On February 6, 2016, Eric Rank will present the sermonette, titled, “Fear and Faith,” and Robb Harris will present the sermon, titled, “Freedom by Justification.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

The Republican presidential candidate in the United States, front-runner Donald Trump, is using quite successfully the slogan: “Make America Great Again.”  He states correctly that the United States is losing in trade deals to China, to Japan and to others, and he blasts the terrible Iran deal and Obamacare, but he announces that when he is President, he is going to turn all of this around.

He promises to build a great wall in order to halt the flow of illegal immigrants coming through the porous American-Mexican border into the USA, and that Mexico will pay for the wall. He also proposes to deport all illegal aliens and to temporarily halt the flow of all Muslims into the United States till “we can find out what… is going on.” He declares that he will build up the armed forces so that no one will “mess” with the USA; that he will properly take care of the veterans; and that he will take out ISIS so that the world and the United States can feel safer.

These are just a few of the promises he has made.

In regard to the border fence, one cynical television commentator said if he builds a hundred foot fence, the Mexicans will build a one hundred ten foot ladder. Mr. Trump countered that it will be a real wall which Mexicans cannot climb over. Other objections are that it would be impossible to deport all illegal aliens, but Mr. Trump’s response is that something similar was done in the past by another American president.

The question is, could any President turn things around for the US?

Let us remember that the national debt as of this writing is $20.9 trillion, and it is growing constantly. By the time you read this editorial it will be $21 trillion, a number that’s hard to get your mind around. This is a growing debt with no turn around in sight. That’s some $62,000 per citizen. So if you have a child born in the near future, he is faced with that debt.

Crime is rampant in some American cities, and the United States is the world’s biggest consumer of both illegal and prescription drugs. Politicians are corrupt, and some are only in politics to line their pockets.

Many American citizens know this, and they long for change. The interesting thing is, no matter what outlandish statements Mr. Trump might be making, his support is growing steadily, defying all “conventional” rules of “politics.” If somebody like Donald Trump would become President, he might very well be able to turn things around for the USA, to a degree, but a high price would have to be paid. Mass deportations would shock the world and might trigger civil unrest in the USA, and more violent acts by governmental forces might be the consequence. Favorable trade deals for the USA under Donald Trump would not create a friendlier world view towards the USA… they would just bring about the opposite result and might even lead to violent resistance from the rest of the world.

We must understand that what is happening right now in the USA is in no way “coincidental.” It is obvious that God is involved to bring about His plan and purpose. Because of our national and individual sins, God has removed the blessing to Abraham from the modern nations of the ancient house of Israel, namely the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Rather than prosperity, these nations are facing war and enslavement.

The only real and lasting solution is the return of Christ to end the madness. We are not to get involved in the politics of this present evil age, but we have an opportunity today to be involved in the future in making “The World Great,” not just the United States. Once the government of God, the Kingdom of God, is established on the earth with just rulers, things will be turned around in due time. There will be only one world-ruling government on earth, with Christ as the Head and the resurrected saints as kings and priests ruling under Him (Revelation 5:10).

There will be no more beheadings, no more rampant crime, no more poverty, religious confusion and hatred against other races and ethnic groups. The world will come to worship the true God and keep the commandments, speaking one pure language (Zephaniah 3:9).

As the called-out ones, we have the opportunity now to prepare for participation in that future government to make the world a better place; so it behooves us to remain faithful to our calling and our present responsibilities to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness and endure to the end, so that we can truly make “The World Great.”

Are you up to the challenge?

We begin with troublesome events in the USA, pertaining to attempts to compel men AND women to register for the draft. We also speak about the stunning election results in Iowa.

We are focusing on developments pertaining to Donald Trump and speak on Hillary Clinton’s growing email scandal which should normally result in an indictment and her resignation from the democratic race for the presidency (although most commentators do not expect this to happen); and we report on President Obama’s “complicated” relationship with Muslims (also in light of the fact that almost 30 percent of Americans believe that he is a Muslim).

We continue with revealing articles about the growth of European armies and the “comeback” of an interesting German politician. We continue with Angela Merkel’s attempts to placate Germans, while Germany’s third-strongest party causes uproar and a storm of criticism.

We report on America’s and Britain’s apparent 18-year-long spying activities on their “friend” Israel and on the fragile relationship between the EU and Britain, as well as on more violence in Israel.

We conclude with an article on America’s, Russia’s and China’s moon landings and on striking color photos of the moon landing by the Chinese, which should convince every honest and unprejudiced observer that the moon landings were real and not hoaxes.

WARNING! Is the DRAFT Coming for BOTH Men AND Women?

NBC News reported on February 2:

“Now that all combat jobs are open to women, the top Army and Marine Corps officers say they should have to register for the draft — just like men. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chief of staff of the Army, and Gen. Robert B. Neller, the Marine Corps commandant said they supported the requirement during testimony at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

“‘Senator, it’s my personal view that, based on this lifting of restrictions … every American who’s physically qualified should register for the draft,’ Neller said in response to a question from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, who favors the change. Milley also agreed. ‘Senator, I think that all eligible and qualified men and women should register for the draft,’ he said.

“Right now only men legally residing the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to register with the Selective Service. The two thumbs up from the generals came a month after Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the Pentagon’s historic shift in policy. Under the new rules, women will now be able to help fill some of the 220,000 jobs that were only open to their male counterparts, including key posts in some special operations units and the infantry…

“Conscripts have not been drafted since 1973 when the U.S. moved to an all-volunteer military. But in 1980 then President Jimmy Carter reinstated the requirement that men register in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.”

War hawks are pushing for the draft. Men and women who are conscientiously opposed to serving in the military must be prepared for the distinct possibility that the war hawks will have it their way in the future. 

Clinton and Cruz Win Iowa Caucus

In absolutely stunning and historic developments, Hillary Clinton emerged as the “winner” in the Iowa caucus on the Democratic side, beating Bernie Sanders through the tossing of a coin, while Ted Cruz surprisingly won against Donald Trump on the Republican side.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders virtually tied, which all by itself means an embarrassing defeat for Clinton.

Deutsche Welle reported on February 2 that “The Iowa Democratic Party said in a statement the caucus was the closest in history, with some precincts reportedly having to resort to a rarely used rule to flip a coin to decide the winner. Clinton reportedly won all three of the coin tosses… The next round is in New Hampshire on February 9, where Clinton is trailing Sanders in the polls…

“On the Republican side, conservative Texas senator Ted Cruz came in ahead of both billionaire Donald Trump and Florida Senator Marco Rubio who is the favorite of mainstream Republican voters. The result was a blow to the controversial Trump who had headed the polls leading into the Iowa caucus.

“But the next round is in New Hampshire where more than 40 percent of the state’s electorate are not registered in any political party. Washington outsider Trump has a commanding lead in New Hampshire and in national polls.”

It is critically important for Trump to win in New Hampshire. Statistics reveal that since 1980, no Republican candidate received the nomination who did not win either in Iowa or in New Hampshire. For the Democrats, the same is true with one exception—in 1992, Bill Clinton won the Democratic nomination and the Presidency, even though he did not win in Iowa or in New Hampshire.

Following the next round in New Hampshire on February 9, “Super Tuesday” occurs on March 1 (when preliminary elections take place in more than 10 states), followed by “Super Tuesday, Part 2” on March 15 (when preliminary elections take place in five states, including Florida, Illinois and Ohio).

The Republicans will then meet and decide on their nominee for the Presidency on July 18-21, and the Democrats on July 25-28.

The first televised debate between the Democratic and Republican nominees will take place on September 26, followed by two more debates on October 9 and October 19 (A televised debate between the two nominees for the office of Vice-President will take place on October 4).

The main election for the Presidency will take place on November 8, and on January 20, 2017, the new US President will be sworn in.

Dirty Tricks in Politics

Newsmax wrote on February 3:

“Donald Trump says Ted Cruz ‘stole’ the Iowa caucuses and is guilty of ‘fraud’ for falsely telling voters going to the polls that Ben Carson had dropped out [of] the presidential race and to support him instead. And the Texas senator’s ‘fraud’ is so serious that Iowa state officials should void the caucus results and hold a new vote, the billionaire developer believes…

“Cruz on Tuesday admitted his campaign wrongly stated the retired pediatric neurosurgeon had exited the race as the caucuses got underway and apologized for the gaff. Carson accepted the apology, but added that someone on Cruz’s staff should pay for the action. Trump, who has been the Republican presidential front-runner for seven months, believes the bogus claim by the campaigners for Cruz, who had trailed Trump in the polls, unfairly helped him win.

“He is also crying foul at the Cruz campaign’s scary-looking ‘voting violation’ notice sent to Iowans… Iowa’s secretary of state says the mailer misrepresents election law. But Cruz called it a ‘routine’ campaign move.”

On February 3, the Drudge Report added the following Facebook post by former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who is endorsing Donald Trump (but she had endorsed Ted Cruz for Senator in the past):

“… Cruz’s campaign chairman, U.S. Representative Steve King, is lying, and good for Dr. Ben Carson for calling this out. King, who’s previously asked for and received my endorsement, time and resources to support his own election, is still lying about my altruistic support of Mr. Trump, and he’s refused to provide any evidence to the contrary. And, this U.S. Congressman actually lied to his own constituents on behalf of Cruz, regarding a good man, Dr. Carson. He told voters Carson was dropping out of the Presidential race immediately before the Iowa caucus, causing a relative uproar inside the process, so the word would spread and he could rack up more votes for his candidate, Cruz. That’s a dirty trick. Dr. Carson deserved better. The voters deserved better!

“Where is the accountability for these political actions? Very sad; typical Washington tactics. THIS is why ‘the status quo has got to go.’ Our friend Dr. Carson put it so well: ‘As Christians, of course we accept people’s apologies, we also have to ask ourselves is this acceptable to us, the American people, or should there be some accountability? There should be some consequences for things. You don’t just say “oh, okay, sorry… okay let’s move on.” The damage was done to me, it wasn’t done to them.’

“We’ve had eight years of a reckless President, accountable to no one, pushing this country to the brink. Why would we ever take a risk repeating that? We are never going to turn this country around if we keep electing ‘more of the same.’…  The Cruz Campaign’s actions to destroy a good man’s efforts to serve are no different than Obama’s practice of not holding anyone accountable. Typical politics. Typical politicians.”

Trump like Hitler or Worthy of Nobel Prize?

JTA wrote on January 28:

“The stepsister of Holocaust teen diarist Anne Frank compared Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to Hitler. Eva Schloss, 86, made the comparison in an essay in Newsweek magazine published Wednesday in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. ‘If Donald Trump become(s) the next president of the U.S., it would be a complete disaster,’ she wrote. ‘I think he is acting like another Hitler by inciting racism.’…

“Schloss, who survived Auschwitz, was 11 years old when her family left Nazi-annexed Austria in 1938 for Belgium. ‘We were treated as if we had come from the moon. I felt as if I wasn’t wanted and that I was different to everybody,’ she wrote… ‘Fewer people would have died in the Holocaust if the world had accepted more Jewish refugees.’’

Yahoo News reported on February 2:

“Donald Trump, Greek islanders helping desperate migrants, Angela Merkel and the pope — some may seem more likely than others but all are understood to be in the running for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize…

“According to a copy of the nomination letter Harpviken said he had received, brash tycoon Trump — who has attracted international condemnation by calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States — deserves the prize for ‘his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China.’”

Hillary Clinton’s Growing Email Scandal … “The State Department Is Lying”

The New York Post wrote on January 31:

“The State Department is lying when it says it didn’t know until it was too late that Hillary Clinton was improperly using personal e-mails and a private server to conduct official business — because it never set up an agency e-mail address for her in the first place, the department’s former top watchdog says. ‘This was all planned in advance’ to skirt rules governing federal records management, said Howard J. Krongard, who served as the agency’s inspector general from 2005 to 2008.

“The Harvard-educated lawyer points out that, from Day One, Clinton was never assigned and never used a state.gov e-mail address like previous secretaries. ‘That’s a change in the standard. It tells me that this was premeditated. And this eliminates claims by the State Department that they were unaware of her private e-mail server until later,’ Krongard said in an exclusive interview… He also points to the unusual absence of a permanent inspector general during Clinton’s entire 2009-2013 term at the department. He said the 5¹/₂-year vacancy was unprecedented. ‘This is a major gap. In fact, it’s without precedent,’ he said. ‘It’s the longest period any department has gone without an IG.’

“Inspectors general serve an essential and unique role in the federal government by independently investigating agency waste, fraud and abuse. Their oversight also covers violations of communications security procedures. ‘It’s clear she did not want to be subject to internal investigations,’ Krongard said. An e-mail audit would have easily uncovered the secret information flowing from classified government networks to the private unprotected system she set up in her New York home.”

Newsmax added on January 31:

“‘The starting point of the investigation is the material going through SIPRNet, [State’s classified system.] She couldn’t function without the information coming over SIPRNet,’ [Krongard] said. ‘How did she get it on her home server? It can’t just jump from one system to the other. Someone had to move it, copy it. The question is who did that?’”

The Associated Press wrote on January 30:

“The Obama administration has confirmed for the first time that Hillary Clinton’s home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification… The Associated Press learned ahead of the release that seven email chains would be withheld in full for containing ‘top secret’ information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned ‘special access programs’ —highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes…”

President Obama Visits Controversial US Mosque

The Washington Post wrote on January 30:

“President Obama will make the first visit during his presidency to a U.S. mosque, the White House announced Saturday, part of the administration’s push to promote religious tolerance at a time when rhetoric linking Islam with terrorism is growing. On Wednesday, the president will visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore… It is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s largest Muslim centers…

“The president is making the visit ‘to celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life,’  a White House official wrote in an email Saturday…

“The visit will be part of the tightrope-walking Obama has done during his presidency around Islam.

“For years, Muslim Americans have lobbied him to visit a mosque, citing Islamophobia. At the same time, a segment of Obama’s critics have said since he took office that he is a Muslim pretending to be Christian, and that he plays down the religious aspect of Muslim extremism. Recent polls show that 29 percent of Americans and nearly 45 percent of Republicans think he is a Muslim. The visit comes in the last year of his presidency…

“Presidents rarely visit houses of worship, aside from when they have attended church for their own religious practices. Obama… attends religious services on key holidays. In May, he visited a synagogue for the first time as president…

“The official added that the event [is] coming just days after Obama spoke out against anti-Semitism and right before his appearance at the National Prayer breakfast…

“One close watcher of the role of religion in presidential politics said the timing of events next week was not a coincidence and that the mosque visit would be a stark contrast with the anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from multiple leading GOP candidates.

“It was not immediately clear why the White House selected the Islamic Society in Baltimore, although it has been the subject of threats in recent months… It also is the mosque of the family of Adnan Syed, whose conviction for murder drew huge global interest… Obama has visited several mosques overseas but never one in this country while serving as president…

“Obama’s relationship with American Muslims has been complicated. They are among his most enthusiastic backers, but some feel he has not done enough to address their concerns at a time of social unrest. He has shown support for Muslims overseas, including the 2009 ‘New Beginning’ speech in Cairo before the Arab Spring, and he has drawn praise — and intense criticism from conservatives — for declining to connect Islam and terrorism…”

President Obama still refuses to this day to state members of ISIS are radical Islamists.

European Armies Growing… Security Spending a Priority

The New York Times wrote on January 31:

“A phalanx of soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and wielding machine guns fanned out beneath the Eiffel Tower on a recent afternoon, scanning the crowd for potential terrorist threats. Across the country, nearly 10,000 more armed troops patrolled streets around landmarks, stores and government buildings. France is spending nearly 1 million euros a day on the heightened security, part of a renewed surge in European military spending as governments declare terrorism a permanent risk…

“European leaders are acknowledging that security spending is a priority… France, Germany, Britain and neighboring countries sharply curbed military outlays while austerity was enforced. Since 2007, Western European military spending has slumped more than 13 percent, accelerating a decline that began earlier in the decade… As security concerns intensify, the trend is reversing.

“Germany is hiring more police and intelligence officers, and in January the defense minister proposed increasing military spending by €130 billion over 15 years… France is expanding its military equipment arsenal, troops and police, as well as increasing surveillance and spending hundreds of millions of euros on new programs to counter radicalization among Muslim youth.

“In Belgium, where militants planned the Paris attacks after training in Syria, nearly half a billion euros will be spent jailing returning jihadists, reinforcing borders and keeping hundreds of troops on the streets. And Britain recently authorized 12 billion pounds in new spending to purchase Boeing P8 maritime patrol aircraft, increase fighter squadron numbers and create new strike brigades…

“Total Western European military spending, led by France, Britain and Germany, is expected to jump by an extra €50 billion through 2019, to €215 billion… Europe’s security spending, though, will still pale in comparison to that of the United States…

“European armies are growing. In a reverse from planned cuts, France is preparing to add 23,000 positions to the army by 2019. An anti-Islamic State coalition that includes France and Britain will soon intensify the campaign against militants in Iraq and Syria, prompting additional spending on missiles, drones, jets and surveillance.

“Airbus is well positioned. The company supplies European militaries with a broad range of flying hardware such as the NH90 helicopter, the A400M cargo and troop transporter and the A330 multi-role refueling tanker. Airbus also has high-tech satellite surveillance equipment as well as integrated border and coastal security systems, a particular focus in Europe as the migrant crisis swells.”

The Return of Edmund Stoiber?

In a recent Update (#721), we ran an article about Edmund Stoiber (74), Germany’s former Premier of Bavaria. We reported that Stoiber, presently working for the EU, had stated that the only solution for Germany was to completely close its border to refugees for an unspecified period. He had also stated in the past that the Muslim culture was not compatible with European values. 

Bild Online published a stunning article on January 31 about “Stoiber’s comeback,” stating that he is traveling with current Premier of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, to meet Vladimir Putin and that he has again become very influential pertaining to the direction of his party, Bavaria’s CSU. Stoiber is strongly opposed to Angela Merkel’s migrant policy, reiterating again to Bild that Islam has no place in Germany. The article also points out that Stoiber received “innumerable” invitations from Merkel’s CDU.

According to Bild, Stoiber has a close relationship with Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder (49), who is viewed as the potential successor to Seehofer, even though he is not Seehofer’s first choice. However, Bild states that with Stoiber’s support, Söder would definitely be elected. Söder is also a strong opponent to Merkel’s migrant policy, stating that it is “undemocratic.”

In a follow-up article, Bild predicted that Merkel will not resign, even though it seems that Stoiber would like to see her fall, but, according to Bild, Stoiber would not be a leader, and there is no one there who could fill the leadership role (“Es fehlt der Anfuehrer”; in English: “The Leader Is Missing.”). This may be true… for now.

On February 3, Bild Online reported on Seehofer’s und Steuber’s meeting with Putin and Russian ministers in Moscow. Bild stated that Steuber (honorary president of the CSU) and Putin have known each other for a long time, and that they have a good relationship. In fact, Seehofer’s meeting with Putin was allegedly arranged by Steuber. Observers see in Seehofer’s meeting with Putin a sign of a further deterioration of Seehofer’s relationship with Angela Merkel.

Deutsche Welle wrote on February 3:

“Horst Seehofer is flying to Moscow. It is a politically juicy and controversial visit by the Bavarian in a period of upheaval in German-Russian relations. Seldom have relations between Berlin and Moscow been in such a poor state as they are now… Seehofer is Merkel’s most dangerous critic… He may be flying to meet Putin as the state premier of Bavaria, but he will be received in Moscow as a representative of one of Germany’s three governing parties…

“The CSU’s brand of foreign policy has always had something unique about it. CSU grandees Franz-Josef Strauss and Edmund Stoiber were always good for political bomb shells on the domestic front… No wonder then, that Horst Seehofer sees himself in this tradition…”

Merkel Tries to Placate Critics of her Migrant Policy… Far Too Little, and Far Too Late

Reuters wrote on January 30:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried on Saturday to placate the increasingly vocal critics of her open-door policy for refugees by insisting that most refugees from Syria and Iraq would go home once the conflicts there had ended…

“Support for her conservative bloc has slipped as concerns mount about how Germany will integrate the 1.1 million migrants who arrived last year, while crime and security are also in the spotlight after a wave of assaults on women in Cologne at New Year by men of north African and Arab appearance…

“Merkel said it was important to stress that most refugees had only been allowed to stay for a limited period. ‘We need … to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained,’ she told a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania…”

The Local added on January 31:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel… saw her worst poll results in more than five years. Merkel’s open-door policy, while initially winning praise last year, has come under mounting criticism, especially after the German city of Cologne was rocked by a wave of sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve blamed on migrants… Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative alliance has slumped to its lowest since July 2012 as opposition over her liberal refugee policy grows, a survey showed Sunday…

“According to the poll published by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, public support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and sister party Christian Social Union now stands at just 34 percent… The Social Democratic Party — the junior partner in Merkel’s left-right grand coalition, has also lost ground, shedding one percentage point to 24 percent…

“While Merkel does not face national elections until 2017, regional elections in three states in March will be a key test of support… A poll published Friday by news weekly Focus found that 40 percent of respondents want Merkel to resign.

“Nevertheless, a subsequent poll commissioned by Focus found that, with 41 percent, Merkel came in top as the politician whom the public believe can best manage the migrant crisis.”

This belief will be rapidly shattered.

Germany’s Anti-Immigrant Party Causes Storm of Criticism  

The Local wrote on January 31:

“Germany’s eurosceptic right-wing populist AfD party created a storm Saturday by suggesting police ‘if need be’ should threaten to shoot migrants seeking to enter the country.  ‘We need efficient controls to prevent so many unregistered asylum-seekers keeping on entering via Austria,’ said party chairwoman Frauke Petry (40), in comments carried by the Mannheimer Morgen regional daily. Border police ‘should be able if need be to have recourse to their firearms — as laid down by law,’ the paper quoted Petry as saying. ‘No policeman wants to fire on a refugee and I don’t want that either. But as a last resort there should be recourse to firearms,’ said Petry in comments which drew a storm of criticism.

“‘No policeman would be ready to fire on’ migrants, police union GdP said in a statement. ‘Whoever wants to deploy such methods clearly wants to suspend the rule of law,’ said GdP head Joerg Radek. ‘We have already seen that over the course of German history and we don’t ever want to go down that road again.’

“The head of the main opposition Social Democrat parliamentary group, Thomas Oppermann, blasted ‘an unacceptable mobilisation of public opinion against refugees while opposition Green Party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz blasted Petry as ‘irresponsible’…

“Notz said Petry was engaging in ‘extreme right-wing terrorism’ with her comments ramping up anti-refugee rhetoric in a country that has received more than one million migrants in the last year.

“AfD, meaning Alternative for Germany, was created as a eurosceptic platform in 2013 but has since veered sharply even further to the right, with some of its leaders voicing support for the anti-Islamic PEGIDA protest movement. Recent polls give 13 percent support for the group, making it Germany’s third-strongest political force behind the ruling Christian Democrats and the coalition partner the Social Democrats.”

On February 1, Deutsche Welle added:

“Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Frauke Petry triggered outrage last week by suggesting police should have the right to shoot illegal migrants at the border ‘if necessary.’ The idea was echoed by her deputy Beatrix von Storch. When she was asked on her Facebook page on Saturday whether German border guards should use weapons against illegal female refugees with children, she answered with a clear ‘yes.’ But in the face of outrage across the political spectrum she decided to water down her comments: ‘The use of firearms against children is not permitted,’ von Storch said, before adding that ‘women are a different matter.’”

What makes these comments so explosive are recent reports in Bild, according to which police officers have been instructed NOT to arrest migrants who are observed stealing, as this would require too much work. In light of sexual assaults by migrants on German women, many Germans begin to wonder WHAT their government is willing to do to protect German citizens.

Germany’s “Most Dangerous” Woman?

The Independent wrote on February 1:

“The AfD is attracting growing support for its vitriolic anti-migrant stance. It has already won seats in five of Germany’s state parliaments and, in elections next month, is also on course to win seats in the state parliaments of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony Anhalt, where polls suggest the party could win 15 per cent of the vote…

“Ms Petry, who has a degree from the University of Reading, was elected party leader in an internal putsch last July which ousted its middle-class and academic former leaders, who were mostly concerned with opposing the euro. Since then she and other populist right-wingers have rebranded it as an anti-migrant party…

“The party warns that German culture and identity will be destroyed by migrants… Ms Petry helped the AfD win seats in the east German state of Saxony in 2014 by advocating mildly anti-immigrant policies. She is seen as the acceptable face of the party’s right wing. But she is now being pulled further to the right by more radical and xenophobic figures within the party, whose stance appears to have increased AfD’s popularity among voters…

“The AfD leader risks being eclipsed by colleagues such as Björn Höcke, the party’s outspoken leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, whose speeches have been compared to those of Hitler’s propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Mr Höcke, who regularly draws crowds of up to 8,000 supporters, recently appeared on a popular chat show brandishing a German flag. ‘For decades its seemed as if the rise of a politician like Björn Höcke was impossible,’ wrote Die Welt newspaper. ‘In the meantime, the impossible has become possible.’

“At an AfD rally in the eastern city of Magdeburg last week Mr Höcke regaled the party faithful with an apocalyptic vision of what was in store for the German ‘volk’ and ‘kultur’ unless the refugee influx was stopped. The migrants were a threat to ‘1,000 years of Germany’. He talked darkly of terrified German women aid workers who were too afraid ‘to wear makeup’ because they felt intimidated by Muslim migrants. ‘I am afraid for my country. This is what it feels like to be a foreigner in your own land! This catastrophic development has to be stopped’…”

Violence in Germany

The Local wrote on January 31:

“Far-right protesters clashed Saturday with rival, anti-fascist activists in a southwest German village [the Black Forest town of Villingen-Schwenningen] where assailants had hurled a hand grenade Friday as anti-refugee violence in the country escalates, police said… The grenade thrown over a fence Friday morning was filled with explosives but it was not immediately clear whether it was equipped with a detonator… It did not explode and no damage or injuries were reported.

“In an interview with German daily Die Welt published Saturday, the general secretary of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) party Peter Tauber said the act was ‘despicable and frightening’, and classified it as ‘attempted murder’… In a country that has welcomed more than one million migrants in the last year, violence against asylum seekers has been on the rise.

“The Federal Crime Office on Thursday reported 173 attacks against refugee shelters in 2015, more than six times the number recorded during the previous year. Another 10 cases were reported in January. Sigmar Gabriel, German vice chancellor and economy minister, was quoted in the press on Saturday as saying that there is ‘an alarming increase in acts of violence’ against refugees…”

Sadly, these kinds of violent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations remind us of events in the 1930’s, leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler. At that time, the demonstrations were staged by Communists and Nazis.

Young Girl’s Story of Rape a Lie?

The Guardian wrote on January 31:

“A 13-year-old Russian-German girl has admitted making up a story about being kidnapped and raped by migrants in a case that triggered a furore in Germany and briefly embroiled Berlin police in a spat with the Kremlin, state prosecutors said. The parents of the teenager, named only as Lisa, reported her missing on 11 January after she failed to appear at school in the Marzahn district of the capital. She reappeared 30 hours later with injuries on her face, and told her parents she had been attacked by men of Middle Eastern or north African appearance. News of the incident spread on social media, sparking outrage among Berlin’s Russian-German community.

“But when she was questioned by trained specialists three days later ‘she immediately admitted that the story of the rape was not true’, said the spokesman for the state prosecutor, Martin Steltner. He said the teenager had been scared of going home after the school had contacted her parents over an incident at school.

“Yet the allegations caused uproar in Berlin, particularly after reports of mass sexual assaults allegedly carried out by migrants in Cologne. A Russian-German community group staged a protest, supported by the Pegida-related Bärgida movement. The far-right National Democratic party also demonstrated in Marzahn. The mood was exacerbated by a report on Russian state TV, in which the girl’s relatives claimed her allegations were not being investigated…

“Analysis of the teenager’s mobile phone records showed she had spent the night with a friend, who is not being treated as a suspect. Her mother told Der Spiegel magazine on Sunday that Lisa was ‘doing very badly’ and was having treatment in a psychiatric ward.”

It is interesting, however, that Bild Online reported that Lisa’s mother apparently still believes in her daughter’s original story of having been raped.

Does German Government Order German Public TV On What to Report?

Breitbart wrote on February 2:

“National public service broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), which was recently forced into a humiliating apology for their silence on migrant violence and sex assault is being drawn into a fresh scandal after one of their former bureau chiefs admitted the company takes orders from the government on what it reports. He said journalists received instructions to write news that would be ‘to Ms. Merkel’s liking’.

“Former head of ZDF Bonn Dr. Wolfgang Herles make the remarks during a radio event… in Berlin where journalists discussed the media landscape. Moving on to the freedom of the press, the panel chair asked Dr. Herles whether things in Germany had got ‘seriously out of whack’. With an honesty perhaps unusual in Germany, Dr. Herles replied that ordinary Germans were totally losing faith in the media, something he called a ‘scandal’. He said: ‘We have the problem that – now I’m mainly talking about the public [state] media – we have a closeness to the government. Not only because commentary is mainly in line with the grand coalition (CSU, CDU, and SPD), with the spectrum of opinion, but also because we are completely taken in by the agenda laid down by the political class’.

“Worse than the mainstream, government controlled and poll-tax funded media in Germany just agreeing with the ruling coalition, the stations actually took orders on what was and was not to be reported on. He said: ‘…the topics about which are reported are laid down by the government. There are many topics that would be more important than what the government wants. But they, of course, want to deflect attention away from what doesn’t happen. Yet what doesn’t happen is often more important than what does happen – more important than gesture politics… Today, one is not allowed to say anything negative about the refugees’…”

Germany’s Latest Crazy Idea—Limits on Cash Transactions?

The Associated Press reported on February 3:

“The German government is considering introducing a limit of 5,000 euros ($5,450) on cash transactions in an effort to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. Deputy finance minister Michael Meister said Wednesday that Germany would like to see a European solution, but could introduce a national limit if none is achieved, news agency dpa reported. He said ‘we can imagine a level of 5,000 euros.’…

“Germans tend to use cash more than many other Europeans. Opposition Green Party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz tweeted that trying to limit cash payments ‘is a new fundamental attack on data protection and privacy.’”

It is also a ridiculous idea. Germany’s government is under attack for not doing enough to fight terrorism and the current migrant crisis, but when it comes up with concepts, then they seem to be crazy, by unduly limiting the freedom of German citizens.

Britain’s Relationship with the EU

Deutsche Welle reported on February 3:

“Britain’s relationship with the EU has never been straightforward. History and simple geography dictate this – salt water separates us…

“Not only does the island nation perceive itself as removed from mainland Europe, it also maintains extremely close cultural and historical ties to a plethora of other major players: the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, India, Pakistan, much of Africa – the list keeps on rolling. In a sense, one might argue that some of these partners are closer to London than Paris, Berlin or Brussels…

“A latecomer to the European Economic Community, as it was known then, Britain joined in 1973… Then, as now, domestic politics drove the EU debate… Britain’s politicians view EU membership more favorably than its voters…”

Cameron’s Negotiations with Brussels a “Dismal Failure”

The Sun wrote on February 3:

“Cameron[‘s]… ‘renegotiation’ with Brussels has produced a steaming pile of manure. It is a dismal failure worse than we ever imagined. It will not improve one aspect of British life. It will achieve nothing whatsoever on the two central problems it was meant to tackle: our out-of-control immigration and the erosion of British powers by the EU.

“Brussels, not for the first time, has treated us with contempt and given us the square root of diddly-squat…

“The most abject defeat is on immigration. Only full, permanent border controls, with Britain choosing how many people come in, and who they are, can slow our population’s current expansion of 336,000 a year. But Mr Cameron had no will to demand them. He still cherishes the EU’s sacred ‘freedom of movement’ principle even as it causes chaos across the Continent…

“As for our sovereignty, the EU suggests a ‘red card’ system under which Britain could overturn a bad law if we could persuade 14 other national parliaments in six weeks to vote with us. William Hague, that born-again europhile, admits that’s near-impossible. Even our simple demand to stop British taxpayers funding child benefit for migrants’ kids living abroad was rejected. That insanity goes on . . . just at a lower rate.

“The rest of the EU’s ‘concessions’ were merely a confirmation of our existing terms. Remember: this is Brussels at its weakest and Britain at its strongest. The EU is in disarray, under siege from refugees and with extremism surging. Brussels knows Britain leaving this summer would be a disaster at best and fatal at worst. There was never going to be a better moment for Mr Cameron.”

USA and Britain Have Reportedly Been Spying on Israel for 18 Years

JTA wrote on January 29:

“U.S. and British intelligence services have reportedly spied on Israel for 18 years after cracking its army’s encryption for communication among fighter jets, drones and army bases. The information was reported Friday by The Intercept and the German newspaper Der Spiegel based on documents that came into the possession of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who worked for U.S. intelligence before publishing classified material and fleeing to Russia.

“Britain and the United States reportedly have used this access to monitor Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip, watch for a potential strike on Iran and keep tabs on the drone technology that Israel exports. Israel said later Friday it was disappointed but not surprised by the revelations. ‘This is an earthquake,’ an anonymous senior security source told Ynet. ‘It means that they have forcibly stripped us and, no less important, that probably none of our encrypted systems are safe from them. This is the worst leak in the history of Israeli intelligence.’ According to the reports, the breaking of the drone encryption allowed Britain and the United States to view images and videos broadcast to IDF commands during drone operations in Gaza, the West Bank and near the Jewish state’s northern border.”

When it became clear that the USA had been spying on Angela Merkel and had listened in to her phone conversations, Merkel uttered the (by now) famous words: “Friends don’t spy on friends.” Everybody knows, of course, that this concept is a sham and a farce. Still, since the USA and Great Britain have apparently been spying on Israel for 18 years, one must ask the question whether the USA and Great Britain have EVER been Israel’s friends.

The Temple Mount in the News

Voice of America reported on January 31:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday if Hamas dares to attack Israel through cross-border tunnels from Gaza, Israel will retaliate with force greater than the 2014 war… A top Hamas official boasted Friday that the group has built ‘twice the number of resistance tunnels’ that were built during the war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s. He said hundreds of Hamas members are working to build tunnels to free what he described as holy places, including the al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem – a site Jews revere as the Temple Mount…

“Also in an historic decision Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet approved a so-called egalitarian Jewish prayer space near the Western Wall, where Jews from all over the world of both sexes and religious beliefs can pray together… The Western Wall is Judaism’s holiest site. It is the last scrap of the wall that surrounded the ancient temple. Under Orthodox tradition, men and women are segregated when they pray… Many Orthodox Jews, including Cabinet members who voted against the move, condemn it as an affront to tradition.”

More Violence in Israel

JTA wrote on February 3:

“One of the two Israeli Border Police officers seriously injured in an attack by three Palestinian assailants in Jerusalem has died… The assailants, who entered Israel illegally from the Jenin area in the West Bank, were shot and killed by other officers… They were armed with a rifle, knives and an explosive device; police believe the men were planning a larger attack…

“Border Police stopped the attackers asking to see their identification documents. While one of the assailants took out his documents, another produced a gun and shot up the area, according to police. Hamas praised the attack, saying it dealt a ‘severe blow’ to Israel’s security apparatus…”

The Times of Israel added on February 3:

“The three West Bank Palestinians who stabbed and shot at the Israeli forces had been sitting and waiting for a large group of Israeli civilians to enter or leave the Old City, and had planned to target them, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported on Wednesday evening, citing police sources…

“One of three terrorists had vowed in a Facebook post to carry out a shooting attack, Channel 2 reported, ostensibly to avenge the killing of another Palestinian who attempted an attack at a border crossing in the northern West Bank last November. The TV report said all three of the attackers were members of families associated with Fatah.”

Zika Virus Spreading

Deutsche Welle reported on February 2:

“Health officials in Texas have reported a case of the Zika virus being transmitted through sexual contact, and not a mosquito bite. The infected person is said to have acquired it from someone who traveled to Venezuela…

“The WHO has said the virus is spreading rapidly in the Americas and could infect 4 million people. A global response unit has been launched to fight the virus… The virus has been linked to microcephaly, in which babies have abnormally small heads and improperly developed brains. Researchers believe that if a pregnant woman is bitten by an infected mosquito [Russian media claims, that the virus is spread through genetically-modified mosquitoes], particularly in the first trimester, she faces a higher risk of having a child with birth defects.

“The virus has now spread to 26 countries and territories including Brazil, which is the country hardest hit, with 3,700 suspected cases of microcephaly that may be linked to Zika… The race is on to find a vaccine to prevent the virus taking hold. There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika, which is in the same family of viruses as dengue fever.”

China Releases Color Pictures from their Recent Moon Landing

Techcrunch reported on January 30, 2016:

“This month, the China National Space Administration released all of the images from their recent moon landing to the public. There are now hundreds and hundreds of never-before-seen true color, high definition photos of the lunar surface available for download… In December of 2013, China joined the ranks of Russia and the United States when they successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface, becoming the third country ever to accomplish this feat. What made China’s mission especially remarkable was that it was the first soft-landing on the moon in 37 years, since the Russians landed their Luna 24 probe back in 1976…

“Chang’e 3, named after the goddess of the Moon in Chinese mythology, was a follow-up mission to Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 which were both lunar orbiters. The objective of the Chang’e 3 mission was to demonstrate the key technologies required for a soft moon landing and rover exploration. The mission was also equipped with a telescope and instruments to perform geologic analysis of the lunar surface.

“Once the 1,200 kg Chang’e lander reached the surface at a location known as Mare Imbrium, it deployed the 140 kg Yutu rover, whose name translates to ‘Jade Rabbit.’ The Yutu rover was equipped with 6 wheels, a radar instrument, and x-ray, visible and near-infrared spectrometers (instruments that can measure the intensity of different wavelengths of light). Yutu’s geologic analysis suggested that the lunar surface is less homogeneous than originally thought…

“China’s follow-up mission, Chang’e 4 is scheduled to launch as early as 2018 and plans to land on the far side of the moon. If this happens, China will become the first nation to land a probe on the lunar far side. With the Chang’e series, China has shown that, unlike NASA, their focus is on lunar, rather than Martian, exploration. But they’re not the only ones that have their sights set on the moon… a number of private companies are building spacecraft designed to soft-land on the lunar surface in the next few years. One of those companies, Moon Express, plans to be the first ever private company to land a spacecraft on the moon and has already secured a launch for their spacecraft in 2017.”

Incredibly, there are still quite a few conspiracy proponents who believe that there was never a moon landing, and that all the undisputable reports are wrong.

We find the following statement in Romans 7:1-4:

“(Verse 1) Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? (Verse 2) For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. (Verse 3) So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. (Verse 4) Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Many claim that these passages convey the thought that the law of God (including the Ten Commandments, and especially the law against adultery) has no more force and effect for us today, as the law has “no more dominion” over us; as we are “free from the law”; and as we have “become dead to the law.”

But imagine what this would mean. It would mean, for example, that a true Christian could commit adultery today, without being guilty of sin. However, the New Testament teaches the exact opposite. Just focusing on the law against adultery, we read that in order to inherit eternal life, we must obey the commandments, including the commandment against adultery (Matthew 19:17-19). We read that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:19-21). We also read that God will judge “fornicators and adulterers” (Hebrews 13:4).

Paul explains that if we commit adultery, we do not love our neighbor as ourselves (Romans 13:9). Christ even said that when we LOOK at another woman with evil thoughts, we have already committed adultery in our heart, and He warned us not to marry a woman whose marriage had been bound by God and who subsequently became divorced without a biblical reason (Matthew 5:27-32).

We can clearly see that the idea that we are free today to commit adultery is preposterous and in total contradiction to the teaching of the Bible. It’s also clear that Paul could not have possibly meant in the above-quoted passage in Romans 7:1-4 that we are now free to sin, by committing adultery.

(1)    Before we explain what Paul DID mean, let us quote several statements from commentaries to show the HOPELESS CONFUSION in traditional or orthodox Christianity.

For instance, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary writes:

“So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant… he continues [as] the slave of sin in some form… By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband… we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master’s yoke…”

As we pointed out before, this explanation makes no sense.

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible does not present a better explanation:

“… believers being dead to the law, and the law dead to them, which is all one, they are loosed from it… they are out of the reach of its power and government… it has no power over them, to threaten and terrify them into obedience to it; nor even rigorously to exact it, or command it in a compulsory way…”

The following explanation by the Broadman Bible Commentary is also unbiblical. They say: “As the Christian became free from the tyranny of sin when he died to sin (6:2), so he is free from the law because he died to the law…”

(2)    On the other hand, the same commentaries seem to grasp the total fallacy of their conclusions, since utter lawlessness and anarchy would be the inevitable consequence. Realizing the repeated injunction in Scripture to be OBEDIENT to God, they give lip service to this requirement by saying that we must obey God, without ever explaining how obedience is possible without law or rules or regulations. (For instance, the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary speaks of “Christian obedience,” without explaining this concept). How are we supposed to “obey” God without being told in what way we are to obey? This remains an unexplained mystery to the reader.

In spite of these glaring inconsistencies, note the following excerpts from Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:

“They are represented as… ‘dead to the law’…  it has no power over them…  nor is there any need of all this, since believers delight in it after the inward man, and serve it with their minds freely and willingly; the love of Christ, and not the terrors of the law, constrains them to yield a cheerful obedience to it…”

Did you catch this? The commentary says that the law has no more power over a Christian who, through the love of Christ, yields to a cheerful obedience to IT—the LAW!

(3)    Apparently realizing that this interpretation leads to the slippery slope of incredible inconsistences, an APPARENT DISTINCTION is being created between “the law” and “the law of Christ.” The law then is reduced, mainly, to the law administered by Moses, while the law of Christ is supposed to be something different, even though it is never explained what the difference within the law should be. Hopelessly caught in a maze of confusion, Gill goes on to write:

“[Christ] is raised from the dead; and is a living husband, and will ever continue so, will never die more; and therefore as the saints can never be loosed from the marriage bond of union between Christ and them, so they can never be loosed from the law of this husband; wherefore though they are dead to the law as a covenant of works, and as ministered by Moses, and are free from any obligation to it, as so considered, yet they are ‘under the law to Christ’, 1 Corinthians 9:21; under obligation, by the ties of love, to obedience to it, and shall never be loosed from it.”

Apparently, the idea is supposed to be conveyed that we are under obligation to OBEY the “law to Christ,” while we are no longer under obligation to keep the law “administered by Moses,” but as we said, it is totally nebulous which two sets of law this commentary is talking about. Let us take adultery as an example (because after all, this is the law which Paul uses in his analogy in Romans 7). Whether it was administered by Moses in the Old Testament, or whether it is part of the law of or to Christ in the New Testament, it is still a rule to be obeyed. David had God’s Holy Spirit, but he still committed adultery, and God punished him for that. David was in no way free from the obligation to keep that law (nor was he incapable of violating it), and neither are true Christians today.

The truth is that Paul is speaking in Romans 7 about the spiritual law of the Ten Commandments and the spiritual statutes and judgments, NOT about any temporary ritual law. The prohibition against adultery is part of the spiritual law of the Ten Commandments… not of a ritual law which is no longer valid today.

(4)    It is a usual fact of life that wrong conclusions are oftentimes reached when we operate from wrong premises and presumptions. This is not different in the field of “Christian theology.” Traditional Christianity is hopelessly confused regarding so many of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, because it starts its thought process with WRONG ASSUMPTIONS.

Regarding Paul’s statements in Romans 7:1-4, there are numerous wrong assumptions employed by Christian commentators, which inevitably lead to wrong conclusions.

(a)    One of these wrong assumptions is that Paul stated that the LAW WAS DEAD. However, Paul nowhere said this. He said that true Christians have become DEAD TO THE LAW; he does not say that the law is dead. This is a fundamental difference which is overlooked by most commentators.

For instance, Gill, in glossing over this all-important distinction, writes that “the law… must be dead, and they dead to that, that so their marriage to Christ might appear lawful and justifiable.”

He also states this:

“The law may be said to live, when it is in full force, and to be dead, when it is abrogated and disannulled; now whilst it lives, or is in force, it has dominion over a man; it can require and command obedience of him, and in case of disobedience can condemn him, and inflict punishment on him: and this power it has also as long as the man lives who is under it, but when he is dead it has no more dominion over him; then ‘the servant is free from his master’, Job 3:19; that is, from the law of his master; and children are free from the law of their parents, the wife from the law of her husband, and subjects from the law of their prince.”

His erroneous conclusions (that the law is no longer binding for us) are based on the false premise that Paul allegedly stated that the law died and was dead… which Paul never said.

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary makes some cautionary remarks, as the authors seem to understand that Paul did not preach that the law was dead:

“It has been thought that the apostle should here have said that ‘the law died to us,’ not ‘we to the law,’ but that purposely inverted the figure… It was essential to his argument that we, not the law, should be the dying party, since it is we that are ‘crucified with Christ,’ and not the law.”

(b)    In addition to the false premise that the law is dead (which Paul did not say), commentaries have created another false premise, which is, that Paul taught that the unconverted person was MARRIED TO THE (Old Testament) LAW, but that the converted Christian is married to Christ, and that therefore, the (Old Testament) law had to die so that we are free to marry another.

Gill is adopting this view, stating that “the law, their former husband, must be dead… that so their marriage to Christ might appear lawful and justifiable.”

(5)    But Paul did not try to explain in his analogy that the first HUSBAND was the LAW, and when the law died, we could marry our second Husband, Jesus Christ.

The first question is whether Paul intended to apply the analogy in Romans 7:1-3 to a Christian (in verse 4) beyond just making the statement that with the death of a person, the law (any law) ceases to have dominion over the person— that is, in using the marriage covenant just as an example, a woman is no longer charged by the law as an adulteress if she marries again after her husband’s death. It might very well be that this is ALL that Paul was trying to convey.

But if we take the positon that Paul meant to apply the different “roles” in this analogy (in verses 1-3) to the life of a Christian, then Paul was not identifying the first husband as the law, but he would have had a completely DIFFERENT “FIRST” HUSBAND in mind.

This concept is something which some early Christian commentaries might have understood, to a degree, who struggled with the problem that Paul could not have said that the law—as a husband—had died and was dead. The Pulpit commentary explains:

“… it may be observed that throughout the whole passage there is no phrase to suggest in itself the idea of the Law’s death… the former husband is not the law, but the lust of sin… Augustine… is the author of this view… [I]n the death of the mortal Christ this old man is dead with him; and, as the individual man is grafted by faith into Christ, his old man dies…”

In light of this viewpoint, the meaning of the passage in Romans 7:4  would have to be looked at in a completely different light (while understanding that we can carry an analogy, an allegory or a parable only so far. Analogies, allegories or parables are meant to explain spiritual lessons; not every aspect is to be taken literally): The wife would first be “married” to her evil desires—her carnal human nature—the “old man.” With the death of that old man, she became free from unrighteousness and became subject to (“married to”) the righteousness of the new man (Romans 6:6, 13, 16-19). The human being is represented here as a wife [or a bride] before and after conversion, in order to stay within the analogy of her becoming the bride of Christ who will marry her new Husband.

(6)    In addition, Paul tells us in Romans 7:4 that WE DIED TO THE LAW THROUGH THE BODY OF CHRIST. He does not say that the law is dead. The spiritual law of the Ten Commandments and its statutes and judgments is very much alive and binding for us today.

Paul says in Romans 7:5: “For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins which were aroused [or revealed, made known, compare Romans 7:7] by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death [the wages or penalty of sin is death, Romans 6:23].”

Before we repent and receive forgiveness for our sins, we live with the fleshly desires of the natural mind. But note as well that the words “were aroused” are not in the original. And so, the Lamsa Bible translates Romans 7:5: “For when we were in the flesh, the pains of sin, which were by the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruits to death.” Sin is the violation of the law, and sin brings pain.

The Living Bible says: “When your old nature was still active, sinful desires were at work within you, making you want to do whatever God said no to, and producing sinful deeds, the rotting fruit of death.”

And so, Christ died for us and delivered us from the PENALTY OF SIN, which is death. He delivered us from the PENALTY OF THE LAW.

Paul says in Romans 7:6: “But now we have been delivered from the law [its penalty, because we had transgressed against it and sinned], having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Today, we are keeping the law by including its intent and purpose. We are not only committing the sin of adultery when we carry out the very act [the letter], but we are already sinning [in spirit] when we look at a woman with the desire of committing adultery with her.

Christ died for us, making forgiveness of sin possible. The law has no more any claim over us; it does not and cannot claim our lives anymore when we repent and believe in and accept the Sacrifice of Christ. “There is therefore now no more condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ [and He in us], who do not walk according to the flesh [with its evil and sinful lusts and desires], but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

With proper baptism, the old man dies, and the new man is raised in whom Christ lives (compare also Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9-10). And it is Christ who fulfills the righteous requirements of the law IN and THROUGH us (Romans 8:4). We were baptized into Christ’s death and “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). Romans 6:10-11 says: “For the death that [Christ] died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin [which is the transgression of the law, 1 John 3:4, Authorized Version], but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We died to the penalty of the law “through the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4) because we could have no forgiveness without the death of the body of Christ (Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 2:24). Since everyone has sinned, we would still be under the law’s death penalty. But since Christ died for us and since we have accepted His Sacrifice for us (He died to pay the penalty for our sins on our behalf), the law (its penalty) has no more dominion over us (Romans 7:1). We—that is our old man with his lusts—died or have become dead to the law (its penalty), so that we, as the new man, have become betrothed to our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ (Romans 7:4) who enables us to keep the law. Christ will consummate the marriage with us, when we become immortal Spirit Beings, incapable of sinning, after we have qualified to enter the Kingdom of God.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

“Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” is the subject of a new booklet promotion begun this week. Through emails, press releases and Facebook ads, we are focusing attention to the Church’s webpage: www.eternalgod.org. Special thanks to September Danforth-Prentice for her work on this project.

“Turmoil in the Middle East,” is the title of a powerful new StandingWatch program. In this presentation, Evangelist Norbert Link reveals the meaning of world events happening now in the light of Bible prophecies! Here is a summary:

We need to focus on the Middle East because it is there where World War III will begin. In this special program, we will be discussing events pertaining to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Egypt , Syria, Libya, Ethiopia and ISIS. We will also address growing anti-Semitism in Europe and the strained relationship between Israel and the EU. We will explain how these events fit into the panorama of biblical prophecy, and what we can expect to occur next.

“Ist das Gesetz für uns tot?” is the title of this coming Sabbath’s German sermon. The title in English: “Is the Law Dead for Us?”

“Scorn and Ridicule for God and His People” is the title of the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

The Bible shows us that especially in these end times, many will scoff at God, His Word, His servants and His people. We should not be surprised when we are ridiculed and scorned. Those who may know us and do not approve of our new way of life may look for “reasons” to mock us and speak evil of us–because they themselves may not want to change. But we must also be careful that we do not unnecessarily provoke ridicule through our own conduct.

On January 30, 2016, Norbert Link will be giving the sermon this Sabbath, and he will also use the sermonette and announcement time to speak on recent world events in the light of biblical prophecy. The Sermon Title is: “Scorn and Ridicule for God and His People.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

In August 2015, the BBC produced a series of three television programmes entitled, “Are Our Kids Tough Enough? – The Chinese School.”  Five teachers from China came to the UK and taught the Chinese method to a group of 50 students, aged 13-14, in a high achieving school in southern England.   We were told that this was because British pupils were falling behind on the international scene.

One Chinese teacher asked the class why the Chinese academic achievement was 3 years ahead of the UK.    She answered the question herself by saying that “discipline was really important; without discipline, you don’t learn well.”   That didn’t go down well with the English students and it was appalling to see the way the class reacted and behaved.   There were many aspects of this experiment that could be commented on, but had the basics been done in the first place, many of the problems that were so clearly seen would have never surfaced.   Those problems were a lack of parental training and correction, as well as the showing of disrespect.

The Chinese, from an early age, are taught to respect their parents, their teachers and their country.   It is clear to see that the average student in the UK doesn’t fit into that category.   We do have good students who have been well brought up by caring parents but so very many have had parents with poor parenting skills.   We must also add the fact that teachers are unable to do their job properly with children having the upper hand.

In the class of 50 that was shown, there was so much disrespect and ill-discipline that it was embarrassing.   There were, at different times, singing in class; one girl putting on her make up; another girl eating jelly; another one had the ubiquitous mobile phone in class; one boy had brought in a kettle and was drinking tea at the back of the class; there was talking and yawning and disrespect to the teachers and students not turning up for lessons but were playing outside, and much more.   All of this happened because the basics were missing.

The English teacher was sent in to see how the Chinese teacher taught and said that he wasn’t prepared for what he saw.   He said that they all ignored the teacher and he would be livid if students behaved like that in his class.   The school had to bring in the Head of School who was in charge of enforcing discipline – a position that would be redundant in China because the students are taught the right principles from a very early age.   He laid down the law to the class and they took notice of him and he asked them if there were any questions or if they had any issues with what he had said.   There were no takers.   As soon as this English teacher had gone, they were back to their worst and the Chinese teacher asked the class why.   One response was that “we’re frightened of him but we’re not frightened of you”.   Such disrespect.

In our secular society, God’s Word is usually seen as irrelevant or unnecessary but it actually contains gems of understanding that, if implemented, would ensure that society would be so much better ordered, disciplined and respectful.

In Proverbs 22:6 we read: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”   Installing good habits from an early age will produce massive life-long benefits.

In our liberal society, teachers are not allowed to use any corporal punishment and the students know that they have the upper hand.   One law firm states the legal position in the UK as follows: “So long as a parent uses what could in all circumstances be deemed reasonable force in the home, they are likely to be acting perfectly legally in the UK.”   What does God say about this?   Proverbs 23:13 gives us the answer: “Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.”   We only have to look at history to know that this is correct; today with the liberal approach, we have huge problems.

Of course, as we point out in our booklet, “The Keys to Happy Marriages and Families,” “There is never a justification for physical abuse. On the other hand, to totally ban spanking and define it as physical abuse only shows how liberal and anti-biblical our Western society has become… As parents, we must be aware, though, that in certain countries, spanking is illegal, and could result in the authorities coming in and taking away our children. And even in countries where spanking is not illegal, many governmental officials look at such practice with great disfavor…

“Since using the rod is compared with prompt or early discipline, it is clear that this passage includes the concept of spanking, where and when appropriate. Of course, we don’t spank a teenager or an adult, so the spanking needs to be done early in the life of the child. But note, again, we discipline our children, because we LOVE them. If we discipline our children for any other reason, or because of any other motive, we do NOT follow God’s instructions. Spanking should never cause physical injury to a child. The intent is to break a rebellious spirit, not to bruise skin.”

Honouring parents is a biblical command (compare Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 1:8, Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20).  But it is not just about honouring parents and teachers, but all people.   In Leviticus 19:32 we read: “You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.”

Had these biblical admonitions been implemented with children from a very early age, we would have a very different society today, but the basics have been missing.   It is because man thinks he knows better than God, we have the problems that we have today and this was so clearly seen in this BBC programme.

In the future, probably not too far away now, God’s Way will be the norm and man’s failed way will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

We begin with reports on the Middle East, including articles about and pertaining to Iran, Israel and Egypt.

We continue with shocking revelations about the migrant crisis in Germany and its undesired, but rather certain consequences; and address the role Islam might be playing in this context.

We are writing about events in Great Britain pertaining to ridiculous recommendations of “Christian” clergymen; and focus on the reactions of a lengthy British report by a former high court judge, charging Vladimir Putin with the “probable” order of murdering Alexander Litvinenko—a British citizen and former Russian spy—in the streets of London… allegedly in part for revealing extremely damaging personal facts about Putin. In spite of this, the British government under Mr. Cameron realizes their utter “helplessness” in the matter and seems to be willing to treat this report about a ten-year-long murder investigation as “murky water under the bridge.”

We report on developments pertaining to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; a new scandal in Texas involving Planned Parenthood; strong accusations against the FBI regarding the death of one protestor in Oregon; the spreading of the Zika virus in America and Europe; a new dangerous game for teens; and a serious locust plague in Argentina.

We conclude with astonishing revelations about the total lack of belief of young Icelanders in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, even though one of the ancient tribes of the House of Israel—Benjamin—settled in Iceland and can be found there today (as well as in Norway).

John Kerry Admits: US Money for Iran Might Be Used for Terrorist Attacks

JTA wrote on January 21:

“Secretary of State John Kerry said Iran would likely use some [U.S.] money freed by the lifting of sanctions for terrorism, but if it does, it will be subject to separate sanctions. ‘I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,’ Kerry said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in an interview by CNBC reported by The Associated Press. The IRGC is an acronym for the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps…”

IS Prepares Attacks Against Israel

The Economist wrote on January 23:

“IS has yet to attack Israel. Its main forces in southern Syria are about 80km (50 miles) from Israel’s borders. Last month, IS put out a recording… saying that ‘with the help of Allah we are getting closer to you every day. The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine.’ On January 18^th… the chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces, warned that ‘the success against IS raises the probability we will see them turning their gun-barrels towards us and also the Jordanians’.

“The most direct and likely avenue of attack is across Israel’s frontier with Syria. That is because the situation there is already chaotic; IS bases and civilian villages are close to Israel; and the terrain is mountainous…

“But IS may also choose other places from which to attack. Wilayat Sinai, which means the ‘Sinai province’ of IS, has been operating on Israel’s western border for five years. It declared allegiance to IS in late 2014 and claimed responsibility for blowing up a Russian airliner last October, killing 224 people. But it is embroiled in a bloody insurgency against Egypt’s security forces. Israel, which is discreetly providing the Egyptians with intelligence and military help, says that IS shares routes for smuggling arms and other supplies with Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. These could be used for launching future attacks on Israel.

“The Israelis are also worried that radical Palestinians who are citizens of Israel may be working for IS… ‘IS is here and it’s no secret,’ says Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s president. ‘I’m not talking about the borders of Israel, but about IS within. Research, arrests, witnesses, open and classified analysis all indicate clearly that IS’s popularity is growing and that even Israeli Arabs are actually joining up with it.’ Vigilance along Israel’s borders may not be enough.”

Violence in Israeli-Occupied West Bank

Reuters reported on January 23:

“A 13-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead by an Israeli security guard she tried to stab at a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli police said on Saturday. It was the latest fatality in an almost four-month-long surge of violence that has raised concern of wider escalation, a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided, and it followed two stabbings this week inside settlements carried out by Palestinian teenagers, according to Israeli authorities…

“Since the start of October, Israeli forces have killed at least 149 Palestinians, 95 of them assailants according to authorities. Most of the others have died in violent protests. Almost daily stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Many of the Palestinian assailants have been teenagers.

“On Sunday, an Israeli mother of six was stabbed to death at her home in a West Bank settlement and a 15-year-old Palestinian was arrested for the attack. On Monday, Israeli troops shot and wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian who had stabbed and wounded a pregnant Israeli woman in a settlement.

“The bloodshed has been fueled by various factors including frustration over the 2014 collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the growth of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians seek for an independent state. Palestinian leaders have said that with no breakthrough on the horizon, desperate youngsters see no future ahead. Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and Islamist groups that call for Israel’s destruction.”

Jews Leave France in Record Numbers

CNN reported on January 23:

“Nearly 8,000 French Jews moved to Israel in the year following the Charlie Hebdo attack, according to the Jewish Agency, which handles Jewish immigration, or aliyah, to Israel. The number of French Jews moving to Israel has doubled — and doubled again — in the past five years…

“Britain has the second-highest Jewish emigration from Western Europe, but the scale is much smaller. According to the Jewish Agency, 774 British Jews moved to Israel in 2015, less than one-tenth the number of French Jews… Many French Jews settle in Ashdod, a city in southern Israel known for its large French population… The Jewish Agency says violence is part — but not all — of the reason for French immigration…

“French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently expressed the fear that an exodus of Jews would change the country for the worse. ‘Without the Jews, France is no longer France. It’s the oldest community. They have been French citizens since the French revolution’…

“But when the European Union studied the prevalence of anti-Semitism in 2013, it found that 74% of Jews in France avoid openly identifying themselves as Jewish at least some of the time, and more than a quarter of French Jews always do…”

State Repression in Egypt Greater Than under Nasser and Mubarak

The Guardian wrote on January 24:

“The scale of state repression in Egypt is greater today than it has been for generations, one of the country’s most prominent journalists and human rights advocates has told the Guardian. Hossam Bahgat, an investigative reporter who was recently detained by Egypt’s military intelligence agency, spoke out ahead of the fifth anniversary of the start of Egypt’s revolution on Monday – the run-up to which has seen an unprecedented crackdown by security forces against opposition and dissent.

“‘This is without doubt the worst we’ve ever seen,’ said Bahgat… ‘The level of repression now is significantly higher than it was under the Mubarak regime, and people from older generations say it is worse than even the worst periods of the 1950s and 1960s [under the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser]’…

“Egypt under Sisi has jailed more journalists than any other country on earth bar China…”

Secret and Confidential Report Reveals Wide-Spread Sex Attacks and Thefts in Germany through Migrants

Deutsche Welle reported on January 23:

“Sex attacks and thefts like the ones that happened in Cologne on New Year’s Eve were also reported in 12 other German states, German media say. The information comes from a leaked report of the federal criminal police.

“The German broadcasters WDR and NDR, as well as the newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ on Saturday reported that the phenomenon of sexual violence paired with thievery was more widespread on New Year’s Eve than previously thought. They cited a confidential paper prepared for interior ministers by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The report covered sexual offenses in public places in which the victims were also stolen from, including a type of con in which thieves approach victims and hug or otherwise surprise them, with the aim of distracting them in order to pick their pockets…

“The report, dated January 13, said Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia (the state where Cologne is located) reported the highest number of offenses. In Hamburg there were 195 complaints, most of them for sexual offenses. Investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia reported 1,076 crimes altogether, mainly in the cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf and Bielefeld. That number included 692 bodily harm or property offenses and 384 sexual offenses… Similar incidents were reported in Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, albeit on a much smaller scale…  Across the country the victims were almost [always] female and the suspects were men aged between about 17 and 30…

“The investigators concluded that the nature of the reported thefts was a new form of criminality which up until now had not been widely experienced across Germany. The report’s authors noted, however, that it provided only a snapshot of the situation, which continued to be ‘dynamic.’… Meanwhile, police investigating the Cologne attacks have enlisted the help of specialists from London. The so-called ‘super recognizers’ from Scotland Yard will assist in analyzing video footage from New Year’s Eve. Their ability to pick out faces in a crowd is considered superior to facial recognition software.”

Educating Migrants… by Sending Wrong Signals?

The Daily Mail reported on January 23:

“The spate of migrant sex attacks has led authorities across Europe to start handing out cartoon strips explaining to refugees why they should not assault women. The Austrian interior ministry has issued a ‘behaviour guide’, which includes drawings of a man hitting a woman – covered by a giant red cross – and an image of gay kissing, approved with a tick.

“Authorities in Lucerne in Switzerland plan to distribute a version of the leaflet at its carnival next month and said the decision was made in the wake of the Cologne sex attacks.”

WARNING! Despicable Migrant Acts Reported from Germany

The following reports are sickening, and the reader needs to be warned. But it would not be right to suppress them for the sake of “political correctness” or because of their offensive and explicit nature.

The Daily Mail wrote on January 24:

“Migrants have been banned from a historic swimming bath in Germany after a gang of men were caught on camera masturbating in a hot tub and sexually assaulting women. Several other men were seen ’emptying their bowels’ in the children’s end of the main swimming pool at the Johannisbad baths in Zwickau, Saxony.

“Management at the historic baths are reportedly no longer allowing migrants into the facilities following the allegations while some local swimmers have stayed away after the incidents… ‘the lifeguards have to protect women and girls from the asylum seekers. Young men wanted to forcibly penetrate the female changing room,’ [civilian servant Rainer Mr Kallweit] said, describing another incident at another swimming pool… Police have arrested several men in connection to the incident at the baths. The men have since been released.”

Breitbart added on January 22:

“The local radio station reports the actions of the migrants [have] caused ‘outrage’, and a number of sexual harassment(s) of women and girls by migrants has been reported. Migrants have now been banned from the pool until they can be educated at the migrant centres about ‘behaviour towards woman and girls in swimwear’ and the ‘user regulations of our baths’.

“This behaviour in Zwickau is not by any means unique in Germany. Breitbart London has reported on a number of sex attacks on children in swimming baths over the past week, with girls as young as 11 and boys as young as three being targeted by migrant gangs. On one occasion in Munich, a pair of young girls enjoying the waterslide at their local pool were groped, ‘allegedly under their bathing suits’, ‘and possibly raped’ by a gang of ‘refugees’.

“The men believed to be responsible, Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers, were arrested and released by police.”

Is Islam Partially to Be Blamed for Muslims’ Sexual Assaults?

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 24:

“Since the assaults on New Year’s Eve, some German media are inclined to blame Islam for the attacks on young women. They are not altogether wrong. And Islam also plays a role in this: not because it is based on an inherently sexist philosophy, but because it has a lack of hierarchical structure. To put it plainly: The vast majority of Muslims abhor what happened on New Year’s Eve. Nonetheless, the problem remains that the attacks have not been condemned at the highest level within Islam – nor can they be.

“As long as Sunnis in particular have no figure of authority comparable to the Catholic pope, and no interpretation of Islam that is binding for all believers, there will be an uncontrolled proliferation of theological interpretation.

“A look at Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the leading power in the Sunni world, shows where this leads. Here, the religious scholar Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid runs a Salafist website. Among sites of this kind, it is in the top ten in terms of the number of hits. Al-Munajjid was recently asked by a user whether it was permissible for married Muslims to have sex with so-called ‘slave girls’ – a euphemistic and cynical way of referring to Asian women who work in Saudi Arabia as housemaids. The religious scholar’s response: Yes, of course, no doubt about it.

“This kind of perverted theology of sex is also part of the contract for the terrorist organization calling itself ‘Islamic State.’ It permits its followers to rape women without fear of punishment – Christian and Yazidi women, and other captives, too. ‘IS’ members claim that they do this with Allah’s blessing…

“This is the flipside of the practice currently lauded in German Islamic scholarship as ‘the tolerance of ambiguity.’ The great freedom of interpretation enjoyed by even the most questionable imams can also lead down some very dark roads. This is why a large section of the German public is very worried.”

More Cover-Ups in Germany?

Breitbart wrote on January 27:

“The Russian foreign minister has become involved in an unusual democratic spat with Germany over the alleged cover-up of the gang rape of a 13 year old Russian citizen in Germany by ‘Arab-looking men’. German police have claimed the disappearance by the 13 year old daughter of a Russian migrant family for 30 hours on January 11th, and her use as a ‘sex slave’ by a trio of Arab men had been consensual, and no kidnap or rape had been involved.

“Russia disputes this version of events, with Russian media reporting the girl had been taken from her family and passed around the three men for hours on end. Sex with a 13 year old girl, whether consensual or not, is a crime in Germany, yet there have not yet been any arrests.

“The persistence of reports in the Russian media about the case has now led the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to become involved, accusing Germany of papering over the cracks and covering up her rape. Speaking at a press conference yesterday morning, Mr. Lavrov said of the young girl who has only been identified as ‘Lisa F.’, that she had ‘clearly not voluntarily disappeared for 30 hours’. Mr. Lavrov said the German authorities had in the past shown a tendency to ‘paint over the reality of domestic politics for reasons of political correctness’.

“The story, coming so soon after the mass sex assault and rape of European women by migrant males in Cologne and other German cities at New Year, and multiple molestations and rapes at swimming baths has excited Germany’s sizeable Russian migrant community. Thousands of Russian-German citizens rallied at the weekend in German cities… declaring solidarity with the girl and carrying banners declaring ‘stay away from our children’.

“The news story and alleged coverup is threatening to develop into a major diplomatic incident, after Mr. Lavrov’s involvement and a German lawyer filing charges against Russian state television. He accuses a journalist of the channel of making unproven assertions by reporting Germany is suffering from mass migrant rape, reports Der Spiegel.”

Germany’s AfD in Third Place

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 24:

“The German daily ‘Bild am Sonntag’ reported on Sunday that the populist right-wing [anti-Immigrant] Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has reached 10 percent for the first time in a recent poll. According to the article, 17 percent of men would vote for AfD while only 2 percent of women would do so.

“The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, saw its support fall by 2 percentage points to 36 percent. The Social Democrats (SPD), the CDU’s coalition partner, came in at 25 percent…

“A majority of Germans, meanwhile, said they disagreed with the decision to bar the AfD from televised debates in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. Of those polled, 53 percent of Germans polled said the party should be able to participate in the debates, while 34 percent said it shouldn’t.”

German Far-Right Internet Platform Banned and Administrators Arrested

The Associated Press reported on January 27:

“The German government on Wednesday banned a far-right Internet platform that it accused of spreading ‘racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-Islamic content,’ and federal prosecutors said two people were arrested… The two arrested people were the administrators of the Altermedia website and therefore responsible for its content, which included banned Nazi slogans and the denial of the Holocaust as well as incitement of violence against foreigners, the prosecutors’ office said.

“The server was located in Russia to prevent German authorities gaining access, it added… German security officials say that the far right has become much more savvy in using of the Internet and social media to push its message to a broader audience. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence, Hans-Georg Maassen, told reporters Tuesday that ‘there is the danger of a gray zone developing between far-right extremists, right-wing conservatives and citizen protesters with significant potential for violence.’”

2016—a Difficult Year for Germany and Merkel

The Financial Times wrote on January 17:

“This is going to be a difficult year for Germany, one in which the policies of the past may turn out to be unsustainable. The most unsustainable of all was Angela Merkel’s invitation to open the doors to Syrian refugees without limitation. The German chancellor must either have misjudged the effect or acted recklessly — or both. A few months and 1m refugees later, the discontent is growing inside the Christian Democratic Union, her party, and in the country at large.

“Gerhard Schröder, her Social Democratic predecessor, last week came out against the policy with exactly the same arguments as the right-wingers in Ms Merkel’s own party: Germany cannot absorb such a large number. More than 1m refugees arrived in the country in 2015. It could be twice as many this year and the same again next — more if you include family members who will eventually follow.

“It is tempting to think of refugees and migrants as a new source of labour. But in this case this just is not true, at least not for now. The majority of those who arrive in Germany lack the skills needed in the local labour market. They will enter the low wage sector of the economy, and drive down wages, producing another deflationary shock. This is the last thing Germany and the eurozone need right now…

“The second challenge is the economic downturn in emerging markets. There are few large countries as dependent on the global economy as Germany, and few where there is so little awareness of that fact, at least in public debate…

“The third challenge for Germany in 2016 is the fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal. This could be the single biggest shock of all because Germany has been over-reliant on the car industry for far too long…

“Finally, 2016 promises to be the year of backlash against German dominance of the eurozone. That did not happen during the crisis. The leaders of the countries in the eurozone periphery kept their heads down…

“While most of the threats appear to be external, they are caused by domestic policy choices…”

Christian Clergymen to Wear Beards to Impress Muslims?

Daily Mail wrote on January 23:

“Clergymen should grow beards to emphasise their holiness to Muslims, the Bishop of London has suggested… Richard Chartres said the modern fashion for facial hair… would… be likely to impress those from Eastern cultures where wearing a beard could mark a man out as holy. He singled out two priests in Tower Hamlets… who have grown bushy beards… He said the desire of the clergy… to ‘reach out to the culture of the majority of their parishioners can only be applauded’.

“He went on to say that David Beckham – who he describes as the ‘nearest thing to a secular saint’ – has ‘stimulated countless imitators’.”

The Telegraph added on January 22:

“Now the fashion for beards has been given the blessing of the Church of England, after one of the country’s most senior clerics praised vicars who grow them to appeal to Muslim communities around them… In Islam beards are viewed as an ‘adornment’ and Muslim men are encouraged to wear them to honour the Prophet Mohammed.”

In Germany, some Muslims suggest or even “demand” that alcohol should be prohibited (at least in public places) so as to not to offend Muslims. In addition, some “demand” a special national Muslim “Holy Day.”

London No Longer Ethnically British

Daily Mail wrote on January 23:

“Since 2001, immigration has transformed the capital. More than half of Londoners are now not ethnically British…

“This week, it emerged that Brussels is attempting to blackmail Britain by saying that if we don’t take as many as 90,000 migrants a year, we will not be able to send failed asylum seekers back to safe countries on the Continent. Then came the story that a tribunal had ruled that a group of migrants in the Jungle camp in Calais had a ‘human right’ to join family members in Britain. It is a precedent that could have far-reaching implications.

“Aside from legal rulings, the truth is that much of our immigration policy is now dictated by criminal trafficking gangs who make a fortune smuggling people into Britain — not our elected leaders and certainly not voters and taxpayers. It is criminal gangs who decide who comes into the UK and in what numbers. They largely decide what happens to the migrants once they arrive…

“Uncontrolled immigration has changed London for ever. And, most shamefully, not one of our leaders has lifted a finger to stop it.”

Reports from Germany are reaching us stating that local governments are approaching home owners, inquiring of them whether they would want to house migrants. At this point, this would strictly be on a voluntary basis, and the government would pay a good sum of money to the landlords for providing housing to refugees.

“Shadow of Populism Hangs over Davos”

The Financial Times wrote on January 22:

“The populists are those political forces that advance ideas that are generally seen as dangerous or facile to those at Davos. These ideas include the US building a wall to keep out immigrants, Britain leaving the EU or anybody raising tariffs or dismissing climate change. And these forces are on the rise.

“The shadow of Donald Trump has loomed over Davos this year. So has the prospect that refugee flows into Europe will undermine centrist leaders such as Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. More broadly, those at Davos are aware that they increasingly represent the ‘unpopular’ — the business and political elites that are the targets of public anger and disillusionment…

“It is gradually dawning on people in the Swiss resort that either Mr Trump or Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, will probably win the Republican nomination, and that the ‘unthinkable’ — a Trump or Cruz victory in November’s presidential election — could happen…

“European politicians, meanwhile, are battling their own populists. Ms Merkel, who normally gives a warmly applauded speech at Davos, has had to stay at home this year to deal with the refugee crisis. In her absence, Joachim Gauck, Germany’s president, took to the stage to issue a thinly veiled attack on Ms Merkel’s refusal to put a numerical limit on the number of refugees Germany can accept. He argued that ‘if democrats do not want to talk about limitations then populists and xenophobes will’.

“Mr Gauck was not alone in his warnings about the political effects of refugee flows. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, warned that Europe has ‘six to eight weeks’ to stem the flow of migrants, before the pressure to reimpose frontier controls within the EU becomes irresistible.

“Meanwhile, Davos is also having to grapple with the idea that the UK might actually vote to leave the EU this year. David Cameron, the UK prime minister, on Thursday gave a confident speech in Davos, where most people are inclined to believe that Britain will ultimately vote to stay in the EU. But that confident stance involves dismissing recent opinion polls that suggest a British exit is quite likely…

“For the moment, the Davos mood on populism is more one of deep concern and uncertainty than full-blown panic. But the next 12 months will present a series of crucial tests. It is possible… that when the WEF gathers this time next year, Mr Trump will be US president, the UK will have voted to leave the EU and border controls will have been restored across Europe. Those developments would turn the Davos world upside down.”

Did Putin Order Litvinenko’s Murder?

Daily Mail wrote on January 20 and updated the article on January 22:

“Vladamir Putin may have ordered the murder of Alexander Litvinenko after he claimed the Russian President was a practising paedophile… Mr Litvinenko accused his rival of abusing children just weeks before two assassins slipped radioactive polonium 210 into his cup of tea in a London hotel in October 2006…

“Sir Robert Owen said today in a major report on his murder that Mr Putin ‘probably’ ordered it and admitted Litvinenko’s ‘highly personal attacks’ may be a motive for his death… His sensational report has sparked an international diplomatic row between Britain and Russia ignited today after an independent probe into the killing of Alexander Litvinenko said President Putin had ‘probably’ personally authorised the 2006 killing…

“Mr Litvinenko – who had accused the Russian president on his death bed – was killed by two FSB spies who slipped radioactive polonium 210 into his tea pot at a Mayfair hotel in central London, Sir Robert Owen said today in a major report.

“Prime Minister David Cameron today said the report outlined what happened was ‘absolutely appalling’ but he admitted the Syria crisis meant Britain had to have a relationship with Russia albeit one with ‘clear eyes and a cold heart’…

“Mr Litvinenko’s widow Marina urged Britain to impose sanctions on Russia as a result of the findings which today prompted the Russian Ambassador to claim there had been a ‘whitewash’ to cover up the ‘incompetence’ of the UK’s security services. Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko said it was ‘unacceptable’ for Britain to link Russia to a state-sponsored assassination…

“Just days before he fell ill, Litvinenko accused Mr Putin of responsibility for the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The report said there was ‘undoubtedly a personal dimension to antagonism’ between the two men…

“Mr Cameron will face growing calls to impose sanctions on high-profile individuals in Russia if the Kremlin refuses to extradite Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, the alleged assassins…

“There is overwhelming evidence linking the pair to the murder but both deny any involvement and Russian President Mr Putin has so far refused to extradite them. The death of Litvinenko marked a post-Cold War low point in Anglo-Russian relations, and ties have never recovered…

“Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said the killing of Mr Litvinenko using radioactive material exposed thousands of Londoners to unacceptable risk… ‘this is one of the most shocking and disturbing reports ever presented to this Parliament,’ he said. ‘It confirms that the Russian state at its highest level sanctioned the killing of a British citizen on the streets of our capital city and in so doing exposed thousands of Londoners to unacceptable levels of risk… Mr Burnham also said the UK should try to prevent Russia from staging the 2018 World Cup.”

The Daily Mail added in an article, dated January 22:

“Alexander Litvinenko claimed that Vladimir Putin had been caught on camera having sex with young boys, according to the inquiry into the spy’s murder. When the future Russian president was a student, he was filmed abusing children in a flat where another top politician had a threesome with prostitutes, Litvinenko wrote in a sensational web post.

“The wild claim is recorded in Sir Robert Owen’s inquiry report as part of a long list of allegations made by the assassinated spy against Mr Putin after he fled Russia and settled in Britain…”

A Helpless and Spineless British Government

In an accompanying article, dated January 22, Daily Mail published a strong editorial piece by Edward Lucas who writes for The Economist and is the author of “The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Both Russia and the West”:

“Russia has murdered a British citizen on the streets of London. It has blustered, gloated and lied. And we are not going to do much about it. That is the dismal upshot of the public inquiry into the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. What is abundantly clear is that the British Government is not going to respond properly to the outrageous behaviour of what is a rogue state in all but name…

“Russia is a highly bureaucratic and centralised country. It is inconceivable that anything as risky and important as the assassination of a British citizen, especially one working for MI6, would not be signed off at the highest level…

“Only when relations between the two countries cooled after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014 did the [British] Government finally… agree to give Mrs Litvinenko and the other witnesses their day in court. Yet none of the evidence given to the inquiry will have come as a surprise to the authorities. Britain’s intelligence services are all too well-informed about the depravity, greed and murderous brutality that reign in the Kremlin.

“They report this in graphic detail to Mr Cameron and other leaders, to the point that the Prime Minister feels physically repelled by Mr Putin when he has to meet him in person…

“Our own diplomats see the naming and shaming of the Putin regime not as an opportunity to be exploited, but as an obstacle to be overcome. They believe that Russia’s help is indispensable in the attempt to start peace talks over Syria, where Mr Putin’s ally President Assad is benefiting from the Russian aggression against militant opposition armies. That is a catastrophically mistaken approach. If we want to bring the Assad regime to the negotiating table, we should be increasing pressure on its backers, such as Russia and Iran, not soft-soaping them.

“The Russian state murdered Mr Litvinenko to send a message to other Russians: do not defect; do not co-operate with Western spy agencies. If you do so, we will hunt you down and mete out a slow, agonising death. It was a message to Britain, too: Russia can do what it likes in the streets of our capital city. British citizenship bestows no protection.”

Britain Not Interested in Opening another Front over Murder of British Citizen

The Guardian wrote on January 21:

“From a British diplomatic point of view, the Litvinenko affair has long been viewed as murky water under the bridge… no one in British government circles needed a high court judge to convince them that Alexander Litvinenko’s murder might have happened with Vladimir Putin’s knowledge.

“The British government did not want Sir Robert Owen’s inquiry to be established in the first place and would certainly never have wanted its explosive findings, implicating the Russian president, to be published at such an excruciatingly sensitive time. As brutal as it may sound, Syria, Ukraine and the state of the world economy all take priority over a decade-old death…

“The British view is that, with existing sanctions against Russia over Ukraine retaining only fragile support in the EU, this is not the time to open another front.

“But one suspects David Cameron has learned a painful lesson. At the outset of his premiership, he believed he had struck a strong personal relationship with Putin. There was a belief Putin was not loyal to Assad. Now there is nothing but disillusionment. The prime minister is aware of the scale of Russian cybercrime, feels he was personally lied to over Ukraine and sees Putin’s defence of Assad as destructive…”

FBI Ready to Indict Clinton?

Newsmax wrote on January 25:

“The FBI is ready to indict Hillary Clinton and if its recommendation isn’t followed by the U.S. attorney general, the agency’s investigators plan to blow the whistle and go public with their findings, former U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay tells Newsmax TV…

“Clinton is under FBI investigation for her use of a private server to conduct confidential government business while she was secretary of state. But some Republicans fear any FBI recommendation that hurts Clinton will be squashed by the Obama administration…”

Fight Between Trump and Fox Escalates

The Washington Post wrote on January 27:

“Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump abruptly announced here Tuesday that he would not participate in Thursday’s scheduled debate, escalating his off-and-on feud with Fox News Channel and throwing the GOP campaign into turmoil. Trump’s assertion, which his campaign manager insisted was irreversible, came less than one week before the kickoff Iowa caucuses. He once again defied the conventional rules of politics, and used his power and prominence to shape the campaign agenda and conversation.

“So far, Trump’s untraditional moves have only expanded his support…

“The Republican debates have become must-see television, in part because of the allure of Trump’s star power and unpredictable candidacy. But he said Tuesday that he thinks Fox and other television networks have been taking advantage of him by selling advertisements for their debates at a high premium… Trump said he would instead host a competing event in the state designed to raise money for wounded veterans…

“Trump long has objected to the participation of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly as one of the three moderators, claiming she has treated him unfairly with both her questioning of him at last August’s debate and her commentary since then. Trump also said that a ‘wise-guy press release’ that the network issued earlier on Tuesday belittling him was inappropriately antagonistic and childish.

“Fox’s statement said that network officials ‘had learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president.’ The statement added that Trump ‘has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.’ After reading it, Trump said: ‘I said, “Bye-bye.”’ ‘Fox is playing games,’ Trump said. ‘They can’t toy with me like they toy with everybody else. Let them have the debate. Let’s see how they do with the ratings.’ [According to a poll conducted by Fox News host Greta von Susteren, 83% of conservative viewers said that they would not watch the debate if Trump was not in it.]

“Earlier Tuesday, Fox News Channel Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Ailes said the network would defend Kelly even if it means losing Trump in the debate. In Iowa, Trump is in a fierce and increasingly nasty fight with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Both men have traded places atop recent polls here, and the outcome of Monday’s caucuses could have a profound effect on the direction of the nominating contest. By announcing that he will not debate, Trump likely will dominate news coverage and deny Cruz and other opponents a face-to-face confrontation before Iowa Republicans go to caucus…

“The Republican National Committee, which sanctions and helps organize the official debates, vowed late Thursday not to intervene in Trump’s dispute with Fox…”

Newsmax added on January 27:

“There’s only one man at Fox News who Donald Trump reportedly would talk to about his bombshell decision to boycott… the debate — media mogul Rupert Murdoch. New York magazine reports the GOP presidential front-runner wasn’t taking calls from Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes… ‘in recent months Murdoch has been attending news meetings at Fox in the wake of a health scare that forced Ailes to take an extended leave of absence,” the magazine reports. ‘Succession planning at Fox is very much on Murdoch’s agenda. If Ailes loses his grip on the Trump situation — and right now it looks like he is — Murdoch will have another reason to worry about the stability of his most valuable asset.’…

“New York also reports the network is now split over Fox News host and debate moderator Megyn Kelly — whom Trump has been vilifying ever since the first Fox News debate Aug. 6 — between allies like Brit Hume and conservative anchors who are angry ‘that Kelly has become the face of the network.’ The magazine reports one unnamed anchor was furious that Kelly hosted Michael Moore on her program Tuesday night — and that the lefty filmmaker defended her against Trump… The magazine reports even if Trump’s boycott backfires, however, ‘he’s already achieved a historic victory: exploding the myth that a Republican candidate can’t openly challenge Fox.’”

According to Bloomberg, January 27, “Trump isn’t the first top-tier presidential candidate to skip a debate. Ronald Reagan did not attend a Republican debate ahead of the 1980 Iowa caucuses, which he lost to George H.W. Bush. Reagan went on to the win the nomination and the presidency.”

Scandal in Texas

The website of chron.com reported on January 27:

“A grand jury convened to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had sold the organs of aborted fetuses on Monday cleared the clinic and instead indicted the undercover videographers behind the allegations, surprising the officials who called for the probe and delighting supporters of the women’s health organization.

“The Harris County grand jury indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, both of California, on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony with a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. It also charged Daleiden, the leader of the videographers, with the same misdemeanor he had alleged – the purchase or sale of human organs, presumably because he had offered to buy in an attempt to provoke Planned Parenthood employees into saying they would sell…

“The videographers, who had posed as employees of a company that buys tissue and filmed interactions with Planned Parenthood executives, issued a statement saying they had not committed any crimes. ‘The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws,’ the statement said…”

The frustration of the American people with our system can be easily understood when, in a horrendous miscarriage of justice, the guilty are cleared and the innocent are indicted.

Violence and Death in Oregon

The Huffington Post reported on January 26:

“Ammon Bundy, leader of the month-long militant occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, was arrested Tuesday in a highway confrontation with law enforcement that killed one of his followers and wounded another… The FBI said the shootings happened when agents, along with Oregon state troopers, ‘began an enforcement action’ on Highway 395 to arrest people involved in the armed occupation on charges of conspiracy to impede federal officials from discharging their duties…

“The occupation was spearheaded by the Bundy brothers, sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, as a protest against the treatment of two local ranchers jailed for arson who were ordered to return to prison after a federal judge ruled their original sentences were not long enough. Occupiers also sought to put federal land under local control, ripping up government fences to make their point. The armed anti-government group had occupied a building in the Malheur refuge since early January…

“Oregon Gov. Kate Brown called on federal authorities to end the occupation last week, criticizing what appeared at the time to be the government’s lack of response. She said the militants had cost taxpayers nearly a half-million dollars. ‘This spectacle of lawlessness must end,’ Brown said at a press conference. ‘I will not stop insisting that federal officials enforce the law.’…”

Newsmax reported on January 27:

“Mel Bundy, brother of Oregon protest leader Ammon Bundy, claimed Wednesday that cops ‘murdered’ their group’s spokesman ‘in cold blood’ during a shootout late Tuesday that led to the arrest of eight people near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. ‘LaVoy (Finicum) got out with his hands up in the air, up in the air, saying, “I don’t have a gun,”’ Bundy said in an exclusive interview on Newsmax TV’s prime time show Dennis Michael Lynch: Unfiltered.

“‘He had his hands on his head — and then they shot him. They started firing on him. They shot him. He went to the ground — and they shot him some more.’… ‘They killed LaVoy,’ Mel Bundy told Lynch. ‘Ammon wanted everybody to know, that he is an eyewitness of the murder of LaVoy Finicum. This is what he said: “They murdered him. They murdered him in cold blood. Get it out there. Tell the people what they did.”’

Coming… the Zika Virus

USA Today wrote on January 27:

“U.S. public health officials must prepare now for the inevitable arrival of Zika virus, a mosquito-borne infection that has spread to 21 countries in the Americas and poses particular danger to pregnant women, health experts said. The virus is expected to spread to the United States and every country in the Western hemisphere where the Aedes mosquitoes are known to live…  Aedes mosquitoes, which spread the virus, live in every Western hemisphere country but Canada and Chile.

“International air travel will help the virus spread quickly…  Zika doesn’t spread from person to person, but people infected while traveling can spread the virus in the USA if they are bitten by local mosquitoes, which then may spread the infection here… The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel alert, warning pregnant women to avoid travel to the 21 countries where Zika is spreading…

“Communities also need to ramp up their mosquito control efforts by spraying and getting rid of standing water… The government of El Salvador has urged women to postpone pregnancies for two years, a move that has been viewed as extreme by most people in the public health community. About half of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Scientists have known about Zika virus since the 1940s, but it was not considered a serious threat until a few months ago. That’s when Brazil reported an enormous increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly, a fetal defect that results in small heads and incomplete brain development…

“Scientists don’t know why Zika is spreading so quickly or why the outbreak has been particularly bad in Brazil…”

A Dangerous New Game for Teens?

The website of nbcsandiego reported on January 27:

“A dangerous new game becoming popular among teens sent a 14-year-old Washington resident to the hospital with 48 stitches, a shattered eye socket and a brain aneurism. [The teen] was severely injured playing the ‘Duct Tape Challenge,’ a trend circulating on social media in which the participant is taped up and is recorded on video trying to break free. Whoever removes the tape the fastest ‘wins’ the challenge…

“[He] was standing while taped up when he lost his balance. The fall caused [him] to hit his head… [He] suffered extensive facial injuries. After a three-hour surgery, [he] was left with metal plates and screws, and was on a temporary ventilator after the operation. His left eye socket shattered, and his facial injuries required 48 stitches and caused a substantial scar.

“Doctors are still unsure if [the teen] will be able to see out of his left eye… [The teen’s mother] who hadn’t heard of the ‘Duct Tape Challenge’ prior to her son’s injuries, wants to use [the teen’s] story as an opportunity to shed light on the dangers of these seemingly harmless viral games.”

Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 Years in Argentina

The New York Times wrote on January 25:

“Farmers and fumigators in Argentina are running out of time as they scramble to control the country’s worst plague of locusts in more than half a century, officials warned on Monday… when they will then threaten to devour crops like sunflowers and cotton, and grasslands for cattle grazing. ‘It’s the worst explosion in the last 60 years,’ Diego Quiroga, the agriculture agency’s chief of vegetative protection, said in a telephone interview. ‘It’s impossible to eradicate; the plague has already established itself. We’re just acting to make sure it’s the smallest it can be and does the least damage possible.’

“Small pockets of locusts, which first appeared last June, at the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, have spread across an area of northern Argentina about the size of Delaware. The mild and rainy winter here created comfortable breeding conditions for the locusts; their surge outpaced the ability of the authorities to control the spread of the insects.

“Farmers last year reported locust clouds that were more than four miles long and nearly two miles high…”

Young Icelanders Do Not Believe in the God of the Bible

The Washington Post wrote on January 23:

“If you happen to have the chance to talk to young Icelanders about their religious beliefs, be prepared for a surprise. Exactly zero percent of respondents in a recent survey said they believe that God created the Earth. Only 20 years ago, nearly 90 percent of all Icelanders were religious believers. Today, less than 50 percent are…

“Iceland is distinct from much of the rest of the world… In the United States… 28 percent of Americans between 18 and 29 said they believed that God created ‘humans in present form within the last 10,000 years.’ The numbers might not be directly comparable because some Christians believe both in the Big Bang theory and God’s role. But even as the number of young believers in the United States declines, Christianity has maintained a strong influence there.

“So, why are young Icelanders so different from much of the rest of the world?… the Evangelical Lutheran Church is still the country’s declared state church. Solveig Anna Boasdottir, a professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Iceland… said that about 40 percent of the country’s younger generation still consider themselves Christian — but none of them believe that God created the Earth…

“Most experts, however, would agree that… the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s influence is… rapidly diminishing in Iceland… As of last year, about 75 percent of Iceland’s inhabitants were registered members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. However, as recent polls suggest, a significant number consider themselves to be non-believers or atheists…  all Icelanders — even atheists — have to pay a tax that is distributed among 40 religious institutions, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church…

“But last year, thousands of Icelanders suddenly joined the ancient Zuist movement — a religion centered on worshiping Sumerian gods. Within two weeks, almost one percent of the country’s population (about 3,000 people) had signed up. Some of the new Zuist members might have been less interested in the movement’s spiritual goals than in an announcement that the Zuist church would pay its members the amount of money they were taxed (about $80 per year).”

Following Viking explorations, Iceland was quickly settled by Norwegians, descendants of “Benjamin,” one of the “lost ten tribes” of the ancient House of Israel.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ instructed His closest disciples and established some very foundational statements of Truth. Jesus Christ taught these things to them, knowing that His disciples would propagate His ministry and share the Truth with others. Among the many things that He taught that day, the following statement was included, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men” (Matthew 5:13). To refer to people as “salt” may seem like an odd thing to say. What exactly did Jesus Christ mean, and what else can we learn from this symbolic teaching?

To say that His disciples are “the salt of the earth” turns out to be deeply meaningful when we understand more about the context of what was taught in the Sermon on the Mount and even more when we consider the qualities of salt. Taken together, this statement is an observation about the character development of a true Christian. More importantly, it is an admonition to be strong in our convictions and unashamed about the Truth.

As always, it is helpful to begin learning about Scripture in the right context. Preceding the declaration that His disciples are the salt of the earth, Jesus Christ teaches the beatitudes, which describe the various qualities of Christian character. He teaches about the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake (compare Matthew 5:3-10). The individuals expressing these qualities are called “blessed” by Jesus Christ. These are all qualities that describe humility, love of mankind, and love of God that Christians are supposed to develop. These also turn out to be qualities that the world despises and rejects. Living a Christian Way of Life with these character traits orients one against the ways of the world. As a result, being a Christian inherently involves imminent and continuing conflict with the world.

Following the description of many of the virtuous qualities of a Christian, Jesus goes on to say, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). It naturally follows that if we are true Christians, the world will offer all kinds of trouble to us,  because there is enmity between the world and God (compare James 4:4). In light of this fact, Jesus Christ offers this warning, but also an encouragement. He makes it clear that it is not an easy thing to physically live in the world, but to separate one’s self from it spiritually by being obedient to God (compare Revelation 18:4, Jeremiah 51:45, John 17:16-17). This additional blessing following the beatitudes is directed personally to His disciples, reminding them to not lose heart when they eventually fall into trials of persecution as a result of their commitment to God.

Seeing that Jesus prefaces His teaching about being the salt of the earth by describing Christian qualities and encouraging His disciples to expect and endure persecution, how does this context add meaning to the statement about being the salt of the earth? From these Scriptures it is clear that being the salt of the earth involves having Christian character in such a way that the quality is pure, strong, and uncompromising. Just as salt that is left in the sun or otherwise exposed to harsh elements leeches and loses its natural qualities, a Christian may allow his or her virtuous character qualities to diminish when exposed to the contentious environment and pressures of the world. Also, just as the salt becomes worthless when it loses its natural qualities, Jesus applies the same condemnation in the context of the loss of Christian character in our lives. However, to be the salt of the earth means having character that is strong enough to stand up for the Truth and withstand its harsh, worldly environment, even though persecution may be the result.

Since the quality of salt is expressed by its saltiness, and the quality of a Christian is expressed by convictions affecting our actions, it is worth considering some of the qualities and uses of salt to add even more meaning to this Scripture.

At the time Jesus Christ spoke these words, salt was rare and very valuable. The following excerpt from an article titled “WHY Are Christians the ‘Salt of the Earth,’” published in the Good News in the February 1982 edition, explains more about this property.

“In Christ’s day salt was not as available as it is now. Salt was once so valuable that it was used to pay the wages of Roman soldiers. We get the English word salary from this ancient practice of paying with salt.

“Salt was also used as payment in buying and selling Greek slaves; today people sometimes ask whether a person is ‘worth his salt’ in evaluating him. The disciples would have understood the value and rarity of salt. So what did Christ mean when He called His disciples ‘salt’?

“Just this: God is not calling the whole world now, as Pastor General Herbert W. Armstrong has explained. ‘No man can come to me,’ Christ said, ‘except the Father which hath sent me draw him’ (John 6:44 [King James Version]).

“God is only working with a small group of people at this time. And God is only working with this ‘little flock’ (Luke 12:32) to get a specific job done — preaching the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God in all the world for a witness to all nations (Matt. 24:14).

“In other words, true Christians are rare. God’s true people, in whom the Spirit of God resides (Rom. 8:9), are far fewer in number than this world’s ‘Christianity’ recognizes. Christians are basically sprinkled across the earth like you would sprinkle salt across food — sparingly. But what a difference they make in the world!

“So one thing we can learn from Christ’s metaphor of salt is that our calling and commission are unique, important and highly valuable. It is a rare opportunity indeed to be called of God in this age.”

In addition to the rare and precious quality of salt, the most notable property is its ability to enhance the flavor of food. By sprinkling salt onto our food, the character of that food tends to come alive and offer a more vibrant flavor. If we apply this concept to Christian living with Christian character, we find that life is more interesting and full of zeal to ourselves and to those we come in contact with. Godly character enhances life just as salt enhances the flavor of food.

Therefore, when a life is lived without the strength of Christian character, it is bland. Even more, living in such a way does not serve the Will of God. If we call ourselves “Christian” but fail to develop the right character qualities, we will meet the same end as the salt that cannot enhance the flavor of food. It will be thrown out as rubbish because it doesn’t glorify God.

This concept is reinforced by the Scripture that follows the declaration of disciples being the salt of the earth. In Matthew 5:14-16 we read, “‘You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.’” The point that Jesus makes is clear, that Christians are not to hide their Christianity! Being the salt of the earth means to develop and maintain strength in conviction to live according to God’s Will. Likewise, being a light to the world is the next step in the process, which is not to hide the good qualities that we develop.

When Jesus Christ called His disciples “the salt of the earth,” this was much more than an observation limited to His present audience. It extends to all true Christians – the rare few in the world – who are committed to converting their lives to be obedient to God. This is an instruction and an encouragement to not shy away or be ashamed of being a Christian, even in the face of persecution (compare 1 Peter 4:16). Being the salt of the earth means being confident of our calling and strong in our convictions so that we live in a way that glorifies God and His Truth.

Lead Writer: Eric Rank

Our new booklet, “Punishment for Our Sins,” has reached the first review cycle. We hope to be able to present printed copies to our members and subscribers before or at the time of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

“Close the Borders to all Refugees!” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Donald Trump’s demands to close American borders to all Muslims are echoed in Germany where several politicians are saying that “Germany should completely close its borders to refugees within the next two months for an unspecified period” if it is to solve the migrant crisis. Others insist that the number of migrants must be reduced drastically, while Austria announced that no migrant will be allowed anymore to come and stay in Austria. We are told that “Germany is boiling”; that there is “an apocalyptic mood in the media”; that Chancellor “Merkel is at the heart of the criticism”; and that “everyone is against the chancellor.” What does it all mean in the light of biblical prophecy for Europe and Germany? For answers, we are offering our free booklet, “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.”

A new Global Trailer, “Sickness and Health,” presented by Pastor Brian Gale, is now posted.

“Wieso ist Christus das Ende des Gesetzes?” is the title of a new German sermon for this coming Sabbath. Title in English: “Why Is Christ the End of the Law?”

“The Seal of God,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is a summary:

God says He knows those who are His, because they have answered the call and are responding. But is this the only requirement that God requires of us? How do we think of our selves in regard to our calling? Are we active in drawing close to our Creator?

“Rumors and Conspiracies,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Many believe in wild rumors and weird conspiracy theories. And even some in God’s Church can become easy targets, if they are not careful. We are called upon to come out of the Babylonian confusion of political propaganda and war hysteria, while rejecting unprovable concepts and speculations. Would we be guilty of lying if we were to propagate something which turns out to be false? Do we understand that many popular conspiracy theories were invented by Satan and his demons?