecumenical considerations: an attempt to
standardize the celebration of the Christian Feasts at the same time throughout
the Christian world. In this way, despite the doctrinal differences between the
various Christian confessions, there would be created an impression of oneness,
thus downplaying the real reasons for separation—that is, matters of belief and
piety. Since part of the Orthodox Church now follows the Gregorian Calendar, it
remains for the ecumenists to overthrow the Orthodox Paschalion, a major
stumbling-block to ecumenical union. Hence, the artless but deceptive attempts
by Orthodox innovators to chip away at the monolithic witness of the Fathers
with regard to this issue, whether by purposeful misinterpretations of the Greek
texts of the Synods which established the formula for dating Pascha, or by
simply ignoring the Patristic witness.
(Archimandrite Sergius, The First Œcumenical Synod and the Feast of
Pascha “...not with the Jews”) (ROCHoly
Trinity.com,
This text is in the original. We have to specify this because there are many inserts which are said to be by the author – the author of the article who used ancient texts to prove his point, not us.
Now, neither this author, nor those of the ancient texts
have realised that in taking issue with the Jews they had taken issue with the
Bible – the very Word of God. It was not
the Jews’ Bible, but God’s Bible. The
Jews were merely His messengers. The
fact that they have proved unworthy of their mission does not change this
fact. Apostle Paul, who in other
respects was very critical of the Jews, acknowledged them as the official
carriers of God’s “oracles”. (Rom.3:2).
Now did you notice how often
those so-called ‘Church Fathers’ referred to the Bible when they discussed the
important topic of Pascha [the Passover]?
None! Their critics however,
referred to it twice. Yet the Passover
is the most important Holy Day in both the Jewish
“21You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of
the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. 22Or do we provoke
the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”
17Now in
giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come
together not for the better but for the worse. 18For first of
all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among
you, and in part I believe it. 19For there must also be factions
among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20Therefore
when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. 21For
in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one
is hungry and another is drunk. 22What! Do you not have houses
to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the
23For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered
to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was
betrayed took bread; 24and when He had given thanks, He
broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which
is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25In the
same manner He also took the cup after supper,
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as
you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
27Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this
cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him
eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For he who eats and
drinks £in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to
himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30For this reason
many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” (1Cor.
Now who do present day spiritual leaders of Christianity obey, Jesus Christ and His Apostles, or the ‘Church Fathers’ who committed the ultimate betrayal of turning their backs on the Bible? They imposed pagan beliefs and pagan Holy Days upon ‘Christianity’ which had nothing to do with Jesus Christ, and forbade the observance of true Holy Days which Christians had been observing until then.
The Passover is by far the most important Christian Holy Day, the one which Jesus Christ gave specific instructions on how to be observed, yet most Christians have never even heard of it, let alone observe it correctly.
There is Scriptural evidence that
all of God’s Holy Days – all the ‘oracles’ that God gave to Moses – are
essential Holy Days for Christians. (See The
Christian Heralds Nos
Let us now summarize what happened at the Council of Nicaea.
1) Christians were forbidden from Judaizing
anymore – keeping God’s Holy Days with the Jews: the Passover, Feast of
Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Day of Atonement, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of
Tabernacles and the Sabbaths. Instead, they were made to observe the Day of the
Sun, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, various saint days, birthdays, national
days, etc, which are not mentioned in the Bible, and have nothing to do with
Jesus Christ.
Jesus
Christ was not born at Christmas, and was not resurrected at Easter. Easter comes from Ishtar, a pagan
goddess. The Romans, and the Middle
Eastern peoples, had been observing her day for millennia before Christianity.
Even
if Jesus Christ was born at Christmas, and resurrected at Easter, these would
not be Holy Days for the simple reason that God has never changed His Holy Days
and never will. God’s Holy Days are set
in stone and will be observed in the
2) Mainstream Christianity calls the
gathering of bishops in 325, ‘the Apostolic Council of Nicaea’. It was nothing of a kind. The Apostles of Jesus Christ were long since
dead, and no other people could be appointed to such positions again. Those who acquired such titles later did so on spurious grounds.
The book of Revelation makes it clear that the original Apostles of
Jesus Christ, plus Paul and a few of his companions have important roles to
play in the
3) What happened at the Council of Nicaea
was not that Christianity was imposed upon the
This
is what the writer of the Hebrew book said about the trials the people of God
had to endure at the hands of pagan people in ancient times. A perfect
description of what happened to them since that time too.
“Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might
obtain a better resurrection. 36Still others had trial of
mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37They
were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were
slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented—38of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the
earth.
39And all
these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the
promise, 40God having provided something better for us, that
they should not be made perfect apart from us.” (Heb.11:35-40).
These days true Christians have to contend with a triple whammy: trials at the hands of mainstream churches, of fundamentalist churches, and of pagan religions. And I speak from experience.
The
Eleventh Commandment:
Cleanliness
is Next to Godliness
One
often hears the expression, ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’, a saying that
ought to have its equivalent in all languages of the world. I do not know about other languages, but it
does not seem to have an equivalent in Romanian, the people who need it
most. This is what God told ancient
Israelites about personal hygiene and home and town sanitation.
10If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp. 11But it shall be, when evening comes, that he shall wash with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.
12“Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; 13and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. 14For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.” (Deut. 23:10-14).
We all
know that God hates spiritual filth – sins of any kind – but how many people
know that He is just as concerned with their personal cleanliness and sanitary
conditions of their living quarters?
Those who think that God is far away and unreachable should think again. These passages makes
it clear that God walks among His people, and if He finds them unsuitable, from
any point of view, physical or spiritual, He departs from them. And if He departs from them, He does not hear
their prayers anymore. Then He appears
to be unreachable, when in fact it is their fault that He seems so far away.
Here is
an interesting passage about Apostle Paul’s experience in
16Now while
Paul waited for them at
19And they
took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new
doctrine is of which you speak? 20For you are
bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these
things mean.” 21For all the Athenians and the foreigners who
were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
new thing. 22Then Paul stood
in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things you are very religious; 23for as I was passing through
and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this
inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to
you: 24God, who made the world and everything in it, since He
is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25Nor
is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives
to all life, breath, and all things. 26And He has made from
one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their
dwellings, 27so that they
should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us; 28for in Him we live and move and have our
being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His
offspring.’ 29Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we
ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone,
something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30Truly, these
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to
repent, 31because He has appointed a day on which He will judge
the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given
assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:16-31).
God
also intensely hates images (or icons as they call them these days), the very
things that
4“You shall
not make for yourself a carved image—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; 5you
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 upon the children to the third and
fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but
showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
(Ex. 20:4-6).
How
well have the Greeks kept that Commandment after they converted to
Christianity? Walk into any Orthodox
Church and see for yourself. And they
wander that God seems so distant and unapproachable.
The
problem with the Orthodox people is that just because God seems so distant from
them, they seem to think that everybody is in the same boat. A Romanian editor, upon reading our
magazines, and seeing that we consider ourselves to be God’s messengers,
angrily called upon the Orthodox Church to do something about our
“blasphemy”. What that Church could do
about that he did not say. Clearly, in
the Orthodox Church it is blasphemy to do the work of God, but it is not
blasphemy to make images and prostrate before them, in direct contradiction to
God’s Commandments. They do not know
that since the beginning of time, God has always had people in the world who
were in close contact with Him and did His work for humanity. If that Orthodox editor had read the Bible,
he would have known that the destiny of the whole world depends upon the work
of a single man in the end-time.
“5Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. 6And he will turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Mal.4:5-6).
The
word ‘curse’ should more correctly have been translated “utter destruction”. If Elijah does not manage to turn the hearts
of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their
fathers, this world will be allowed to annihilate itself, something it is very
close to doing now. Is it not obvious
that love between parents and children has all but vanished from the world, and
that if Elijah comes today he will have an impossible time fulfilling that
task?
What
this prophecy is all about is as much about love between human parents and
their children, as it is about love between God and his creation. For if there is no love between God and human
beings, there will never be love between human parents and their children,
because God is the source of love and compassion, of blessings and of
punishments.
9“The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the
mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of
his doings.” (Jer.17:9-10).
26I 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. 27I will
put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will
keep My judgments and do them.” (Ez. 36:26-27).
1“Now it
shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all
His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above
all nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come
upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3“Blessed shall
you be in the city, and blessed shall you be
in the country.
4“Blessed shall
be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of
your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5“Blessed shall
be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6“Blessed shall
you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be
when you go out.
7“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise
against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you
one way and flee before you seven ways.
8“The Lord will command the blessing on you
in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless
you in the land which the Lord
your God is giving you.
9“The Lord will establish you as a holy
people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of
the Lord your God and walk
in His ways. 10Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you
are called by the name of the Lord,
and they shall be afraid of you. 11And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in
the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce
of your ground, in the land of which the Lord
swore to your fathers to give you. 12The Lord will open to you His good
treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to
bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall
not borrow. 13And the Lord
will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be
beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to
observe them. 14So you shall not turn aside from
any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the
left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15“But it
shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all
His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these
curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16“Cursed shall
you be in the city, and cursed shall you be
in the country.
17“Cursed shall
be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18“Cursed shall
be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of
your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19“Cursed shall
you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be
when you go out.
20“The Lord will send on you cursing,
confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are
destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your
doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21The Lord will make the plague cling to you
until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.”
47“Because
you did not serve the Lord
your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48therefore
you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord
will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything;
and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.” (Deut.
28:1-21, 47)
1“Now it
shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the
curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among
all the nations where the Lord
your God drives you, 2and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice,
according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your
heart and with all your soul, 3that the Lord your God will bring you back from
captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the
nations where the Lord your
God has scattered you. 4If any of you are driven
out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from
there He will bring you. 5Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers
possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more
than your fathers. 6And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of
your descendants, to love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
11“For this
commandment which I command you today is not too
mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12It is
not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and
bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13Nor is
it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and
bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14But the
word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you
may do it.” (Deut. 30:1-6, 11-14).
There
is one sin that God hates in the utmost, a sin that defiles the flesh and
degrades human beings, but one which is now held in high esteem by national
governments and international organisations: homosexuality. This sin is about to bring humanity
unstuck. It is impossible for God to
turn His heart to His creation as long as it wallows in this abominable filth,
for this defiles both the physical body and the spiritual soul. It is our hope and prayer that the new head
of the United Nations will overturn the decree that his predecessor enacted
upon this world regarding homosexuality.
Now
coming back to Apostle Paul’s Athenian visit, did you notice what he told the
Athenians about God? That
they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find
Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
So
whether we are talking about physical uncleanness or spiritual sins, they are
both important to God and must be strictly observed. When people do that, God no longer seem to be
so far away.
Now
have you ever heard a preacher tell his congregation about the importance of
cleanliness and personal hygiene?
This is
a subject that is not normally discussed in the churches, not the least because
some people might be offended by it.
These days preachers would do anything not to offend their
listeners. They do not know that speaking
the truth should never offend anyone.
Those who are offended by it, should examine themselves whether their
heart is right before God.
1“And now,
O priests, this commandment is for you. 2If
you will not hear, And if you will not take it to heart, To give
glory to My name,”
Says the Lord
of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your blessings. Yes,
I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to
heart.”
7“For the
lips of a priest should keep knowledge, And people should seek the
law from his mouth; For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8But
you have departed from the way; You have
caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of
Levi,” Says the Lord of hosts. 9“Therefore I
also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you
have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law.” (Mal.2:1-2,7-9).
God is
not happy with His priests because they have not kept His laws. As a result,
entire nations will suffer and even disappear from the face of the earth. Here is a prophecy that hangs over the world
more ominously than ever.
12And this
shall be the plague with which the Lord
will strike all the people who fought against
16And it
shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations
which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, and to
keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17And it shall be that
whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to
Verses 12 to 15 describe nothing less than nuclear war, for that alone can cause the flesh of both humans and animals to dissolve on their bones. Verses 16 to 19 tell us that not many nations will survive the end time Great Tribulation. This is what Jesus Christ referred to when He said that no flesh would be left alive if those days were not cut short by God.
21For
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. 22And
unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s
sake those days will be shortened.” (Mat. 24:21-22).
For the elect’s sake those days
will be cut short, and a limited number of people will survive into the Millennium
Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Now while it is
not so easy to tell who God’s elect are these days, it is a lot easier to tell
who are not. Knowing God’s requirements
of righteousness, holiness and cleanliness, and looking at the world today, one
can easily see the nations that will have a hard time surviving the Great
Tribulation. One such nation is my own –
Being the country of my birth, I felt an obligation to do something about it. Now even though I knew that my deadly enemies – the Securitate men, who had decimated my family – were still very much in power, contrary to what the Government would have us believe, I still decided to take that trip, hoping that those in power would understand the seriousness of the situation, listen to me and facilitate my plans for the country.
But no sooner did I board a
Romanian aeroplane, on the last leg of my journey to
Everything
seemed to be all right and professionally done, until she gave us the English
version of it. It was a type of English
that people learn from books, with the usual mispronunciations. When combined with the fact that she spoke it
very fast, the result was that about a quarter of it was unintelligible.
I spent
some time thinking about it, and whether it would be a good idea to tell them
about it. In the end I decided to write
them a note in the friendliest possible way, giving them some advice, some
examples of particularly poor diction.
About
five minutes after I gave that note to one of the stewardesses, she came back
with it, threw it in my lap, and said: “you better learn to speak Romanian
before you can teach us English. We
learned our English in school and were well tested before we were given this
job.” And with that she turned around
and walked away. I nearly said, ‘you
must have been tested by someone who speaks English the way you do,’ but I was
glad that she walked away and gave me no chance to prolong the discussion. But then, after giving it more consideration,
I thought that their reaction was not right.
So I wrote them another note in which I pointed out that Romanian was
not my main language for four decades, and if I did not speak it well, it did
not matter; no one’s life depended on it, which was not the case with their English.
People needed to understand every word of it in case they needed it in an
emergency. Then I said that because they
were travelling on international routes, I was hoping they might have acquired
an international mentality and took advise and correction
in the spirit in which it was given, but obviously they had remained as
parochial as ever.
Another
five minutes passed and the lady came back with pen and paper and demanded that
I give them my name and address. I
thought they would have that from their passengers list,
nevertheless I gladly started writing it down.
As I did so, I asked: ‘may I know
why you need this for?’ She said, ‘Yes,
we are taking you to court. You insulted us; so you better get yourself a
lawyer.’ Ooops, this is getting serious. ‘Would you like my telephone number?’ ‘Yes!’
‘And my email address?’ ‘No, that
is enough’. Now unless they were
bluffing, they must have changed their mind, for I never heard from them
again. Clearly, five decades of
communism has affected these people deeply, to the point of not being able to
distinguish between friend and foe, or friendly advice and unfounded
criticism.
I
arrived in
On the
way, I noticed that every so often the lady would ask her husband to stop the
car in wooded or cropped areas so that she could go out and relieve
herself. I was uncomfortable with that,
not the least because in
During
our entire travel, passing through dozens of cities, towns and villages, over a
distance of over three hundred kilometres, we did not find a single properly
kept public toilet.
We
arrived in my native city of
‘Well,
that is no reason not to fix them, you just take measures not to have them
broken or stolen’, I said. ‘Next time you have a meeting with your supervisors,
tell them about these problems, and if they do not listen, go as high as the
Mayor. I am sure he will listen to you.”
He mumbled something like: ‘Nah, I am not going to do that. That is not my job. Just use that one that is working.’ To which I said: ‘You have a week to fix these things. If not, I am going to write about it in an
English magazine that goes internationally, and I don’t think any of you are
going to like it.’ That finally caused
him to stop work, lifted his head up, and fixed me with his eyes as if a
thunder had hit him. He said nothing and
I walked out. About a month later I went
to see if they had fixed those taps. The
toilet was closed. Over the next two
weeks, I checked it again three more times, and every time the toilet was
closed. My miracle had gone up in a puff
of thin air.
The
village of my birth lies about fifteen kilometres north of that city. Located in a beautiful valley, along a small
river, it has become a place of refuge for city people who have built summer
villas on just about every available piece of land. One such villa, on a large
piece of land, has been transformed into a private resort by a man from, of all
places,
Memories
of the old days kept rushing back. I
remember how I used to bathe in pools of water in the river with other children
while the few goats and sheep that we kept for milk, would ravage our
neighbours’ crops. It was a perennial problem – every summer our parents would
serve us the same lesson which we never seemed to learn. We never did it on purpose, it is just that
the animals would not stay in the woods where we’d leave them to feed while we
rushed back to frolic in the water. That
river has changed enormously since my childhood days. It is now much smaller than it used to be
(like much of the world,
After
we spent about a week in that village, we returned to
Sinaia,
a cosy little town, located between huge mountains, leaves a good impression,
except for its cable cars. We took one
of them to the top of one of the mountains.
I was hoping that we would find a restaurant and enjoy the views while
sipping on a drink or having a meal. But
when we reached the top, there was nothing at all. Not even an observation post, the like of
which one finds in many elevated places with indicators which tell people where
to look and what to see.
And,
just as one might have expected, there was no toilet either. When I asked the attendant if there was a
toilet anywhere, she looked at me as if I had arrived from another planet. Why would one need a toilet on top of a
mountain?
In
winter time a lot of people go up there for skying purposes, for there are good
skying vistas on those mountains, and they would surely need a toilet. Otherwise they would have to take the cable
car down to the valley where there was a cramped and unpleasant toilet. And the cabin, it was so rickety, shaky and
squeaky, the ride was positively scary.
A week
later we made the trip to the
One
day, we decided to visit all of
We returned
to
When I
was in
Ceausescu
demanded that everything to do with that palace had to be Romanian: architects,
workers, materials, etc. Everything,
including the toilets. In the three or
four main floors that we were shown around, we saw just one toilet for the
public, and one for the staff. By
comparison, my local shopping centre, which is huge by any standard, but hardly
a third the size of what we saw there, has three spacious public toilets.
Ceausescu
had an interest in keeping toilets to a minimum, so that he could wire them up
with listening posts. That is how he found out that some of his colleagues in
the Central Committee were speaking against him. It was reported in the media at one time that
he was planning to wire up the entire country like that through the telephone
lines. Fortunately, history caught up
with him and he did not have time to carry out his project. When megalomania
strikes, paranoia is not far behind.
One
day, I bought a few newspapers and decided to relax reading them in one of
A
European representative that came to
Another
European compared
Before
the Second World War,
In 2002, during my previous visit
to
At the end of the visit, my host excused herself for a quick visit to the toilet. When she came back I said I will go there too. She blocked my path with both arms, saying, if you can hold it, don’t go; wait until we go home. I said I can hold it, but now that you made me curious I want to see it for myself. I wish I hadn’t. It was a stinking hole in the ground surrounded by four dilapidated walls, which did not seem to have been cleansed and disinfected in ages. I turned around without using it.
When I returned to
A few years ago, an Orthodox monk
wrote an article about life in the next world. Among other things, he said that
there are no faeces in the
27
“Then He took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to
them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many
for the remission of sins. 29But I say to you, I will not drink
of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with
you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Mat. 26:27-29).
Wine always goes better with
food. So if we are going to drink wine in the company of Jesus Christ in His
Father’s Kingdom, you can be sure that we are also going to enjoy good food.
Indeed there are indications in the Bible that this will be the case, but we
won’t go into that here. Sufficient to
say that this world is a poor reflection of the
Immortality does not mean that one lives forever lazing about without
ever having to do anything. What did Jesus Christ say? “My Father has been working until now,
and I have been working.” (John 5:17).
This is why lazy people will have no place in the
Patriarch Teoctist wants to build
a ‘National Cathedral’ in
When you see how his monks live, you cannot blame them for dreaming of a world without toilets.
Toilets are not a problem in civilised
countries. They can come and have a look
at
In 2005, Prime Minister Tariceanu
sent back to
My
hosts did not take it kindly when I pointed out the lack of proper sanitation
and suitable toilets everywhere we went in
Three
months after I returned to
“I
thank you for this comment, but who can contend with the Romanian nation? My
God, we are the best, among the best. . .
Romanian nation did this, did that, and so on. Isn’t it obvious that we still suffer from
Ceausescu’s spirit? Wake up and look
around you. You cannot find a toilet
when you go somewhere and make a stop for it.
The British would laugh in our face if they knew Romanian and could tell
us who we really are. We lack hygienic
conditions just as we did when we lived under communism. But we are not beaten, because nobody is like
us.” (Kati, Evenimentul Zilei,
Having
understood from prophecy that
“16Then the men rose from there and looked toward
22Then the men turned away from there and went toward
26So the Lord
said, “If I find in
27Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.” 29And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?” So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.” 30Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” 31And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?” So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.” 32Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.” (Gen.18:16-33)
1Now the two angels came to
9And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came
in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal
worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man
14So
15When the morning dawned, the angels urged
23The sun had risen upon the earth when
26But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he
had stood before the Lord. 28Then
he looked toward
How
many righteous people did God find in
“4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds),9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4-9)
Any
righteous man, who’d look at the world today, would not fail to be “oppressed”
and “tormented”, as
Now by
sounding out my friends and relatives, I was led to believe that it may not be
all that difficult to set up a small prayer group in
“But
of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My
Father only. 37But as the days of Noah were, so also
will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and did
not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming
of the Son of Man be.” (Mat.24:36-39).
I left
My
nephew had taken to heart the advice I had been giving him for years to believe
in God, to be on good terms with the priest, and to go to church as often as it
was convenient for him. I knew that those priests were hypocrites, but in the
lack of a better choice, I gave him the kind of advice that Jesus gave to some
of His followers.
“1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His
disciples, 2saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in
Moses’ seat. 3Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do
according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4For
they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s
shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their
fingers. 5But all their works they do to be seen by men.”
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. 26Blind Pharisee,
first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be
clean also.
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. 28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to
men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Mat. 23:1-5, 25-28).
Today’s
preachers think that these words apply only to the spiritual leaders of ancient
Apparently
he had taken my advice too literally, for he became a helper for the priest and
an altar boy in the church.
I told
him to tell the priest that he had nothing to fear from me. The next day I went to another cousin, the
only person in that village who knew about my intentions, and asked her how was
it that the contents of a letter I sent her about two months earlier had
reached the ears of the priest. What
letter are you talking about, she answered.
The one I sent you about two months ago.
I received no such letter from you in the last couple of months, she
said. Then I realised that my letter had been intercepted and its contents made
known to the priest.
For
years I have been telling friends and relatives that my mail was being
interfered with in
I
determined that I would not allow that to spoil the whole of my Romanian
trip. A couple of days later, together
with my cousin and the people from
When we
arrived, we were met by a monk who offered to be our guide. While he was giving us a tour of the
monastery, the driver from
After
about two decades in
When
Ceausescu was overturned, he resigned his post from his
God
always gives people a second chance when they repent, but if they continue with
their old ways, there is no longer another chance but only a fearful
expectation of judgment.
“26For if
we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth [or after we repent], there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the
adversaries. 28Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without
mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Of 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? 30For
we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the
Lord. And again, “The Lord
will judge His people.” 31It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.” (Heb.27:26-31).
It is
indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, especially so
for those who do not believe in Him, yet pose as His ministers. It is clear
that Securitate men who were left without positions of leadership in the
banking sector, industry, government administration, political parties, and the
media, had taken refuge in the Orthodox Church.
“Securitate men dominate all
spheres of activity” “According to judge
Constanta Carstea, national reform ought to begin with the reform of the secret
services. In our country however, the main interest of these agencies is to
dominate every sphere of activity. Their first concern is not national
interest, but their own interests.
The difficult situation in which the country finds itself at present, the misery of its people, are a direct result of the activities of the secret services. The criteria by which these services select their cadres is first of all nepotism, then the ‘quality’ of being an informer. Other criteria are greed and servility. This explains the widespread public’s exploitation and the internal and external robbery in which these people have been involved.
When the secret services felt that they were no longer the sole beneficiaries of the country’s wealth, due to external pressures, they showed their willingness to share their loot with others in the name of ‘privatisation’, restitution, etc.
The failure of the economic sector is due on the one hand to the greed of our leaders, and on the other to their incompetence. How could it be otherwise when the directors of our companies found themselves in possession of diplomas of superior studies after graduating from high school through a miracle? That was the role of their Securitate dads who could not leave their illiterate offspring to do manual work. These are the people preferred by the Securitate heads, who are still in charge of the secret services, because they integrate well in their ideology and work criteria.
If anyone steps out of line, he
is quickly terminated. No one should
believe that anything will change for the better as long as these agencies
remain as they are.” (Adevarul,
Most
Romanians do not know why their Orthodox Church, alone among
After spending
about a week in my village, we returned to
A dear
friend from childhood, the only one whom I found to be totally honest of all
the people that I met in
That
however, gave their game away, for who in that village would have known
anything about my life in
During
my first visit in the village about a month and a half earlier, I discovered
that there were old people there who lived alone on a pension of about $15.00 a
month. Some who had never been employed
by the government, such as housewives, had no pension at all. I do not know how those people live, but their
story would break anyone’s heart.
I could
not help but feel for them, and I handed out some money to some of them, always
telling them to keep quiet and not tell anyone about it. Well, what do you know? The priest found out, and what did he do? He told them not to touch my money because
they were cursed. It was money I had swindled
from widows, orphans and poor people in
Orthodox
priests, or shall we say, Securitate men in priestly garbs, are fiercely
opposed to foreigners who want to help the poor because that would put them to
shame.
In my
young days, the Orthodox Church had no possessions, other than the patch of
ground on which the Church stood, and the cemetery nearby. But now, almost everywhere you look, the best
land belongs to the Church. And who do you think is working that land? The priests and the monks? Why should they when there are so many people
in the community who needed their services.
When I
visited their monastery the second time, it was a festive occasion. I found my nephew there selling candles and
other church paraphernalia to visitors. He looked tired and bleary eyed. Before I asked him anything, he said that in
the last couple of days he had no more than two hours of sleep. I asked him, ‘why?’ He said that they needed to have all these
things ready for the visitors. That is
how the Orthodox Church deals with minors.
Mind you that is a lot better than the way the Catholic Church has been
dealing them. Stories of priestly abuse of children from around are well
known.
The
property which I inherited from my parents was used by squatters for ten years,
the very people who were involved in the assault of my mother. When I visited the country in 2002, I looked
at the property from outside, so that I would not disturb them. Then I told one of my cousins to tell them
that I would pay their transport fee and three months rent if they left the
house and moved elsewhere. But before
she could tell them anything, they took their stuff and disappeared. I did not know at that time that they were
involved in the viol and assault of my mother.
They
did not move very far though, but in a neighbouring village. They were not native people, but newcomers. I
was amazed how quickly the local Council found a new lodge for them. And the Church had a hand in it too. I was told that at one time it had given that
family a cow for milk for its children, something the Church had not done for
anyone else.
Since
those squatters moved out in 2002, the house had been empty. It is now in an
advanced state of decay. Local people
simply helped themselves to whatever they could. What is left is good for nothing but to be
demolished.
Now
because the property is located in an ideal position, I thought that a sort of
canteen/restaurant could be built in its place and the profits used to offer
free meals to the destitute people of the area at least once or twice a week.
I
discussed this possibility with a developer whose company was rebuilding the
local school. He said that because the
project would be good for the community, the European Union would cover half
the costs.
He took
me to a firm of architects, and after discussing all aspects of the project, I
nearly put down a deposit to have work start on it. Now he is not even answering my emails. It could have been a lot worse.
In
In my
discussions with the villagers I discovered something that would shatter any
decent human being. When my mother died
fifteen years earlier, she was not merely assaulted, she was also violated and
left in a pool of blood in her own courtyard.
I was
in the company of a
The
Jews are still hunting NAZI criminals sixty years after their crimes, yet
fifteen years are too long for Romanian authorities to investigate such an
unspeakable crime? I held my peace, for
he was the driver who had brought me from Bucharest, but I began to wonder
whether he was indeed the friendly chap he made out to be, or whether his
‘friendship’ had a different purpose altogether. Long ago, I had discovered that my mother’s
assailants had links with the Securitate. That is why all my attempts over the
years to have that crime investigated had fallen on deaf ears. Now one of their own officers confirmed my
findings.
The
more I looked into that crime, the more it looked like a State crime. I am now
convinced that as long as former President Iliescu and Patriarch Teoctist are
alive, it will never be investigated. They have had powerful defenders in all
Romanian Governments. I was hoping that membership into the European Union
might make a difference. It has not.
I have
never renounced my Romanian citizenship since I left the country, as did a lot
of exiled people by paying money to Ceausescu’s regime in order to be left
alone by his dreaded Securitate. Yet the
impostors who bent their backs to that odious regime, accepted unquestioningly
a foreign atheist ideology, and betrayed the nation in so many ways, had given
me a three months visa to visit the country.
As it turned out, that proved out to be one month too long too.
I left
my village and returned to
A few
days later, they gave a party in my honour.
Late in the evening, when there was no one around except he, his wife and myself, he became so aggressive and abusive
towards me, I thought he could have shot me if he had a gun ready at hand. And for what? For
having fled Ceausescu’s ‘paradise’ four decades earlier. As they say, secret
service agents have long memories and are unforgiving. And that a decade and a half after democracy
was supposed to have come to
The man
had no regard for the laws of friendship and hospitality, so valued in the eyes
of God. He did that after I had given
him and his family gifts worth hundreds of dollars.
In
their heyday, Securitate men used to encourage children to betray their own
parents. Therefore should I have been
surprised that one of their officers would so blatantly trample on any notion
of friendship and hospitality? These men
have changed their name, but not their habits.
It is no longer the Securitate, but the
To say
that I was astounded by such a turn around in his attitude while I was an
invited guest in his house, would be an understatement. I was fuming inside,
yet throughout his outburst I smiled and remained calm as if the whole thing
was a little amusing. His wife said
nothing throughout that ordeal, which tells me that they were in collusion, for
whatever purpose. I cannot imagine what
they might have done had I reacted otherwise.
All
that night I was in agony, not knowing what to do. If I could I would have taken my luggage and
run, but I could not do that because the door to their house and the gate to
their courtyard were locked. I no longer
felt as a guest, but as a prisoner.
During the next few days, I behaved as if everything was alright. I had another month on my visa, but I went to
the travel agency and asked them to do everything in their power to get me an
earlier return to
They
expressed surprise when I packed my luggage and told them that I was taking an early
flight home, as if they had been perfect hosts to me. They did other things that hosts are never
supposed to do, but I will leave it at that.
Throughout
my stay in
He was
a good student, but always a few places behind me. When we graduated, we were both invited to
take training towards becoming officers in the secret services or the
police. It was considered a great honour
to receive such an invitation. To refuse was very damaging to one’s
career. He accepted it, but I refused
it, and paid heavily for it. The law
stipulated that supporters of families would not be taken into the army. Because I was the only son to my mother and
grandparents, I assumed that I would be protected. But when did the law meant anything to
communists?
They
took me and sent me on the other side of the country to serve my army conscription.
A few weeks into my term, the political officer, a Major in rank, ordered me
into his office and asked why would I waste my time in the army when I could do
three years of training and study law at the same time and become a Securitate
officer. My only escape was that since my childhood I had always dreamed of
becoming a marine officer in order that I could travel the world, and nothing
would change my mind. In those days
people behind the Iron Curtain did not talk about travelling the world, but I reckoned
that by being open about it they would think that I was genuine about it. In
fact, I despised their iniquitous system so much, I was prepared to put my life
on line to escape it and fight it from the outside.
Time
past and my colleague became a Securitate officer, while I took the road of the
exile. Now, four decades later, he
showed up at my door and declared his unbounded happiness at seeing me. He took
me to meet his family, but politely asked me beforehand not to say anything, or
ask anything, about his job. I got the
message. This was not the free society
in which people could talk openly about themselves, their jobs, their families,
or whatever they wanted to, but still a closed one in which they had to guard
their mouths even in the confines of their own families.
I was
convinced that he had knowledge, if not a direct hand, in what happened to my
mother, especially so since he said that he had prepared her for the visit to
Australia, which took place two years before she was murdered. I felt it was safer not to say anything about
it at that time. I returned to
I went
to the country in the hope of doing something to save it from catastrophe, and
I ended up leaving it hurriedly in order to avoid what was shaping up as a
serious threat to my own life. Now let
their beloved Dracula save them, because I doubt that God will ever look
favourably upon that nation again.
Nice
country
The
“Startling Truth” About the End Time
We knew that as we approach the ‘Great Day of the Lord’ things would get from bad to worse as far as religious deception is concerned, but even so we were surprised by what we found on an American conservative web site.
“Next Pope Is John Paul II. Impersonated. Bible prophecy Shows He Will be Last Pope. Learn more. World’s Last Chance. A New World Order is about to start; are you ready? Bible reveals next and last Pope will be a devil impersonating John Paul II.”
John Paul II was dead for more than six months when this ridiculous advertisement appeared, so we clicked on their link to see who these people were. This is what we found.
“The Truth Behind This” “Through the study of Revelation chapter 17, the Lord has led us to a most startling truth, confirming that we are nearer to the end of all things than ever imagined. We are prompted by our loving God to share this prophecy, that none need be ensnared by the global events soon to transpire which will engulf the world in the grandest deception yet contrived by Satan.
“World's
Last Chance dares to declare this interpretation to the world because we
adhere only to sound Biblical interpretation. This means we unlock Bible
prophecy by using the Bible as its own interpreter. By doing so we are certain
of the correctness of the revelation.
With the vivid realization that we are living in the age just prior to
the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, we pray the Lord will
impress you with the shortness of time available before the fate of every
living person is decided, and may His Spirit give you the discernment and
wisdom needed as you undertake this solemn study.
More advertising about their ‘startling truth’ and ‘sound Biblical interpretation’, but still they would not tell us who they were. We gave up on them thinking that they were just not worth our time, but then a few days later we came across their advertising again, only that this time it was in The Jerusalem Post.
Now we do not believe for a moment that the Jews believe an iota of the absurd notion that the next Pope will be a demon impersonating John Paul II. Clearly, those fools were paying a lot of money to have their claims advertised in such reputable media, but where are the ethics in all of this? Should profit be the only criteria in such dealings?
We also have made claims regarding the unfolding of prophecy before our very eyes, but we have always backed them we examples from the real world. We have meticulously correlated biblical prophecies with world developments, but have never made recourse to impersonating demons or other supernatural apparitions to prove our points. We simply rely on reason and fact, and let people decide for themselves whether we have been right or wrong.
As far as these people were concerned, it is easy to prove that their claims are not only false, but designed to deceive rather than enlighten people. Consider how the Popes are elected. A conclave of Cardinals vote among themselves until one of them gets the majority of votes. So what will the next Pope say, that he is not such and such a former Cardinal, but a demon impersonating John Paul II? Ridiculous to say the least!
And why should John Paul II be the preferred Pope for an impersonating demon? The man was a populist, but not the brainiest of Popes. If anything, from the spiritual point of view, the current Pope is worse. For many years he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. And what is that? The new name of the former Inquisition.
It has been estimated that the Inquisition’s victims were as many as thirty-three million people. And yet, in a television interview, this man justified the activities of that odious institution.
Now although he is 79 years old, he seems to be of a robust health, which means that he could be Pope for many years. That would mean that the impersonating demon would have to wait for quite some time before appearing in the world as John Paul II. Well, the world does not have that time at its disposal before it is engulfed by the Great Tribulation. This is why we say that those who preach such things are deceiving people and leading them to perdition rather than salvation.
We were greatly
surprised when we discovered that these people were not some insignificant ill
informed backwater Christians, but none other than the
Now why do you think they would stick their neck out with such irrational claims? We believe they did it to take the wind from underneath our wings. We know that they, and a lot of other churches, have been keenly following our preaching, some of their ministers even using our writings to prove the correctness of keeping the Sabbath. But here is an interesting difference: when we made an error, as we did at one stage, we went before the Almighty on our knees and asked Him where we went wrong. He sent us back to the Scriptures and opened our eyes to where we made that error. Sure enough, it was in regard to John Paul II.
Half a decade
earlier, before there was any talk of a Pope visiting
1“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2And 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.”
3Now as He sat on the
4And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6And 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. 7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows.
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. 10And then
many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one
another. 11Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive
many. 12And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many
will grow cold. 13But he who endures to the end shall be
saved. 14And 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. 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), 16“then let those who are in
We had no doubt
that verse 15 referred to the Pope’s visit to
Upon studying
the Scriptures more carefully, we understood it. John Paul’s visit to
1“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2“Thus
speaks the Lord God of
4Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning
What happened since 2000 is well known: a sharp deterioration in world conditions, terrorism, two Iraqi Wars, climate change and global warming. Not the Great Tribulation, but the events leading to it. In fact, we said in 2000 that the world had entered the time of Jacob’s trouble, and we have been proven right. But we were still not happy with our mistake and wanted to know why we got it wrong. By going back to the Scriptures we understood why. Let us go to Daniel again.
1“At that
time Michael shall stand up,
the great prince who stands watch over the sons of
your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found
written in the book.
2And many
of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3Those who
are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many
to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. 4“But you, Daniel, shut up the
words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro,
and knowledge shall increase.” 5Then
I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the
other on that riverbank. 6And one said to the man
clothed in linen, who was above the waters
of the river, “How long shall the fulfilment of these wonders be?”
7Then I
heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the
river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by
Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and
half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been
completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.
8Although I
heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be
the end of these things?”
9And he
said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up
and sealed till the time of the end. 10Many shall be purified,
made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the
wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
11“And from
the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and
the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one
thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12Blessed is
he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
13“But you,
go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to
your inheritance at the end of the days.” (Dan.12:1-13).
We are only
concerned with verses 12 and 13, but we gave you the whole chapter so that you
can look at them in context. We erred at first in assuming that the two
timelines – one thousand two hundred and ninety days,
and one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days – run concurrently. Now we know that they run consecutively,
which means that from the time the abomination of desolation defiles the holy
place, there are still seven years and seventy five days until the Great
Tribulation. Now let us go back to Jesus
Christ. What do we make of His prophecy
that, “when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him
understand), “then let those who are in
What was there to be understood about his prophecy when it is so clearly spelled out? In the face of it, it appears that it contradicts Daniel’s prophecy, for Daniel said that after the abomination of desolation profanes the holy place, there are still more than seven years until the end, yet Jesus Christ said that when that happens people should flee to the mountains.
Now if we had
been right about John Paul II, he would have been the last Pope, and said
so. Our friends at the
What is the explanation then, who is right, Daniel or Jesus Christ? Both! That is why Jesus Christ inserted ‘(whoever reads, let him understand)’ in the middle of His prophecy. He was telling His followers not to take that prophecy at its face value, which is what we did and went wrong. A lot of other people went wrong too, among them the Seventh Day Adventists. The difference between us however, is that we sought the answer by going before the Almighty in fervent prayer, not by inventing absurd ‘revelations’ about it.
By looking
carefully at
How do we explain then the fact that it is not one Pope but
two that have to be involved in these prophecies? This is where the Seventh Day Adventists have
gone wrong for they assumed that the term ‘abomination of desolation’ could
refer to one man only, when in fact it refers to all men who sit on the throne
of the most murderous institution the world has ever seen – the Vatican.
All men who have claimed the titles, Pontifex Maximus,
‘Holy Father’, and ‘Vicars of Christ on earth’ qualify for the term
‘abomination of desolation’. Whoever reads, let him understand!
THE CHRISTIAN HOLY DAYS FOR
THE YEARS
|
|
|
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
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The Passover (Pesah – Nissan 14) Unlike the Jews, who used to kill the Passover
lamb “at the twilight” of Nissan 14 (meaning in the evening towards Nissan 15),
we, Christians, observe the Passover when our “Lamb” – Jesus Christ – was
sacrificed. That happened on the afternoon of Nissan 14, before the
twilight of Nissan 14, meaning that we keep it a little earlier than the
Jews. We commemorate His death, not His supper, which occurred the
previous evening, as some churches do. The time when His body was broken, not
when He broke the symbolic bread. |
|
2 April |
19 April |
8 April |
|
Days
of Unleavened Bread (Nissan 15 – 21) On the first and seventh
days there shall be holy convocations. No work
shall be done on these days. |
|
|
20 – 26 April |
|
|
Pentecost (Shavuot – Sivan
6) |
|
23 May |
9 June |
29 May |
|
Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah – Tishri 1) |
|
13 Sept. |
30 Sept. |
19 Sept.. |
|
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur – Tishri 10) |
|
22 Sept. |
9 Oct. |
28 Sept. |
|
Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth – Tishri 15 – 22) On the first and the eighth
days there shall be holy convocations.
No work shall be done on these days. |
|
27 Sept. – 4 Oct. |
14 – 21 Oct. |
|
Yes, children should partake of the Lord’s Supper
Among
the myriad of contentious emails we have had to deal with, was one which
purported to clarify the question of whether children should partake of the
Lord’s Supper. This is what they said:
“Should children partake of the
Lord’s Supper? The Lord’s Supper is an
act of remembering, a commemorative event.
Every time we take the Lord’s Supper we remember the price Jesus Christ
paid for us on that cross. He took upon
Himself the judgment that God would have given us. He gave His body to be
destroyed (the broken bread), and for the forgiveness of our sins He poured out
His blood (the wine symbolises this fact).
At the Lord’s Supper, we meditate over what happened at
First of all, these people think that they have been ‘born again’ when every indication is that they do not have the Holy Spirit. We have reason to believe that this is a Sunday observing church, and no such church could ever have the Holy Spirit. Even many Sabbatarian churches do not have the Holy Spirit these days, let alone those who observe the Day of the Sun.
Second, the Lord’s Supper, or Passover as it should be more correctly called, is one of seven biblical Holy Days. You keep them all, or you keep none, which is what Sunday observing churches have been doing for millennia anyway.
Third, the Passover must be observed once a year at the right time, not willy-nilly every time there is a gathering for a religious service. It loses its significance if you do it that way. Since Sunday observing churches know nothing of God’s calendar – a lunar calendar, as opposed to the Roman solar calendar – it means that whatever they observe cannot be the Passover.
Fourth, the apostles made no distinction between people who were born again and those who were not born again. They merely said that people must not receive the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. Some of those who claim to be born again are further away from God than many worldly people. Why do you think Jesus Christ said that many are called but few are chosen? The chosen come from among the called, from among those who think that they are born again.
Human beings cannot know a worthy person from an unworthy one, unless he is obviously a boisterous drunkard or sinner. Only God knows that. If they know that they are unworthy, and still partake of the Lord’s Supper, let it be upon their own head. Let them be responsible before Jesus Christ, and let not humans be judges of that.
If people want to partake of the Lord’s Supper, even strangers, they should not be prevented from doing so. The only requirement being that they observe the solemnity of the occasion. And that goes for children too.
What greater joy could parents have than to see their children quietly participate and take in the meaning of such an important memorial? I can assure you that Jesus Christ would not turn children away from commemorating His sacrifice.
In fact, I would suggest that if you have relatives, friends, or neighbours whom you think are worthy of it, who may benefit from it, and might be willing to participate in it in the appropriate manner, invite them along.
And no, there is no washing of feet on that occasion. Those who know that they are going to have their feet washed, scrub them thoroughly before hand, so that exercise becomes nothing more than an exercise in futility.
Jesus Christ gave us an example that we may live by it in the real world, not when we commemorate His sacrifice.