Preaching the Gospel and Feeding the Flock

A new Member Letter reporting on our Feast sites in the United States and Germany was sent out this week—including a copy of our newest booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” 

“Fighting for the Temple Mount — WHY?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Stunning events are happening in the Middle East and in East Jerusalem, which have direct relevance to biblical prophecy. WHY are calls being heard from Palestinians, Arab nations and France to deploy an international force in East Jerusalem and at the Temple Mount? Why is the UN adopting a resolution condemning Israel for “illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship of Muslims to the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” which is situated on the Temple Mount? Why is it recommended that the Temple Mount should be closed to Jews? In this program, we show you the most recent developments and explain to you from the Bible WHY they are so important, in the light of Christ’s, Paul’s, John’s and Daniel’s end-time warnings pertaining to Jerusalem. We offer you our free booklet, “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today!”

Our Feast messages which were given in the USA and in Germany are now posted on our respective websites and on YouTube: www.eternalgod.org; http://www.aufpostenstehen.de/

“Ehe ohne Trauschein?” is the title of this week’s German sermon. The title of the German sermon in English would be: “Marriage Without License?”

Current Events

We begin with interesting developments in Israel and the mounting international pressure from Arabic and European nations to establish an “international force” in Jerusalem; report on the Syrian crisis and the continuing isolation of Angela Merkel in parts of Europe because of her (mis-)handling of the migrant crisis and her attempts to receive help from Turkey in exchange of controversial promises which will lead to Merkel’s further unpopularity, especially in Germany;  continue with interesting articles on a coming European army and about Germans in America who may or may not be ethnic Germans at all; focus on Hillary Clinton’s Email scandal which will not go away easily, in spite of President Obama’s inappropriate attempts to preempt the FBI and Joe Biden’s decision not to run for the Presidency; and conclude with the victory of Canadian liberals and highly controversial statements of Pope Francis which might lead to an outright rebellion within the Catholic hierarchy.

This Week in the News

No International Force in Israel to Promote Peace?… At Least Not Quite Yet!

The Times of Israel reported on October 16:

“Israel on Friday rejected Palestinian calls for an international force to be deployed in East Jerusalem to promote calm around the Temple Mount and the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque…

“On Friday, Palestinians torched a Jewish holy site in the West Bank as they staged a ‘Friday of revolution’ against Israel and a man posing as a news photographer stabbed an Israeli soldier before he was shot dead.”

For now, an “international force” may not be deployed in Jerusalem to “promote calm around the Temple Mount.” But the Bible says that this is exactly what will happen in the near future. And the pressure for such a force is building, as the next articles show.

On October 17, the Jerusalem Post stated:

“France [submitted] a ‘presidential statement’ in order to advance a plan to station international observers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to ensure that the status quo at the site is preserved…

“Jews revere the Temple Mount as its holiest site, the place where two biblical Jewish temples once stood. The area, is also home to the Dome of the Rock, and is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, which is the third holiest site in Islam… The Palestinian representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he wanted the council to consider deploying an international force at the al-Aqsa mosque to protect Palestinian worshipers.”

Times of Israel added on October 17:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday slammed a French proposal to deploy international observers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in response to the current round of violence, calling it a fundamentally absurd idea… Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan also criticized the proposal…

“‘The French proposal to place international observers on the Temple Mount is distorted and biased,’ said Erdan, in language that echoed the comments by Netanyahu… ‘Factually, those who turned the Temple Mount into a terror warehouse are the Palestinians. Those who are trying to harm the status quo and prevent Jewish visits are the Palestinians. Those who are inciting and lying about the events on the Temple Mount are the Palestinians,’ he said…

“Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in response to the proposal that ‘all international involvement on the Temple Mount harms Israeli sovereignty.’..”

Arab States Unite Against Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on October 17:

“Six Arab states are set to submit a proposal on behalf of the Palestinians to the UN’s cultural body to officially claim the Western Wall as part of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (the Temple Mount)… The proposal will be submitted in the coming days to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, by Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates…

“The proposal also calls for the international community to condemn Israel for urging ‘its citizens to bear arms in light of [the] recent terror wave’…  The document… refers to Jerusalem as ‘the occupied capital of Palestine.’

“In addition, the Palestinians seek condemnation of ongoing Israeli archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount and the Old City in Jerusalem, as well as for the ‘aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque…’

“Israel is trying to convince as many countries as possible to oppose the proposal, or abstain. However… the proposal will likely be approved as there is a Muslim and Arab majority on UNESCO’s executive council…”

On October 21, 2015, JTA added the following:

“UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, condemned Israel for what it said are attempts to alter the status quo at the Temple Mount. While the resolution approved Wednesday morning in Paris by the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization dropped plans to label the Temple Mount a Muslim site, the organization recognized Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites that are part of a Palestinian state. Both sites are holy to Jews and listed in the Bible as the burial places of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.

“The vote was 26-6 in favor of the resolution, with 25 abstentions.

“Before the vote, the six Arab countries that submitted the proposal on behalf of the Palestinians — Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates — removed from the proposal a statement declaring the Western Wall in Jerusalem part of the al Aqsa Mosque complex and naming it part of the Muslim religious site. It also removed references to Jerusalem as ‘the occupied capital of Palestine’ in order to garner support for the proposal.

“The final text of the resolution included condemnation of the ‘aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.’

“Israeli officials and American Jewish groups protested the resolution as a farce and outright lie…”

In the future, Europe under German leadership will be collaborating with Arab states against Israel. We can already see the beginning of that development.

Closing Temple Mount for Jews?

The website of usnews.com published the following article on October 15, which was written by a columnist for Al Monitor, titled, “Why It’s Time for Israel to Close Temple Mount to Jews.”

The article stated:

“These days, Jerusalem has truly been divided, but not by the left. In case anyone has forgotten, a truly right-wing government is in control in Israel. For the first time, the government does not contain a moderating or centrist element as in the past… Ironically, it is a rightist government that is being forced to acknowledge that Jerusalem is, de facto, divided — into the western and the eastern, the Jewish versus the Palestinian.

“After Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, the two parts of the city were united. With the second intifada (2000 to 2005), Israel began to build a fence to separate peripheral Palestinian neighborhoods from Jerusalem. It has now come to pass that for quite some time, Israel has not exercised sovereignty in the eastern part of the city… East Jerusalem has become a no-man’s land and a fertile hotbed for despair, alienation, isolation and religious extremism. If one adds to the pot the incitement by such actors as the northern branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement, headed by the radical Sheikh Raed Salah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the roiling social networks, the result is what we are now witnessing. The request for IDF assistance by the Israeli police in the heart of Israel’s capital can be compared to summoning the US Marines to patrol the streets of Washington. The symbols of Israeli sovereignty are in danger.

“We live in an era of surprises. Israel longs for the good old days when a high-quality agent in the vicinity of an Arab ruler and a sophisticated wiretapping system could be relied on as an intelligence ‘insurance policy’ for assessing the odds of a war erupting. This allowed Israeli leaders to sleep well at night. That era is gone, however, and the current intifada — which Palestinians are calling the ‘al-Quds [Jerusalem] intifada’ and some the knife intifada — took Israel’s political echelons by complete surprise…

“This rebellion differs from its predecessors. This one is the first time that there has been no leader on the playing field, no landlord. There is no one entity initiating, conducting or integrating events. There are no assigned targets. There is no one to capture, neutralize or eliminate. This is an unhinged intifada, an odd rebellion that bubbles through the social networks and erupts into barbarism in attacks by isolated individuals or small groups. Young Palestinians (in one case a 13-year-old) attack Israelis with knives, axes and vegetable peelers; they run them over with vehicles; they strike them with axes in spasms of bloody, unexplained and murderous irrationality. Some of the attacks stem from incitement surrounding the Temple Mount (or Haram al-Sharif to Muslims) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The explosiveness of the Temple Mount issue and whether the next intifada will result from it have been covered by Al-Monitor. There is also more: After the meeting between Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Aug. 18 in Ramallah, an Al-Monitor article cited a warning issued in the form of a concern by the Palestinian leader to the Israeli opposition head: Abbas feared a third intifada and losing control over PA territory. Herzog delivered this message not only to Al-Monitor, but also to Netanyahu, who did not respond. Now he’s probably sorry.

“It is important to emphasize that Israel has no intention of taking control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or changing the status quo involving the Temple Mount. The Palestinians, however, are more attentive to conspiracy theories based on statements by the messianic Israeli right… Palestinians are convinced that Israel plans on usurping Al-Aqsa. Until the Israeli government takes crystal clear action, such as closing the Temple Mount to Jews for a cooling-off period, there is no chance that the Palestinians’ state of mind will change. If it doesn’t change, this peculiar intifada will continue.”

Netanyahu Stirs Controversy

The Local wrote on October 21:

“Germany on Wednesday stressed its inherent responsibility in the Holocaust, after Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu stirred controversy over his claim a Palestinian leader gave Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews. Asked to comment on Netanyahu’s allegation, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said he would not speak directly on the claim. But he added: ‘I can speak for the federal government, that we Germans recognise that the murderous racial fanaticism of the Nazis was the historical origin of … the Shoah. I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know of the inherent German responsibility in these crimes against humanity,’ he added…

“In a speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu suggested that Hitler was not planning to exterminate the Jews until he met Palestinian nationalist Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in 1941. ‘Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time. He wanted to expel the Jews,’ Netanyahu told the World Zionist Congress. ‘And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said: “If you expel them, they’ll all come here.” “So what should I do with them?” he asked. He said: “Burn them.”’

“Netanyahu on Wednesday backtracked on the claim, denying that he was exonerating Hitler of the responsibility for the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were slaughtered.”

The Associated Press added on October 21 that “Historians quickly noted that the Nazi Final Solution was already well underway at this point, with several concentration camps up and running. Hitler had previously repeatedly declared his lethal intentions for the Jews.”

The Russian-Syrian Pact

The Associated Press reported on October 21:

“President Bashar Assad has traveled to Moscow in his first known trip abroad since war broke out in Syria in 2011, meeting his strongest ally, Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The two leaders stressed that military operations in Syria— in which Moscow is the latest and most powerful addition— must lead to a political process. The surprise visit Tuesday reflects renewed confidence from the embattled Syrian president after Russia and Iran, another staunch ally, dramatically escalated their support recently as Moscow began carrying out airstrikes on Syrian insurgents and Tehran sent hundreds of ground forces…

“A week after Russia launched its airstrikes, Syrian ground troops, aided by allied fighters from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, pushed their way into central and northern Syria in an attempt to drive out rebel and militant groups in control of territories there. So far, Syrian forces have seized a few villages but there has been no strategic victory. Many of the attacks have hit western-backed rebels and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, but not the Islamic State group, with its stronghold in eastern Syria.

“The Russian airstrikes have allowed Syrian troops and their allies to launch multiple ground offensives in northern, central and southern Syria as well as in the rebel-held suburbs of the capital, Damascus…”

Bild Online reported that because of the Russian-Syrian Pact, an additional 350,000 Syrians will flee to Turkey by this weekend.

Jimmy Carter Helps Russia

Newsmax reported on October 21:

“Claiming that he knows Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘fairly well’ because they once discussed their ‘common interest in fly fishing,’ former President Jimmy Carter took the initiative to provide maps of Islamic State positions in Syria to the Russian embassy in Washington — a move at odds with the Obama administration… ‘I sent [Putin] a message Thursday and asked him if he wanted a copy of our map so he could bomb accurately in Syria, and then on Friday, the Russian embassy… in Washington, called down and told me they would like very much to have the map,’ Carter said at his Sunday school class in Georgia, according to a video of his remarks first aired on NBC News…

“The Carter Center claims that they sent maps of the Islamic States location to Russia in an attempt to help improve their airstrike accuracy.

“… this is not the first time Carter has shown [h]is support for Russia. Last year, he said that the United States should not impose more sanctions on Russia and that ‘Putin is not going to use military force’ in eastern Ukraine…

“The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the U.S. signed an agreement with Russia to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace where American planes are also bombing Islamic State positions. However, the memorandum with Russia ‘does not establish zones of cooperation, intelligence sharing, or any sharing of target information in Syria’ and does ‘not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria,’ Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said…”

Incredible!!!!

Germany Partially Responsible for Migrant Crisis?

Deutsche Welle reported on October 21:

“New figures show that German weapons exports increased yet again this year, especially sales of small arms to countries outside NATO. Critics say you need look no further for the root of displaced people in Europe.

“Despite its promises to rein in the country’s weapon’s exports, the German government is still struggling to  kick its addiction to war profits. The latest arms export report, released on Wednesday, showed that the value of Germany’s arms sales leapt to 3.5 billion euros ($4 billion) in the first six months of 2015 – compared to 2.2 billion euros in the first half of 2014. Germany remains the world’s fourth-biggest arms exporter, behind the United States, Russia and China.

“… countries in the Middle East, South America, Africa and East Asia that are either involved in conflicts or have problematic human rights records have been splurging on German rifles, handguns and other handheld weapons. In the first half of this year, Germany sold guns or ammunition to Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Chile, India, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (among others). That’s apart from the military vehicles, ships, and other larger military equipment sold to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia, China and Israel – all of which are involved in conflicts or have widely reported human rights abuses…

‘Syria has traditionally been one of the biggest buyers of weapons… Germany delivered nearly 13 million euros in weapons to Syria between 2002 and 2013 – mainly tanks, chemical agents and small arms. In 2014, Germany also delivered 8,000 Heckler & Koch G36 and G3 assault rifles to Peshmerga fighters in Syria. ‘And now we’re surprised that these weapons get used,” Grässlin said [Jürgen Grässlin is an author and prominent German anti-weapons activist]. ‘And the people flee the use of these weapons and the dictators, and they end up, absurdly enough, in the country where the weapons were made that were used to repress their people. That’s why I say: If you sow war weapons, you reap war refugees.’”

Merkel Isolated in Central and Eastern Europe

The New York Times wrote on October 16:

“In Europe, and beyond, Ms. Merkel so far lacks strong allies to achieve her goal of merely slowing the refugee flow. Indeed, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary highlighted Ms. Merkel’s isolation from Central and Eastern European leaders on Friday by closing his country’s border with Croatia…

“Two city-states, Hamburg and Bremen, have already passed laws giving them the right to commandeer empty properties to try to give refugees roofs over their heads — and not tents — as winter approaches…

“In national politics, the fiercest opposition to Ms. Merkel’s decision on Sept. 4 — with Austria — to throw open the borders to tens of thousands of refugees then trapped in Hungary comes from her own conservative camp. Bavaria’s Horst Seehofer, head of the sister party to Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, again this week criticized her government…

“Scores more of mostly local conservative politicians have signed an open letter to Ms. Merkel, which pleads with her ‘to take speedy measures which would reduce the current influx of refugees swiftly and effectively.’ A banner held high as the chancellor addressed a party meeting near Leipzig this week demanded, ‘Dethrone Merkel.’…”

Czech Republic vs. Muslim Migrants

Breitbart wrote on October 18:

The President of the Czech Republic has warned that Muslim migrants will ‘respect Sharia instead of Czech laws,’ possibly stoning women, and saying that they could increase the practice of veiling, ‘depriving’ the nation of female beauty. Outspoken left-wing Czech President Milos Zeman, 72, was asked if he thought new migrants from the Middle East would respect Czech laws of Friday: ‘Of course not,’ he replied. ‘Unfaithful women will be stoned and thieves will have their hands cut off, and we’ll be deprived of women’s beauty, because they’ll be covered from head to toe…’

“President Zeman is the leader of the left wing Czech Social Democratic Party and is well known for his controversial remarks… The Czech Republic is part of the Eastern, so-called Visegrad group of countries – along with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – who strongly resisted the introduction of the EU’s forced migration quotas in September.”

Slovenia Refuses to Take In More than 2,500 Migrants a Day

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 18:

“The Slovenian government has said it will only take in a maximum of 2,500 migrants a day, following Hungary’s decision to close its border with Croatia on Saturday.

“On Sunday, Slovenia refused to allow in a train carrying 1,800 migrants from Croatia, after more than 3,000 people surged into the tiny EU member state the day before. Tension is building among thousands of migrants as they remain stranded in fog and cold weather in their quest to reach a better life in Western Europe… Slovenia now fears that if Croatia continues taking more migrants than it is able to send forward, there could be a ‘spillover’ of migrants.”

Anti-Immigration Swiss Party Wins

Reuters reported on October 18:

“The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election… keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union.

“Success for the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), coupled with gains made by the pro-business Liberal Party (FDP), led political commentators to talk of a ‘Rechtsrutsch’ – a ‘slide to the right’ – in Swiss politics. Immigration was the central topic for voters amid a rush of asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.”

There will be many more anti-immigration movements in Europe, and the established parties might be facing the same kind of reaction which is happening in the USA.

Servitude in Germany?

Express wrote on October 17:

“… parents in the city of Lubeck were left furious after a school told their children to cook and clean for refugees at an asylum centre. A mother wrote on Facebook: ‘I am definitely not a hater and am really tolerant, but this is taking things too far. Is there a new subject in Lubeck’s schools called servitude?”

These kind of “good works” were also promoted in the Worldwide Church of God after Herbert W. Armstrong’s death and contributed greatly to its downfall and demise, as the true focus of the church’s commission was neglected, which is to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God in all the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14).

Massive Demonstrations in Germany

Reuters reported on October 19:

 “The German anti-Islam movement PEGIDA staged its biggest rally in months on Monday, sparked into fresh life on its first anniversary by anger at the government’s decision to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East.

“PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, almost fizzled out earlier this year when its leader resigned after a photo was published of him posing as Hitler. But it has swelled again as Germany implements Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to accept a tide of refugees that could exceed a million this year, as she argues that Germany can not only cope but, with its aging population, will benefit in the long term.

“Police declined to estimate the number of protesters but media put it at 15-20,000, somewhat below a peak of around 25,000 in January. Around 14,000 counter-demonstrators urged people to welcome refugees rather than whip up opposition…

“PEGIDA has more than 172,000 ‘Likes’ on its Facebook page and wants Germany to stop taking asylum seekers immediately.

“Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Sunday that PEGIDA’s organizers were ‘hard right-wing extremists’ and everyone who attended their demonstrations ‘should know that they are running after rat catchers’.

“Thomas Jaeger, political scientist at Cologne University, said PEGIDA and the right-wing Alternative for Germany party were being allowed by the government to define how the refugee crisis was perceived by many people. ‘What seems to be worrying a lot of people now is that people from different cultures are coming here, and they don’t know how they will integrate, and that’s quite a diffuse fear, and that’s now being exploited by some political forces.’”

The reaction of the German political establishment and the main-stream media and tabloids against PEGIDA is counter-productive, as many of the PEGIDA supporters are clearly not “hard right-wing extremists.” Such accusation is laughable and will back-fire.

Turkey’s Gaining Importance for a Divided Europe

The Local wrote on October 16:

“The EU and Turkey reached a deal to stem the flow of asylum seekers in exchange for concessions to Ankara… on aid and EU membership talks. Under the plan, Turkey agrees to tackle people-smugglers and take measures to keep more of the millions of refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict from crossing by sea to Europe… [Turkey’s]  demands included €3 billion in new aid – three times the amount the EU has up until now offered – easing visa restrictions, opening new chapters in Turkey’s long-stalled accession negotiations for EU membership, being included on the list of ‘safe countries’ for asylum and to have more Turkey-EU summits…

“Turkey is the main departure point for the more than 600,000 migrants who have entered Europe this year, most of them making the short but dangerous sea crossing to the Greek islands, but some also coming by land…

“The 28-nation European Union has been left more divided than ever by the migration crisis, especially given fears the Schengen zone could collapse as countries try to curb the huge numbers of migrants criss-crossing the continent…”

The Bible shows that in the end, Turkey will be an ally with Europe against ISRAEL!

Merkel Suddenly Supports EU Membership of Turkey… as Europe Needs Turkey

Deutsche Welle reported on October 18:

Chancellor Merkel has said Germany will support Turkey’s EU membership bid, during a visit aimed at securing Ankara’s help in stemming a migrant influx to Europe. Turkish PM Davutoglu hailed Europe’s ‘better approach.’…

“The German chancellor later met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said he asked Merkel to support Turkey’s EU membership bid. Erdogan added that he also asked France, Britain and Spain for support…”

The New York Times wrote on October 18:

“Desperately seeking help to contain Europe’s migrant crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Sunday explicitly linked accelerating Turkey’s effort to join the European Union to Turkish cooperation in clamping down on the flow of refugees from Turkey to Europe. Ms. Merkel, who has long opposed Turkey’s admission to the bloc, said she would support speeding up the process, a concession that underscored the importance European leaders place on Turkey’s cooperation in trying to contain what has become the largest flow of migrants since World War II, as people flee violence and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa…

“Mr. Davutoglu continued to press for a ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria, a longstanding priority for Turkey that has been met largely by silence from the international community, because it would require a substantial military operation…

“From the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has had an open-door policy for refugees and has spent billions of dollars caring for them… Turkey has made visa-free travel to Europe for its citizens a top priority, and Ms. Merkel said she had agreed to push that issue forward. Turkey is the only country that has been formally accepted for possible membership in the union whose citizens must have visas to travel to Europe…

“Turkey has long sought to join the European Union — formal talks began in 2005 — but the process has stalled in recent years, partly because of European concerns about Turkey’s human rights record and a government crackdown on the news media and freedom of expression. Now, though, the balance of power has shifted in Turkey’s favor. Europe needs Turkey… So the concerns about rights are largely unspoken by European leaders at the moment. For example, a European Union report on Turkey, part of the accession process, that was expected to be deeply critical of Ankara’s record on free speech, has been delayed…”

Merkel Deal With Turkey Angers Left and Right

The Local wrote on October 19:

“Merkel announced in Istanbul on Sunday that Europe would offer financial support to help deal with the roughly 2.5 million refugees in the country… Left-wing opponents of the deal said that Merkel was irresponsibly helping religious conservative Erdogan improve his image at home with just two weeks to go before elections to the parliament in Ankara…

“And voices to Merkel’s right worried that the Chancellor was offering too much to Turkey. ‘We can’t make too many concessions to Turkey,’ Gerda Hasselfeldt, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) group in the Bundestag (German parliament), told Die Welt on Sunday. ‘EU accession is not on the agenda. There are serious shortcomings in fundamental human rights, especially freedom of opinion and of the press.'”

Merkel’s sudden support of Turkey’s EU membership in consideration of Turkey’s help in the migrant crisis will only lead to a further deterioration of Merkel’s popularity in Germany. In addition, it is highly doubtful that Turkey will become a member of the EU.

European Army Sooner than Later?

Express wrote on October 17:

“European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker provoked outrage earlier this year with proposals for a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). European People’s Party (EPP) president Joseph Daul has now admitted the European Parliament will try to push through plans that would go far beyond what even Mr Juncker had intended. Under the latest proposals, a common European-wide army would become a force capable of taking on missions of ‘higher intensity’ and even replace national guards at EU borders.

“Bureaucrats in Brussels are trying to capitalise on concerns over ‘Russian aggression’ and the migrant crisis to push through the long-held ambitions for a European army. Whereas Mr Junker’s original vision was for a force capable of dealing with ‘post-conflict peace-keeping’, the European Parliament is now preparing to discuss an aggressive common military force. Mr Daul admitted: ‘We are going to move towards an EU army much faster than people believe…

“The paper released calls for a ‘European operational headquarters’ to replace the system of national governments directing their own forces. The draft plan also demands that power over border control, including European coastguard responsibilities, should be handed to the new army…

“Attempts to form a common defence force have been part of the European project since it began. In 1950, French Prime Minister René Pleven proposed ambitious plans for defence integration, including the setting up of [a] European Army and the appointment of a European minister of defence…

“In March this year, Britain rejected yet more calls from Juncker for an EU army… But, just last month the German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened that if Prime Minister David Cameron failed to support an EU army he would not get any ‘meaningful negotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU’…”

Germans in America.. an Interesting History

The Local wrote on October 9:

“Around 50 million German Americans live in the US today, according to a 2010 census. The largest self-reported ancestry group in the States, their numbers beat Irish, African, English, Mexican and Italian Americans – and made up around 17% of the American population in 2009…

“The first Germans arrived in the US as early as 1608 – but it was the 1683 movement that truly marked the beginning of America’s German settlement. This was the year in which a group of religious dissidents (Mennonites) approached Francis Daniel Pastorius in Frankfurt am Main… Pastorius [moved to America and] negotiated the purchase of 5,700 acres of land from William Penn – the Englishman who had founded Pennsylvania a few years earlier. On this land, Germantown was born…

“In 1683, Germany didn’t exist as a country. It wouldn’t do so until 1871. Instead, separate German-speaking states mostly ruled themselves as parts of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire. But religious tensions in the German states had exploded since Martin Luther published his ninety-five theses in Wittenberg in 1517, calling people to follow the Bible rather than the Pope. The Thirty Years’ War, which broke out in 1618, was one of the most destructive in European History – and it was against this backdrop that many Germans decided to emigrate…

“In 1688, [Pastorius] and three others signed The Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, thought to be the first anti-slavery petition presented by white colonies in America. ‘German-American Day’ was celebrated in Philadelphia for the first time in 1883…  But when the First World War broke out, celebrations stopped. During this period, anti-German hysteria reached fever pitch. German-Americans were brutally assaulted, while anything remotely ‘German’ – be it books, music, even street names – was removed or destroyed.

“When the War ended, over 400,000 Germans emigrated to the United States, many of them Jews fleeing the rising Nazi party. But in a bid to hide their ethnicities, many altered their names to sound more American. German immigrants were keen to blend in as soon as possible, avoiding the anti-German sentiment that still lingered across the US.

“Hostilities rose again during the Second World War, as German-Americans found their freedom and rights restricted. Treated as possible enemies, some were forced to carry around identification cards, while others were placed in internment camps. While these hostilities ended soon after the war, it took German-Americans a long time to reclaim their ethnic heritage – a process that continues to this day.

“In 1983 – 300 years since the Krefeld immigrants docked in Philadelphia – President Ronald Reagan proclaimed that October 6th would become German-American Day once again. ‘More Americans trace their heritage back to German ancestry than to any other nationality,’ he noted in his proclamation. In 1987, October 6th was reinstated as a US holiday.

“From Kindergarten and Christmas trees to hamburgers and hotdogs, German-Americans are credited with some of the most recognizable features of US culture to have emerged in the past 300 years. Less than 5% now speak German themselves. But along with annual Oktoberfest celebrations and the German-American Steuben Parade, October 6th is one of many ways German-Americans celebrate and remember their cultural heritage today.”

We need to stress that many “Germans” living in America are actually descendants from the ancient Israelite tribe of Manasseh. Ancient Assyrians (modern Germans) captured and enslaved ancient Israelites from the house of Israel (not Judah), and subsequently both Assyrians and Israelites moved towards central Europe. While Assyrians and Israelites settled there (modern descendants of ancient Israelites can be found today in countries such as France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the Northern part of Germany), others migrated together to Great Britain, where the tribe of Ephraim settled, while the tribe of Manasseh migrated from there to America. And so, many who think they are ethnic Germans are actually ethnic Israelites from the tribe of Ephraim, who had settled in the United Kingdom, while others, who had settled in the USA, are actually descendants from the tribe of Manasseh.

Clinton’s Email Scandal No Laughing Matter…

Daily Mail wrote on October 16:

“Hillary Clinton could be prosecuted in federal court for failing to tell President Barack Obama about her private email server at the time she was running it, according to a veteran FBI agent. Obama said flatly during a ’60 Minutes’ interview on Sunday that ‘No,’ he did not know Clinton sidestepped security protocols with her a home-brew email setup while she was his secretary of state.

“The FBI agent who spoke with DailyMail.com has had a 20-year career in federal law enforcement and serves in a supervisory capacity in a domestic FBI field office. He said on Friday that failing to put Obama in the loop could be enough to send her to prison for ten years.

“The federal Espionage Act includes a provision that criminalizes ‘gross negligence’ by officials charged with safeguarding national defense information… ‘If investigators conclude that the former secretary [Clinton] was criminally careless in how she approached the security of the sensitive documents in her possession, then this part of the law could be used to prosecute her,’ the agent said, on condition of anonymity…

“The FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server is focusing on whether she violated the Espionage Act – especially the ‘gross negligence’ portions of the statute – according to a report Thursday from the Fox News Channel… It calls for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of ‘gross negligence’ that permits such information to be ‘removed from its proper place.’ Using an unsecured computer network to host sensitive information could qualify, according to the FBI agent… ‘The only way setting up your own email server for messages about sensitive information isn’t negligent is if it’s deliberate – which is far worse,’ he said.

“Clinton has staked her public defense on a repeated claim that she never knowingly sent or received information through her ‘clintonemail’ domain that was ‘marked classified’ at the time. But the Espionage Act’s text indicates that her intentions may not matter: A lack of judgment in handling sensitive documents could be enough to trigger the statute.

“As intelligence sources spoke to Fox News on Thursday, others at the FBI spilled to The New York Times that they’re furious with President Barack Obama for pre-empting their probe with a declaration that the former secretary of state never put America’s national security at risk… White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest walked that conclusion back on Tuesday, saying that ‘the president was making an observation about what we know so far…’ Obama, he said, was not attempting ‘to undermine the importance or independence of the ongoing FBI investigation.’

“Ron Hosko, a retired senior F.B.I. official who now leads the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said it was wrong of Obama to ‘suggest what side of the investigation he is on’ while an investigation is still underway. ‘Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I.’s mouth,’ Hosko told the Times, ‘and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president’s signal and not bring a case.’

“Obama previously found himself in hot water with federal investigators following a Super Bowl Sunday interview in February 2014 when he downplayed a then-swirling scandal over the IRS targeting right-wing groups politically. Asked while federal investigators were poring through documents whether mass corruption inside America’s tax-collection agency was a factor, he responded: ‘Not even mass corruption – not even a smidgen of corruption.’ Those remarks were widely seen as prejudicing an ongoing investigation, or sending a televised hint to the FBI that the Oval Office didn’t want to see any aggressive prosecutions.”

Breitbart added on October 16:

“If we weren’t so numb to lawlessness and politicized bureaucracy from seven years of Obama scandals, this would be a national outrage. The President just tried to influence the outcome of a criminal investigation, on behalf of a powerful Democrat politician… Obama has so numbed the American people to corruption and the lawless exercise of power that it’s not surprising to watch him influence an active FBI investigation…

“If the FBI decides to float some charges against Clinton, they had better have battleship armor, or else the same DOJ that swept Operation Fast and Furious under the rug is going to sink them…”

Breitbart also wrote on October 16:

“Mike Huckabee said that the Obama administration has lost the ability to impartially conduct an investigation. ‘Trusting Hillary Clinton to just “come clean” is like trusting a compulsive gambler in a Vegas casino,’ Huckabee told Breitbart News Friday. ‘The American people are sick of games, endless excuses, and political platitudes—and it’s time we appoint a special prosecutor to investigate this serious national security email scandal.’…

“A special prosecutor was appointed during the Clinton administration to work the Whitewater scandal case… An independent special prosecutor can be appointed by the Attorney General. Assuming that Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch will not take this step, Congress can compel her to do so with a majority vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

It is amazing how politics preempt or even violate justice. It is highly doubtful that the Justice Department will bring a case against Clinton, especially in light of President Obama’s highly improper interference… even if the FBI were to find wrongdoing. Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the Benghazi Committee on October 22 was a complete and total waste of time for all participants and the American people. That is why Americans are fed up with politics—and they should be. Bernie Sanders’ staged comments during the Democratic Debate that Americans are tired hearing about Hillary Clinton’s Email scandal would only be accurate for those Democrats who are willing to overlook wrongdoing of their candidate for the sake of their party’s success… a rather dubious position to take.

 It was also reported on Wednesday, October 21, that Joe Biden declared that he will not run for the Presidency, eliminating Hillary Clinton’s biggest potential contender in the Democratic Party, as it is very unlikely that Bernie Sanders will secure the nomination. The Washington Post wrote on October 21 that “the real numbers, including those in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, support the idea that Trump will continue to lead and that he could win the nomination.” It appears that we will face a showdown between Republican contender Donald Trump and Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.

Joe Biden Is Out

Breitbart reported this as well on October 21:

“Once again, by using his Twitter account, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was able to beat his challengers in immediately shaping a news cycle, this one surrounding Vice President Joe Biden’s Wednesday afternoon decision not to run for president. Trump was also able to get his message out unfiltered by the DC media — that message being how eager he is to run against Hillary Clinton’s ‘terrible record’… Within minutes both left-wing cable news outlets — CNN and MSNBC — ran with Trump’s tweet. It is all they had and all he wanted them to have. It is a whole new media world and Trump keeps proving how well he’s mastered it.”

Regarding the real reasons for Biden’s decision to bail out, Newsmax offered the following explanation on October 21:

“If you listened to the media chatter about why Joe Biden decided to take himself out of the running for president, you’d conclude that it was all about grieving and timing… All of that is true enough as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough, because none of the media’s coverage told the story behind the story—the intrigue and deliberate deception at the highest levels of the political system that ultimately determined Biden’s decision to take a pass on the presidency.

“According to sources close to Biden, the vice president and President Obama, who had been urging Biden to run, held numerous discussions about Biden’s chances of taking on Hillary in the Democrat primaries and knocking her out of the presidential race. In those talks, Biden expressed doubt that he would be able to overcome Hillary’s advantage in timing, money, organization, and ground game.

“The only way he could see himself getting into the race, Biden reportedly told the president, was if the White House assured him that it would support the FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s improper handling of classified documents on her private e-mail system and encourage Attorney General Loretta Lynch to bring down an indictment against Hillary. An indictment—even a misdemeanor—would almost certainly doom Hillary’s chances of getting the nomination…

“Obama stopped short of giving Biden the assurances that he was seeking. And without the president’s promise, Biden decided he had no choice but to bow out..”

Liberals Win in Canada

The New York Times wrote on October 19:

The nine-year reign of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party came to a sudden and stunning end on Monday night at the hands of Justin Trudeau, the young leader of the Liberal Party. Starting with a sweep of the Atlantic provinces, the Liberals capitalized on what many Canadians saw as Mr. Harper’s heavy-handed style, and the party went on to capture 184 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons. The unexpected rout occurred 47 years after Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, first swept to power…

“Although Mr. Trudeau has been prone to occasional verbal slips since assuming his leadership role, including the use of a vulgar metaphor in response to Mr. Harper’s decision to commit Royal Canadian Air Force fighters to the multinational campaign against the Islamic State, he has grown in stature over the course of the election.”

Pope Francis Can’t Be Serious… Or Is He?

The Associated Press reported on October 17:

“Pope Francis has called for a Catholic Church that is far more decentralized, where the laity play a greater role, bishops conferences take care of certain problems and even the papacy is rethought.

“Francis issued the call during a ceremony Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, a consultative body formed during the Second Vatican Council that was intended precisely to encourage more collegiality in the running of the church by inviting bishops to offer their advice to Rome.”

If Francis is really serious about his comments, then the battle in the Vatican and with conservative bishops will dramatically intensify. The idea to rethink the very existence of the papacy –one of THE core doctrines of the Catholic Church–will never be accepted within the hierarchy of that church, and Francis will be facing an uphill battle and an outright rebellion within the church, if he continues to pursue this course of action.

Update 708

The Greatest; Marriage Without License?

On October 24, 2015, Kalon Mitchell will present the sermonette, titled, “The Greatest,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “Marriage Without License?”

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.

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A Season to be Cautious

by Robb Harris

As we enter another season of mankind’s holidays, it is critical that we steel ourselves against the un-Godly attitudes that surround these festivities.  It’s obvious to us that Christians should forgo decorating our houses in the macabre for Halloween or the gaudiness that surrounds Christmas.  We must also be careful to keep the subtle yet insidious influences at bay as well. No matter how beautiful the trappings of the season are or the good intentions of those who celebrate them—these holidays are detested by God.

It was revealed to John where the influences of these holidays originate.  “And he (an angel) cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’” (Revelation 18:2).  These holidays are inspired by and originate from Satan.

While this understanding is clear to those who have an ear to hear, the world is completely overwhelmed by Satan’s influence.  According to several retail websites, it is estimated that 157 million Americans will be celebrating Halloween this year, spending nearly 6.9 billion dollars.  “After a long summer, consumers are eager to embrace fall and all of the celebrations that come with it,” said National Retail Federation president and CEO Matthew Shay.  Our world is increasingly embracing these practices, when clear warning is given by God to remove ourselves from them.  John continues in Revelation 18:3, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”

Our retail economy has gradually become bound to the monetary gains of these holidays.  The world has vested so much that it is increasingly becoming more difficult, if not impossible, to turn away.  Satan’s bondage is growing stronger and mankind is reveling in it!  But this great deception will be shortlived.  God’s Judgment is at hand for a world that seeks their own will in lieu of God’s Will. John’s vision continues, “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).

Everything about these holidays is contrary to God.  In order for us to come out of this deceitful season and not partake of it in any way, we must be spiritually focused on God’s Will.  It’s not by luck or our own strength that we overcome Satan, but by drawing close to God so that He in turn will draw close to us.

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We begin with interesting developments in Israel and the mounting international pressure from Arabic and European nations to establish an “international force” in Jerusalem; report on the Syrian crisis and the continuing isolation of Angela Merkel in parts of Europe because of her (mis-)handling of the migrant crisis and her attempts to receive help from Turkey in exchange of controversial promises which will lead to Merkel’s further unpopularity, especially in Germany;  continue with interesting articles on a coming European army and about Germans in America who may or may not be ethnic Germans at all; focus on Hillary Clinton’s Email scandal which will not go away easily, in spite of President Obama’s inappropriate attempts to preempt the FBI and Joe Biden’s decision not to run for the Presidency; and conclude with the victory of Canadian liberals and highly controversial statements of Pope Francis which might lead to an outright rebellion within the Catholic hierarchy.

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No International Force in Israel to Promote Peace?… At Least Not Quite Yet!

The Times of Israel reported on October 16:

“Israel on Friday rejected Palestinian calls for an international force to be deployed in East Jerusalem to promote calm around the Temple Mount and the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque…

“On Friday, Palestinians torched a Jewish holy site in the West Bank as they staged a ‘Friday of revolution’ against Israel and a man posing as a news photographer stabbed an Israeli soldier before he was shot dead.”

For now, an “international force” may not be deployed in Jerusalem to “promote calm around the Temple Mount.” But the Bible says that this is exactly what will happen in the near future. And the pressure for such a force is building, as the next articles show.

On October 17, the Jerusalem Post stated:

“France [submitted] a ‘presidential statement’ in order to advance a plan to station international observers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to ensure that the status quo at the site is preserved…

“Jews revere the Temple Mount as its holiest site, the place where two biblical Jewish temples once stood. The area, is also home to the Dome of the Rock, and is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, which is the third holiest site in Islam… The Palestinian representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he wanted the council to consider deploying an international force at the al-Aqsa mosque to protect Palestinian worshipers.”

Times of Israel added on October 17:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday slammed a French proposal to deploy international observers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in response to the current round of violence, calling it a fundamentally absurd idea… Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan also criticized the proposal…

“‘The French proposal to place international observers on the Temple Mount is distorted and biased,’ said Erdan, in language that echoed the comments by Netanyahu… ‘Factually, those who turned the Temple Mount into a terror warehouse are the Palestinians. Those who are trying to harm the status quo and prevent Jewish visits are the Palestinians. Those who are inciting and lying about the events on the Temple Mount are the Palestinians,’ he said…

“Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said in response to the proposal that ‘all international involvement on the Temple Mount harms Israeli sovereignty.’..”

Arab States Unite Against Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on October 17:

“Six Arab states are set to submit a proposal on behalf of the Palestinians to the UN’s cultural body to officially claim the Western Wall as part of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (the Temple Mount)… The proposal will be submitted in the coming days to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, by Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates…

“The proposal also calls for the international community to condemn Israel for urging ‘its citizens to bear arms in light of [the] recent terror wave’…  The document… refers to Jerusalem as ‘the occupied capital of Palestine.’

“In addition, the Palestinians seek condemnation of ongoing Israeli archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount and the Old City in Jerusalem, as well as for the ‘aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque…’

“Israel is trying to convince as many countries as possible to oppose the proposal, or abstain. However… the proposal will likely be approved as there is a Muslim and Arab majority on UNESCO’s executive council…”

On October 21, 2015, JTA added the following:

“UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, condemned Israel for what it said are attempts to alter the status quo at the Temple Mount. While the resolution approved Wednesday morning in Paris by the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization dropped plans to label the Temple Mount a Muslim site, the organization recognized Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites that are part of a Palestinian state. Both sites are holy to Jews and listed in the Bible as the burial places of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.

“The vote was 26-6 in favor of the resolution, with 25 abstentions.

“Before the vote, the six Arab countries that submitted the proposal on behalf of the Palestinians — Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates — removed from the proposal a statement declaring the Western Wall in Jerusalem part of the al Aqsa Mosque complex and naming it part of the Muslim religious site. It also removed references to Jerusalem as ‘the occupied capital of Palestine’ in order to garner support for the proposal.

“The final text of the resolution included condemnation of the ‘aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.’

“Israeli officials and American Jewish groups protested the resolution as a farce and outright lie…”

In the future, Europe under German leadership will be collaborating with Arab states against Israel. We can already see the beginning of that development.

Closing Temple Mount for Jews?

The website of usnews.com published the following article on October 15, which was written by a columnist for Al Monitor, titled, “Why It’s Time for Israel to Close Temple Mount to Jews.”

The article stated:

“These days, Jerusalem has truly been divided, but not by the left. In case anyone has forgotten, a truly right-wing government is in control in Israel. For the first time, the government does not contain a moderating or centrist element as in the past… Ironically, it is a rightist government that is being forced to acknowledge that Jerusalem is, de facto, divided — into the western and the eastern, the Jewish versus the Palestinian.

“After Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, the two parts of the city were united. With the second intifada (2000 to 2005), Israel began to build a fence to separate peripheral Palestinian neighborhoods from Jerusalem. It has now come to pass that for quite some time, Israel has not exercised sovereignty in the eastern part of the city… East Jerusalem has become a no-man’s land and a fertile hotbed for despair, alienation, isolation and religious extremism. If one adds to the pot the incitement by such actors as the northern branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement, headed by the radical Sheikh Raed Salah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the roiling social networks, the result is what we are now witnessing. The request for IDF assistance by the Israeli police in the heart of Israel’s capital can be compared to summoning the US Marines to patrol the streets of Washington. The symbols of Israeli sovereignty are in danger.

“We live in an era of surprises. Israel longs for the good old days when a high-quality agent in the vicinity of an Arab ruler and a sophisticated wiretapping system could be relied on as an intelligence ‘insurance policy’ for assessing the odds of a war erupting. This allowed Israeli leaders to sleep well at night. That era is gone, however, and the current intifada — which Palestinians are calling the ‘al-Quds [Jerusalem] intifada’ and some the knife intifada — took Israel’s political echelons by complete surprise…

“This rebellion differs from its predecessors. This one is the first time that there has been no leader on the playing field, no landlord. There is no one entity initiating, conducting or integrating events. There are no assigned targets. There is no one to capture, neutralize or eliminate. This is an unhinged intifada, an odd rebellion that bubbles through the social networks and erupts into barbarism in attacks by isolated individuals or small groups. Young Palestinians (in one case a 13-year-old) attack Israelis with knives, axes and vegetable peelers; they run them over with vehicles; they strike them with axes in spasms of bloody, unexplained and murderous irrationality. Some of the attacks stem from incitement surrounding the Temple Mount (or Haram al-Sharif to Muslims) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The explosiveness of the Temple Mount issue and whether the next intifada will result from it have been covered by Al-Monitor. There is also more: After the meeting between Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Aug. 18 in Ramallah, an Al-Monitor article cited a warning issued in the form of a concern by the Palestinian leader to the Israeli opposition head: Abbas feared a third intifada and losing control over PA territory. Herzog delivered this message not only to Al-Monitor, but also to Netanyahu, who did not respond. Now he’s probably sorry.

“It is important to emphasize that Israel has no intention of taking control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or changing the status quo involving the Temple Mount. The Palestinians, however, are more attentive to conspiracy theories based on statements by the messianic Israeli right… Palestinians are convinced that Israel plans on usurping Al-Aqsa. Until the Israeli government takes crystal clear action, such as closing the Temple Mount to Jews for a cooling-off period, there is no chance that the Palestinians’ state of mind will change. If it doesn’t change, this peculiar intifada will continue.”

Netanyahu Stirs Controversy

The Local wrote on October 21:

“Germany on Wednesday stressed its inherent responsibility in the Holocaust, after Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu stirred controversy over his claim a Palestinian leader gave Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews. Asked to comment on Netanyahu’s allegation, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said he would not speak directly on the claim. But he added: ‘I can speak for the federal government, that we Germans recognise that the murderous racial fanaticism of the Nazis was the historical origin of … the Shoah. I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know of the inherent German responsibility in these crimes against humanity,’ he added…

“In a speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu suggested that Hitler was not planning to exterminate the Jews until he met Palestinian nationalist Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in 1941. ‘Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time. He wanted to expel the Jews,’ Netanyahu told the World Zionist Congress. ‘And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said: “If you expel them, they’ll all come here.” “So what should I do with them?” he asked. He said: “Burn them.”’

“Netanyahu on Wednesday backtracked on the claim, denying that he was exonerating Hitler of the responsibility for the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were slaughtered.”

The Associated Press added on October 21 that “Historians quickly noted that the Nazi Final Solution was already well underway at this point, with several concentration camps up and running. Hitler had previously repeatedly declared his lethal intentions for the Jews.”

The Russian-Syrian Pact

The Associated Press reported on October 21:

“President Bashar Assad has traveled to Moscow in his first known trip abroad since war broke out in Syria in 2011, meeting his strongest ally, Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The two leaders stressed that military operations in Syria— in which Moscow is the latest and most powerful addition— must lead to a political process. The surprise visit Tuesday reflects renewed confidence from the embattled Syrian president after Russia and Iran, another staunch ally, dramatically escalated their support recently as Moscow began carrying out airstrikes on Syrian insurgents and Tehran sent hundreds of ground forces…

“A week after Russia launched its airstrikes, Syrian ground troops, aided by allied fighters from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, pushed their way into central and northern Syria in an attempt to drive out rebel and militant groups in control of territories there. So far, Syrian forces have seized a few villages but there has been no strategic victory. Many of the attacks have hit western-backed rebels and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, but not the Islamic State group, with its stronghold in eastern Syria.

“The Russian airstrikes have allowed Syrian troops and their allies to launch multiple ground offensives in northern, central and southern Syria as well as in the rebel-held suburbs of the capital, Damascus…”

Bild Online reported that because of the Russian-Syrian Pact, an additional 350,000 Syrians will flee to Turkey by this weekend.

Jimmy Carter Helps Russia

Newsmax reported on October 21:

“Claiming that he knows Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘fairly well’ because they once discussed their ‘common interest in fly fishing,’ former President Jimmy Carter took the initiative to provide maps of Islamic State positions in Syria to the Russian embassy in Washington — a move at odds with the Obama administration… ‘I sent [Putin] a message Thursday and asked him if he wanted a copy of our map so he could bomb accurately in Syria, and then on Friday, the Russian embassy… in Washington, called down and told me they would like very much to have the map,’ Carter said at his Sunday school class in Georgia, according to a video of his remarks first aired on NBC News…

“The Carter Center claims that they sent maps of the Islamic States location to Russia in an attempt to help improve their airstrike accuracy.

“… this is not the first time Carter has shown [h]is support for Russia. Last year, he said that the United States should not impose more sanctions on Russia and that ‘Putin is not going to use military force’ in eastern Ukraine…

“The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the U.S. signed an agreement with Russia to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace where American planes are also bombing Islamic State positions. However, the memorandum with Russia ‘does not establish zones of cooperation, intelligence sharing, or any sharing of target information in Syria’ and does ‘not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria,’ Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said…”

Incredible!!!!

Germany Partially Responsible for Migrant Crisis?

Deutsche Welle reported on October 21:

“New figures show that German weapons exports increased yet again this year, especially sales of small arms to countries outside NATO. Critics say you need look no further for the root of displaced people in Europe.

“Despite its promises to rein in the country’s weapon’s exports, the German government is still struggling to  kick its addiction to war profits. The latest arms export report, released on Wednesday, showed that the value of Germany’s arms sales leapt to 3.5 billion euros ($4 billion) in the first six months of 2015 – compared to 2.2 billion euros in the first half of 2014. Germany remains the world’s fourth-biggest arms exporter, behind the United States, Russia and China.

“… countries in the Middle East, South America, Africa and East Asia that are either involved in conflicts or have problematic human rights records have been splurging on German rifles, handguns and other handheld weapons. In the first half of this year, Germany sold guns or ammunition to Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Chile, India, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (among others). That’s apart from the military vehicles, ships, and other larger military equipment sold to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia, China and Israel – all of which are involved in conflicts or have widely reported human rights abuses…

‘Syria has traditionally been one of the biggest buyers of weapons… Germany delivered nearly 13 million euros in weapons to Syria between 2002 and 2013 – mainly tanks, chemical agents and small arms. In 2014, Germany also delivered 8,000 Heckler & Koch G36 and G3 assault rifles to Peshmerga fighters in Syria. ‘And now we’re surprised that these weapons get used,” Grässlin said [Jürgen Grässlin is an author and prominent German anti-weapons activist]. ‘And the people flee the use of these weapons and the dictators, and they end up, absurdly enough, in the country where the weapons were made that were used to repress their people. That’s why I say: If you sow war weapons, you reap war refugees.’”

Merkel Isolated in Central and Eastern Europe

The New York Times wrote on October 16:

“In Europe, and beyond, Ms. Merkel so far lacks strong allies to achieve her goal of merely slowing the refugee flow. Indeed, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary highlighted Ms. Merkel’s isolation from Central and Eastern European leaders on Friday by closing his country’s border with Croatia…

“Two city-states, Hamburg and Bremen, have already passed laws giving them the right to commandeer empty properties to try to give refugees roofs over their heads — and not tents — as winter approaches…

“In national politics, the fiercest opposition to Ms. Merkel’s decision on Sept. 4 — with Austria — to throw open the borders to tens of thousands of refugees then trapped in Hungary comes from her own conservative camp. Bavaria’s Horst Seehofer, head of the sister party to Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, again this week criticized her government…

“Scores more of mostly local conservative politicians have signed an open letter to Ms. Merkel, which pleads with her ‘to take speedy measures which would reduce the current influx of refugees swiftly and effectively.’ A banner held high as the chancellor addressed a party meeting near Leipzig this week demanded, ‘Dethrone Merkel.’…”

Czech Republic vs. Muslim Migrants

Breitbart wrote on October 18:

The President of the Czech Republic has warned that Muslim migrants will ‘respect Sharia instead of Czech laws,’ possibly stoning women, and saying that they could increase the practice of veiling, ‘depriving’ the nation of female beauty. Outspoken left-wing Czech President Milos Zeman, 72, was asked if he thought new migrants from the Middle East would respect Czech laws of Friday: ‘Of course not,’ he replied. ‘Unfaithful women will be stoned and thieves will have their hands cut off, and we’ll be deprived of women’s beauty, because they’ll be covered from head to toe…’

“President Zeman is the leader of the left wing Czech Social Democratic Party and is well known for his controversial remarks… The Czech Republic is part of the Eastern, so-called Visegrad group of countries – along with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – who strongly resisted the introduction of the EU’s forced migration quotas in September.”

Slovenia Refuses to Take In More than 2,500 Migrants a Day

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 18:

“The Slovenian government has said it will only take in a maximum of 2,500 migrants a day, following Hungary’s decision to close its border with Croatia on Saturday.

“On Sunday, Slovenia refused to allow in a train carrying 1,800 migrants from Croatia, after more than 3,000 people surged into the tiny EU member state the day before. Tension is building among thousands of migrants as they remain stranded in fog and cold weather in their quest to reach a better life in Western Europe… Slovenia now fears that if Croatia continues taking more migrants than it is able to send forward, there could be a ‘spillover’ of migrants.”

Anti-Immigration Swiss Party Wins

Reuters reported on October 18:

“The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election… keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union.

“Success for the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), coupled with gains made by the pro-business Liberal Party (FDP), led political commentators to talk of a ‘Rechtsrutsch’ – a ‘slide to the right’ – in Swiss politics. Immigration was the central topic for voters amid a rush of asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.”

There will be many more anti-immigration movements in Europe, and the established parties might be facing the same kind of reaction which is happening in the USA.

Servitude in Germany?

Express wrote on October 17:

“… parents in the city of Lubeck were left furious after a school told their children to cook and clean for refugees at an asylum centre. A mother wrote on Facebook: ‘I am definitely not a hater and am really tolerant, but this is taking things too far. Is there a new subject in Lubeck’s schools called servitude?”

These kind of “good works” were also promoted in the Worldwide Church of God after Herbert W. Armstrong’s death and contributed greatly to its downfall and demise, as the true focus of the church’s commission was neglected, which is to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God in all the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14).

Massive Demonstrations in Germany

Reuters reported on October 19:

 “The German anti-Islam movement PEGIDA staged its biggest rally in months on Monday, sparked into fresh life on its first anniversary by anger at the government’s decision to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East.

“PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, almost fizzled out earlier this year when its leader resigned after a photo was published of him posing as Hitler. But it has swelled again as Germany implements Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to accept a tide of refugees that could exceed a million this year, as she argues that Germany can not only cope but, with its aging population, will benefit in the long term.

“Police declined to estimate the number of protesters but media put it at 15-20,000, somewhat below a peak of around 25,000 in January. Around 14,000 counter-demonstrators urged people to welcome refugees rather than whip up opposition…

“PEGIDA has more than 172,000 ‘Likes’ on its Facebook page and wants Germany to stop taking asylum seekers immediately.

“Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Sunday that PEGIDA’s organizers were ‘hard right-wing extremists’ and everyone who attended their demonstrations ‘should know that they are running after rat catchers’.

“Thomas Jaeger, political scientist at Cologne University, said PEGIDA and the right-wing Alternative for Germany party were being allowed by the government to define how the refugee crisis was perceived by many people. ‘What seems to be worrying a lot of people now is that people from different cultures are coming here, and they don’t know how they will integrate, and that’s quite a diffuse fear, and that’s now being exploited by some political forces.’”

The reaction of the German political establishment and the main-stream media and tabloids against PEGIDA is counter-productive, as many of the PEGIDA supporters are clearly not “hard right-wing extremists.” Such accusation is laughable and will back-fire.

Turkey’s Gaining Importance for a Divided Europe

The Local wrote on October 16:

“The EU and Turkey reached a deal to stem the flow of asylum seekers in exchange for concessions to Ankara… on aid and EU membership talks. Under the plan, Turkey agrees to tackle people-smugglers and take measures to keep more of the millions of refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict from crossing by sea to Europe… [Turkey’s]  demands included €3 billion in new aid – three times the amount the EU has up until now offered – easing visa restrictions, opening new chapters in Turkey’s long-stalled accession negotiations for EU membership, being included on the list of ‘safe countries’ for asylum and to have more Turkey-EU summits…

“Turkey is the main departure point for the more than 600,000 migrants who have entered Europe this year, most of them making the short but dangerous sea crossing to the Greek islands, but some also coming by land…

“The 28-nation European Union has been left more divided than ever by the migration crisis, especially given fears the Schengen zone could collapse as countries try to curb the huge numbers of migrants criss-crossing the continent…”

The Bible shows that in the end, Turkey will be an ally with Europe against ISRAEL!

Merkel Suddenly Supports EU Membership of Turkey… as Europe Needs Turkey

Deutsche Welle reported on October 18:

Chancellor Merkel has said Germany will support Turkey’s EU membership bid, during a visit aimed at securing Ankara’s help in stemming a migrant influx to Europe. Turkish PM Davutoglu hailed Europe’s ‘better approach.’…

“The German chancellor later met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said he asked Merkel to support Turkey’s EU membership bid. Erdogan added that he also asked France, Britain and Spain for support…”

The New York Times wrote on October 18:

“Desperately seeking help to contain Europe’s migrant crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Sunday explicitly linked accelerating Turkey’s effort to join the European Union to Turkish cooperation in clamping down on the flow of refugees from Turkey to Europe. Ms. Merkel, who has long opposed Turkey’s admission to the bloc, said she would support speeding up the process, a concession that underscored the importance European leaders place on Turkey’s cooperation in trying to contain what has become the largest flow of migrants since World War II, as people flee violence and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa…

“Mr. Davutoglu continued to press for a ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria, a longstanding priority for Turkey that has been met largely by silence from the international community, because it would require a substantial military operation…

“From the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has had an open-door policy for refugees and has spent billions of dollars caring for them… Turkey has made visa-free travel to Europe for its citizens a top priority, and Ms. Merkel said she had agreed to push that issue forward. Turkey is the only country that has been formally accepted for possible membership in the union whose citizens must have visas to travel to Europe…

“Turkey has long sought to join the European Union — formal talks began in 2005 — but the process has stalled in recent years, partly because of European concerns about Turkey’s human rights record and a government crackdown on the news media and freedom of expression. Now, though, the balance of power has shifted in Turkey’s favor. Europe needs Turkey… So the concerns about rights are largely unspoken by European leaders at the moment. For example, a European Union report on Turkey, part of the accession process, that was expected to be deeply critical of Ankara’s record on free speech, has been delayed…”

Merkel Deal With Turkey Angers Left and Right

The Local wrote on October 19:

“Merkel announced in Istanbul on Sunday that Europe would offer financial support to help deal with the roughly 2.5 million refugees in the country… Left-wing opponents of the deal said that Merkel was irresponsibly helping religious conservative Erdogan improve his image at home with just two weeks to go before elections to the parliament in Ankara…

“And voices to Merkel’s right worried that the Chancellor was offering too much to Turkey. ‘We can’t make too many concessions to Turkey,’ Gerda Hasselfeldt, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) group in the Bundestag (German parliament), told Die Welt on Sunday. ‘EU accession is not on the agenda. There are serious shortcomings in fundamental human rights, especially freedom of opinion and of the press.'”

Merkel’s sudden support of Turkey’s EU membership in consideration of Turkey’s help in the migrant crisis will only lead to a further deterioration of Merkel’s popularity in Germany. In addition, it is highly doubtful that Turkey will become a member of the EU.

European Army Sooner than Later?

Express wrote on October 17:

“European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker provoked outrage earlier this year with proposals for a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). European People’s Party (EPP) president Joseph Daul has now admitted the European Parliament will try to push through plans that would go far beyond what even Mr Juncker had intended. Under the latest proposals, a common European-wide army would become a force capable of taking on missions of ‘higher intensity’ and even replace national guards at EU borders.

“Bureaucrats in Brussels are trying to capitalise on concerns over ‘Russian aggression’ and the migrant crisis to push through the long-held ambitions for a European army. Whereas Mr Junker’s original vision was for a force capable of dealing with ‘post-conflict peace-keeping’, the European Parliament is now preparing to discuss an aggressive common military force. Mr Daul admitted: ‘We are going to move towards an EU army much faster than people believe…

“The paper released calls for a ‘European operational headquarters’ to replace the system of national governments directing their own forces. The draft plan also demands that power over border control, including European coastguard responsibilities, should be handed to the new army…

“Attempts to form a common defence force have been part of the European project since it began. In 1950, French Prime Minister René Pleven proposed ambitious plans for defence integration, including the setting up of [a] European Army and the appointment of a European minister of defence…

“In March this year, Britain rejected yet more calls from Juncker for an EU army… But, just last month the German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened that if Prime Minister David Cameron failed to support an EU army he would not get any ‘meaningful negotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU’…”

Germans in America.. an Interesting History

The Local wrote on October 9:

“Around 50 million German Americans live in the US today, according to a 2010 census. The largest self-reported ancestry group in the States, their numbers beat Irish, African, English, Mexican and Italian Americans – and made up around 17% of the American population in 2009…

“The first Germans arrived in the US as early as 1608 – but it was the 1683 movement that truly marked the beginning of America’s German settlement. This was the year in which a group of religious dissidents (Mennonites) approached Francis Daniel Pastorius in Frankfurt am Main… Pastorius [moved to America and] negotiated the purchase of 5,700 acres of land from William Penn – the Englishman who had founded Pennsylvania a few years earlier. On this land, Germantown was born…

“In 1683, Germany didn’t exist as a country. It wouldn’t do so until 1871. Instead, separate German-speaking states mostly ruled themselves as parts of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire. But religious tensions in the German states had exploded since Martin Luther published his ninety-five theses in Wittenberg in 1517, calling people to follow the Bible rather than the Pope. The Thirty Years’ War, which broke out in 1618, was one of the most destructive in European History – and it was against this backdrop that many Germans decided to emigrate…

“In 1688, [Pastorius] and three others signed The Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, thought to be the first anti-slavery petition presented by white colonies in America. ‘German-American Day’ was celebrated in Philadelphia for the first time in 1883…  But when the First World War broke out, celebrations stopped. During this period, anti-German hysteria reached fever pitch. German-Americans were brutally assaulted, while anything remotely ‘German’ – be it books, music, even street names – was removed or destroyed.

“When the War ended, over 400,000 Germans emigrated to the United States, many of them Jews fleeing the rising Nazi party. But in a bid to hide their ethnicities, many altered their names to sound more American. German immigrants were keen to blend in as soon as possible, avoiding the anti-German sentiment that still lingered across the US.

“Hostilities rose again during the Second World War, as German-Americans found their freedom and rights restricted. Treated as possible enemies, some were forced to carry around identification cards, while others were placed in internment camps. While these hostilities ended soon after the war, it took German-Americans a long time to reclaim their ethnic heritage – a process that continues to this day.

“In 1983 – 300 years since the Krefeld immigrants docked in Philadelphia – President Ronald Reagan proclaimed that October 6th would become German-American Day once again. ‘More Americans trace their heritage back to German ancestry than to any other nationality,’ he noted in his proclamation. In 1987, October 6th was reinstated as a US holiday.

“From Kindergarten and Christmas trees to hamburgers and hotdogs, German-Americans are credited with some of the most recognizable features of US culture to have emerged in the past 300 years. Less than 5% now speak German themselves. But along with annual Oktoberfest celebrations and the German-American Steuben Parade, October 6th is one of many ways German-Americans celebrate and remember their cultural heritage today.”

We need to stress that many “Germans” living in America are actually descendants from the ancient Israelite tribe of Manasseh. Ancient Assyrians (modern Germans) captured and enslaved ancient Israelites from the house of Israel (not Judah), and subsequently both Assyrians and Israelites moved towards central Europe. While Assyrians and Israelites settled there (modern descendants of ancient Israelites can be found today in countries such as France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the Northern part of Germany), others migrated together to Great Britain, where the tribe of Ephraim settled, while the tribe of Manasseh migrated from there to America. And so, many who think they are ethnic Germans are actually ethnic Israelites from the tribe of Ephraim, who had settled in the United Kingdom, while others, who had settled in the USA, are actually descendants from the tribe of Manasseh.

Clinton’s Email Scandal No Laughing Matter…

Daily Mail wrote on October 16:

“Hillary Clinton could be prosecuted in federal court for failing to tell President Barack Obama about her private email server at the time she was running it, according to a veteran FBI agent. Obama said flatly during a ’60 Minutes’ interview on Sunday that ‘No,’ he did not know Clinton sidestepped security protocols with her a home-brew email setup while she was his secretary of state.

“The FBI agent who spoke with DailyMail.com has had a 20-year career in federal law enforcement and serves in a supervisory capacity in a domestic FBI field office. He said on Friday that failing to put Obama in the loop could be enough to send her to prison for ten years.

“The federal Espionage Act includes a provision that criminalizes ‘gross negligence’ by officials charged with safeguarding national defense information… ‘If investigators conclude that the former secretary [Clinton] was criminally careless in how she approached the security of the sensitive documents in her possession, then this part of the law could be used to prosecute her,’ the agent said, on condition of anonymity…

“The FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server is focusing on whether she violated the Espionage Act – especially the ‘gross negligence’ portions of the statute – according to a report Thursday from the Fox News Channel… It calls for a 10-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of ‘gross negligence’ that permits such information to be ‘removed from its proper place.’ Using an unsecured computer network to host sensitive information could qualify, according to the FBI agent… ‘The only way setting up your own email server for messages about sensitive information isn’t negligent is if it’s deliberate – which is far worse,’ he said.

“Clinton has staked her public defense on a repeated claim that she never knowingly sent or received information through her ‘clintonemail’ domain that was ‘marked classified’ at the time. But the Espionage Act’s text indicates that her intentions may not matter: A lack of judgment in handling sensitive documents could be enough to trigger the statute.

“As intelligence sources spoke to Fox News on Thursday, others at the FBI spilled to The New York Times that they’re furious with President Barack Obama for pre-empting their probe with a declaration that the former secretary of state never put America’s national security at risk… White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest walked that conclusion back on Tuesday, saying that ‘the president was making an observation about what we know so far…’ Obama, he said, was not attempting ‘to undermine the importance or independence of the ongoing FBI investigation.’

“Ron Hosko, a retired senior F.B.I. official who now leads the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said it was wrong of Obama to ‘suggest what side of the investigation he is on’ while an investigation is still underway. ‘Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I.’s mouth,’ Hosko told the Times, ‘and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president’s signal and not bring a case.’

“Obama previously found himself in hot water with federal investigators following a Super Bowl Sunday interview in February 2014 when he downplayed a then-swirling scandal over the IRS targeting right-wing groups politically. Asked while federal investigators were poring through documents whether mass corruption inside America’s tax-collection agency was a factor, he responded: ‘Not even mass corruption – not even a smidgen of corruption.’ Those remarks were widely seen as prejudicing an ongoing investigation, or sending a televised hint to the FBI that the Oval Office didn’t want to see any aggressive prosecutions.”

Breitbart added on October 16:

“If we weren’t so numb to lawlessness and politicized bureaucracy from seven years of Obama scandals, this would be a national outrage. The President just tried to influence the outcome of a criminal investigation, on behalf of a powerful Democrat politician… Obama has so numbed the American people to corruption and the lawless exercise of power that it’s not surprising to watch him influence an active FBI investigation…

“If the FBI decides to float some charges against Clinton, they had better have battleship armor, or else the same DOJ that swept Operation Fast and Furious under the rug is going to sink them…”

Breitbart also wrote on October 16:

“Mike Huckabee said that the Obama administration has lost the ability to impartially conduct an investigation. ‘Trusting Hillary Clinton to just “come clean” is like trusting a compulsive gambler in a Vegas casino,’ Huckabee told Breitbart News Friday. ‘The American people are sick of games, endless excuses, and political platitudes—and it’s time we appoint a special prosecutor to investigate this serious national security email scandal.’…

“A special prosecutor was appointed during the Clinton administration to work the Whitewater scandal case… An independent special prosecutor can be appointed by the Attorney General. Assuming that Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch will not take this step, Congress can compel her to do so with a majority vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

It is amazing how politics preempt or even violate justice. It is highly doubtful that the Justice Department will bring a case against Clinton, especially in light of President Obama’s highly improper interference… even if the FBI were to find wrongdoing. Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the Benghazi Committee on October 22 was a complete and total waste of time for all participants and the American people. That is why Americans are fed up with politics—and they should be. Bernie Sanders’ staged comments during the Democratic Debate that Americans are tired hearing about Hillary Clinton’s Email scandal would only be accurate for those Democrats who are willing to overlook wrongdoing of their candidate for the sake of their party’s success… a rather dubious position to take.

 It was also reported on Wednesday, October 21, that Joe Biden declared that he will not run for the Presidency, eliminating Hillary Clinton’s biggest potential contender in the Democratic Party, as it is very unlikely that Bernie Sanders will secure the nomination. The Washington Post wrote on October 21 that “the real numbers, including those in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, support the idea that Trump will continue to lead and that he could win the nomination.” It appears that we will face a showdown between Republican contender Donald Trump and Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.

Joe Biden Is Out

Breitbart reported this as well on October 21:

“Once again, by using his Twitter account, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was able to beat his challengers in immediately shaping a news cycle, this one surrounding Vice President Joe Biden’s Wednesday afternoon decision not to run for president. Trump was also able to get his message out unfiltered by the DC media — that message being how eager he is to run against Hillary Clinton’s ‘terrible record’… Within minutes both left-wing cable news outlets — CNN and MSNBC — ran with Trump’s tweet. It is all they had and all he wanted them to have. It is a whole new media world and Trump keeps proving how well he’s mastered it.”

Regarding the real reasons for Biden’s decision to bail out, Newsmax offered the following explanation on October 21:

“If you listened to the media chatter about why Joe Biden decided to take himself out of the running for president, you’d conclude that it was all about grieving and timing… All of that is true enough as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough, because none of the media’s coverage told the story behind the story—the intrigue and deliberate deception at the highest levels of the political system that ultimately determined Biden’s decision to take a pass on the presidency.

“According to sources close to Biden, the vice president and President Obama, who had been urging Biden to run, held numerous discussions about Biden’s chances of taking on Hillary in the Democrat primaries and knocking her out of the presidential race. In those talks, Biden expressed doubt that he would be able to overcome Hillary’s advantage in timing, money, organization, and ground game.

“The only way he could see himself getting into the race, Biden reportedly told the president, was if the White House assured him that it would support the FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s improper handling of classified documents on her private e-mail system and encourage Attorney General Loretta Lynch to bring down an indictment against Hillary. An indictment—even a misdemeanor—would almost certainly doom Hillary’s chances of getting the nomination…

“Obama stopped short of giving Biden the assurances that he was seeking. And without the president’s promise, Biden decided he had no choice but to bow out..”

Liberals Win in Canada

The New York Times wrote on October 19:

The nine-year reign of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party came to a sudden and stunning end on Monday night at the hands of Justin Trudeau, the young leader of the Liberal Party. Starting with a sweep of the Atlantic provinces, the Liberals capitalized on what many Canadians saw as Mr. Harper’s heavy-handed style, and the party went on to capture 184 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons. The unexpected rout occurred 47 years after Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, first swept to power…

“Although Mr. Trudeau has been prone to occasional verbal slips since assuming his leadership role, including the use of a vulgar metaphor in response to Mr. Harper’s decision to commit Royal Canadian Air Force fighters to the multinational campaign against the Islamic State, he has grown in stature over the course of the election.”

Pope Francis Can’t Be Serious… Or Is He?

The Associated Press reported on October 17:

“Pope Francis has called for a Catholic Church that is far more decentralized, where the laity play a greater role, bishops conferences take care of certain problems and even the papacy is rethought.

“Francis issued the call during a ceremony Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, a consultative body formed during the Second Vatican Council that was intended precisely to encourage more collegiality in the running of the church by inviting bishops to offer their advice to Rome.”

If Francis is really serious about his comments, then the battle in the Vatican and with conservative bishops will dramatically intensify. The idea to rethink the very existence of the papacy –one of THE core doctrines of the Catholic Church–will never be accepted within the hierarchy of that church, and Francis will be facing an uphill battle and an outright rebellion within the church, if he continues to pursue this course of action.

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How is the City of Jerusalem Important to Christians? (Part 1)

Jerusalem stands as one of the most contested cities on earth. It is divided politically, economically and culturally. The religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity all claim holy sites within the city—especially, the Old City, which is in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli-Arab conflict which dominates today’s world news is growing more and more volatile as Palestinians and Israelis vie for control of Jerusalem. The prophetic importance of what is happening right now in Jerusalem must not be underestimated!

First, though, a review of Jerusalem’s historical and foundational relevance to Christianity is necessary.

A little over four-hundred years after the Flood, Abraham was told by God to move to the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-7)—the area in which modern-day Jerusalem now exists.

In the Bible, we are introduced to Jerusalem when it was called by another name, Salem. Melchizedek, the king of Salem, met with Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20). This king of Salem is identified in the Book of Hebrews as none other than Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7).

A later reference to Salem is found in Psalm 76:

“…In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, And His dwelling place in Zion” (Psalm 76:1-2).

Next, we find a very specific place mentioned that can be shown to be a part of the City of Jerusalem. For God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice “‘in the land of Moriah’” on a specific mountain (Genesis 22:2)—called by Abraham “‘the Mount of the LORD’” (Genesis 22:14).

Note how this location emerges as the same place in which Solomon was instructed to build the Temple of God:

“Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chronicles 3:1).

When Israel entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, Jerusalem remained under Gentile control:

“But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day” (Judges 1:21).

It was not until the time of King David—hundreds of years after Israel possessed Canaan—that Jerusalem was captured and then became the capital of Israel:

“And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,’ thinking, ‘David cannot come in here.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David). Now David said on that day, ‘Whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites (the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul), he shall be chief and captain.’ Therefore they say, ‘The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.’ Then David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the City of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward” (2 Samuel 5:6-9).

It is important to note that God rejected Shiloh, which was in Ephraim, and He chose Jerusalem and Judah for Himself:

“And he said: ‘Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, “Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel. Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there; and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel”’” (2 Chronicles 6:4-6; compare Psalm 78:60, 67-69).

The Bible relates that God punished Jerusalem and Judah because of their flagrant sins against Him (compare 2 Chronicles 36:15-21), but He did not utterly reject and abandon His city. Jerusalem and the Temple of God built by Solomon were destroyed, but God provided for the restoration of Jerusalem—even before it was devastated by the Babylonian empire. Note this remarkable prophecy given about a future ruler some one-hundred-fifty years before his birth and long before Jerusalem’s fall:

“‘Who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be built,’ And to the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid’”’” (Isaiah 44:28).

Even in their captivity, God caused the prophet Jeremiah to write to the Jewish captives in Babylon to assure them that they would return to Jerusalem and the land of Judah (compare Jeremiah 29:1-11).

In both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we have a record of the remnant of the House of Judah who returned to the land of Israel and who rebuilt the Temple of God and the City of Jerusalem—including its defensive walls. The Gentile rulers of that time who were neighboring Judah stood in opposition and tried to stop the Jews.

They failed, for the Jews re-established the City of Jerusalem, the Temple of God and other cities in the land of Judah.

It was after another approximately 500 years that Jerusalem became the focus of the life and work of Jesus Christ—and His death. The New Testament of the Bible records detailed accounts of those events, but let us also consider the dramatic prophecies Jesus gave concerning Jerusalem:

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation’” (Luke 19:41-44; compare Mark 13:1-2).

Historically, that occurred! In 70 AD, the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem and destroyed the magnificent Temple of God. Judah, as a nation, ceased to exist. Throughout the centuries several attempts have been made to re-establish the Temple in Jerusalem, but all have failed!

One other point of note is this, Jesus established the Church of God in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost in 31 AD (Compare Acts 2). Following His resurrection, Jesus had specifically instructed His disciples “‘…that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name in all nations, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM’” (Luke 24:47).

Much, much more is said about Jerusalem in biblical prophecy, and, in the future, Jerusalem will actually welcome Jesus Christ—even though many trials still lie ahead:

“‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”’” (Matthew 23:37-39).

In Part 2, we will examine events of our time—our generation—and the dramatic role Jerusalem has now taken on the world stage—plus the incredible future that is in store for this city, for its inhabitants and for all of mankind!

Lead Writer: Dave Harris

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Preaching the Gospel and Feeding the Flock

A new Member Letter reporting on our Feast sites in the United States and Germany was sent out this week—including a copy of our newest booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” 

“Fighting for the Temple Mount — WHY?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Stunning events are happening in the Middle East and in East Jerusalem, which have direct relevance to biblical prophecy. WHY are calls being heard from Palestinians, Arab nations and France to deploy an international force in East Jerusalem and at the Temple Mount? Why is the UN adopting a resolution condemning Israel for “illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship of Muslims to the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” which is situated on the Temple Mount? Why is it recommended that the Temple Mount should be closed to Jews? In this program, we show you the most recent developments and explain to you from the Bible WHY they are so important, in the light of Christ’s, Paul’s, John’s and Daniel’s end-time warnings pertaining to Jerusalem. We offer you our free booklet, “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today!”

Our Feast messages which were given in the USA and in Germany are now posted on our respective websites and on YouTube: www.eternalgod.org; http://www.aufpostenstehen.de/

“Ehe ohne Trauschein?” is the title of this week’s German sermon. The title of the German sermon in English would be: “Marriage Without License?”

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How This Work is Financed

This Update is an official publication by the ministry of the Church of the Eternal God in the United States of America; the Church of God, a Christian Fellowship in Canada; and the Global Church of God in the United Kingdom.

Editorial Team: Norbert Link, Dave Harris, Rene Messier, Brian Gale, Johanna Link, Eric Rank, Michael Link, Anna Link, Kalon Mitchell, Manuela Mitchell, Dawn Thompson

Technical Team: Eric Rank, Shana Rank

Our activities and literature, including booklets, weekly updates, sermons on CD and video and audio broadcasts, are provided free of charge. They are made possible by the tithes, offerings and contributions of Church members and others who have elected to support this Work.

While we do not solicit the general public for funds, contributions are gratefully welcomed and are tax-deductible in the U.S. and Canada.

Donations can be sent to the following addresses:

United States: Church of the Eternal God, P.O. Box 270519, San Diego, CA 92198

Canada: Church of God, ACF, Box 1480, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z0

United Kingdom: Global Church of God, PO Box 44, MABLETHORPE, LN12 9AN, United Kingdom

Current Events

Much has happened in the world since our last Update. This edition focuses on the volatile situation in Syria and the resulting migrant crisis; the ongoing violence in Turkey and Israel; and the precise location of the two historical Temples in Jerusalem.

It continues with reports on Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders; as well as strong words from Franklin Graham regarding “hypocritical” American Senators and the pope’s plea for forgiveness in light of new sex scandals in the Catholic Church.

We conclude with disturbing news regarding America’s economy and attempts to enact a new controversial copyright law.

Preaching the Gospel and Feeding the Flock

A new Member Letter reporting on our Feast sites in the United States and Germany will be sent out next week. We will also include a copy of our newest booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” Those attending the Feast have already received a copy.

“Germany’s Disastrous Migrant Crisis,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Europe and especially Germany are facing an unsolvable migrant crisis of unparalleled proportions in recent history, which has been caused by the situation in Syria. Both Russia and the USA are fighting for preeminence in Syria, but the Obama administration is clearly losing. Angela Merkel’s unquestioned leadership role is now under severe attack, and calls for her resignation from inside and outside her own party are becoming louder. Is a powerful German leader on the rise who might replace her? We are offering two free booklets, dealing with the subject at hand: “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy” and “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.”

Geistliches Wachstum in Gottes Kirche,” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon. It is dealing with growth in individual members and in the church as a collective body. Title in English: “Spiritual Growth in God’s Church.”

We will be posting our Feast messages which were given in the USA and in Germany on our respective websites. Quite a few have already been posted on the American and German YouTube pages; please have a look.

Moving On; Stripes at the Great White Throne Judgment

On October 17, 2015, Michael Link will present the sermonette, titled, “Moving On,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “Stripes at the Great White Throne Judgment.”

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.

This Week in the News

Putin vs. Obama in the Syrian Crisis

Newsmax reported on October 13:

“President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday slammed Washington for refusing to share intelligence with Russia on Syria, and accusing it of muddled thinking… Late last month Moscow launched a bombing campaign in Syria, saying it needed to target Islamic State jihadists before they cross into Russia, which has a large Muslim population. But Washington and its allies slammed Russia’s intervention in the conflict, saying Moscow was also targeting Western-backed moderate rebels and sought to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad…

“Putin’s colorful phrase… comes amid deep tensions over the Russian bombing campaign and cruise-missile strikes that began Sept. 30. The EU demanded on Monday that Russia stop targeting moderate groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned that Russia’s actions ‘will have consequences’ and the bombing ‘will only inflame’ Syria’s four-year civil war…

“U.S. air drops of weapons and ammunition intended for the Syrian Free Army, which is fighting Assad’s regime, could end up in the hands of Islamic State instead, Putin said…”

Obama’s Training Program in Syria Failed

Breitbart reported on September 29:

“The Obama administration has thrown in the towel on a plan to spend $500 million on training ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the regime of Bashar Assad. CBS News reports the program has been quietly ‘suspended’… The program was beginning to draw bitter opposition from Democratsincluding Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut… Hillary Clinton has been criticizing President Obama’s Syria strategy as well, claiming that he ignored her advice to build a far more powerful ‘moderate’ rebel force much earlier….

“The first wave of ‘New Syrian Force’ fighters was ambushed by al-Qaeda and wiped out, with many of them killed, kidnapped, or MIA. No one at the Pentagon seems to know what happened to the second wave after they handed American vehicles and ammunition over to al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage. The Russians seem to have a pretty good idea what happened to that second wave, though. ‘First, they are armed and trained, and then they defect,’ President Vladimir Putin said at the United Nations…

“Putin threw some even tougher punches at the mess Obama has made of the Middle East in his U.N. address. Here is the relevant section in its entirety: ‘It is now obvious that the power vacuum created in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa led to the emergence of anarchy areas. Those immediately started to be filled with extremists and terrorists. Tens of thousands of militants are fighting under the banners of the so-called ‘Islamic State.’ Its ranks include former Iraqi servicemen who were thrown out into the street after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Many recruits also come from Libya, a country whose statehood was destroyed as a gross violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973…’

“The New Syrian Force fiasco is a major Obama blunder, part and parcel of the disastrous foreign policy he tried to spin as a success at the United Nations… It turned into the biggest disaster since Jimmy Carter sent helicopters into the Iranian desert. Russia and others looking to redefine the Middle East will use this debacle not just to embarrass the United States, but to persuade anyone considering an alliance with America instead of Russia and Iran to reconsider.”

Syria is developing into a battle field of the big powers, and it is again America turning out to be the big loser.

Germany’s Foolish Attempts to Deal with the Migrant Crisis

The Daily Mail wrote on October 1:

“A German woman is being booted out of her home of 23 years to make room for migrants. Gabrielle Keller is the second such case to emerge in the country as it struggles to cope with an expected influx of some 800,000 refugees… The local municipality has given Mrs Keller until the end of the year to leave her flat in the southern town of Eschbach. Mario Schlafke, the town’s mayor, says the authorities had no choice… ‘’The alternative would have been to set up beds in the gym.’ … Her case comes days after it emerged that a nurse was being evicted from her home of 16 years for the same reasons.

“Yesterday, it was announced that Germany had translated the first 20 articles of the country’s constitution outlining basic rights like freedom of speech into Arabic for refugees to help them integrate.

“Germany’s open-door policy to migrants has sparked clashes with some eastern EU member states, in particular Hungary. It has also fuelled tensions domestically, with riots erupting between left and right-wing hardline groups and fights breaking out among migrant groups.

“With up to 10,000 arrivals each day fuelling voters’ worries, President Joachim Gauck, who has a non-political role, hit a nerve with a speech on Sunday, saying there is a limit to how many refugees Germany can absorb. Aside from the cost and practicalities of looking after so many people – almost one per cent of Germany’s population – many voters are worried about how they will integrate into society…

“Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, also chairman of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), told Bild daily that refugees were welcome but that they have to make an effort to fit in… ‘No one is forced, when he comes to Germany, to change his religion, to alter his private life. But what is important for our culture is that the principles of our democratic society apply to everyone,’ Gabriel added. Refugees had to [learn German and] accept principles such as the division of church and state, equal rights for men and women, the right to be homosexual and freedom of expression, he said. He also pointed out that anti-Semitism is not tolerated in Germany.”

Germany’s failing migrant open-door policy will ultimately contribute to the downfall of Angela Merkel and, in time, the rise of a powerful figure to “deal” with the situation.

The EUObserver wrote on October 10 that “Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have called on the European Union to show unity and respect the values on which it was built, but stopped short of ideas on how to tackle Europe’s problems.”

Voices asking for Merkel’s resignation become louder.

The Local reported on October 13 that “Germany’s anti-Islam party Pegida stepped up its attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, slamming her as ‘the most dangerous woman in Europe’ and demanding she resign.” It added on October 9 that “The Bavarian government is threatening to take Chancellor Angela Merkel to the country’s highest court to make her change her refugee policy… Bavarian Minister President Horst Seehofer, of the Christian Social Union (CSU)… and his cabinet demanded that refugees be sent back before they cross the Austrian-German border.”

The Local reported on October 14 that only 33 percent of Germans now agree with the chancellor’s migrant policy—“a decrease of 11 percent since approximately six weeks ago. Around 64 percent of Germans polled were found to disagree. The opinion was widely shared across all of Germany’s main political groups… The results also showed that 56 percent of people surveyed think there were already too many refugees in Germany. This [figure] has risen by 10 percent in just one month. Only… 20 percent… were found to believe that the country could still accommodate more asylum seekers.”

In addition, the current situation has manifested a quite hostile anti-Americanism within the German population, blaming the “Amis” [German short-form for Americans] for the Syrian disaster. The main culprit is former President George W. Bush, while President Obama is still somewhat exonerated for just having “inherited” the bad situation in Iraq and Syria.

Violence in Turkey

Deutsche Welle reported on October 13:

“President Erdogan of Turkey has acknowledged there were lapses in security leading up to the twin bomb blasts in Ankara this week… His remarks came as investigators in Turkey told reporters they suspected a link between the bombings and the southeastern town of Adiyaman, a known recruiting base for the ‘Islamic State’ militia (IS), which has a strong presence in Syria.”

Violence in Israel—a Third Intifada?

JTA wrote on October 13:

“Israelis have become accustomed to dismal news in the past few weeks – mornings and evenings punctuated by stabbings, car attacks and rock throwing. The cycle of random violence has left dozens of Israelis and Palestinians dead, and many fearing the worst: The start of a third intifada, or armed Palestinian uprising, that could claim hundreds more lives…

“Palestinian society as a whole appears to support violence against Israelis. A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey research last week found that 57 percent of Palestinians support a return to an armed intifada, an increase of 8 percent from earlier this year. Half believe the P.A. has a mandate to stop security coordination with Israel, and two-thirds want Abbas to resign…”

The current violence in Israel will continue. News of Israel reported on October 14 that “Israel deploys hundreds of soldiers in Jerusalem,” describing “Army units to bolster security amid wave of terror attacks” and continuing that “police begin setting up checkpoints in city’s eastern neighborhoods.”

As the next article shows, the violence will culminate in an unparalleled upheaval.

Precise Location of the Two Temples

JTA wrote on October 11, 2015

“The New York Times walked back an article that questioned whether two Jewish temples ever existed on the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The article, written by Rick Gladstone, a Times foreign editor, originally published on Oct. 8, read: ‘The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered, is whether the 37-acre site, home to Islam’s sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and Al Aqsa Mosque, was also the precise location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone.’

“The article was amended the following day and a correction published in the newspaper. The correction stated: ‘An earlier version of this article misstated the question that many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered concerning the two ancient Jewish temples. The question is where precisely on the 37-acre Temple Mount site the temples had once stood, not whether the temples had ever existed there.’…

“The article goes on to cite substantial evidence, including the historian Flavius Josephus and historical records of the Romans documenting the destruction, that the Second Temple stood on the site, likely in the immediate vicinity of the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims. ‘The most direct physical evidence of the temple’s existence on the site is the Western Wall, an outer wall spared by Roman destruction,’ the article said. ‘The wall has become a holy site in itself, drawing millions of Jews for prayer.’”

The Bible strongly indicates that a Third Temple will be built, prior to Christ’s return, on the precise location where the First and the Second Temples stood; that is, “in the immediate vicinity of the Dome of the Rock.” This will cause tremendous upheaval, and Europe will be “forced” to invade the region to “establish” peace.

Carson: Heading Towards “End of Days” – Clarifies “No Muslim for President” Statement

Newsmax reported on October 12:

“GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson…  a Seventh-day Adventist, was asked by host Sharyl Attkisson about his views on the biblical prophesies of the end times compared with current world events. ‘Do you think we’re at the End of Days?’ she asked. ‘You could guess that we are getting closer to that,’ Carson responded.

“But he contrasted his own end-time views with those of some Islamic extremists in the Middle East who believe they must take actions to set up a caliphate in order to usher in the prophesies of the Quran… ‘I think we have a chance to certainly do everything that we can to ameliorate the situation.’ Carson said. ‘I would always be shooting for peace. You know, I wouldn’t just take a fatalistic view of things.’

“Carson came under fire for saying… September 20 that he doesn’t think a Muslim should be president. He has since said he meant that any Muslim president would have to put the Constitution over Muslim teachings, as would any Christian president.”

Ben Carson is apologizing and “clarifying” too much. He did so regarding homosexuals and now regarding a Muslim President. What he originally said was clear. Newsmax reported on September 20:

“Ben Carson is unfit to be president for his statement Sunday that Islam is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution, said his fellow GOP candidate Lindsey Graham… Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Examiner called on Carson to withdraw from the presidential race… Carson expressed opposition to a Muslim being elected president, though he said he had no problem with Muslims being elected to Congress…

“Pamela Geller, the activist who has created controversy with anti-Islamic advertising on mass transit and her Draw Mohammad cartoon contest, praised Carson’s words, saying on her website, ‘Ben Carson is right. Electing a Muslim president would be dangerous.’ Pointing to President Barack Obama, Geller said, ‘He claims he is a Christian, but his father and his stepfather were Muslims and he was raised in a Muslim country. He went to an Islamic school and excelled in Qur’an classes while growing up in Jakarta. Because of his upbringing he is islamophiliac, and his foreign and domestic policies reflect this,’ she said.”

Carson should not have apologized. He was right to say that a Muslim would be unqualified to be President. However, he should have continued that a Jew and a Christian are also unqualified; that, in fact, nobody is qualified to preside over this nation—or any nation, for that matter. It will require the return of Jesus Christ to change this, and ONLY Jesus Christ and those whom HE appoints will be qualified in the eyes of God.

Donald Trump Next US President?

Newsmax reported on October 12:

“Veteran newsman Dan Rather says Donald Trump could be headed to the White House. ‘I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility he gets elected,’ Rather, former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent and ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor [said]…

“But Rather believes Trump must provide many more details on his ambitious policies… ‘So I think the key question is give me the names of specific people that you will call upon for foreign policy.’ As well, Rather said, he needs to expand on his idea of ridding the United States of all illegal immigrants. ‘He wants to send all of them back to Mexico and other places … but how specifically does he intend to do that? With 10, 12 million people, how’s he going to find them?’

“Rather said one part of Trump’s popularity is his financial independence…”

Obama said on 60 Minutes that Trump will NOT succeed him in office. We will see who is right… Rather or Obama.

 In addition, largely due to the unfavorable reporting in the German press, Trump is completely rejected by Germans, and IF he were to become President, the relationship between Germany and the USA would deteriorate even more rapidly. Trump is being portrayed and viewed as a great danger to German and European interests. On the other hand, note Trump’s comments to high school students, as reported on September 20 by The Associated Press:

“Donald Trump’s advice for high school students in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, is uncharacteristically wholesome: Avoid alcohol and drugs as well as cigarettes. The billionaire businessman and Republican presidential candidate is also encouraging the teens to follow their hearts and do something they love, even if it means making less money.”

The First Democratic Debate… And the Winner Is: Donald Trump

Breitbart wrote on October 14:

“While Tuesday night’s CNN political debate was intended as an opportunity for one of the Democrat Party presidential hopefuls to separate him or herself from the rest of the pack, the best line of the night came from a man who was not even in the room with the debaters nor in the same party. In effect, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump stole the show with a perfectly-timed tweet explaining that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee spent their night talking about all the free stuff they were going to give away–including ObamaCare benefits and tuition breaks for illegal immigrants–without once mentioning what they would do to make conditions better for U.S. military veterans.

“Amid the Obama administration’s Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal, the punishment for secret waiting lists–which have left veterans dying while the government they served denied them medical care–has been scant, and the agency has seen no substantial reforms. Trump has made veterans’ care a major talking point in his stump speeches… So Trump tweeted: ‘Notice that illegal immigrants will be given ObamaCare and free college tuition but nothing has been mentioned about our VETERANS #DemDebate.’ It was the best line of the night by far.

“The billionaire also overshadowed Democrats in social media engagement. Time declared that Trump ‘won Twitter’ during the debate, based on data saying he picked up 60,000 new followers–about 4 times as many as Clinton. Trump’s tweet at the time of this writing has nearly 11,000 retweets and 17,000 favorites, while Clinton’s biggest tweet of the night only reached 3,300 retweets and 4,800 favorites.”

According to the Washington Post, another note-worthy tweet came from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee who wrote:  “They believe climate change is a greater threat than Islamic extremism, that a sunburn is worse than a beheading. It’s nonsense.”

While “political experts” are divided as to the Democrat who won the Debate (most feel that it was Clinton), according to a poll published by Time.com and quoted by Bild Online, 62% favored Sanders, a self-declared independent Democratic socialist, while only 12% felt that Clinton had won. According to other polls, Sanders was leading by up to 70%. Deutsche Welle wrote that “Sanders has succeeded in pushing the debate to the left.”

Franklin Graham—The Senate Is Full of Hypocrites

Newsmax reported on September 26:

“‘The hypocrisy of our Senate never ceases to amaze me,’ the evangelist [Franklin Graham] said… ‘They welcomed Pope Francis into their chambers with a standing ovation and then within hours they voted down the bill to ‪defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that not only murders innocent children in their mothers’ wombs but is also guilty of selling body parts from these babies.’…

“Americans must call abortion ‘what it is — murder; and we need lawmakers and leaders who are brave enough to stand and fight for human life,’ he wrote…

“On Thursday, Senate Democrats, joined by some Republicans, blocked efforts to deny federal funds for the women’s healthcare group, making a move to help avoid a government shutdown over the issue on Oct. 1.  Most Senate Republicans had supported the plan to attach the Planned Parenthood defunding to a bill keeping government operating with the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, but 42 Democrats, two independents and eight Republicans banded together to stop the anti-abortion effort. That marked 11 more votes than the 41 needed to block the legislation.”

In Tuesday’s Democratic Debate, Clinton again strongly supported Planned Parenthood.

Pope Apologizes for Recent Sex Scandals

Reuters reported on October 4:

“Pope Francis asked for forgiveness on Wednesday for scandals at the Vatican and in Rome, an apparent reference to two cases of priests and gay sex revealed this month during a major meeting of bishops. ‘Today … in the name of the Church, I ask you for forgiveness for the scandals that have occurred recently either in Rome or in the Vatican,’ Francis said in unprepared remarks during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“… there have been two scandals involving the Vatican and the Church in Rome in the past two weeks. On Oct. 3, a Polish monsignor working in the Vatican’s doctrinal office since 2003 held a packed news conference in which he disclosed that he was gay and had been living with another man for years. The Vatican dismissed Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a theologian, from his job there as well as from teaching assignments in pontifical universities in Rome.

“A spokesman said at the time that Charamsa’s high-profile coming out on the eve of a meeting of world bishops at the Vatican was ‘grave and irresponsible’. It accused him of trying to exert ‘undue media pressure’ on the bishops’ debate on family issues, including the Church’s position on gays…

“The pope also appeared to be referring to a scandal exposed in the Italian media last week about an order of priests who run a parish in a well-to-do neighborhood in Rome. Parishioners in the Santa Teresa d’Avila parish wrote to local Church officials alleging that a clergyman there had had encounters with ‘vulnerable adults’. Newspapers said these took place in an adjacent park often frequented by male prostitutes.

“According to the letter published in the media, parishioners said they had assembled evidence about the clergyman’s illicit activities and were furious to discover he had been transferred to another part of Italy instead of being disciplined.

“Since his election in 2013, the pope has asked forgiveness for sexual abuse of the children by the clergy and for the Church’s treatment of Protestants and indigenous people in the course of its history.”

Apart from “apologies,” what is the Catholic Church doing about the issue?

American Economy Heading for Disaster

 Newsmax wrote on October 14:

“GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump warned that the current stock-market bubble will eventually pop and plunge the nation into another recession. Trump accused Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen of keeping interest rates low in order to shield President Obama from having to leave office during a recession… But don’t be fooled, Trump warns. The nation is on a path to financial disaster…

“Other prominent economic experts agree with Trump and say the government is to blame for placing the U.S. economy in the fast lane to disaster. Newsmax Finance Insider Stephen Moore says that Washington doesn’t understand what went wrong in 2007 and 2008, so the Fed, the White House and Congress are recreating the very same conditions for another financial bubble…”

Proposed Amended US Copyright Law Would Destroy News Sites

Daily Caller wrote on October 13:

“Congress may update digital copyright law affecting aggregator sites, like the Drudge Report and Real Clear Politics, along with news sites in the near future… Drudge Report site owner Matt Drudge told Alex Jones of InfoWars last week that copyright laws could very well end his popular site. ‘I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me,’ said Drudge. ‘They’ve got the votes now to enforce copyright law, you’re out of there. They’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines.’

“He explained, ‘To have a Supreme Court Justice say to me it’s over, they’ve got the votes, which means time is limited,’ he added, noting that a day was coming when simply operating an independent website could be outlawed. That will end [it] for me…’ said Drudge, adding that web users were being pushed into the cyber ‘ghettos’ of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.”

Such a new law would not be surprising, giving the continuing governmental effort to restrict and violate personal liberties and freedoms.

Update 707

Moving On; Stripes at the Great White Throne Judgment

On October 17, 2015, Michael Link will present the sermonette, titled, “Moving On,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “Stripes at the Great White Throne Judgment.”

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.

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A Full Tank

by Rene Messier (Canada)

When we travel to the ministerial conference and the Feast of Tabernacles in the United States, I fill up my van with gas and I know that it will get me to Goldendale in Washington, which is about 557 kilometers from our home.  We stop there, take a break and re-fill the gas tank.

As God’s people, we have had the opportunity at the Feast to fill up our spiritual tanks by drinking in the messages which had been prepared for us.  Our spiritual tanks have to take us through the long winter months up to the next Holy Days in the Spring.

In order to do that, we had to take full advantage of the blessings that God provides for us at the Feast.  One manner to maximize the effectiveness of the spiritual benefits was to ensure we remained in good health in order to attend all the services so we were able to benefit from the messages which we received.  This ensured our spiritual tanks were topped up in order to carry us to the Spring Feasts.

Another benefit was the fellowship we were able to enjoy with one another. Since some of us who are more remote and isolated only see each other once a year at the Fall Festival, this was a time to renew and refresh the friendships we have with one another. We had opportunities to eat in fine restaurants with one another and sharpen one another through good conversations while rejoicing of being together on this occasion.

So the Feast provided both spiritual and physical benefits. We drew closer to God and reached a better understanding of His plan and laws through the messages and we drew closer to each other via the fellowship we enjoyed with one another.

God knew through His plan of salvation, which incorporates all seven of His Holy Days, that there would be a long duration of time between the Fall and Spring Holy Days, and He expects of us to take full advantage of the Fall Festival to ensure that we will have enough spiritual fuel to take us to the Spring Festivals.

The question is, did we take full advantage of the blessings which God offered us? Or did we neglect to attend the Feast even though we could have done so? Did we neglect to listen carefully to the messages and to fellowship joyfully with brethren of like mind? If we did not do this, then we will have a much more difficult time to cope with the long winter months until the Spring Feast Days. In that case, perhaps heart-rending repentance and prayer to God for extra strength would be very important.

Those who will be able to look much more confidently in the future are those who faithfully obeyed God’s command to observe the Feast in the right way and with the right attitude; who will dwell and meditate on the messages that they have heard; and who will be diligent to practice what they were taught. We pray that you belong to that category.

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Much has happened in the world since our last Update. This edition focuses on the volatile situation in Syria and the resulting migrant crisis; the ongoing violence in Turkey and Israel; and the precise location of the two historical Temples in Jerusalem.

It continues with reports on Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders; as well as strong words from Franklin Graham regarding “hypocritical” American Senators and the pope’s plea for forgiveness in light of new sex scandals in the Catholic Church.

We conclude with disturbing news regarding America’s economy and attempts to enact a new controversial copyright law.

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Putin vs. Obama in the Syrian Crisis

Newsmax reported on October 13:

“President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday slammed Washington for refusing to share intelligence with Russia on Syria, and accusing it of muddled thinking… Late last month Moscow launched a bombing campaign in Syria, saying it needed to target Islamic State jihadists before they cross into Russia, which has a large Muslim population. But Washington and its allies slammed Russia’s intervention in the conflict, saying Moscow was also targeting Western-backed moderate rebels and sought to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad…

“Putin’s colorful phrase… comes amid deep tensions over the Russian bombing campaign and cruise-missile strikes that began Sept. 30. The EU demanded on Monday that Russia stop targeting moderate groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned that Russia’s actions ‘will have consequences’ and the bombing ‘will only inflame’ Syria’s four-year civil war…

“U.S. air drops of weapons and ammunition intended for the Syrian Free Army, which is fighting Assad’s regime, could end up in the hands of Islamic State instead, Putin said…”

Obama’s Training Program in Syria Failed

Breitbart reported on September 29:

“The Obama administration has thrown in the towel on a plan to spend $500 million on training ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the regime of Bashar Assad. CBS News reports the program has been quietly ‘suspended’… The program was beginning to draw bitter opposition from Democratsincluding Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut… Hillary Clinton has been criticizing President Obama’s Syria strategy as well, claiming that he ignored her advice to build a far more powerful ‘moderate’ rebel force much earlier….

“The first wave of ‘New Syrian Force’ fighters was ambushed by al-Qaeda and wiped out, with many of them killed, kidnapped, or MIA. No one at the Pentagon seems to know what happened to the second wave after they handed American vehicles and ammunition over to al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage. The Russians seem to have a pretty good idea what happened to that second wave, though. ‘First, they are armed and trained, and then they defect,’ President Vladimir Putin said at the United Nations…

“Putin threw some even tougher punches at the mess Obama has made of the Middle East in his U.N. address. Here is the relevant section in its entirety: ‘It is now obvious that the power vacuum created in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa led to the emergence of anarchy areas. Those immediately started to be filled with extremists and terrorists. Tens of thousands of militants are fighting under the banners of the so-called ‘Islamic State.’ Its ranks include former Iraqi servicemen who were thrown out into the street after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Many recruits also come from Libya, a country whose statehood was destroyed as a gross violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973…’

“The New Syrian Force fiasco is a major Obama blunder, part and parcel of the disastrous foreign policy he tried to spin as a success at the United Nations… It turned into the biggest disaster since Jimmy Carter sent helicopters into the Iranian desert. Russia and others looking to redefine the Middle East will use this debacle not just to embarrass the United States, but to persuade anyone considering an alliance with America instead of Russia and Iran to reconsider.”

Syria is developing into a battle field of the big powers, and it is again America turning out to be the big loser.

Germany’s Foolish Attempts to Deal with the Migrant Crisis

The Daily Mail wrote on October 1:

“A German woman is being booted out of her home of 23 years to make room for migrants. Gabrielle Keller is the second such case to emerge in the country as it struggles to cope with an expected influx of some 800,000 refugees… The local municipality has given Mrs Keller until the end of the year to leave her flat in the southern town of Eschbach. Mario Schlafke, the town’s mayor, says the authorities had no choice… ‘’The alternative would have been to set up beds in the gym.’ … Her case comes days after it emerged that a nurse was being evicted from her home of 16 years for the same reasons.

“Yesterday, it was announced that Germany had translated the first 20 articles of the country’s constitution outlining basic rights like freedom of speech into Arabic for refugees to help them integrate.

“Germany’s open-door policy to migrants has sparked clashes with some eastern EU member states, in particular Hungary. It has also fuelled tensions domestically, with riots erupting between left and right-wing hardline groups and fights breaking out among migrant groups.

“With up to 10,000 arrivals each day fuelling voters’ worries, President Joachim Gauck, who has a non-political role, hit a nerve with a speech on Sunday, saying there is a limit to how many refugees Germany can absorb. Aside from the cost and practicalities of looking after so many people – almost one per cent of Germany’s population – many voters are worried about how they will integrate into society…

“Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, also chairman of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), told Bild daily that refugees were welcome but that they have to make an effort to fit in… ‘No one is forced, when he comes to Germany, to change his religion, to alter his private life. But what is important for our culture is that the principles of our democratic society apply to everyone,’ Gabriel added. Refugees had to [learn German and] accept principles such as the division of church and state, equal rights for men and women, the right to be homosexual and freedom of expression, he said. He also pointed out that anti-Semitism is not tolerated in Germany.”

Germany’s failing migrant open-door policy will ultimately contribute to the downfall of Angela Merkel and, in time, the rise of a powerful figure to “deal” with the situation.

The EUObserver wrote on October 10 that “Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have called on the European Union to show unity and respect the values on which it was built, but stopped short of ideas on how to tackle Europe’s problems.”

Voices asking for Merkel’s resignation become louder.

The Local reported on October 13 that “Germany’s anti-Islam party Pegida stepped up its attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, slamming her as ‘the most dangerous woman in Europe’ and demanding she resign.” It added on October 9 that “The Bavarian government is threatening to take Chancellor Angela Merkel to the country’s highest court to make her change her refugee policy… Bavarian Minister President Horst Seehofer, of the Christian Social Union (CSU)… and his cabinet demanded that refugees be sent back before they cross the Austrian-German border.”

The Local reported on October 14 that only 33 percent of Germans now agree with the chancellor’s migrant policy—“a decrease of 11 percent since approximately six weeks ago. Around 64 percent of Germans polled were found to disagree. The opinion was widely shared across all of Germany’s main political groups… The results also showed that 56 percent of people surveyed think there were already too many refugees in Germany. This [figure] has risen by 10 percent in just one month. Only… 20 percent… were found to believe that the country could still accommodate more asylum seekers.”

In addition, the current situation has manifested a quite hostile anti-Americanism within the German population, blaming the “Amis” [German short-form for Americans] for the Syrian disaster. The main culprit is former President George W. Bush, while President Obama is still somewhat exonerated for just having “inherited” the bad situation in Iraq and Syria.

Violence in Turkey

Deutsche Welle reported on October 13:

“President Erdogan of Turkey has acknowledged there were lapses in security leading up to the twin bomb blasts in Ankara this week… His remarks came as investigators in Turkey told reporters they suspected a link between the bombings and the southeastern town of Adiyaman, a known recruiting base for the ‘Islamic State’ militia (IS), which has a strong presence in Syria.”

Violence in Israel—a Third Intifada?

JTA wrote on October 13:

“Israelis have become accustomed to dismal news in the past few weeks – mornings and evenings punctuated by stabbings, car attacks and rock throwing. The cycle of random violence has left dozens of Israelis and Palestinians dead, and many fearing the worst: The start of a third intifada, or armed Palestinian uprising, that could claim hundreds more lives…

“Palestinian society as a whole appears to support violence against Israelis. A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey research last week found that 57 percent of Palestinians support a return to an armed intifada, an increase of 8 percent from earlier this year. Half believe the P.A. has a mandate to stop security coordination with Israel, and two-thirds want Abbas to resign…”

The current violence in Israel will continue. News of Israel reported on October 14 that “Israel deploys hundreds of soldiers in Jerusalem,” describing “Army units to bolster security amid wave of terror attacks” and continuing that “police begin setting up checkpoints in city’s eastern neighborhoods.”

As the next article shows, the violence will culminate in an unparalleled upheaval.

Precise Location of the Two Temples

JTA wrote on October 11, 2015

“The New York Times walked back an article that questioned whether two Jewish temples ever existed on the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The article, written by Rick Gladstone, a Times foreign editor, originally published on Oct. 8, read: ‘The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered, is whether the 37-acre site, home to Islam’s sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and Al Aqsa Mosque, was also the precise location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone.’

“The article was amended the following day and a correction published in the newspaper. The correction stated: ‘An earlier version of this article misstated the question that many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered concerning the two ancient Jewish temples. The question is where precisely on the 37-acre Temple Mount site the temples had once stood, not whether the temples had ever existed there.’…

“The article goes on to cite substantial evidence, including the historian Flavius Josephus and historical records of the Romans documenting the destruction, that the Second Temple stood on the site, likely in the immediate vicinity of the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims. ‘The most direct physical evidence of the temple’s existence on the site is the Western Wall, an outer wall spared by Roman destruction,’ the article said. ‘The wall has become a holy site in itself, drawing millions of Jews for prayer.’”

The Bible strongly indicates that a Third Temple will be built, prior to Christ’s return, on the precise location where the First and the Second Temples stood; that is, “in the immediate vicinity of the Dome of the Rock.” This will cause tremendous upheaval, and Europe will be “forced” to invade the region to “establish” peace.

Carson: Heading Towards “End of Days” – Clarifies “No Muslim for President” Statement

Newsmax reported on October 12:

“GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson…  a Seventh-day Adventist, was asked by host Sharyl Attkisson about his views on the biblical prophesies of the end times compared with current world events. ‘Do you think we’re at the End of Days?’ she asked. ‘You could guess that we are getting closer to that,’ Carson responded.

“But he contrasted his own end-time views with those of some Islamic extremists in the Middle East who believe they must take actions to set up a caliphate in order to usher in the prophesies of the Quran… ‘I think we have a chance to certainly do everything that we can to ameliorate the situation.’ Carson said. ‘I would always be shooting for peace. You know, I wouldn’t just take a fatalistic view of things.’

“Carson came under fire for saying… September 20 that he doesn’t think a Muslim should be president. He has since said he meant that any Muslim president would have to put the Constitution over Muslim teachings, as would any Christian president.”

Ben Carson is apologizing and “clarifying” too much. He did so regarding homosexuals and now regarding a Muslim President. What he originally said was clear. Newsmax reported on September 20:

“Ben Carson is unfit to be president for his statement Sunday that Islam is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution, said his fellow GOP candidate Lindsey Graham… Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Examiner called on Carson to withdraw from the presidential race… Carson expressed opposition to a Muslim being elected president, though he said he had no problem with Muslims being elected to Congress…

“Pamela Geller, the activist who has created controversy with anti-Islamic advertising on mass transit and her Draw Mohammad cartoon contest, praised Carson’s words, saying on her website, ‘Ben Carson is right. Electing a Muslim president would be dangerous.’ Pointing to President Barack Obama, Geller said, ‘He claims he is a Christian, but his father and his stepfather were Muslims and he was raised in a Muslim country. He went to an Islamic school and excelled in Qur’an classes while growing up in Jakarta. Because of his upbringing he is islamophiliac, and his foreign and domestic policies reflect this,’ she said.”

Carson should not have apologized. He was right to say that a Muslim would be unqualified to be President. However, he should have continued that a Jew and a Christian are also unqualified; that, in fact, nobody is qualified to preside over this nation—or any nation, for that matter. It will require the return of Jesus Christ to change this, and ONLY Jesus Christ and those whom HE appoints will be qualified in the eyes of God.

Donald Trump Next US President?

Newsmax reported on October 12:

“Veteran newsman Dan Rather says Donald Trump could be headed to the White House. ‘I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility he gets elected,’ Rather, former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent and ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor [said]…

“But Rather believes Trump must provide many more details on his ambitious policies… ‘So I think the key question is give me the names of specific people that you will call upon for foreign policy.’ As well, Rather said, he needs to expand on his idea of ridding the United States of all illegal immigrants. ‘He wants to send all of them back to Mexico and other places … but how specifically does he intend to do that? With 10, 12 million people, how’s he going to find them?’

“Rather said one part of Trump’s popularity is his financial independence…”

Obama said on 60 Minutes that Trump will NOT succeed him in office. We will see who is right… Rather or Obama.

 In addition, largely due to the unfavorable reporting in the German press, Trump is completely rejected by Germans, and IF he were to become President, the relationship between Germany and the USA would deteriorate even more rapidly. Trump is being portrayed and viewed as a great danger to German and European interests. On the other hand, note Trump’s comments to high school students, as reported on September 20 by The Associated Press:

“Donald Trump’s advice for high school students in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, is uncharacteristically wholesome: Avoid alcohol and drugs as well as cigarettes. The billionaire businessman and Republican presidential candidate is also encouraging the teens to follow their hearts and do something they love, even if it means making less money.”

The First Democratic Debate… And the Winner Is: Donald Trump

Breitbart wrote on October 14:

“While Tuesday night’s CNN political debate was intended as an opportunity for one of the Democrat Party presidential hopefuls to separate him or herself from the rest of the pack, the best line of the night came from a man who was not even in the room with the debaters nor in the same party. In effect, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump stole the show with a perfectly-timed tweet explaining that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee spent their night talking about all the free stuff they were going to give away–including ObamaCare benefits and tuition breaks for illegal immigrants–without once mentioning what they would do to make conditions better for U.S. military veterans.

“Amid the Obama administration’s Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal, the punishment for secret waiting lists–which have left veterans dying while the government they served denied them medical care–has been scant, and the agency has seen no substantial reforms. Trump has made veterans’ care a major talking point in his stump speeches… So Trump tweeted: ‘Notice that illegal immigrants will be given ObamaCare and free college tuition but nothing has been mentioned about our VETERANS #DemDebate.’ It was the best line of the night by far.

“The billionaire also overshadowed Democrats in social media engagement. Time declared that Trump ‘won Twitter’ during the debate, based on data saying he picked up 60,000 new followers–about 4 times as many as Clinton. Trump’s tweet at the time of this writing has nearly 11,000 retweets and 17,000 favorites, while Clinton’s biggest tweet of the night only reached 3,300 retweets and 4,800 favorites.”

According to the Washington Post, another note-worthy tweet came from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee who wrote:  “They believe climate change is a greater threat than Islamic extremism, that a sunburn is worse than a beheading. It’s nonsense.”

While “political experts” are divided as to the Democrat who won the Debate (most feel that it was Clinton), according to a poll published by Time.com and quoted by Bild Online, 62% favored Sanders, a self-declared independent Democratic socialist, while only 12% felt that Clinton had won. According to other polls, Sanders was leading by up to 70%. Deutsche Welle wrote that “Sanders has succeeded in pushing the debate to the left.”

Franklin Graham—The Senate Is Full of Hypocrites

Newsmax reported on September 26:

“‘The hypocrisy of our Senate never ceases to amaze me,’ the evangelist [Franklin Graham] said… ‘They welcomed Pope Francis into their chambers with a standing ovation and then within hours they voted down the bill to ‪defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that not only murders innocent children in their mothers’ wombs but is also guilty of selling body parts from these babies.’…

“Americans must call abortion ‘what it is — murder; and we need lawmakers and leaders who are brave enough to stand and fight for human life,’ he wrote…

“On Thursday, Senate Democrats, joined by some Republicans, blocked efforts to deny federal funds for the women’s healthcare group, making a move to help avoid a government shutdown over the issue on Oct. 1.  Most Senate Republicans had supported the plan to attach the Planned Parenthood defunding to a bill keeping government operating with the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, but 42 Democrats, two independents and eight Republicans banded together to stop the anti-abortion effort. That marked 11 more votes than the 41 needed to block the legislation.”

In Tuesday’s Democratic Debate, Clinton again strongly supported Planned Parenthood.

Pope Apologizes for Recent Sex Scandals

Reuters reported on October 4:

“Pope Francis asked for forgiveness on Wednesday for scandals at the Vatican and in Rome, an apparent reference to two cases of priests and gay sex revealed this month during a major meeting of bishops. ‘Today … in the name of the Church, I ask you for forgiveness for the scandals that have occurred recently either in Rome or in the Vatican,’ Francis said in unprepared remarks during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“… there have been two scandals involving the Vatican and the Church in Rome in the past two weeks. On Oct. 3, a Polish monsignor working in the Vatican’s doctrinal office since 2003 held a packed news conference in which he disclosed that he was gay and had been living with another man for years. The Vatican dismissed Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a theologian, from his job there as well as from teaching assignments in pontifical universities in Rome.

“A spokesman said at the time that Charamsa’s high-profile coming out on the eve of a meeting of world bishops at the Vatican was ‘grave and irresponsible’. It accused him of trying to exert ‘undue media pressure’ on the bishops’ debate on family issues, including the Church’s position on gays…

“The pope also appeared to be referring to a scandal exposed in the Italian media last week about an order of priests who run a parish in a well-to-do neighborhood in Rome. Parishioners in the Santa Teresa d’Avila parish wrote to local Church officials alleging that a clergyman there had had encounters with ‘vulnerable adults’. Newspapers said these took place in an adjacent park often frequented by male prostitutes.

“According to the letter published in the media, parishioners said they had assembled evidence about the clergyman’s illicit activities and were furious to discover he had been transferred to another part of Italy instead of being disciplined.

“Since his election in 2013, the pope has asked forgiveness for sexual abuse of the children by the clergy and for the Church’s treatment of Protestants and indigenous people in the course of its history.”

Apart from “apologies,” what is the Catholic Church doing about the issue?

American Economy Heading for Disaster

 Newsmax wrote on October 14:

“GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump warned that the current stock-market bubble will eventually pop and plunge the nation into another recession. Trump accused Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen of keeping interest rates low in order to shield President Obama from having to leave office during a recession… But don’t be fooled, Trump warns. The nation is on a path to financial disaster…

“Other prominent economic experts agree with Trump and say the government is to blame for placing the U.S. economy in the fast lane to disaster. Newsmax Finance Insider Stephen Moore says that Washington doesn’t understand what went wrong in 2007 and 2008, so the Fed, the White House and Congress are recreating the very same conditions for another financial bubble…”

Proposed Amended US Copyright Law Would Destroy News Sites

Daily Caller wrote on October 13:

“Congress may update digital copyright law affecting aggregator sites, like the Drudge Report and Real Clear Politics, along with news sites in the near future… Drudge Report site owner Matt Drudge told Alex Jones of InfoWars last week that copyright laws could very well end his popular site. ‘I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me,’ said Drudge. ‘They’ve got the votes now to enforce copyright law, you’re out of there. They’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines.’

“He explained, ‘To have a Supreme Court Justice say to me it’s over, they’ve got the votes, which means time is limited,’ he added, noting that a day was coming when simply operating an independent website could be outlawed. That will end [it] for me…’ said Drudge, adding that web users were being pushed into the cyber ‘ghettos’ of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.”

Such a new law would not be surprising, giving the continuing governmental effort to restrict and violate personal liberties and freedoms.

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Unconditional Promise for Healing in this Life?

In previous Q&A’s, we have set forth some of the biblical requirements for physical healing.

We pointed out that because of Christ’s supreme Sacrifice, God has promised to heal our physical illnesses, if we are fulfilling certain conditions. We showed that God expects a sick person to ask the ministers of His Church to anoint the sick with oil or send an anointed cloth to the sick person. We also showed that the sick person must have faith to be healed, and that he or she must do the things “which are pleasing in God’s sight.” In addition, keeping God’s commandments is an absolute necessity.

At the same time, we must not conclude that we are guilty of neglecting or violating these requirements if we do not enjoy healing right away. We must of course prove, test and examine ourselves in this regard, but that is not to say that we are to run around with a guilty conscience, assuming we are not healed because we are the most terrible sinner in the world, lacking faith, while we are unable to determine in what regard we have supposedly failed. To develop a guilt complex and fall into depression as a consequence is most certainly not the right approach.

We must understand that God might have an overriding purpose for not healing us right away, KNOWING at the same time that God cannot lie, and that HE WILL heal us in His due time. It is important to develop a close relationship with God so that “delayed” healing or other “delayed” answers to our prayers will NEVER result in us doubting God and His Word.

In our free booklet, “Sickness and Healing–What the Bible Tells Us,” we state the following:

“Paul seems to have had another sickness that was not healed by God during his lifetime. We read in 2 Corinthians 12:7–10: ‘And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations [Paul had just described how God let him see, in a vision, the third heaven, or paradise, where God dwells], a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet [beat] me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times [he asked God three times in a very formal way that he be healed from that sickness] that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities [or weaknesses or sicknesses], that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’

“We see from this passage that Paul’s sickness—some think it was malaria [while others think it might have been an eye problem]—was NOT the result of an individual sin of Paul. We can also see that this particular sickness was caused by Satan, not God, but God did allow it. Further, God chose not to heal Paul from this sickness during his life. The reason God allowed this sickness was so that Paul would NOT sin and so that he could more fully appreciate and recognize what it meant to suffer, just as Christ suffered. Christ said, when he called Saul, that Saul had to experience what it meant to suffer for Christ’s name (Acts 9:16). Paul later commented that he bore in his body ‘the marks of the Lord Jesus’ (Galatians 6:17).”

The fact that God did not heal Paul at that time (Paul WILL be healed in his resurrection to eternal life) had NOTHING to do with sinful conduct or lack of faith. Rather, God chose not to heal Paul at that time because that was the BETTER course of action.

We also stated this in a previous Q&A on Paul’s faith:

“The question of sickness and healing has confused many people. Some don’t believe in godly healing; others claim that given enough faith, God will heal every sickness in this life. Some carry with them feelings of guilt, as they prayed to God for healing and were not healed, concluding that the reason must be their fault and their lack of faith. Some conclude that if we prayed to God for healing ‘in accordance with’ or ‘subject to’ His Will, this would already signify our doubt in God’s intervention. Some say that when Paul asked God for healing (compare 2 Corinthians 12:7-10), Paul did not really have the faith that God would heal him. They make the same argument regarding Elisha (2 Kings 13:14, 20-21), stating that Elisha was not healed because he did not have the faith that he would be healed.

“We should be able to see that these conclusions cannot possibly be correct. To suggest that Paul and Elisha did not have enough faith in God’s healing is absolutely wrong. But those ideas show the confusion some people have regarding this often-misunderstood topic of sickness and healing…

“Some say that if we only have enough faith in God to heal, then we have an unconditional promise for healing in each and every case. But… this is not correct. If it were so, why was the apostle Paul not healed? Why were righteous prophets, like Elisha, not healed? … we must understand that it may NOT be God’s Will to heal us right away, or completely, or at all, in this life. And there are reasons for that. To argue with and deny this, we are really ‘tempting’ God or better ‘testing Him severely,’ trying to force OUR Will on Him. Some have done this, refusing to take medical help–for instance, an insulin-dependent diabetic refuses to take insulin–’believing’ that God would heal the person of diabetes. In some cases, they nearly died, and some did, in fact, die. This is not unconditional faith—it is ‘foolishness’ and unbiblical conduct…

“Christ experienced what it was like to suffer in the flesh, so that He could become our merciful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17; 4:14–16; 5:6–8). All of us need to be compassionate and merciful toward others. In going through trials and suffering, including [a prolonged] sickness, we develop empathy for others who are also afflicted with sickness (compare 2 Corinthians 1:3–7). This may be, at times, one of the reasons why God may decide not to heal us right away.

“… even if we had ‘perfect’ faith and lived a ‘perfect’ life and had brought about perfect reconciliation with our brother and sister, God might STILL NOT heal us in this life from a particular sickness. Why not? Because God might have in mind a superior purpose for us in this life which He deems much more important than our healing from temporary frailties…  If we REALLY love God, then we will have developed such a close relationship with Him that we will understand and accept the fact that God may respond to our plea for healing with the words, ‘Not yet, My child.’…

“… if we are sick, we are to pray to God for healing and avail ourselves of the privilege of calling for the elders of His Church to anoint us with oil and to pray for us. MANY were healed who did this – some miraculously in an instant. Others did not experience immediate healing, or healing at all in this life, but lack of faith or ungodly living or lack of reconciliation with others did not HAVE to be the reason. We must of course make sure that we do our part, and we must then have the unshakable confidence and trust that God WILL heal us—in HIS due time—never questioning Him, and never trying to ‘force’ Him to do what WE want Him to do, even though it would not be in our best interest and might even prevent us from entering His Kingdom. We might not fully understand all the reasons why someone is not healed right away or at all… but we MUST have the absolute faith and conviction that God knows everything; that He can do everything; and that He will do everything that we ask… in His due time and subject to His Will.”

Referring to praying to God subject to His Will, we should understand what is meant by this. We stated in a previous Q&A on godly requirements for healing:

“Christ KNEW that He had to go through His ordeal, but as a human being, He WISHED so hard that there could be another way. Deep down inside, He understood, of course, that there was no other way (He Himself had inspired Old Testament writers to prophesy about His torture and crucifixion), but He just expressed His innermost feelings to the Father in prayer. But He always added that the Father’s Will had to be done, not Christ’s human will which did not want to go through these terrible events just ahead of Him. And He submitted to the Father’s Will in everything. This must be our approach as well. We must never argue with God and oppose God’s Will for us, whatever it may be. But submitting to God’s Will has nothing to do with lack of faith.

“When we ask God for healing, we MUST believe that our request will be granted. When we ask God for healing, we must not doubt at the same time by thinking that perhaps it is not God’s Will to heal us. Such a prayer would show doubt (Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:23). It would not avail anything, because why would we even ask God for healing in the first place? If in a particular case God does not intervene right away, or for a longer period of time, we must not lose faith and give in to doubt (Matthew 14:31), but rather, our faith must grow ever stronger (Romans 4:20, Living Bible), being totally convinced that God will answer our prayer of faith in His due time. And let us not forget that no sickness—no matter how severe—is beyond God’s power to heal. There is NOTHING too hard or impossible for God (Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17).”

It really boils down to the question as to whether we have “unconditional love” for God and His Way of Life–never willing to forsake that way if things don’t work out in the way which we want them to.  A good description of unconditional love for God can be found in Luke 16:13, where we read that loving our Master means, holding on to Him (Authorized Version) or being devoted to Him (NIV). The Living Bible states that we will be enthusiastic about Him. Christ had an extremely intimate relationship with the Father. We read that He is in the “bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). The NIV says that He is in “closest relationship with the Father.” The Pulpit Commentary adds that Christ is “in most intimate and loving fellowship with the Father.” We must acquire that same kind of relationship with God. We read in a parable, for example, that Lazarus was “in Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:23), describing the same close relationship and unity of mind. Christ NEVER doubted that whatever the Father decided was best for Him and others. James tells us too that God is the Giver of good and perfect gifts (James 1:17). We must never lose this conviction that God knows best, and that whatever He decides is the very best for us. With that understanding, we will gladly accept God’s Will in our lives… whatever it may be.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

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Preaching the Gospel and Feeding the Flock

A new Member Letter reporting on our Feast sites in the United States and Germany will be sent out next week. We will also include a copy of our newest booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” Those attending the Feast have already received a copy.

“Germany’s Disastrous Migrant Crisis,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Europe and especially Germany are facing an unsolvable migrant crisis of unparalleled proportions in recent history, which has been caused by the situation in Syria. Both Russia and the USA are fighting for preeminence in Syria, but the Obama administration is clearly losing. Angela Merkel’s unquestioned leadership role is now under severe attack, and calls for her resignation from inside and outside her own party are becoming louder. Is a powerful German leader on the rise who might replace her? We are offering two free booklets, dealing with the subject at hand: “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy” and “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.”

Geistliches Wachstum in Gottes Kirche,” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon. It is dealing with growth in individual members and in the church as a collective body. Title in English: “Spiritual Growth in God’s Church.”

We will be posting our Feast messages which were given in the USA and in Germany on our respective websites. Quite a few have already been posted on the American and German YouTube pages; please have a look.

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How This Work is Financed

This Update is an official publication by the ministry of the Church of the Eternal God in the United States of America; the Church of God, a Christian Fellowship in Canada; and the Global Church of God in the United Kingdom.

Editorial Team: Norbert Link, Dave Harris, Rene Messier, Brian Gale, Johanna Link, Eric Rank, Michael Link, Anna Link, Kalon Mitchell, Manuela Mitchell, Dawn Thompson

Technical Team: Eric Rank, Shana Rank

Our activities and literature, including booklets, weekly updates, sermons on CD and video and audio broadcasts, are provided free of charge. They are made possible by the tithes, offerings and contributions of Church members and others who have elected to support this Work.

While we do not solicit the general public for funds, contributions are gratefully welcomed and are tax-deductible in the U.S. and Canada.

Donations can be sent to the following addresses:

United States: Church of the Eternal God, P.O. Box 270519, San Diego, CA 92198

Canada: Church of God, ACF, Box 1480, Summerland, B.C. V0H 1Z0

United Kingdom: Global Church of God, PO Box 44, MABLETHORPE, LN12 9AN, United Kingdom

This Week in the News

House Rejects Iran Deal in a Symbolic Vote

Newsmax and Reuters reported on September 11:

“House Republicans Friday slammed the Iran nuclear deal after they voted it down… saying the deal would empower the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism and endanger the future of both the United States and Israel… lawmakers voted 269-162 to oppose the deal. No Republicans backed the accord, while 25 Democrats broke with Obama to reject it… [The number of votes, even though constituting a majority, were not enough to kill the deal or even send the House’s objections to President Obama for his anticipated veto.]

“Ohio Rep. Mike Turner said that he was ‘perplexed as to how any member of Congress can vote in good faith knowing there are secret side agreements to this deal. The president is seeking approval of a deal that largely remains hidden from the public.’…

“Besides voting to reject the deal, the House also approved another resolution that would prevent Obama from releasing billions of dollars that had been held up through five years of crippling sanctions.

“The votes, though considered largely symbolic, were part of an effort by Republicans to underscore their objections despite a Democratic move on Thursday in the Senate that blocked a GOP-led effort to kill the deal by passing a resolution of disapproval.

“‘I am encouraged that House Republicans and principled Democrats voted against approval of the deal and to pass other measures requiring the president to provide information regarding every aspect of the deal negotiated with Iran,” said Oklahoma GOP Rep. Tom Cole. ‘If this deal is implemented, it will almost certainly lead to a nuclear-capable Iran in the near future,’ he added. ‘While the president insists on trusting this dangerous state sponsor of terrorism, he is recklessly jeopardizing the safety and security of America and our allies.’”

Democrats Block Republicans’ Attempt to Sink Iran Deal

The Times of Israel wrote on September 17:

“Senate Democrats foil latest GOP attempt to sink Iran deal. Amendment to keep sanctions unless Tehran recognizes Israel and releases US hostages falls 53-45 on [the] final day to shoot down [the] deal…

“Senate Democrats have turned back the latest GOP effort to undermine the Iran nuclear deal Thursday. Democrats blocked a measure aimed at maintaining sanctions unless Iran recognizes Israel and releases American hostages. The vote was 53-45, short of the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote. Two previous votes against the Iran deal have resulted in similar outcomes.

“Thursday’s vote saw Democrats even more united, as several who oppose the Iran deal nonetheless voted with their party, rejecting GOP majority attempts to use the issue to political advantage… Thursday is the deadline for Congress to vote against the deal, meaning the measure will likely go into effect next month.”

No Business for US Companies with Iran

Deutsche Welle reported on September 11:

“President Obama’s victory in Congress finally clears the path for his Iran deal. While the nuclear agreement with Tehran could be a boon for European and Asian businesses, US companies will be left in the cold…

“The main feature of the nuclear agreement is that the US and Europe will lift most of its economic sanctions against Tehran. That means that on implementation day – when the IAEA issues an official report verifying that Iran has complied with all its obligations under the arrangement, probably in the second quarter of 2016 – Iran will regain access to the international financial system.

“Tehran will then be able to sell oil again and its blocked funds abroad will be unfrozen. Iran will also be able to engage in trade relationships and sign contracts with foreign entities again – with the exception of American businesses… ‘US companies will remain off limits during the duration of this deal,’ said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former senior sanctions adviser in the Obama administration’s Treasury Department. ‘The US embargo that prevents US people and companies from doing business in Iran remains basically in place.’

“The reason why American firms will be essentially locked out from doing business with Iran with some exceptions like sales of commercial passenger airplanes is that the US sanctions regime vis-à-vis Tehran is far broader and dates back much further than that of Europe. ‘The US really has two kinds of sanctions in place,’ explained Christopher R. Wall, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration under George W. Bush. Back in the 1990s Washington began to impose various restrictions against Tehran. These direct sanctions penalized American companies for dealing with Iran.

“Then around 2010 the United States started a second round of sanctions, this time aimed at non-US companies engaging in business with Iran, so called secondary sanctions. As part of the Iran deal, the US has agreed to lift those secondary sanctions. ‘However, the direct sanctions will stay in place for the US companies,’ said Wall… ‘And that means that US companies will not be able to engage in business with Iran because they would be violating US regulations’… ‘It will be European and Asian companies and others that will have the ability to expand trade and investment with Iran,’ noted Rosenberg…”

Iran Deal—Real Danger for America

The Times of Israel wrote on September 13:

“The majority of Americans oppose the deal. But deep down… Americans do not feel that a nuclear Iran poses a direct threat to them. After all, the United States is more than 6,000 miles away, with the strongest military in the world. But Americans haven’t been informed of the danger that… is more real.

“Until now, nuclear weapons have been in the hands of governments. Even when those governments are evil to the core, wreaking havoc on the world — as was the case in the former Soviet Union, and is now the case with Russia and North Korea — they still seemed to understand the consequences — both for their own countries and the world — if they ever unleashed their nuclear power.

“Iran, however, is in a different class. Its government is inextricably bound to terrorism, to the belief that terror can change the global balance of power. And so, if this deal will lead to Iran becoming a nuclear power, the danger is not limited to Iran’s using part of the more than $100 billion it will receive after the removal of sanctions to fund conventional terror. The real danger is that Iran will willingly give Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies the capability to carry miniaturized nuclear weapons in backpacks and around their waists.

“So far, only the United States and Russia are known to have miniaturized nuclear weapons so small that they could fit into a backpack. In time, with billions more in its coffers, it’s likely that Iran will be able to do the same… Just imagine if the terrorists at the Boston Marathon were armed with small nuclear weapons. Imagine if the planes that hit the Twin Towers or the terrorists who murdered and maimed in London, Paris, Madrid, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Kenya (the list goes on) were not only suicide bombers, but nuclear suicide bombers.

“Americans must understand that the deal with Iran cannot be separated from Iran’s clear intentions to destroy America. Iran may not be able to hit our cities from its mainland, but it will be perfectly capable of supplying terrorists with small nuclear weapons. Chances are, some will attempt to infiltrate our subways, shopping malls and industrial centers. Conventional terrorist bombs scatter nails and explosives that can kill scores. A nuclear terrorist bomb can murder many, many thousands…”

Iran’s Unexpectedly High Uranium Reserve

Reuters reported on September 12:

“Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Saturday. The comments cast doubt on previous assessments from some Western analysts who said the country had a low supply and sooner or later would need to import uranium, the raw material needed for its nuclear program…

“After decades of effort, Iran… has achieved a full nuclear fuel cycle, ranging from the extraction of uranium ore to enrichment and production of fuel rods for nuclear reactors. Sanctions on companies taking part in Iran’s uranium mining industry will be lifted when the agreement is implemented…”

The Vatican’s Pro-Iran and Anti-Israel Position

Breitbart wrote on September 15:

“The Vatican released a statement Tuesday officially welcoming the nuclear agreement between the P5+1 world powers (U.S., UK, China, France, Russia, Germany) and Iran, stating that the Holy See believes Tehran will reduce its nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief. In calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, the Vatican also appeared to target Israel, given that it is the lone nuclear power in the region.

“The Vatican ‘values positively this agreement because it considers that the way to resolve disputes and difficulties should always be that of dialogue and negotiation,’ Archbishop Paul Gallagher said in a statement… Gallagher also appeared to single out Israel in calling for ‘the establishment of zones free of nuclear weapons … especially in the Middle East’…

“The news about the Vatican’s pro-Iran deal position comes as Pope Francis is set to visit Washington, D.C., on September 22. He will then be welcomed to the White House by President Obama on the 23rd. On the 24th, he is set to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.”

Either the Vatican is totally naïve, or its stated position reflects a complete anti-Israeli bias.

Obama Provokes Francis

Breitbart wrote on September 16:

“President Obama will apparently test just how far Pope Francis’ notorious tolerance will go by inviting a rogue’s gallery of people opposed to Catholic teaching to greet the pontiff at the White House during his visit next week. In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.

“The White House was illuminated in gay pride colors on June 26, 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized gay same-sex marriage. One of the invitees, retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, made history by becoming the first openly gay episcopal bishop in 2003 and subsequently the first to divorce his gay partner in 2014, after having previously separated from his wife of 14 years. He has attended a number of religious events with the Obama administration, offering a prayer at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and taking part in the 2014 National Prayer Breakfast…

“Though Pope Francis has said that he doesn’t believe in judging persons and is ready to welcome anyone in Christ’s name, he has also said that Catholics do not accept the modern mentality of transgenderism and once said that gay marriage is the devil’s ‘attempt to destroy God’s plan’… Earlier this month, the Vatican officially prohibited transgender persons from being baptismal godparents posing as the opposite sex from which they were born…”

The Pope’s Political Activities Around the World

On September 17, the website of “Indiaeveryday.in” published the following preview of an article from TIME magazine, titled, “Pope Francis and the New Roman Empire,” to be officially released on September 28, 2015. The title is somewhat misleading, as the article does not address at all the “New Roman Empire” (commonly understood as a revival of the ancient Holy Roman Empire as a religious and political union, which is prophesied to occur in Europe), but it makes interesting reading in pointing out the influential role which the pope is playing on the world scene… and behind closed doors:

“… when Obama and Castro sealed the historic deal by telephone on Dec. 16, 2014, they found common ground expressing their gratitude to the Pope… Francis’ popularity as a religious figure in the U.S. gave Obama cover as he cut a deal with godless communists across the Straits of Florida, while the Pope’s credibility as a Latin American shielded Castro as he got in bed with Yankee capitalists…

“Nearly a year after Ortega’s visit, Francis… credited divine inspiration for his own part in the talks’ successful outcome…  the Pope is making the Holy See a player in the most pressing global issues in a way unseen since the early days of Pope John Paul II. From the outset of his papacy he has drawn attention to the Mediterranean migrant crisis… he routinely speaks out about the persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq as he pushes for action to end the wars there.

“He praised the controversial nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers. His 180-page encyclical on the environment has been called ‘radical’ by one prominent environmentalist and has helped make Francis a perceived front runner for the Nobel Peace Prize. And the State Department has asked the Vatican for help on relocating prisoners from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that it can be closed… Secretary of State John Kerry ‘early on saw Francis as a potentially activist foreign policy Pope,’ says one senior State official…

“Francis’ strategy is bold, both on the world stage and within the Vatican. First, he is injecting himself into high-level diplomacy by taking controversial positions on the biggest issues of the day. His climate encyclical–timed to precede the upcoming U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Paris–pleased backers of aggressive action against global warming but worried conservatives… its language was confrontational…

“In the Middle East, the Pope has alternately pleased and disappointed all sides. His push for the Iran nuclear deal bolstered the White House but angered Israel. The Vatican recognized Palestinian statehood in June, infuriating Jerusalem, but chose not to support Palestinians’ effort to raise their flag at the U.N. before the Pope’s visit there this month… Francis’ willingness to weigh in on hot-button issues is bolstered by his popularity around the world…

“In the U.S., Francis’ approval dropped to 59% over the summer as many came to oppose the positions he has taken. While Obama and many Democrats praised the Pope’s climate encyclical, others, like GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum, said he was in over his head… Within the Vatican itself, there are also some signs of dissent…

“One of the Vatican’s biggest diplomatic prizes, formal relations with China, remains out of reach, but there are signs Francis may be making progress… Chinese state television reported favorably on the Pope’s condolences after the chemical-plant explosion in Tianjin in August. China allowed the ordination of a Roman Catholic bishop in a diocese in central China in early August–the first to take place with the Vatican’s approval since 2012…”

Merkel Under Attack

The Financial Times wrote on September 11:

“German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees into the country has come under fierce attack from rightwing critics in her own ruling coalition, in a sign of growing conservative resistance to her liberal approach… in an unusually direct assault on the government, leading members of the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, sister party to Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats, criticised the chancellor’s decision to relax the rules for Syrian asylum-seekers looking to settle in Germany…

“They were speaking as Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister, was due to fly to Prague for a key meeting with his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary — the four countries most opposed to EU plans to redistribute the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have arrived in Italy, Greece and Hungary this year… Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former CSU interior minister, said in a press interview on Friday that giving free access for migrants massed in Hungary into Germany was ‘an unprecedented political mistake’ which would have ‘devastating consequences’…

“Horst Seehofer, CSU leader, said Ms Merkel’s decision was a mistake. He told Spiegel magazine: ‘It was a mistake that will occupy us for a long time yet. I see no possibility of putting the stopper back into the bottle.’…

“The CSU is likely to stay on the offensive; it has long called for more restrictive immigration rules for migrants coming from both within and beyond the EU. Mr Seehofer earlier this week said the government had taken ‘the wrong decision’ over Syrian refugees and warned it to pay attention to the ‘concerns and fears of the population’ if it wanted to prevent the rise of the far right.”

Germany Calls in the Army

Express wrote on September 11:

“Merkel calls in the army: ‘Generous’ Germany faces migrant chaos as troops put on alert. Germany has put 4,000 troops on standby as the country buckles under the pressure of the record-breaking number of migrants arriving in the country.

“[German] Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said: ‘For this weekend alone we have put 4,000 soldiers on standby.’ [She] added that the troops would be able ‘to pitch in in an emergency’…

“On Wednesday, the leading conservative newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung wondered if the ‘heterogenous crowds’ could really be transformed into ‘constitutionally loyal’ citizens and taxpayers. Saudi Arabia have controversially offered to help Germany cope by building at least 200 mosques. The rich Gulf state said it would build one mosque for every 100 Middle Eastern refugees who entered Germany.

“The German army order follows a move by the Hungarian parliament to pass laws to allow its forces to use rubber bullets and tear gas on migrants… Janos Lazar, chief of the Hungarian cabinet, admitted that the possibility of terrorism is growing in Hungary following the refugee crisis.

“The decision means that thousands of armed soldiers will be assembled across the Hungarian border with Serbia. Prisoners have also been drafted in to build 10km of 13ft fencing every day.”

Germany Has Reached Its Limit

The Local wrote on September 13:

“Germany’s transport minister on Sunday… called for measures to halt a record migrant influx that has seen the infrastructure of the southern city of Munich buckling. Dobrindt, who is a member of the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Bavarian allies CSU, warned that the country ‘has reached its limit of capacity’, a day after 12,200 more refugees reached Munich — a key arrival point… The president of the Upper Bavaria region, Christoph Hillenbrand said he did not know ‘how we can cope’, according to the Bild am Sonntag tabloid which headlined its article ‘Munich at the brink of collapse’.”

USA Today added on September 12:

“German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) said Saturday that ‘Germany sees itself in a situation where we are reaching limits,’ news agency dpa reported. He added that ‘the speed is almost more problematic than the number.’”

Germany Is Reinstating Borders

The Local wrote on September 13:

“Germany is reinstating controls at its border with Austria as Europe’s top economy struggles to cope with a record influx of refugees… Passport checks had been abolished for countries within Europe’s Schengen zone, but… [by] reinstating controls, Berlin is seeking to buy time to cope with the influx, according to news magazine the Spiegel.

“Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt had issued a statement earlier Sunday saying that ‘effective measures are necessary now to stop the influx… That includes help for countries from where refugees are fleeing and also includes an effective control of our own borders which also no longer works given the EU’s complete failure to protect its external borders,’ he said.”

Deutsche Welle added on September 13:

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban praised Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls in comments made to German periodical ‘Bild’… ‘We have great understanding for Germany’s decision and we’d like to express our solidarity,’ Orban said. ‘We understand that this decision was necessary in order to defend Germany’s and Europe’s values,’ Orban added…

“The EU has said that Germany’s reintroduction of controls on its border with Austria due to the arrival of thousands of refugees ‘appears to be a situation covered by the rules.’ ‘The temporary reintroduction of border controls between Member States is an exceptional possibility explicitly foreseen in and regulated by the Schengen Borders Code, in case of a crisis situation,’ the EU said in a statement…

“The Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Milan Chovanec said it will also increase controls on its border with Austria in response to the refugee influx, moments after Germany made a similar announcement…”

In the meantime, Hungary has closed its borders completely and begun to conduct mass arrests of those who still tried to come into the country.

European Pro- and Anti-Migrant Rallies

 The website of samaa.tv reported on September 12:

“Thousands of people joined anti-migrant protests in three eastern European capitals on Saturday… In the Polish capital Warsaw, nearly 5,000 people, many chanting anti-Islamic slogans, marched through the city… ‘Islam will be the death of Europe’, one of the banners said. ‘We’re here so that the government hears our voice and abandons any plans to welcome Muslims,’ shouted one of the organisers after starting the march with prayers which identified the participants as Roman Catholics. Members of far-right fringe parties and football supporters chanted ‘Poles against migrants’ and ‘Migrants today, terrorists tomorrow’.

“Another thousand or so joined a ‘Welcome refugees’ rally in favour of hosting migrants in Poland, a strongly Catholic EU member state which has a population of 38 million and has seen hardly any newcomers arriving… ‘I became a refugee when I had to flee Warsaw as the Germans invaded during the war,’ 80-year-old Danuta Chomiak told AFP as she marched with the crowd. ‘I have a duty to be here today.’…

“All poorer members of the EU, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Friday ruled out accepting refugees under a compulsory quota system outlined by the European Commission, rejecting German pleas for European solidarity in tackling the crisis.”

Coming–A European Army

Express wrote on September 14:

“Merkel is pressuring Cameron to drop his opposition against an EU army… The Prime Minister is to be told that Germany would support his bid to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership if he accepts moves to create a European military force… Mr Cameron has resisted plans for a Brussels-led military force because of the possible impact on Nato…

“It emerged yesterday that policy officials in Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party had drawn up a 10-point plan for EU military cooperation… European federalists have dreamed of a united European army for more than 60 years. But successive British governments have resisted the notion…”

Germany’s Failed Migrant Policy

Breitbart wrote on September 15:

“Germany’s recent, surprise announcement of renewed border controls seems a direct consequence of its ill-fated decision to throw open its gates to all Syrians, a policy that has been fraught with problems from the outset. Since Syrians enjoy a privileged status, suddenly everyone applying for asylum turns out to be Syrian.

“In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Minister of the Interior of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lorenz Caffier, confirmed suspicions about the origin of many supposed Syrian refugees. ‘At least a quarter of those refugees allegedly coming from Syria are not from Syria, but from other Arab or African countries,’ said Caffier.

“Caffier’s statement echoes the experience of Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union: ‘Almost without exception, every refugee pretends to be a Syrian when in fact, many come from other countries, even from sub-Saharan Africa,’ he said. ‘All present themselves as Syrians,’ said a police officer stationed in Bavaria to Spiegel Online, ‘even if they are obviously black Africans.’

“The discovery echoes comments made by the chief of the European border force FRONTEX, who said last week, ‘A lot of people get into Turkey [with] Syrian fake papers, because they know that they’ll get easier asylum in the EU… People who use these fake passports, speak mostly Arabic. They come from North Africa, the Middle East, but are economic refugees’.

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has criticised the European policy of open doors to ‘alleged-Syrian refugees’… ‘Many Europeans have also forgotten the lessons of 9/11 as they allow waves of alleged Syrians refugees to stream across their borders and denounce anyone who questions it as being intolerant,’ declared Huckabee. ‘Even as some of the newcomers were attacking and cursing police, throwing bottles, and shouting “Allahu akbar.”’…”

Chaos in Hungary

Breitbart wrote on September 16:

“Hungarian police have opened fire with tear gas against 1500 rioting migrants who are attempting to break through the country’s border fence. Migrants have been chanting ‘Allah hu Akbar’ while pelting police officers with missiles including ‘really big rocks’, bottles, and even food, leading to the crack down. The news follows Hungary’s state of emergency declared yesterday.

“The Hungarian crack down followed the suspension of the Schengen free movement area by Germany and Austria this weekend… Reuters reports that Serbia says it has been informed by Hungary that the Roszke-Horgos border crossing will be closed for the next 30 days, and that Hungarian humvees with mounted guns are moving towards the Serbia border.

“There are reports that some migrants have managed to break through the border fence, and Hungarian police have begun to use the water cannon to deter the rioting migrants, dozens of whom are climbing onto local buildings, hurling rocks at the border police, while others find more ammunition and keep a constantly supply going…

“In the past few days Hungary has begun construction on another border fence, this time on its Romanian border, and has positioned military vehicles along its border to scare off migrants…”

More Chaos in Europe 

Reuters reported on September 17:

‘Helmeted riot police tried to control growing crowds of migrants at a Croatian border town on Thursday, as migrants crossing from Serbia jostled to board buses headed into Croatia… Long queues formed for buses bound for migrant reception centers elsewhere in Croatia.

“Over 100 riot police officers were deployed to control the crowds and keep them back from railway tracks. More than 6,000 migrants have entered Croatia from Serbia since Wednesday morning, after Hungary sealed its southern frontier with Serbia.”

ISIS Terrorists Enter Europe as “Migrants”

The Daily Mail reported on September 17:

“ISIS fighters and economic migrants are able to buy Syrian identity documents that allow them to hide among refugees travelling to Europe with frightening ease, an investigation by MailOnline can reveal. Our reporter was able to buy a Syrian passport, identity card and driving licence from a fraudster in a Turkish border town this week. The genuine documents were stolen from Syria when they were blank. The forger added our reporter’s picture and gave him the identity of a Syrian man from Aleppo killed last year. The documents, on sale for around $2,000, would help an asylum claim in Europe.

“The forger who sold us the papers, said that they are being used by ISIS fanatics to travel undetected across borders into Europe hidden among tens of thousands of genuine refugees fleeing the terror and destruction. Once in Europe they can set up sleeper cells… The revelation comes as Lebanon warned two in every 100 Syrian migrants smuggled into Europe are ISIS-trained fanatics, with most travelling overland through Turkey to Greece.”

It’s America’s Fault

The Washington Post wrote on September 11:

“From the squalid migrant campgrounds in Hungary to the offices of Europe’s elected officials, many… saw the swell of migrants crossing borders as evidence of a failed U.S. foreign policy. Even as President Obama declared that the country would extend asylum to 10,000 Syrians, many blamed the United States for the migration crisis that has walloped Europe.

“In Germany, it is rare that the distant reaches of the political left and right agree on anything. But they do now: The United States is at fault…

“In Britain, the crisis has renewed old arguments about the country’s commitment to the Middle East… U.S. and British commentators have criticized their nations’ policies as wishy-washy.”

“Most Extraordinary Result in Modern Political History”

The Daily Mail wrote on September 12:

“[The] new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tells thousands at refugee rally he wants peace with jihadis… [The] unassuming 66-year-old leftwinger stuns the party by winning on the first round with anti-austerity pitch…

“Jeremy Corbyn this afternoon vowed to lead the opposition to any attempt to bomb ISIS in Syria as he called for a ‘peaceful solution’ to the threat from jihadi fanatics… The Tories immediately claimed Corbyn-led Labour was now a ‘serious risk to national security’.

“In the most extraordinary result in modern political history, the 66-year-old Marxist throwback who has never run anything in his life will now take charge of the party of Keir Hardie, Clement Atlee and Tony Blair… After thanking the unions, attacking the media, and accusing the Conservatives of ‘social cleansing’, Mr Corbyn took his supporters to the Sanctuary pub in Westminster for a victory drink where they hailed former socialist firebrand Tony Benn and sang the socialist Red Flag anthem…

“Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed that ISIS must be destroyed ‘in the interests of civilisation’, insisting it must be ‘degraded and destroyed and ultimately defeated’ through military action in Syria on the scale seen in neighbouring Iraq…

“Labour is now led by the most radical leader of a mainstream party the country has ever seen…”

Jeremy Corbyn—the British Bernie Sanders?

The Washington Post added on September 12:

“Jeremy Corbyn’s stunning transformation from perennial leftist rebel to leader of Britain’s Labour Party upended British politics Saturday and delivered a striking message worldwide: At this anti-establishment moment, parties of the left are just as vulnerable to populist takeovers as parties of the right.

“The Corbyn victory represented an extraordinary rebuke to Labour’s more centrist powers-that-be, especially to former prime minister Tony Blair, who had campaigned vigorously against Corbyn and who argued that his selection would mean the party’s ‘annihilation.’ But interventions from Blair and other party heavyweights apparently did little to halt Corbyn’s momentum and may have even backfired…

“Corbyn’s rise echoes that of another senior-citizen socialist who has come out of nowhere this year to rattle his party’s center-left establishment. Like Corbyn, Sen. Bernie Sanders… has been waging a surprisingly effective insurgency in a campaign that was once thought to be unwinnable… While Sanders is still fighting uphill in his effort to outmaneuver Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Corbyn’s once-quixotic-seeming campaign ended Saturday with a landslide win. Nearly 60 percent of voters backed him over three more centrist rivals just four months after Labour suffered one of its worst-ever defeats in national elections…

“But within minutes of the results being announced, it became clear just how difficult it will be to hold Labour together. Half a dozen prominent Labour politicians announced they would not serve in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, the opposition party’s main vehicle for challenging the government’s policies.

“The Conservative Party also unleashed a stinging attack that previewed what will likely be a relentless drumbeat for as long as Corbyn remains leader of the opposition…

“But Corbyn capitalized on a widespread grass-roots backlash against the political establishment that has grown out of the wreckage of the Iraq war and the widening wealth gap since the Great Recession… He has previously called for Britain to leave NATO, favors unilateral nuclear disarmament and champions the nationalization of vast sectors of the economy, including the railways and the energy industries. He has also said that he will apologize on behalf of Labour for the Iraq invasion and that Blair could face war-crimes charges.

“In his first official act as leader, Corbyn gave an impassioned address to tens of thousands of demonstrators who thronged central London demanding that the government allow in more refugees from Syria and other conflict zones…

“Outside Britain, Corbyn’s victory was welcomed by leftist parties. Syriza, the coalition of socialists and communists that faces its own election next Sunday after a tumultuous eight months governing Greece, called the vote ‘a message of hope to the people of Europe.’ The radical left has also been on the rise in countries such as Ireland and Spain, both of which hold elections in the coming months.

“Corbyn’s victory places him in line to be the party’s candidate for prime minister in the next general election, in 2020. But he did not focus on the 2020 campaign in his victory speech, and analysts say it’s more than likely he’ll face an internal leadership challenge before that vote.

“The emergence of the radical left as a key player in European politics comes at least several years after the far right began asserting itself. In Britain, the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party had its best-ever result in May elections, proving that voters on both ends of the spectrum are looking for alternatives to the traditional power-brokers…”

Worst Storm Ever for the State of Israel

Times of Israel wrote on September 11:

“The dense sandstorm that has blanketed Israel with thick yellowish-brown dust in recent days is the worst that the Jewish state has ever endured, the Environmental Protection Ministry said Friday. According to the ministry, the current storm, which began Tuesday, and the one experienced in February of this year have seen the highest concentration of dust particles in the air since the creation of the state in 1948, Channel 10 reported… By its second day, the massive sandstorm broke both electricity usage and air pollution records across the country…

“According to figures announced by the Israel Electric Corporation, power usage broke an all-time record as Israelis tried to keep cool — surpassing an earlier all-time high set during a heatwave last month… On Tuesday, air pollution in Jerusalem was 173 times higher than average; in the Negev, 51 times higher than average; and in the Galilee, 32 times higher than average. The ministry on Wednesday evening re-issued a warning advising Israelis against being outside for extended periods, and reminded people to avoid any excessive outdoor physical activity.”

The End of the World–More Fanciful Nonsense of Ignorant and Gullible “Christians”

Newsmax reported on September 13:

“A sizable number of Mormons in Utah are prepping for the end times, which they believe may begin this month… Several makers of survival food and gear report a huge spike in sales over the past few months. The reason is a mix of world events and prophecy from the Bible and a Mormon author who had a near death experience in 2004. The scenario is divided into seven-year periods and begins with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The stock market crashed seven years later – in 2008 – and began a seven-year period of economic uncertainty.

“It has now been seven years since then, and the preppers believe things are aligning this month for the seven years of tribulation as outlined in the biblical book of Revelation. The Jewish high holy days begin on Sunday, and Sept. 28 will have a red full moon, known as a ‘blood moon.’ Revelation also mentions the moon turning to blood. The preppers believe America will be judged for wickedness, and some believe there may be a U.N. troop invasion, technological disruptions and chaos.

“Julie Rowe, a Mormon mother of three and author of the books ‘A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil’ and ‘The Time Is Now,’ has fueled some of the speculation with prophecies she said she received after a near death experience in 2004. Rowe said she saw ‘cities of light’ with people living in tents. Some were fed heavenly manna like the ancient Israelites escaping captivity in Egypt.

“Rowe’s books have sold more than 20,000 copies each, leading The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to send out notices that her writings are not endorsed by the church. ‘Although Sister Rowe is an active member of the [LDS Church], her book is not endorsed by the church and should not be recommended to students or used as a resource in teaching them,’ church officials wrote. ‘The experiences … do not necessarily reflect church doctrine, or they may distort doctrine.’”

In fact, these “experiences”—if they were not merely human imaginations—would have nothing to do with godly revelations. The Scriptures do not teach a seven-year tribulation; rather, the Bible teaches a tribulation which will not last longer than 3 ½ years. The phenomenon of the moon turning to blood, as mentioned in Revelation, will appear AFTER the beginning of the great tribulation—not before then. Finally, the UN will NOT attack the USA, but the attack will come from a confederation of ten European countries, under the leadership of the “beast,”, who will still have to be manifested on the world scene. This attack will BEGIN the great tribulation.

When Will the Nonsense End?

Newsmax wrote on September 15:

“As the same-sex marriage debate rages in conservative states, Alabama is getting closer to its own solution: stop issuing marriage licenses altogether. A bill moving through the legislature would do just that…

“It wouldn’t force Alabamians to ‘live in sin,’ but rather would allow them to declare themselves married without having to get the approval of county officials. Instead of issuing marriage licenses, couples would simply fill out marriage contracts – be they same-sex or opposite sex – that probate judges in the state would then file in the state’s official records.”

Left-Wing Jerry Brown on Climate Change and his Accusations to Republican Visitors: “Welcome, ‘Merchants of Destruction!’”

Newsmax reported on September 15:

“As he struggles to bring under control devastating wildfires that he blames at least partly on global warming, California Governor Jerry Brown has an un- welcome message for the Republican presidential candidates gathering in his state for a debate Wednesday. ‘I would challenge these Republican presidential candidates to speak to what is certainly one of the fundamental issues of our time,’ Brown said in an interview. ‘They fancy themselves defenders of life but they actually are willing merchants of destruction. I would like to see them be honest about climate change.’

“Brown, a 77-year-old Democrat currently grappling with a series of wildfires, one of which has destroyed more than 400 homes and burned an area more than twice the size of San Francisco, said none of the 15 Republicans scheduled to appear on stage 400 miles (700 kilometers) south… has a credible plan to deal with climate change…

“Donald Trump… told CNN’s Jake Tapper… that he’s not convinced that humans are warming the planet. ‘I’m a huge believer in clean air,’ Trump said June 28 on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ ‘I’m not a huge believer in the global-warming phenomenon.’ … Ben Carson… said believers in climate change assert it without being able to produce evidence. ‘There is no overwhelming science that the things that are going on are man- caused and not naturally caused,’ Carson said…

“Jeb Bush… has said he believes in climate change, but said there’s no scientific consensus on man’s role. ‘For the people to say the science is decided on this is really arrogant, to be honest with you,’ Bush said in New Hampshire May 20…

“Ted Cruz… dismissed global warming as a ‘pseudoscientific theory’ in a June 29 interview… and asserted that politicians are invoking it to increase their power over people’s lives.

“Marco Rubio… has consistently cast doubt on the scientific consensus of man-made climate change… In April 2015… Rubio said on CBS’ Face The Nation: ‘Humans are not responsible for climate change in the way some of these people out there are trying to make us believe’ and argued that while it’s impossible to tell what the effect of limiting carbon would be on the environment ‘I can tell you with certainty, it would have a devastating impact on our economy.’ During a campaign stop in Londonderry in late August, Rubio elaborated: ‘The climate’s been changing forever and it’s going to continue to change,’ he said. ‘But here’s the bottom line. I’m not supporting any laws that destroy our economy, make life more expensive for our people and don’t change the climate.’

“Carly Fiorina… has said that regardless of whether global warming is human-caused, a single country or state shouldn’t be forced to act on its own.

“Scott Walker… hasn’t articulated a position on the issue… Chris Christie… said he believes climate change is real and at least partly caused by humans, but he said all countries need to do their part to combat it.

“John Kasich… has said that while he believes there is climate change, he’s not convinced about how much human activity is responsible…

“Mike Huckabee… has said climate science is ‘not settled.’

“Rand Paul… voted to endorse the idea that climate change is real and at least partly human-caused as part of an amendment to a bill in January regarding the Keystone XL oil pipeline. But Paul has said he’s skeptical of government action to address climate change.”

Trump Unstoppable?

Newsmax reported on September 17:

“The GOP presidential debate winner Wednesday night was dominant front-runner Donald Trump, a Newsmax Poll finds. In early results from a poll of Newsmax TV viewers, the billionaire businessman logged 46  percent support, while former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came in second, with 20 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in third with 9 percent.

“Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who’s been surging in national polls since his first debate appearance on Aug. 6 — and pulled into a virtual tie with Trump…— didn’t fare as well with Newsmax TV viewers, logging only 9 percent. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came in just over 5 percent. Gov. Jeb Bush [only reached] 1.45%.”

According to the Drudge Report’s poll, Trump came in first with 52%, followed by Fiorina with 22% and both Cruz and Rubio with 6%. Carson and Paul reached 4%, and Bush only 1%.

Breitbart added on September 17:

“Regardless of how well you think Republican frontrunner Donald Trump performed at Wednesday night’s CNN debate, there is no question he is generating unprecedented interest and excitement. Last night CNN earned its highest ratings ever…”

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