On September 21, 2024, Frank Bruno will present the sermonette, titled, “Empathy,” and Dave Harris will present the sermon, titled, “The Legacy of Faith.”

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.

Sometimes tests and trials come early when God is calling us into His Church, and we at times have to make tough decisions which affect us and our families.  One such test is the keeping of the Sabbath, regardless of the consequences. When I was called into the Truth, I had a government job with security, pension, and benefits. Upon learning of the Sabbath, that we must not just keep it but also not work for a living on that day, I had to make a decision since my job conflicted with the Sabbath

I remember it well: I had been reading the Worldwide Church of God booklet, “United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy,” and it was not until the second time I read it that it dawned on me that I had to quit my job in order to obey God.

I was working on the second floor of the Prison Hospital, walking back and forth thinking about this, and I made up my mind then and there that I would have to resign and also refuse to work on Saturday which was coming up in a few days.

I was working a dayshift at the time, and it was not more than five seconds after deciding to quit, when the officer in charge came up the stairs and asked me if I could work a double shift because the man scheduled to work had called in sick.  I immediately replied, “Yes, If I can have Saturday off,” which he immediately agreed to.  There was no conflict with the Sabbath in my schedule for a while, and I took the opportunity to resign before the Sabbath issue came up again.

Upon returning home that evening, I told my wife about my decision, and she asked what we were going to do and I said, we would have to trust in God.

I recall on my last day at work that a fellow officer asked me if I was resigning because of my beliefs, and when I told him that I was, he replied that I was making a big mistake. This was in the early part of June, and it was an interesting summer that year.

I worked at several jobs. I was helping a Moving Company to move furniture and goods, I helped a bricklayer for a while, and I worked at a Plywood Plant where I got fired after telling the foreman on the afternoon shift that I could not work on a Friday after sunset, and I went home before the Sabbath. I then worked for the Teamster Union, loading and unloading boxcars.

One day in August in 1969, not having any work that day, I was helping my dad at his place, and after I was finished, I was moved to go to apply for a job at BC Hydro in Vancouver. I filled out an application, and as I was about to walk out, the receptionist said to my surprise that the Personnel Manager wanted to see me.

The interview went very well. He had a lot of questions about my job as a Prison Guard and he said he would let me know because they needed workers to work in the Fraser Valley, close to where I lived at the time.

On Friday, September 12, after not hearing anything from the Manager, I decided to call him. He said to me, “I am glad you called, I have been wanting to call you, you can start in the Fraser Valley on Monday, the 15th.” This was a good and secure government company to work for, better than the previous one I had.

Does God bless our commitments to obey Him, regardless of circumstances?

Within four years, I had become the highest paid employee in the Union and was being paid extra as a first aid attendant.

This all came about due to the commitment to obey God who in the end provided me with a better and well-paid job, benefits, and time off for keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days.

I worked there for thirty-eight years until the Summer of 2007 when I retired.

God fulfilled His promise to bless us when we make the choice to serve Him, regardless of the cost. I trust my experience should be encouraging and motivating to anyone facing similar trials, to put our complete trust in God.

by Norbert Link

We begin with Europe’s and Britain’s hostility against Israel and further violent actions in the Middle East; and report on developments regarding Ukraine and China, with special emphasis on Germany’s behavior. We also report on Australia’s intentions to censor free speech.

We speak on a SECOND assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life; Melania Trump’s warning of the FBI; and the controversial conduct of ABC News and their moderators during the Trump/Harris debate. In this regard, please view our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “The Biggest Loser in the Trump/Harris Debate.” 

We conclude with unbiblical comments by Pope Francis, in violation of God’s Word and the Ten Commandments. In this regard, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Recent Unbiblical Comments by Pope Francis.”

EU Foreign Policy Chief Anti-Semitic?

The Jordan Times wrote on September 14:

“Israel’s foreign minister again accused EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of ‘anti-Semitism’ Saturday after the top diplomat expressed outrage at the killing of UN staff in an Israeli strike in Gaza. ‘Josep Borrell is an anti-Semite and Israel-hater who consistently tries to pass resolutions and sanctions against Israel in the EU, only to be blocked by most member states,’ foreign minister Israel Katz said in a statement. On Thursday, Borrell said he was ‘outraged’ by the killing of six employees from the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in an Israeli air strike…

“Katz has repeatedly levelled accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ against the European Union foreign policy chief… ‘There’s a difference between legitimate criticism… and the anti-Semitic, hate-filled campaign Borrell is leading against Israel — reminiscent of history’s worst anti-Semites.’”

Borrell is not the only one. Note the next article.

Anti-Israel Media Bias

Israel Today wrote on September 13:

“The apparent bias of the ABC TV moderators in failing to call out the falsehoods reportedly spoken by US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, in the debate with former President Donald Trump this week has attracted much critical comment… over the past few years, the media’s shocking pro-Democrat, anti-Trump partisanship has destroyed its role as the guardian of democracy and established it instead as an army of ruthless activists for a political cause…

“The impression given by the British media for the past 11 months of this war has been that Israel is willfully killing huge numbers of Gaza’s women and children, recklessly bombing hospitals and schools full of displaced people, and preventing humanitarian aid from getting to civilians. Those claims are the reverse of the truth…

“The most egregious serial offender is the BBC... For decades, it has sanitized Palestinian Arab terrorism and painted Israel falsely as the aggressor in the region. And during the current war in Gaza, its coverage has been overwhelmingly malevolent…

“The network’s double standards in item after item, the soft-soaping of Palestinian supporters and the aggressive interruptions of Israel’s defenders, the acceptance of Hamas propaganda and blood libels about Israeli ‘war crimes’ as fact and the equally knee-jerk assumption that the Israelis are lying, all demonstrate… that the BBC is institutionally hostile to both Israel and the truth. It is therefore a national disgrace… they have been inciting often murderous hatred of Israel around the world.

“The media may have subverted and undermined American democracy. But when it comes to Israel, it has blood on its hands.”

The whole world, and especially Europe, has ganged up on Israel.

No More German Weapons for Israel?

Reuters reported on September 18:

“Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry. Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022… However approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros’ worth granted from January to Aug. 21… Of this, the ‘weapons of war’ category accounted for only 32,449 euros.

“A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel pending a resolution of legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law…

“… the issue has created friction within the government as the Chancellery maintains its support for Israel while the Greens-led Economy and Foreign ministries, sensitive to criticism from party members, have increasingly criticised the Netanyahu administration. Legal challenges across Europe have also led other allies of Israel to pause or suspend arms exports. Britain this month suspended 30 out of 350 licences for arms exports to Israel due to concerns that Israel could be violating international humanitarian law.

“In February, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to halt all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns about their use in attacks on civilian targets in Gaza.”

The situation won’t improve. Note the next article.

Detonation of Hezbollah Radios

Newsmax wrote on September 18:

“Hezbollah was rocked Wednesday by a second wave of explosions with thousands of two-way radios exploding throughout Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut and in the southern region of the country. The blasts took place one day after thousands of personal pagers exploded Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and injuring another 2,800 people.

“Sources said… that Israel was also behind the explosions of the personal radios, which are used by Hezbollah members rather than cell phones. Their walkie-talkies had been booby-trapped with explosives in advance of their delivery to Hezbollah, which uses them as part of its emergency communications system, which would be used in a war with Israel, the sources said.

“The Jerusalem Post reported that according to its sources, the explosions occurred at and near the funerals of four Hezbollah members in Lebanon… Associated Press journalists working at the scene reported the funeral was for three Hezbollah members and a child who were killed by the exploding pagers on Tuesday…

“The Post said that unofficial reports claimed that iPhones, video cameras, IC-V82 radios, and other devices also detonated, in addition to the walkie-talkies, and that Hezbollah has told its operatives to stay away from all communication devices… The Lebanese media also claimed drones and aircraft had been seen flying over western and central Lebanon while the explosions were going on. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for both attacks, but Jerusalem has been publicly silent on the issue. Several foreign media outlets have reported that Israel’s Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces intelligence were behind the incidents.”

The New York Post wrote on September 18:

“The AR-924 pagers that were detonated on Tuesday were all the latest models acquired by Hezbollah five months ago and allegedly manufactured in Budapest, according to a statement released by Gold Apollo — a Taiwanese firm that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.  Hungarian officials however, deny the allegations, saying it has no such manufacturing facility in the country…

“Israel allegedly hid explosive material in the Taiwan-made Gold Apollo pagers before they were imported to Lebanon, the New York Times reported… The material was implanted next to the battery with a switch that could be triggered remotely to detonate. The exploding pagers were then detonated by a message impersonating the leaders of the group on Tuesday afternoon, officials said….”

Hezbollah vowed revenge. The situation in the Middle East will surely escalate.

No More Welfare Benefits for Ukrainian Refugees?

Reuters wrote on September 14:

“European governments should halt welfare benefits to Ukrainian men of military age who are living in their countries, Poland’s foreign minister said, a measure he said would help Ukraine call up more troops to fight Russian forces… More than 4.1 million Ukrainians had temporary protection status in European Union countries as of July this year, and about 22% of them were adult men… ‘Stop paying those social security payments for people who are eligible for the Ukrainian draft. There should be no financial incentives for avoiding the draft in Ukraine,’ Sikorski said at a conference of international leaders in Kyiv…

“Kyiv needs more soldiers…  Earlier this year, Ukraine adopted new legislation and implemented other measures, including lowering the call-up age or combat duty to 25 from 27… Kyiv ordered Ukrainian men living abroad to renew their military draft information online and encouraged them to return to Ukraine and join the fight.

“Ukraine imposed martial law at the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, banning men aged 18 to 60 from travelling abroad without special permission and beginning a rolling mobilisation of civilian men into the armed forces. But many men of military age have still fled abroad to avoid the draft amid reports of corruption in the army recruitment system, allowing some men to bribe their way out of army service.”

Fighting in war is sin and murder. Europe is becoming more and more an “armed camp,” determined to fight and kill in unjust and ungodly wars.

No German Long-Range Weapons for Ukraine?

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 14:

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday ruled out the delivery of long-range precision to Ukraine in the future regardless of decisions made by NATO allies… Scholz said that the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles would entail ‘a great risk of escalation’…

“Taurus cruise missiles have a range of around 500 kilometers (310,6 miles), which would allow Ukraine to strike targets in Moscow. ‘I said no to that,’ Scholz asserted. ‘And of course that also applies to other weapons…’ adding that this would not change ‘even if other countries decide differently.’

“At the same event in Prenzlau, Scholz said that Berlin seeks to prosecute the perpetrators of an attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. ‘That was a terroristic act,’ Scholz said, adding that his government had called on security authorities and public prosecutors to continue investigations into the incident. ‘We want to bring those who did this, if we can get a hold of them, to court in Germany,’ he said, adding that there would be no ‘leniency’ in this case… He said that replacing Russian gas with other source shad cost Germany substantially more than €100 billion ($110.8 billion).”

Germany is under pressure from Russia. Politico reported on September 13, 2024:

“German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius shrugged off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat of retaliation should Western allies allow Ukraine to use their long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia… The Russian leader delivered an explicit message Thursday night to Ukraine’s Western partners, warning them against letting Kyiv use donated long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia. ‘This will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are fighting Russia,’ he said.”

Pistorius is not in charge. And Scholz’ reply seems to be an attempt to appease Russia. In addition, strong implications suggest that in some way, Ukraine was behind the attack on the two pipelines.

German Warships a “Security Risk”?

BNN wrote on September 15:

“The passage of two German Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait on Friday ‘increased security risks’ in the region, the Chinese military has said. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing accused Berlin of staging a ‘provocation’ and violating the One-China policy. Taiwan has been de facto self-governing since 1949, when the Nationalist forces lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists and fled to the island. Taiwan is currently recognized as a sovereign nation by only 12 countries in the world. While adhering on paper to the One-China policy, in which the government in Beijing is the sole ruling authority over Chinese territories, the US has for decades maintained unofficial relations with and supported Taipei.

“China insists that Taiwan is an inalienable part of its territory, with President Xi Jinping warning that Beijing could resort to military force to regain control over the island. In a post on X on Friday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry confirmed that a ‘German naval frigate and a supply ship each sailed through the Taiwan Strait from north to south today.’ The passage of the Baden-Wuerttemberg frigate and the Frankfurt am Main replenishment ship was the first of its kind in 22 years…

“German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday that ‘international waters are international waters, it is the shortest route, it is the safest route given the weather conditions… so we pass through.’ Despite China’s repeated protests, the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and France have sent warships through the waterway on multiple occasions.”

China and Russia have indicated that they would work together militarily against their enemies in case of a conflict.

Germany’s (and Europe’s) Immigration Problem

The Daily Mail wrote on September 16:

“Germany brings in its plan to end unchecked illegal immigration to the country today with enhanced border controls at all nine of its borders. The new controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police.  The coalition government hopes to show its seriousness about efforts to tackle irregular migration following a spate of Islamist attacks in recent months that have galvanised groups on the far-right. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser insisted yesterday that the step would help ‘put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage’.

“But the policy has not been without its criticism internally, and risks fracturing Germany’s centre-left coalition and alienating its European neighbours.  Poland and Austria are among the neighbours that have voiced concern, while the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must only impose such steps in exceptional circumstances.

“Germany lies at the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen zone, designed to allow the free movement of people and goods. Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced. But these will now be expanded to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, too…

“In recent weeks, a string of extremist attacks have shocked Germany, fuelling rising public anger. Last month, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen. The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Islamic State group, had been intended for deportation but managed to evade authorities. The enforcement failure set off a bitter debate which marked the run-up to two regional polls in the formerly communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD scored unprecedented results.

“With national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been under intense political pressure to toughen its stance on migrants and asylum seekers. Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration deal for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying deportation procedures in the opposite direction so that ‘those that must go back do go back’, the chancellor said. Closer to home, the German government has presented plans to speed up deportations to European partners.

“Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of arrival. The system has placed a huge strain on countries on the European periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden-sharing. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Germany tightening its borders means that it would ‘essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe’. Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country ‘will not accept people who are rejected from Germany’, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned Germany’s move as ‘unacceptable’. Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border….

“Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German chancellor on social media site X, writing: ‘Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.’  Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrians, and has hosted over a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022…

“In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s strictest migration policy yet, saying it will request an opt-out from EU common policy on asylum next week. A four-party coalition dominated by far-right firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an ‘asylum crisis’ to curb the influx of migrants through a tough set of rules including border controls.”

All of this comes far too late for Germany, as criminal immigrants and terrorists are already in the country. And sadly, it all seems to be dictated by politics—with the hope that incompetent politicians might be reelected.

Controversial EU Commissioner Resigns Because of Controversial von der Leyen

Euro News wrote on September 17:

“Thierry Breton, the powerful European Commissioner in charge of the internal market, abruptly resigned on Monday, claiming that Ursula von der Leyen had pressured France, his home country, to submit another candidate to replace him ‘for personal reasons.’… ‘A few days ago, in the very last stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future of the College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me – and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College,’ Breton wrote. ‘… in light of these developments – further testimony to questionable governance – I have concluded that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College…’

“Breton’s shock exit deals a new blow to von der Leyen’s ongoing efforts to build her new College of Commissioners, a delicate undertaking that requires balancing considerations on gender, geography and party politics. The presentation of her new team has already been delayed due to a political fight in Slovenia, where the conservative opposition has contested the appointment of Marta Kos as the country’s Commissioner-designate…

“Still, the magnitude of Breton’s departure cannot be understated: the Frenchman had acquired a strong profile in Brussels after playing a key role in the bloc’s production of COVID-19 vaccines, the industrial ramp-up to provide Ukraine with more military support and, most notably, the regulatory push to rein in the excesses of Big Tech and AI.

“But he had also become a divisive character in the city. His letter to Elon Musk in August ahead of the billionaire’s interview with Donald Trump was decried as an assault against freedom of expression and a blatant case of power overreach…”

“British Army Stockpiles Depleted Amid £7,600,000,000 of Military Aid Sent to Ukraine”

MSN wrote on September 16:

“Military aid to Ukraine has left gaps in the UK armed forces’ capabilities. The UK has sent Challenger 2 tanks, millions of rounds of ammunition, and hundreds of boat and land vehicles to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“It’s made a difference, with all of the Challengers donated last summer being deployed on the frontlines against Russia’s Soviet-built tanks.”

And Now Australia… Censoring Free Speech

Rebel News wrote on September 12:

“Elon Musk has slammed the Australian government, labelling them ‘fascists’ in response to proposed legislation to combat what it sees as misinformation on social media platforms. Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), made the blunt comment in reaction to a post outlining the new laws, which could fine social media companies up to 5 per cent of their annual revenue… The highly controversial proposed laws… will give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) unprecedented powers to control online in the name of cracking down on misinformation.

“ACMA could fine platforms and even approve an industry code of conduct to address the issue if self-regulation fails. However, critics argue that these laws could severely limit free speech. John Storey from the Institute of Public Affairs described it as ‘the biggest attack on freedom of speech in peacetime Australia,’ warning that it could capture ‘any difference of opinion.’”

It’s happening all over the so-called “free” world.

Second Assassination Attempt on Trump

NBC News wrote on September 15:

“One [sniper] is in custody after shots were fired Sunday in what the FBI is calling an apparent second ‘attempted assassination’ of former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. An AR-style [Ak-47] rifle was recovered from the scene, law enforcement officials told NBC News. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was ‘safe’ after the incident…

“A representative for the Secret Service said at the news conference that it wasn’t clear whether the suspect ‘was able to take a shot at our agents’ before the agents shot at the suspect… The Secret Service spokesperson… said the suspect… was an estimated 400 to 500 yards away from Trump…”

The New York Post reported that the arrested sniper is a long-time Democrat from Hawaii. “The alleged shooter mounted a GoPro on the fence and was ‘intent on filming’ what would have been the murder of a former president, officials said… [He] was previously convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction… [He] was also arrested over two decades ago following a three-hour standoff…”

We are living in dangerous times, because Satan the Devil is very angry. We ALL need God’s protection.

Reckless Rhetoric to Blame for Second Trump Assassination Attempt

On September 15, 2024, the New York Post published the following article by Miranda Devine:

“It’s a frightening development that highlights the recklessness of the hateful rhetoric constantly aimed at Trump by his political opponents, even after he was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania in July. Last week, Kamala Harris falsely accused Trump of calling Nazis ‘fine people,’ promising a ‘bloodbath,’ and being responsible for ‘the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.’ She and Joe Biden and their surrogates constantly exaggerate the J6 Capitol riot and use it to frame Trump as a ‘threat to democracy.’

“Biden has labeled Trump and ‘MAGA Republicans’ as ‘semi-fascists’ and domestic terrorists. Tim Walz called Trump a ‘fascist’ and a ‘threat to Democracy’ who will ‘put people’s lives in danger.’ On Saturday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described Trump as ‘a candidate explicitly running on the promise of political violence.’ In Orwellian fashion, they accuse Trump and his supporters of stoking violence, when the evidence is almost all the other way… What will it take for these demented partisans to lower the temperature?”

Devine has a point. Also note the next article.

Media Ite wrote on September 16:

“Former President Donald Trump directly blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for a gunman targeting him at his West Palm Beach golf club on Sunday… [Trump] claimed the gunman was motivated by the top Democrats’ ‘highly inflammatory language.’ ‘He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,’ Trump said, claiming, ‘Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out’…

“Trump pointed to Biden and Harris’ past comments casting Trump as a ‘threat to democracy,’ while telling Americans they are ‘unity’ leaders… ‘It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,’ Trump added…” 

Abhorrent Security Failures… and Unintended Consequences

On September 16, The Sun published the following article by Piers Morgan:

“How could this have happened again…? I would have assumed that after the catastrophic security failure in July, when that shooter was able to lie on a roof 150 yards from a Trump rally stage, the Secret Service would have made… sure nobody could get that close to their protectee again. I was sadly, shockingly wrong… please spare me any applause for the Secret Service.

“The fact this shooter could get that close was another abject security failure of horrifying proportions, and even more inexplicable and disgraceful coming so soon after the last one. Why wasn’t the whole perimeter of the course being monitored? The answer is staggering… Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Trump would be receiving more security if he was still in office… Have you ever heard anything so dumb?…

“The agency is self-evidently failing… And I dread to think what would happen to America if Trump ever does get assassinated… As for the political repercussions of this latest assassination attempt, it can only be a massive boost to Trump, as the last one was. Once again, he showed immense calm in a life-threatening crisis, with witnesses saying his main concern was to make sure others on the course with him at the time were OK…  Love him or hate him, Trump has shown balls of steel over these threats to his life, and that won’t be lost on an American public who like their commanders-in-chief to be strong.

“The latest incident has also completely supplanted a news cycle that was being dominated by very negative fallout over his debate loss last week to Democratic rival Kamala Harris… There’s an incredible irony that right when he was enduring the worst week of his presidential race, Trump has been handed an election-winning lifeline by another attempt on his life.”

Melania Trump: Beware of the FBI

Newsmax wrote on September 15:

“Former first lady Melania Trump issued a warning to all Americans that the Biden-Harris administration’s FBI could threaten their Fourth Amendment rights that protect against unreasonable searches and seizures. Trump used X on Saturday to post a video reminding users of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. ‘I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here, in America,’ the former first lady said in the video. ‘The FBI invaded my home in Florida, and searched through my personal belongings. This is not just my story. It serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.’…

“In another X post earlier this week, Melania Trump fanned the flames of conspiracy surrounding the [first] assassination attempt on her husband, saying efforts need to be made to ‘uncover the truth.’ ‘The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,’ she said of the incident in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. ‘Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder: Why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There’s definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth.’”

We would agree with Melania Trump on both counts, especially in light of the second assassination attempt on her husband. Important questions are not being addressed or discussed..

Clearly Biased ABC Moderators

Breitbart wrote on September 15:

“ABC News’ Linsey Davis, one of two moderators for last week’s presidential debate, admitted to the Los Angeles Times that the plan was only to fact-check former President Donald Trump, and not Vice President Kamala Harris… Davis and co-moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump seven times — often incorrectly — while never fact-checking Harris once, even when she used hoaxes, such as the Charlottesville ‘very fine people’ hoax.

“Davis told the Times that ABC had deliberately targeted Trump — and only Trump — because of perceptions that he had been allowed to get away with false statements in the CNN debate against President Joe Biden in late June…. Davis admitted that the moderators studied past statements… but somehow did not prepare to check Harris’s repeated use of hoaxes…”

This is appalling! But no surprise! That is how politics is being made.

ABC News Must Correct False Claim Regarding Abortion

Fox News wrote on September 12:

“A prominent pro-life group isn’t happy with ABC News over its hosting of Tuesday’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump.  Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America on Wednesday sent a letter to ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic and debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis that urges them to issue a correction and meet with abortion survivors over a viral moment where Davis fact-checked Trump.

“‘[The] ABC News Presidential Debate featured network moderator Linsey Davis attempting to debunk former President Trump’s assertion that some states allow for the killing of an infant after birth,’ Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser wrote in the letter…  

“During the debate, Trump referred to infamous comments made by former Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2019 but was promptly ‘fact-checked’ by Davis. At the time, Northam suggested that in those rare instances of third-trimester abortions, a baby could be born alive… ‘The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,’ Northam said in 2019.

“Trump’s apparent reference to Northam at the debate drew a quick rebuke from Davis. ‘There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,’ Davis said. 

“Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America claims the ABC moderator was ‘inaccurate’ and should correct the record. ‘This is 100% inaccurate. Her statement tragically ignores the reality of babies who survive failed, late-term abortions but are denied basic medical care and left to die,’ Dannenfelser wrote. ‘We are writing to request a swift correction from Ms. Davis and ABC News. It is undeniable that babies are born in this country after failed abortions…’ ‘It’s also a fact that, as a U.S. senator, Kamala Harris voted against protections for babies born alive after failed abortions. And as a member of Congress, her running mate Tim Walz even issued a public apology for ‘accidentally’ voting for said legislation after he previously voted against it,’ Dannenfelser wrote.”

The conduct of the two ABC moderators was appalling. And don’t hold your breath if you expect that they or ABC News will correct their false assertions.

Eating Pets in Ohio?

The Associated Press wrote on September 15:

“Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance did not back away on Sunday from the… claims he and Donald Trump have been making that Haitians in an Ohio community are abducting and eating pets, even as the state’s GOP governor and other officials insist there is no evidence of such behavior.

“Vance, an Ohio senator, said constituents in Springfield are bringing concerns to him and that at least 10 were ‘verifiable.’ In a series of news show interviews, he said he was amplifying the claims as a way to draw attention to Democrat Kamala Harris’ immigration policies, which he said are lax, while adding, ‘Everybody who has dealt with a large influx of migration knows that sometimes there are cultural practices that seem very far out there to a lot of Americans.’”

Vance only states the obvious. Please view our recent StandingWatch program, titled, “The Biggest Loser in the Trump/Harris Debate.” 

Pope Francis Recommends Voting for the Lesser Evil

LifeSiteNews wrote on September 13:

“Pope Francis has weighed in on the U.S. presidential race by claiming that he doesn’t know whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is the worse candidate because opposing migration and supporting abortion are both ‘anti-life.’ ‘Sending migrants away, not giving migrants [the] ability to work, not giving migrants [a] welcome is a sin, it’s serious,’ Francis said… At the same time, Francis said, ‘sending a baby away from its mother’s breast is murder, because there is life.’ The Church ‘does not allow abortion because it is killing,’ he added…”

At the same time, the Catholic church does allow killing in a “righteous war,” even though that is killing too. And is it a sin to not allow murderers and rapists into our country?

The Daily Mail wrote on September 13:

“Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration and advised American Catholics to choose the ‘lesser evil’ in the upcoming U.S. elections…

“Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture, and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a ‘grave sin.’ He was also blunt in speaking about abortion… ‘One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,’ he said. ‘Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don´t know,’ he said. ‘Everyone in their conscience should think and do it.’

“It´s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a U.S. election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump´s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants ‘is not Christian.’…”

Where does it say in the Bible that migration is a right and the violation of that right is a sin? Also, the argument to fulfill one’s “civil duty” to vote for the lesser evil ignores willfully the fact that one would still vote for an evil—something a Christian is prohibited to do in God’s Word.

Francis’ Blasphemous Comments

LifesiteNews wrote on September 13:

“The Holy See Press Office has released a misleading English translation of Pope Francis’ controversial comments about all religions leading to God, as criticism of Francis’ words continues to grow. Addressing an inter-religious group of young people in Singapore on September 13, Pope Francis drew heavily on the nation’s multi-religious nature: ‘Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God, but God is God for all. And how is God God for all? We are all sons and daughters of God. But my god is more important than your god, is that true? There is only one God and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths.’

“However, the Holy See Press Office has published a markedly different and misleading translation of the papal comments in the English transcript of his meeting. The Vatican’s official English version reads: ‘Religions are seen as paths trying to reach God.’ The difference is notable, and the online transcript of Francis’ remarks appear as far less controversial or problematic than his actual remarks.”

The pope’s statements are in clear violation of the First Commandment.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer:

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

In the first part of this series, we looked at paganism in its many forms in the UK and the USA.  Different websites gave us a brief but clear picture of the growth of this phenomenon in these two major nations, which are revealed in our free booklet “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America.”

theconversation.com reports that “Nature religions, commonly described as Paganism (or neo-Paganism), are growing in Australia. In the last Census, 33,148 people claimed affiliation with a nature religion: including Animism, Druidism, and the many traditions of Wicca, the most practised Pagan pathway.”

ca.paganfederation.org reports as follows: “With almost half a century of experience, the Pagan Federation (PF) started in England and shortly thereafter sowed the seeds for its sister organization: the Pagan Federation International (PFI), to respond to the needs of Pagans who did not reside in England. Now PFI has local branches all over the world: including Asia, South America, Australia, United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Belgium and of course Canada and the USA, and this list only continues to grow!“

This same website also states that in “Canada, we are always interested in talking with members to start pub moots, coffee cauldrons, festivals or events that promote paganism in a positive, informative and healthy manner.”

It has been said that “Paganism is not dogmatic. Pagans pursue their own vision of the Divine as a direct and personal experience.”

Let us review Deuteronomy 18:10-12 where we find a list of many wrong spiritual practices. This passage provides us with clear instructions to avoid wrong and ungodly practices and maintain the right Way that God teaches us to live:

“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you.”

In these three verses, we read about passing through fire, witchcraft, soothsayer, interpreting omens, sorcerer, conjuring up spells, a medium, spiritist, calling up the dead. Quite a list of things that God calls abominations! Those who are pagans and belong to the organisations mentioned previously will not care one iota about what God says.

And what is the outcome of such rebellion against God’s Word in today’s world? We know that Satan is the god of this world and the prince of the power of the air (compare 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Ephesians 2:2). He influences mankind to believe that they themselves can make decisions about right and wrong without the necessity of having the great Creator God giving us guidelines to follow in the true worship of Him.  He did this in the Garden of Eden.

We continually see anti-Godly behaviour in society around the world, and Isaiah 5:20 sums this up perfectly: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” For about 6,000 years, man has followed the way that he thinks best and has lost the ability, it would seem, to make sound judgments. History clearly reveals that man has lost his way because he has not been exposed to, understood or seen the right Way of Life to live which is always in his own best interests when God is involved. For more information on this, please see our free booklet “Obeying God Rather Than Men,” and our Q&A, “Who determines what is right and wrong?” 

Looking at Deuteronomy 18:10-12, christianpublishinghouse.co states that “this is a critical passage in the Old Testament, providing explicit directives against various forms of occult practices. This scriptural segment… serves not only as a legal prescription for Israel but also as a moral and spiritual guideline for God’s people. The passage is often interpreted as encompassing a range of occult practices, warning against the spiritual dangers associated with such activities.”

Of course, these are not just “moral or spiritual guidelines”—they are commandments to be followed.

And so, let us review each one of these wrong practices that are highlighted in Deuteronomy 18:10-12.

Verse 10 says: “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire.”

The Margin of the New King James Bible says: “Be burned as an offering to an idol.”

Clarke’s Commentary has this to say: “Leviticus also states: ‘And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD’ (Leviticus 18:21).

“The fire-god Molech was the… deity of the children of Ammon, and essentially identical with the Moabitish Chemosh. Unger’s Bible Dictionary has this to say about Molech: ‘A Semitic deity honoured by the sacrifice of children, in which they were caused to pass through or into the fire.  Palestinian excavations have uncovered evidences of infant skeletons in burial places around heathen shrines.  Ammonites revered Molech as a protecting father.   Worship of Molech was stringently prohibited by Hebrew law’ (Leviticus 18:21; 20:1-5).”

While it is not exactly the same, similar killings of sons and daughters today can be found in the killing of unborn children through abortion.  The end product is precisely the same.

Verse 10 continues: “(There shall not be found among you) one who practices witchcraft.”

What is witchcraft?  Wikipedia gives this definition: “Witchcraft, as most commonly understood in both historical and present-day communities, is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic.  A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Traditionally, ‘witchcraft’ means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. Also, Magic is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural world.”  

Verse 10 adds: “(There shall not be found among you to be) a soothsayer.”

Unger’s Bible Dictionary has this to say about a soothsayer: “The soothsayer (diviner) was the pagan counterpart of the prophet, prognosticating future events, or professing to do so by various arts.” They then quote Joshua 13:22 which reads “The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those who were killed by them.” Continuing with Unger’s: “Actually, diviners were energized by evil powers, as the prophet of the Lord was under the control of the Holy Spirit.”

Verse 10 continues: “(There shall not be found among you) one who interprets omens.”

In Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Deuteronomy 18:10-14, we read the following:

“Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions, should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after many like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan. All reckoning of lucky or unlucky days, all charms for diseases, all amulets or spells to prevent evil, fortune-telling, [etc.] are here forbidden. These are so wicked as to be a chief cause of the rooting out of the Canaanites. It is amazing to think that there should be any pretenders of this kind in such a land, and day of light, as we live in. They are mere impostors who blind and cheat their followers.”

Verse 10 adds: “(There shall not be found among you to be) a sorcerer.”

We will quote again from Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “Sorcery (Heb. from kashap, ‘to whisper’; Gk. mageia, Acts 8:11; pharmakeia, ‘medication’). A sorcerer was one who prophesied to tell the lot of others, to have power with evil spirits (Isa 7:9,12, Dan 2:2) and was severely denounced (Mal 3:5; Rev 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15). This art was also practiced in connection with pharmacy, the mixing of drugs and medical compounds.

“The term sorcerer (Ex 7:11; Jer 27:9, etc), from the Lat. sors, ‘a lot,’ ‘one who throws or declares a lot,’ would assign it initially the more circumscribed sphere of augural prognostication.   But the term as commonly employed, includes one who practices in the whole field of divinatory occultism.   Sorcery is the practice of the occult arts under the power of evil spirits, or demons, and has been common in all ages of world history.”

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

“Recent Unbiblical Comments by Pope Francis,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is the summary:

Recently, the Pope made several controversial comments which were all unbiblical and dangerous, if we were to believe and follow them. He addressed the US presidential race, in focusing on migration and abortion, and he spoke on the way to salvation. Why were all his statements misleading and wrong, and what does the Bible say about them?

“Kürzliche unbiblische Kommentare des Papstes,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This German program covers the same topics as described above.

Our new booklet, “Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen,” has been sent to our subscribers. If you did not get a copy, please contact us.

“Der Wert unserer Zeit,” last Sabbath’s German sermonette presented by Andreas Raetz, is now posted. Title in English: “The Value of Our Time.”

“How Do We Ask?”, last Sabbath’s sermonette presented by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is the summary:

In the family setting, we learn early how to ask for something. Asking God for what we seek is a very important part of our relationship with Him—how do we ask?

“Yesterday, Today, and Forever,” last Sabbath’s sermon presented by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is the summary:

Even though the Bible clearly proves that Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament, most nominal Christians today have no idea. However, this fact has great personal meaning to us, in that the same One who performed the miracles recorded in the Bible lives within us today through His Holy Spirit.

On September 14, 2024, Dave Harris will present the sermonette, titled, “How Do We Ask?” and Eric Rank will present the sermon, titled, “Yesterday, Today, and Forever.”

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.

Jesus Christ warned us that in these last days, Satan’s attempts to deceive mankind will reach unparalleled proportions. Christ told us that many would believe Satan’s delusions, lies, great signs and lying wonders (Matthew 24:11; Revelation 13:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11), and He even said that we must take heed that no one deceives us (Matthew 24:4), and that even we, the elect, must be careful not to be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

One of those demonic deceptions, especially for professing nominal Christians, is the Shroud of Turin. It is claimed that it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and that it is imprinted with the image of the body and face of Jesus. We have published numerous articles proving that this Shroud does NOT depict Jesus Christ.

For instance, we wrote in “Is the Shroud of Turin Authentic?” https://www.eternalgod.org/is-the-shroud-of-turin-authentic/: “John 19:40 shows that Christ was [bound] in linen CLOTHES and that John 11:44 describes the custom of Jewish burials in using several CLOTHES and binding them about the dead body, in addition to the dead person’s face being wrapped with or in a cloth (a head swath)…” We have also pointed out that “the results of carbon-14 tests in 1988 suggested the shroud was no older than the 13th century [and] that the ‘calendar age range assigned to the shroud cloth, with a 95% confidence level, is from 1260 to 1390 A.D.’”

Recently, articles have been stating that “Italian researchers used specialist x-ray technology to examine the linen sheet and determine its age [suggesting] the cloth was made around 2,000 years ago” and that the “carbon dating was unreliable” (The Sun, dated August 20). More importantly, the study claims that the “Shroud contains evidence of a real person with real blood and other bodily effluents” (Newsmax, dated September 5).

There are at least two irrefutable biblical proofs establishing that the Shroud of Turin—whatever it might be—could not possibly be a genuine depiction of Jesus Christ, but that it is a sophisticated Satanic fabrication to uphold long-standing errors taught by orthodox Christianity.

The Daily Express got Midjourney AI to provide a glimpse of a face that could be in the Shroud. The image shows a man with a long beard and long hair, similar to how Jesus is usually depicted. The only problem is, Jesus did not wear long hair. This AI depiction is a Satanic attempt to present a false Jesus to the world. Previously, Israeli and British forensic anthropologists and computer programmers created Christ’s face featured in “Popular Mechanics,” a 1.2 million-circulation magazine. They did not mean to imply that Christ actually looked the way the magazine cover portrayed Him, as they used the skull of a Jew from the first century — not, of course, the actual skull of Jesus. They nevertheless determined that Christ did not wear long hair. Other experts agree with that conclusion.

Jesus looked like an ordinary Jew; Judas had to identify Him to the soldiers. He was a Nazarene (having grown up in the city of Nazareth; Matthew 2:23), but He was not a “Nazarite.” It is true that “Nazirites” did not cut their hair, but they were also prohibited from drinking any wine or touching a dead body (Numbers 6:4–6). Christ, however, did drink wine (Luke 22:14–18; Matthew 11:19), and He did touch dead bodies (Luke 8:51–55). If He had been a Nazarite, He would have sinned against the Law of God. But He said that He had kept His Father’s commandments (John 15:10), including all ritual laws still in force and effect at His time.

In addition, Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 that a man is not to wear “long hair,” and that even nature teaches us that wearing long hair is a “dishonor” to or “shameful” for a man. Christ would have most certainly not behaved in a way which would have dishonored His Father (compare John 8:49). So, the Shroud of Turin does NOT depict Jesus Christ, even for this reason alone.

More proof in this regard is given in our free booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?”  

But there is another biblical reason totally debunking the idea that the Shroud of Turin could be a genuine depiction of Jesus.

Newsmax wrote on September 5 that according to the new study, there are “‘[b]loodstained marks all over the body image which are consistent with pre-crucifixion flagellation, bloodstained marks on the head that are consistent with a ‘crown’ of thorns, blood marks on the hand and feet that are consistent with crucifixion and the bloodstain on the chest that evidences a post-mortem wound that corresponds with the post-mortem spear wound that Christ received as is described in the Bible.”

The problem is, the Jesus of the Bible did NOT receive a “post-mortem spear wound.”

We pointed out in our Q&A, “How, exactly, did Jesus Christ die? Why did a soldier pierce Him with a spear when He was already dead?”:

“When we read Matthew’s account, in the New King James Bible, we will not find exactly how Christ died. The reason is that this translation omits a crucial verse, at the end of Matthew 27:49. Several translations, as well as many old manuscripts, have retained this missing verse. For instance, verses 49 and 50 read in the Moffat translation: ‘But the others said, “Stop, let us see if Elijah does come to save him!” (Seizing a lance, another pricked [better, pierced] his side, and out came water and blood.) Jesus again uttered a loud scream, and gave up his spirit.’…

“We need to take note of an additional passage in John’s account. We read in John 19:32–34: ‘Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.’

“This Scripture, the way it is rendered, seems to say that the soldier pierced Christ’s side after He had already died. However, the word ‘pierced’ is in the aorist tense in the original Greek, designating a kind of action, not the time of action. It describes an action done at a single moment, and not continuously, but it does not tell us when the action takes place. Only the context can make this clear. Therefore, in John 19:34, the passage could also be correctly translated as, ‘But one of the soldiers HAD PIERCED His side with a spear.’ From the missing verse in Matthew 27:49, we know that John 19:34 has to be translated, in fact, in the past tense.”

Much more evidence is given in our free booklet, “Jesus Christ–A Great Mystery“, proving that Jesus died at the moment when a soldier pierced His side. He did NOT receive a post-mortem wound.

The Shroud of Turin is a demonic fake, designed to deceive professing Christians and the entire world. Appearing to “confirm” the biblical account, it in reality distorts and falsifies it. It is also important to realize that virtually all depictions of Christ do not accurately reflect His appearance as a human being on earth. He did not wear long flowing hair, and He did not look like a woman. He was a carpenter, a builder, and He was also the leader of former fishermen. Even His hair color was probably not blond—as depicted in most paintings—but black, as the Hebrew people at the time of Christ were recognized as having predominantly black hair.

But most importantly, we should not have pictures of Christ to begin with. Christ was God in the flesh, and Deuteronomy 4:15-16 tells us:

“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female…’

Paul tells us that we are not to “know” Christ “according to the flesh.” We read in 2 Corinthians 5:16 (Phillips translation): “… even though we knew Christ as a man, we do not know him like that any longer.”

We do not know how Christ really looked as a Man, but we DO know that He did NOT look like the figure on the Shroud of Turin. It is dangerous to focus on images and pictures of Christ and think that in some way those portrayals may accurately represent how Christ might have looked. We are to focus on Christ as He is now—a powerful Spirit being! To get a correct portrayal of Christ’s present appearance, please read Revelation 1:14–16. Christ has white hair, as white as wool or snow, and His eyes are like flames of fire, while His face shines like the sun in full strength! THAT is the Jesus Christ of the Bible—God the Son—who is worthy of worship!

And NO picture or image could portray Him in THAT way!

by Norbert Link

We are addressing the debate between Trump and Harris [please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “The Biggest Loser in the Trump/Harris Debate”, political turmoil and the citizens’ justified dissatisfaction with their incompetent governments in Germany and France; speak of the dire state of the UK’s Royal Navy and British trans madness; and address troublesome and interesting developments in the USA.

In other news, we speak about Russia’s new threats which should not be taken lightly, the Shroud of Turin (also note the Editorial in this Update); perverse parental conduct; and the dream to send man to planet Mars.

The Trump-Harris Debate: Three Against One

The New York Post Editorial Board wrote on September 11:

“Donald Trump got to Kamala Harris’ core problem in his debate close, waving off all her promises about what she’d do in office: ‘Why hasn’t she done it already?’ Hard to think of a better riposte… Harris had a pretty smooth night: She did her homework for once, including prepping lines guaranteed to get under Trump’s skin — some of which plainly did put him off-balance.

“And of course she had backup from the moderators, ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis — who targeted far more questions at Trump than at Harris, and all of their ‘fact-checking.’ Worse: Whenever she started to babble in trying to defend her own record, they rescued her by changing the subject. And by changing it again whenever Trump was truly on a roll…

“Trump was erratic — notably taking her bait when she claimed people walked out of his rallies and when she fictionalized his remarkable business success… [Harris] needs to take more risks, and on less friendly ground, or she’s still headed for defeat.”

This was to be expected… that is why Harris refused to have a debate with Trump moderated by Fox News.

The Rigged Debate

The New York Post added on September 11:

“When Trump argued that crime in the US is increasing because of migrants allowed into the country on Harris’ watch, ‘World News Tonight’ anchor David Muir interjected: ‘President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down.’ Trump fired back with his own fact check that ‘they didn’t include the cities with the worst crime,’ referencing the omission of data from Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago…

“At another point, ‘World News Tonight Sunday’ host Linsey Davis intervened after Trump made reference to former Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s 2019 remarks about aborting babies after birth… ‘There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,’ stated Davis after Trump concluded, drawing howls from conservatives who noted that six states and the District of Columbia currently do not place any limits on the procedure…

“Trump allies and Republican commentators were left fuming and compiling a long list of missed opportunities for Muir and Davis to rebuke Harris… ‘David Muir is out of control,’ tweeted Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, writing, ‘It isn’t ‘fact-checking,’ it is attacking.’ Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) tweeted, ‘ABC News has refused to “fact-check” Kamala Harris on lying about Trump’s positions on: – Project 2025 – Charlottesville comments – ‘Bloodbath’ comments – IVF.’”

For the moderators to state that violent crime is down in the USA is ludicrous, and to falsely claim that no state allows killing a baby after birth is appalling and unjustifiable. Those moderators need to go.

Breitbart wrote on September 11:

“Vice President Kamala Harris issued a slew of false claims and hoaxes that ABC debate moderators did not fact check during Tuesday’s debate against former President Donald Trump.” Breitbart then listed “and rebutted 21 false claims and hoaxes that Harris uttered on live television, in front of millions of Americans.” https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/09/10/21-kamala-harris-false-claims-hoaxes-that-debate-moderators-did-not-fact-check/

Fox News wrote on September 11:

“The biggest loser in the… presidential debate… was ABC News… The moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, embarrassed themselves and their network by, among other things, fact-checking Trump in real time on more than one occasion – sometimes incorrectly – while allowing Harris to spout serial lies and distortions. .. Trump, on the other hand, failed to prosecute his case. While Harris appeared over-prepared and practiced, with ready-to-go gestures and studied mannerisms, Trump was clearly under-prepared. It is frustrating to his supporters, because he has the facts on his side…. But instead of forcefully arguing about his successes, he meandered. And, he forgot to smile.”

Trump did not do too well, as even conservative commentators acknowledged:

“Let’s make no mistake. Trump had a bad night,” Fox News host Brit Hume said. “We just heard so many of the old grievances that we all know aren’t winners politically.”

“Trump lost the debate, and whining about the moderators doesn’t change it,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said afterward that the former president’s debate team should be fired and that Trump was unprepared, calling the debate a “disaster.” 

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 11:

“… the consensus among pundits and pollsters appears to be that Harris narrowly won the night. But whether this makes a difference in the election, just under two months away, is less clear.”

The liberal left-wing media went over the top again, as can be expected. The Drudge Report wrote: “The Night Trump Lost it all… The Worst Performance of his Career.”

Trump Falls For Harris’ Provocations

Die Welt wrote on September 11:

“What impression did Harris leave? A surprisingly good one… Above all, she didn’t let Trump bother her at all. Unlike in the past, she did not resort to making condescending gestures or comments towards Trump. However, her lecture repeatedly had a tiring pastoral quality.

“What impression did Trump make? He performed poorly compared to the disciplined and concise Harris. Even arch-Trump fans like a Fox host said Trump had ‘missed some opportunities.’

“Initially, Trump was good at countering Harris’ attacks. On several occasions he did not answer questions from ABC journalists, but instead responded directly to an attack from Harris. Sometimes Trump scored a direct hit, for example when Harris tried to interrupt him… But Harris increasingly succeeded in irritating Trump. For example, when she claimed that his campaign appearances were boring and that people were leaving early in droves. Instead of shrugging off the comment, Trump went on a tirade that his rallies are ‘the biggest in history because people want their country back.’

“Can this duel decide the election? Absolutely not. Harris may have been able to win over voters tonight. But the race is so close that a single evening of television probably won’t give the Democrats the large number of undecided votes they need to win the election. The TV duel was therefore a stage victory for Harris. But nothing more.”

Bild Online wrote on September 11:

“Kamala Harris’s tactics worked in the first presidential debate last night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She skillfully infuriated Donald Trump and stayed cool herself… Trump provided her with plenty of templates. Especially when it came to immigration, actually a possible winning issue for the Republican, Harris hit a sore spot: Trump’s vanity. ‘I invite you to go to one of Donald Trump’s events,’ she said to the millions of TV viewers… ‘You’ll notice that people leave his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.’ Sentences which were practiced before and which were the core of her tactics. The ex-president’s eyes first narrowed, then anger flared up. Trump took Harris’ bait and chose to talk about his events instead of migration…’

“The Democrats were euphoric after the debate. Trump’s Republicans practiced damage control. BUT: Hillary Clinton also clearly won her first debate against Trump in 2016…”

Immigrants Eat Pets?

The Daily Mail wrote on September 11:

“One of the stranger moments of last night’s fiery presidential debate… came when the former president ranted about Haitian migrants ‘eating pets’ in Springfield, Ohio… The claims, dismissed during the debate by the Vice President as ‘unbelievable and extreme’, have electrified the American political debate. 

“While city officials and law enforcement officers in Springfield say there have been no credible reports to suggest they are true, some fed-up residents maintain that it’s a problem… One aggrieved man made the claim during a city commission meeting last month to address the influx of legal Haitian immigrants – which has revitalized the local economy, but also sparked controversy among locals. ‘I really challenge you guys to get out here and do something,’ he told the meeting. ‘These Haitians are running into trash cans, running into buildings, they’re flipping cars in the middle of the streets. ‘They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by their neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them. They’re eating them.’…

“During last night’s debate, ABC’s David Muir told Trump there had been no credible reports of pets being stolen and eaten. Trump shot back to say he did not necessarily believe what city officials were saying…

“[A Facebook] post combined a screenshot of an earlier Facebook post from a Springfield community group, in which one user made an alarming claim that cats and dogs were being strung up to eat by Haitian migrants, with an image of an unidentified man carrying what appeared to be the corpses of two geese.  The Facebook post read: ‘My neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat… One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbor’s house, where Haitians live & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat. I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks & geese.’

“The unsubstantiated story, when paired with the image of an unidentified man, spread like wildfire across X, garnering millions upon millions of views.  Its influence was confirmed when Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance amplified the narrative about ‘Haitian illegal immigrants’ in a September 9 post on X that said: ‘Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.’ The VP hopeful later walked back his claims in a following post, writing: ‘It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.’…

“Vance was by no means the only prominent Republican shared posts parroting the narrative on migrants eating pets and Springfield wildlife. Among them was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who posted a photo of kittens with a caption that said to vote for Trump ‘So Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.’…”

However, usually, where there is smoke, there might be fire.

Kamala Harris the Next President? A Frightening Scenario!

Daily Mail published the following article on September 9 by Charlie Spiering, which was written BEFORE the debate:

“As a seasoned political journalist and author of Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris In The White House – a comprehensive investigation into how this eccentric San ­Francisco attorney was fast-tracked to becoming potentially the next leader of the free world – I find the lack of scrutiny applied to this ­shallow and desperate political ­figure to be maddening. Since winning the nomination, ‘Calamity Kamala’… did nothing to enhance her authority. Senior Democrats in Washington tell me that her ­campaign is increasingly riven and dysfunctional.…

“In my opinion she combines naked political ambition with an instinctive cunning, a lack of scruples and a willingness to jump on every fashionable bandwagon… It is genuinely alarming that with the world in turmoil, from war in Ukraine to escalating conflict in the Middle East, this comparative ­novice could soon be in power…. The West is confronted by an array of tyrants and terrorists, but our destiny could be imminently in the hands of an amateur...

“Harris’s parents divorced when she was seven and she was largely raised by her Hindu mother, with her Jamaican-born father ­working as a senior professor at Stanford University. This mixed-race upbringing has been useful for her career amid the American Left’s fanatical embrace of identity politics…

“By rights, the presidency should be a step too far for a candidate of her ­calibre.  But there is no predicting the American electorate – and I fear the prospect of this individual becoming president is all too likely – and all too terrifying.”

Sentence Delayed in Trump’s “Total Fraud” Case

Newsmax wrote on September 8:

“New York Judge Juan Merchan decided to delay former President Donald Trump’s sentencing on his New York business records convictions until after the election to allow himself more flexibility in sentencing the GOP nominee, Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, told Newsmax Sunday… ‘I think he’s going to say this conviction warrants imprisonment… Of course it doesn’t. It warrants nothing, but I think that’s what he’s going to do or give him a probationary sentence and home confinement.’…

“Dershowitz argued that the case against Trump is a ‘total fraud’ and the judge and prosecutors should be ‘disciplined’ for bringing the case to court… ‘ I am probably the most experienced criminal lawyer in this country with 60 years of teaching, practicing, and writing about criminal law. I don’t understand the charges.’… Dershowitz said Sunday that the charges would be misdemeanors that would be barred by the statute of limitations, but ‘they magically tried to turn it into a felony.’ ‘It’s the most absurd criminal charge I’ve seen in my 60 years of being an expert in criminal law,’ said Dershowitz. ‘And if I can’t figure it out, how do you expect the defendant, a nonlawyer like Donald Trump, to understand that?…it’s an outrage to every American.’”

Can Germany’s Far-Right Win Across the Country?

The Week UK wrote on September 7:

“A startling AfD triumph in eastern Germany’s regional elections lays bare the fragility of the country’s mismatched coalition government. A far-right party has won a regional election in Germany for the first time since the Second World War. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took 32.8% of the vote in the poll in the eastern state of Thuringia on Sunday, giving it a clear win over the conservative CDU, which came second with 23.6%. In neighbouring Saxony, the CDU defeated the AfD by just 31.9% to 30.6%.

“Björn Höcke, the AfD leader in Thuringia… hailed the victory as ‘historic’ and warned rival parties against excluding it from any coalition deals in the regional parliament. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose SPD party was trounced in both states, urged other parties to govern without the AfD, which he accused of ‘ruining our country’s reputation’… [Even though it is Scholz and his incompetent bickering government who have been completely running the country’s reputation.]

“The results have ‘sent shockwaves of fear and despair across Europe’. It was especially humiliating for Scholz, says the Times.  His governing coalition has proved ‘one of the weakest in the Federal Republic’s history’ [probably THE weakest] and all three of the mismatched parties within it fared badly. The results prompted Scholz to hold urgent talks with other party leaders on how to form state governments without the AfD – and even on ‘how to hold together his fractious coalition’.

“A former history teacher, [Höcke] has criticised Germany for dwelling on the crimes of the Holocaust; he seems to model his rhetoric on Hitler’s; his young supporters call themselves the ‘Höcke Youth’, an echo of the Hitler Youth; and members of his own party have tried to expel him for being too extreme. Yet none of that deterred voters in Thuringia, who have gifted him an extraordinary personal triumph… the AfD’s tough message on migration, and its calls to end the war in Ukraine, appealed to voters anxious about rising energy prices, and about Germany’s ailing economy.

“Scholz has tried to combat the AfD by echoing its hardline rhetoric… in the wake of the Solingen terror attack, he proposed tightening border controls and stepped up deportations of asylum seekers. But that strategy isn’t working. Why? Because voters in places such as Thuringia are frustrated about more than migration and war, said… Der Spiegel. When roads and bridges are dilapidated and ‘every train ride is a lottery’, a feeling takes hold that ‘nothing works anymore’, and that nobody in Berlin cares. It’s this sense of hopelessness that mainstream parties must address if they are to halt the AfD’s rise.”

Germany is more than ready for a new government. However, nobody seems to be on the horizon who could substantially change the dire situation. But that person LIVES, and will manifest himself in due time.

Germany Now Greece’s Most Important Economic Partner

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 7:

“Germany is the ‘honored country’ at this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair, which kicks off this Saturday in Greece’s second city. Not so long ago, this would have been unthinkable. At the peak of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis in 2014 and 2015, Greece teetered on the brink of leaving the eurozone currency union… Banks were nationalized, companies folded and [many] Greeks blamed the austerity measures, which they felt had been dictated by Berlin… A decade later and much has changed in the economic relations between these two EU members.

“In February 2024, Deutsche Bank reported that Greece had made an ‘astonishing economic comeback’…  The modernization of 14 regional airports by Fraport Greece, a subsidiary of the German airport operator Fraport AG, is seen as one of the country’s model investment projects… the Fraport investment was a success, specifically because the Germans invested in smaller airports, thereby attracting even more visitors to Greece… Despite all the tension between the two countries during the Greek sovereign debt crisis, Germany is now Greece’s most important economic partner and a major market for Greek exports.

“And it works both ways: Products that are ‘Made in Germany’ are in great demand in Greece. Indeed, when it comes to imports, Germany is still right at the top of Greece’s list.”

The improved relationship between Germany and Greece is remarkable, as according to the Bible, the two countries will cooperate and work together in the future… much to the detriment of the Jewish people.

More Dictatorial Measures in Germany?

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 8:

“Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s proposal is reminiscent of a method practiced by the ‘the Stasi,’ the Ministry for State Security of the former communist East Germany, whose secret police infiltrated the homes of suspected regime opponents in order to tap their phones… Now… Faeser wants to empower investigators to use the method once again. However,… the German parliament must first give its approval. The Interior Minister is proposing to allow the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to enter terrorism suspects’ homes in order to install spy software on their smartphones and computers...

“It is unlikely that the neoliberal… FDP… will agree to government-authorized secret home break-ins, as defending citizens’ rights is at the heart of the party’s trademark… At the moment, German security authorities are allowed to tap suspicious persons’ electronic devices without breaking into their homes, under certain circumstances — using remote forensic software to obtain data from suspects’ devices without them noticing. German police have been allowed to use this method to monitor suspects’ homes as part of ‘online searches’ since 2017. However, every single such action must first be approved by a court — or in especially urgent cases, by a public prosecutor’s office…

“But online searches have always been controversial. One 2008 Federal Constitutional Court ruling was considered groundbreaking, which stated that online searches are only permitted if human life or the state itself is at risk.

“So covert searches are supposed to be an absolute exception when fighting crime in Germany. Open raids on homes, on the other hand, are a normal part of everyday police work. They, too, can only be carried out on the order of a court or a public prosecutor’s office [However, judging by Faeser’s recent deplorable conduct, such orders seem to be easily obtainable.] As a rule, searches are undertaken in the suspect’s presence.

“Some raids make news headlines. A recent example of this was when the home of the head of the German… Comcast magazine… was searched  to secure evidence. The magazine had been banned by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in July 2024. But then the Federal Administrative Court allowed Elsässer to continue publishing because the court had doubts about the proportionality of the ban, on whether it impinges on freedom of the press and freedom of opinion.

“Despite the partial victory for magazine publisher Elsässer, his house could still be ‘secretly’ searched — theoretically — because in 2021 Compact was classified as a ‘confirmed right-wing extremist’ publication by Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution [a seemingly phony decision]. That designation authorizes so-called ‘undercover investigations,’ which can include ‘entering a person’s home’ — but only remotely.

“Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), rejected Faeser’s new proposal on X: ‘There will be no authorization given to secretly snoop in people’s homes. We don’t do that in a constitutional state. That would be an absolute breach of taboo,’ he wrote… He urges proportionality, warning that, ‘If a law allows the state to secretly break into a home to search it, many people will lose their trust in the rule of law.’”

Absolutely! In addition, such governmental actions would not be limited to suspected terrorists and “right-wing extremists.” Everyone would be in danger of governmental despotism. Sadly, it WILL come to that.

Macron’s Dubious Role in the Telegram Affair

Politico wrote on September 7:

“One of the first things Pavel Durov did when he was arrested on Aug. 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport was to tell the police he had flown to France to have dinner with President Emmanuel Macron… Macron’s office said the president had been unaware of Durov’s arrival and staying at his vacation home in a northern France beach town when the arrest was made… Much of the speculation about the reasons for Durov’s detention swirled around allegations that France was seeking to censor a platform known for its commitment to privacy…

“Durov’s arrest presents a challenge for France, which faces accusations of seeking to suppress free speech on platforms like Telegram, and for Macron, who has a long-standing relationship with the tech tycoon.  There is growing public speculation about whether Durov’s arrest may have deeper motivations — namely, a possible effort by Western powers to assert control over Telegram…

“According to a French security expert who requested anonymity, landing at Le Bourget airport is akin to knocking on the front door and saying, ‘it’s me.’…

“In addition to being both a French and Russian citizen, Durov is also a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, where he resides and operates Telegram, as well as the Caribbean island state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, which grants citizenship in exchange for investment. Both Russia and the United Arab Emirates offered Durov diplomatic assistance — which he declined…

“… he does have a relationship with the French president that goes back to the early days of Macron’s presidency when he was going to great lengths to entice global tech leaders to invest in France. As part of that effort, Macron offered Durov French citizenship. ‘We made the decision in 2018 I believe — it is a decision I fully take ownership of,’ Macron said during a trip to Serbia on Aug. 29… Durov was officially granted citizenship in 2021, according to the French official journal.”

Durov’s arrest and “detention” in France is more than suspicious, and Macron’s role in this is certainly very dubious.

Unstable France in Uproar

ABC News wrote on September 7:

“Thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday, responding to a call from a far-left party leader who criticized as a power grab the president’s appointment of a conservative new prime minister, Michel Barnier. The protests are a direct challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass a prime minister from the far-left bloc following a deeply dividing legislative election in July. The left, particularly the France Unbowed party, views Barnier’s conservative background as rejecting the electorate’s will, further intensifying the EU’s second economy’s already charged political atmosphere.

“Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), warned that Barnier was ‘under surveillance’ by his party as well…

“Barnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers that have served modern France’s Fifth Republic. He replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago. Attal was forced to resign after Macron’s centrist government suffered a major defeat in the July snap legislative elections. Macron called the election in the hopes of securing a clear mandate, but it instead produced a hung parliament, leaving the president without a legislative majority and plunging his administration into turmoil.

“Attal was also France’s first openly gay prime minister. French media and some of Macron’s opponents, who immediately criticized Barnier’s appointment, quickly dug up that, when serving in parliament in 1981, the new prime minister had been among 155 lawmakers who voted against a law that decriminalized homosexuality. Though Barnier brings five decades of political experience, his appointment offers no guarantee of resolving the crisis. His challenge is immense: He must form a government that can navigate a fractured National Assembly, where the political spectrum is deeply divided between the far left, far right, and Macron’s weakened centrist bloc. The outcome of the snap poll, far from providing clarity, has only served to destabilize both the country and Macron’s grip on power.

“The president’s decision to turn to Barnier, a seasoned political operator with deep ties to the European Union, is seen as an attempt to bring stability to French politics. And Barnier, who gained prominence as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has faced daunting tasks before. Critics say Macron, elected on the promise of a break from the old political order, now finds himself battling the instability he once promised to overcome…”

France in Turmoil

AFP wrote on September 8:

“French conservative leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday urged President Emmanuel Macron to hold a referendum on key issues such as immigration, suggesting that giving the French a direct vote might help break the political deadlock… analysts say the country is set for a period of instability, with Barnier’s hold on power seen as fragile and dependent on support from Le Pen’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party, which is the largest party in the new National Assembly.

“More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators rallied across France on Saturday to protest against his nomination and denounce Macron’s ‘power grab’. Le Pen, who leads RN lawmakers in parliament, has said her party would not be part of the new cabinet… Le Pen also indicated she would watch Barnier’s every move. ‘If, in the coming weeks, the French are once again forgotten or mistreated, we will not hesitate to censure the government,’ she added… The left-wing coalition has also vowed to topple Barnier with a no-confidence motion…”

As the Bible says, France (Reuben) is as unstable as water…

Royal Navy in Utterly Dire State

Daily Mail wrote on September 6:

“The ‘utterly dire’ state of the Royal Navy fleet can be revealed today, with not one of its six attack submarines at sea. Only nine out of 25 warships and attack – as opposed to nuclear – submarines are active or deployed.  The rest of the fleet has racked up a staggering 30 years of missed days at sea as vessels are either broken down, being modified or undergoing trials. The shocking figures, confirmed by Navy sources, emerged as fears intensify over the future of the Armed Forces.

“Despite the threat posed by Russia, instability in the Middle East and the rise of China, the new Government is making defence cuts. Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry said last night: ‘This situation is utterly dire – we haven’t got enough ships to protect our aircraft carriers and we haven’t got any attack submarines to protect our nuclear deterrent.’ It is understood that shortages of engineers and dry-dock facilities are exacerbating the situation.

“The worst offenders in the naval fleet are assault ship HMS Bulwark and destroyer HMS Daring – which have both been inactive for more than seven years…. Most alarmingly, the shortage of attack submarines has apparently led to US submarines being called on to protect the UK’s ‘bomber’ submarines.”

Great Britain’s “glory days” are long past…

“Trans Madness”

The Sun wrote on September 6:

“DO those who have convinced confused teenagers to change gender, sometimes tearing apart their loving families in the process, never worry about the appalling harm they have done?

“… These kids have been encouraged online or by classmates to believe they were born in the wrong body. Being trans became fashionable on social media.

“Professionals, possessed of the liberal-Left’s arrogant moral certitude, couldn’t wait to steer them towards life-changing decisions about their bodies, ­brainwashing them about their ‘true’ identity while shoving their worried parents out of the way…  Anyone dissenting from all this is instantly branded a ‘transphobe’.”

Such terrible developments in our “civilized” “enlightened” Western societies!

Unparalleled US National Debt

The Daily Hodl wrote on September 7:

“The US national debt has ballooned by over half a trillion dollars in just three months… America’s national debt jumped from $34,635,364,143,328 on June 3rd to $35,319,686,640,609 on September 3rd – a surge of $684,322,497,000. The massive rise is coming just over a month after the US national debt crossed the $35 trillion mark. The US credit rating giant Fitch continues to sound the alarm on the growing debt and deficit… ‘The government has failed to meaningfully tackle large fiscal deficits, the growing debt burden and looming increases in spending associated with an aging population.’

“The rating giant notes that… trust in the US and the dollar may erode if the country continues to rely on debt to fund expenses. Last year, Fitch downgraded the long-term rating for the US from the ‘AAA’ gold standard to ‘AA+,’ citing expected fiscal deterioration over the coming years.”

Such debt is unsustainable, especially because the trust in the USA and the dollar WILL erode.

American Citizen Shot and Killed by Israel

Newsmax wrote on September 6:

“The White House announced it is requesting an investigation after an American woman was shot and killed by Israeli troops… ‘We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Egzi Eygi, today in the West Bank and our hearts go out to her family and loved ones,’ White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. ‘We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident.’

“Eygi had been attending a protest against Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank, according to reports. The Israel Defense Forces said it opened fire ‘toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the force and posed a threat to them.’ ‘The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review,’ the Israel Defense Force said.

“Eygi had dual citizenship with Turkey. Turkey President Recep Erdogan said he condemned ‘barbaric intervention against a civilian protest against the occupation in the West Bank,’ in a statement. Two doctors on the scene said she was shot in the head. ‘We tried to save the American citizen, we tried to revive the heart for several stages, but unfortunately, we did not succeed in restoring the heart to function,’ one of the doctors told the AP. A month ago, American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.”

The Associated Press wrote on September 10:

“The Israeli military said it ‘expresses its deepest regret’ after its inquiry ‘found that it is highly likely that [the American/Turkish  protestor] was hit indirectly and unintentionally by (Israeli army) fire which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot.’

“… U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the killing as ‘unprovoked and unjustified’ while speaking Tuesday at a news conference in London….”

The shaky relationship between the USA and Israel will continue to deteriorate. Archenemy Turkey, of course, uses the opportunity to continue its hateful expressions against Israel.

USA Unprepared for World War III

The New York Post wrote on September 6:

“The U.S. is treading on ground not seen since World War II, according to Fox News senior strategic analyst and retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane, who warned that ‘we’re on a pathway’ to a third world war. His comments come amid conflicts in the Middle East and Europe and growing tension in the Pacific, and echoes former President Trump’s warning that the U.S. is ‘heading into World War III territory.’

“Keane told FOX… that a recent congressional commission on the Biden administration’s national defense strategy that he took part in revealed that the threat of another major war is very real. According to the recent commission,… the U.S. faces the ‘most serious’ and ‘most challenging’ threats since 1945, including the potential for a ‘near-term major war.’ It also found that… ‘the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.’

“Keane pointed out that there was a change in the behavior of U.S. adversaries that occurred between the Biden and Trump administrations. ‘What has fundamentally changed from one administration to the other is Russia, China, Iran and North Korea working together, collaborating, coordinating, and truly helping each other,’ he stressed… Keane reiterated the commission’s conclusion that the U.S. has ‘not seen a period of time like this since World War II’ and warned of what may be to come….”

Ultimately, the trumpet of war will sound in America, and nobody will fight.

All in Favor of IVF?

The New York Post wrote on September 8:

“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ripped into Sen. JD Vance and former president Donald Trump at a LGBTQ+ advocacy group Saturday, speaking about the importance of fertility treatment access without acknowledging Trump’s recent pledge to make IVF treatments free…  Vance was met with renewed scrutiny early September after reports circulated that he endorsed a Heritage Foundation report that proposed sweeping restrictions to abortions and fertility treatments.

“Access to IVF has been in the news since February when the conservative Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling that would have basically ended access to IVF treatment. Since then, Republicans have been distancing themselves from the decision while Democrats have been using the issue to attack GOP rivals. Last month Trump pledged to expand access to in-vitro fertilization treatment through a combination of both insurance mandates and government funding, even though some conservative supporters oppose the move…

“Walz is viewed as an LGBTQ ally, with Minnesota enacting laws protecting access to gender-affirming health care and abortion, as well as banning conversion therapy.”

Please note our recent StandingWatch program, “What Does God Say About Abortion and IVF?” 

Parent Responsible for Child’s Criminal Conduct?

Fox News wrote on September 6:

“Georgia is one of at least 42 states and Washington, D.C., to have laws allowing parents to be held criminally responsible for their children’s actions… Colin Gray, 54, faces multiple charges over the alleged actions of his son, Colt Gray, 14, who is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others in a shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday. The charges against Colin Gray include four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

“Authorities said the elder Gray knowingly allowed his son to possess a weapon.

“The parental responsibility laws vary from state to state, with some focusing on parental negligence in preventing a child’s access to firearms, while others address broader forms of delinquent behavior…  Georgia’s law allows for parents to face criminal liability if they are found to have contributed to their child’s delinquent behavior through neglect or failure to properly supervise. If a parent in Georgia knowingly allows a child to gain access to firearms or engages in reckless behavior that leads to harm, for example, they can face criminal charges, including involuntary manslaughter or child cruelty.”

Dr. Ben Carlson Appointed as National Faith Chairman by Trump  

Breitbart wrote on September 6:

“Dr. Ben Carson announced that he was ‘honored to serve as the national faith chairman’ for former President Donald Trump and his campaign… Trump added that Carson would ‘work with leaders of the faith community on behalf of the campaign to promote the protection of religious freedom’ in the United States…

“After Trump was elected president in 2016, Carson joined the Trump administration as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)… while serving in this role, Carson was invited by Trump to offer a prayer during the beginning of a cabinet meeting: During his prayer, Carson observed that ‘separation of church and state means that the church does not dominate the state, and it means the state does not dominate the church.’

“Carson has also spoken out against abortion. While speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2019, he spoke about his time working as a neurosurgeon and how he had operated on prematurely born babies, explaining that ‘they can feel’ and ‘can react.’”

On October 29, 2015, The Times of Israel wrote the following about Carson’s faith—an interesting mixture of truth and error:

“When Joe Lieberman became the first observant Jew with a reasonable chance at being president – after Al Gore named him his vice presidential running mate in 2000 – he faced a host of questions about how his Sabbath observance might impact his presidential duties. Now that Ben Carson, a Seventh Day Adventist, has emerged at the top of the polls in the Republican presidential primary, he’s facing similar questions about his religion. So far, Carson’s faith — which, like Judaism, celebrates the Sabbath on Saturday and abjures eating the non-kosher animals listed in the Book of Leviticus — hasn’t been an impediment to his campaign. The neurosurgeon-turned-candidate doesn’t seem to be a Sabbath-observer in the strictest sense: He has held campaign rallies on Saturday and made Saturday stops on book tours. But Carson says he tries to respect the day of rest. ‘Sabbath is still a precious day for us. We go to church as often as we can,’ he [said]. ‘ Even if we’re on the road we treat it as a different day than all the others.’

“While the religion shares some commonalities with Judaism, Adventists believe the second coming of Jesus may be imminent. The Adventist church also focuses on health and wellness, and members are encouraged, but not required, to forgo alcohol, tobacco and meat. Carson is on a mostly vegetarian diet, but he does eat milk and egg products and occasionally chicken… Carson frequently cites his faith as the reason for his policy positions. On taxation, for example, Carson has proposed a tithing system… ‘Now we don’t necessarily have to do it 10 percent, but it’s the principle,’ Carson said in a 2013 speech…

“Like many other Christian candidates, he also cites religion for his opposition to abortion, including in cases of rape or incest (though not if the mother’s life is in jeopardy). ‘All you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest,’ he told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’…

“Carson… suggested in September that he’d have trouble with a Muslim in the White House, saying that any Muslim who became president would have to reject certain tenets of Islam that are incompatible with the presidency… He also believes Jews shouldn’t take offense if someone wishes them a ‘Merry Christmas’ ‘That’s a salutation of greeting, of goodwill. We’ve got to get over this sensitivity.’

“More controversially, Carson suggested in a new book and in interviews in early October that gun control was partially responsible for Hitler’s slaughter of Europe’s Jews, allowing the Nazis to ‘carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.’ His comments came as part of his reaction to the deadly mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., after which Carson argued that better armed citizens, rather than gun control, is the best way to stop such mass killings.

“Several weeks later, Carson defended his comments, saying on ‘Meet the Press,’ ‘I’ve heard from many people in the Jewish community, including rabbis, who said, “You’re spot on. You are exactly right.’”

“Like many devout believers of all faiths, Carson attributes his successes in life to God. ‘There’s no question God sets these things up. My whole life, I feel, has been orchestrated by him,’ Carson said in 2013. ‘We always have to remember that no matter what’s going on, no matter how much of a spotlight we have, that all of that comes from God and everything we do should reflect glory on his name.’”

Can you determine for yourself from the Bible where Carlson is right… and where he is wrong?

Europe Without US Help?

Sky News wrote on September 6:

“Polls indicate the race for the White House has become much closer since the decision by current incumbent Joe Biden to drop out, but there remains a very real prospect that Donald Trump could win a second term as US president. Such an eventuality would have repercussions way beyond American soil, with analysts suggesting it could be pivotal for the war in Ukraine… [Experts also say] a Trump victory may leave Europe ‘in a tight spot’ – and urged leaders in the continent to begin planning for that result…

“[It was pointed] out that Trump has warned that he would immediately cut all US aid to Kyiv [he later said he would grant Ukraine money in form of repayable loans] and demand a quick end to the war, which would likely require Ukraine to cede a significant part of its territory to Russia… Trump has long questioned the value of NATO, so it is not inconceivable that he would strip back the US commitment to defend Europe… Trump could act quickly, by vowing never to order US troops to fight for Europe. Europe, as a result, would be forced to confront a security crisis on a scale it has not faced since World War II…”

Without any question, the situation pertaining to Ukraine and Europe would drastically change if Trump were to be elected.

An Unholy Alliance of Western Leaders

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on September 10:

“As should be clear to all now, ‘war’ has broken out. There is no need for further pretence about it. Rather, there is evident glee at the prospect of a crackdown on the ‘Far-Right’ and its internet users: i.e. those who spread ‘disinformation’ or mal-information… There will be prosecutions, convictions, and fines for cyber ‘actors’…  There is an unholy alliance of western leaders – Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz – whose hatred of what they call populism is undisguised. In his recent visits to Berlin and Paris, Starmer constantly referred to the threat posed by populism…  These days virtually every political problem is blamed on populism …

“The war, for the moment, is targeted at the ‘unaccountable’ billionaires: Pavel Durov, Elon Musk, and his ‘X’ platform. The survival or not of Elon Musk will be crucial to the course of this aspect of the war: The EU’s Digital Service Act was always conceived to serve as ‘Brutus’ to Musk’s ‘Caesar’…”

EU vs. Google and Apple

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 10:

“The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday that Google had violated antitrust laws and that Apple needed to pay the EU €13 billion ($14.3 billion) in back taxes… Google was fined €2.4 billion, but had appealed to the ECJ, which has now upheld the fine…

“Europe’s case against Apple began in 2016… The EU has long demanded that Apple pay back billions of taxes for two Irish subsidies that the company argues are primarily taxable in the United States. Arguing that they were being subjected to double taxation…

“Both the judgments against Google and Apple are final and cannot be overturned… Apple…  said in a statement: ‘The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US.’”

Europe’s fight against American companies is clearly in full swing.

Renewed Russian Threats

Express wrote on September 6:

“Putin has once again threatened the use of nuclear weapons after accusing Ukraine of attacking a power plant in the Kursk region…  Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Putin said: ‘One can only imagine what will happen if we strike back; what will happen in Europe.’…

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also sent a warning to the US over reports that Washington could supply long-range weapons to Ukraine to enable them to strike territory deep within Russia…”

Words and more words… but very often, words lead to wars.

The Shroud of Turin—NOT a Depiction of Jesus

Newsmax wrote on September 5:

“The blood stains on the Shroud of Turin are consistent with the description of torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, a new scientific study from Italy finds… Fanti’s and several other scientific inquiries have confirmed that the Shroud contains evidence of a real person with real blood and other bodily effluents. Fanti says the findings indicate the cloth was used on someone with bloody injuries, rather than forged using ink, dye, paint, or other techniques.

“The 14-foot-by-4-foot Shroud of Turin is imprinted with an image of the body and face of a man wearing a ‘crown of thorns’ from a plant, and is covered in bloodstains… Materials that were typical in ancient Jerusalem also were discovered, the study says, suggesting the shroud may have originated in the region and not in Europe where many skeptics think it was created as a medieval forgery…

“‘Bloodstained marks all over the body image which are consistent with pre-crucifixion flagellation, bloodstained marks on the head that are consistent with a ‘crown’ of thorns, blood marks on the hand and feet that are consistent with crucifixion and the bloodstain on the chest that evidences a post-mortem wound that corresponds with the post-mortem spear wound that Christ received as is described in the Bible.”

The Shroud does not depict Jesus Christ. For more information, please read our Editorial in this issue.

Parents Sell Their Children For Covid Tests

Report 24 wrote on September 4:

“In fact, a disturbing number of parents decided to have their children vaccinated [against Covid-19] without knowing the exact side effects and potential subsequent damage. But even worse: The pharmaceutical companies also needed parents or guardians for the clinical trials, who exposed their charges to the associated risks. If you look at the ‘expenses’ for this, you will notice: babies and children can be had cheaply…

“According to this, a study on Covid vaccinations for babies has been running in Lincoln (Nebraska) since January 2023, in which healthy infants aged 12 weeks to 6 months are given an experimental vaccine in order to then examine a possible immune reaction via a blood sample. The compensation ‘for time and travel’ is ‘up to 1,800 dollars’…

“Do these parents feel like heroes when they let Big Pharma tell them that they are allowing unsafe and as yet unexplored substances to be injected into their offspring for the common good, the ‘greater good’? Who is attracted by sentences like ‘Your baby could be part of important research for an investigational vaccine against the coronavirus (COVID-19)’?…

“No less perverse seems the vaccination study for children that was previously conducted in Lincoln, starting in late summer 2022… This study was aimed at children – as compensation for participation over two years, parents were promised ‘more than $3,000’…

“It was [a study that] aimed at babies from six months, toddlers up to five years and children up to eleven years… The consequences of a failed vaccine test are unlikely to have been explained to the young participants; young children also have no idea what a lifelong motor or cognitive disability would mean for them.

“The extent to which sacrificing a child who can never give ‘informed consent’ is morally justifiable in the context of clinical trials is an ethical question that Big Pharma is unlikely to care much about. The fact that parents are giving up their own children and exposing them to risks because they do not question the narrative of the ultimately dangerous Covid-19 or the practices of the pharmaceutical industry, for which profit has always been the top priority, should certainly give us food for thought…”

This is tragic and terrible indeed.

Sending Man to Mars?

The Sun wrote on September 9:

“THE man behind SpaceX, Elon Musk, has pledged to take humans to Mars in just four years’ time onboard his Starship mega-rocket. The eccentric billionaire, who also owns Tesla and X, said Starship’s first [uncrewed] flight to Mars will occur in two years’ time, when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. Earth-Mars transfer launch windows occur every 26 months… Musk doesn’t just have hopes of taking Earthlings to the Red Planet, but of building a Martian metropolis there, too. ‘Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years,’ he added in the same post…

“Starship, at nearly 400ft tall, with 33 engines, is the tallest rocket ever leave the ground… the first stage of Starship, known as the Super Heavy booster, is the most powerful rocket ever built… Starship is being developed as part of a $1.15 billion contract with Nasa to deliver astronauts to the Moon in the US space agency’s Artemis programme…

“The newly declared timeline came just a day after China unveiled plans for a crewed mission to Mars in 2033…  Under President Xi Jinping, China spent roughly $14 billion (11.2 billion) on its ambitious space programme in 2023… The US space agency has dominated the industry so far, though has only recently swallowed the bitter pill of scrapping the Viper Moon mission after $450 million had already been spent, citing spiralling costs and delays…”

What possible benefit to mankind could there be in sending expensive rockets and men to Mars? Sadly, none whatsoever, while these amounts of money could be used for worthwhile purposes.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer:

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

In October 2022, Antonio Pagliarulo wrote a piece on the nbcnews.com website under the heading “Why paganism and witchcraft are making a comeback” and below are a few excerpts:

“Two weeks ago, in the run-up to Halloween, I visited Salem, Massachusetts, for the first time since the pandemic began. In renewing my annual Halloween pilgrimage, I was bowled over by what I found in the Witch City: bigger crowds, longer lines and a wider and welcome array of merchandise geared toward many different religious traditions and ethnic identities.   

“Amid the curious crowds in black capes and conical hats, bags overflowing with DIY spell kits and candles to enhance prosperity, I overheard the same question: Is magic really real?

“Witchcraft, which includes Wicca, paganism, folk magic and other New Age traditions, is one of the fastest-growing spiritual paths in America.

“For me, the answer is yes. 

“I am one of a million-plus Americans who — whether proudly, secretly or dabbling through the power of consumerism — practice some form of witchcraft. Witchcraft, which includes Wicca, paganism, folk magic, and other New Age traditions, is one of the fastest growing spiritual paths in America.

“In 1990, Trinity College in Connecticut estimated there were 8,000 adherents to Wicca.  In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau figure was 342,000.  A 2014 Pew Research Center study increased that projection several times over in assessing that 0.4% of Americans identified as pagan, Wiccan or New Age. (Most modern pagan worship, of which Wicca is one type, draws on pre-Christian traditions in revering nature.) By 2050, it said, the number of Americans practicing “other religions” — faiths outside Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism — would triple “due largely to switching into other religions (such as Wicca and pagan religions).

“The precise number of witches in America is difficult to determine because many practitioners are solitary and, either by choice or circumstance, do not openly identify as such. But the growth is evident, especially to those who’ve made it their life’s work to study the community.

“‘It’s clearly increasing,’ said Helen A. Berger, who is one of the foremost academic experts on contemporary witchcraft and paganism in America and draws knowledge about its appeal from surveys she’s co-conducted on the pagan community.”

If the writer’s assertion that “I am one of a million-plus Americans who practice some form of witchcraft” is correct, then those involved in just this one country is far larger than the true Church of God has ever been in its nearly 2,000-year history! Jesus said, as recorded in Luke 12:32: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  The followers of Jesus, the early Christians, were a little flock then and as history shows, has continued to be so down through the ages to the present day.

God doesn’t need huge numbers to do His Work.  In the case of Gideon in Judges 7, we read: “And the LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, “My own hand has saved me”’ (verse 2).  They whittled the number down from 32,000 to 10,000 and then down to 300 which was a reduction of more than 99%.  With this tiny number, God led the Israelites to win a stunning victory and shows that when He is involved, nothing can stand against Him.

Taken from the website paganfederation.org under the heading “What Paganism Is,” we read the following definition:

“Paganism is the ancestral religion of the whole of humanity. This ancient religious outlook remains active throughout much of the world today, both in complex civilisations such as Japan and India, and in less complex tribal societies world-wide. It was the outlook of the European religions of classical antiquity – Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome – as well as of their ‘barbarian’ neighbours on the northern fringes, and its European form is re-emerging into explicit awareness in the modern West as the articulation of urgent contemporary religious priorities.

“The Pagan outlook can be seen as threefold. Its adherents venerate Nature and worship many deities, both goddesses and gods.”

This is totally at odds with what true Christianity is all about.   The Bible gives us the definition of a true Christian:

Acts 2:38 states: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 4:12 states: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 5:32 states: “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

And so, putting these three Scriptures together, a true Christian has to repent, be baptised, receive God’s Holy Spirit and keep the Law of God which will help him to obey God.  And, tellingly, there is no salvation in any other, meaning that the Christian faith is exclusive and all other religions are false.  For more information, please see our Q&A entitled: “What is a True Christian?”

On the BBC website, we read:

“The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.

“Ancient people were hunters and spent most of their time outdoors. The seasons and weather played a very important part in their lives. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for, and even worshipped the sun. The Norsemen of Northern Europe saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, houl, that the word yule is thought to have come. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale.

“The ancient Romans also held a festival to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles, holding processions and giving presents.

“The Winter Solstice falls on the shortest day of the year (21st December) and was celebrated in Britain long before the arrival of Christianity. The Druids (Celtic priests) would cut the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and give it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months.

“It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the yule log. The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year.

“Many of these customs are still followed today. They have been incorporated into the Christian and secular celebrations of Christmas.”

On the website ukpagancouncil.org are the following details:

“The UK Pagan Council is one of the UK’s largest pagan organisations and is here to provide an effective and friendly focal point for whole UK pagan community or those aspiring to pagan way of life.

“The UK Pagan Council is open to any pagans and witches who follow any number of different pagan paths, including Eclectic, Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Wiccan, Druid and many more.

“If you are Pagan, but not a practicing witch, you are welcome to join our community, as many have done so already. There is something for everyone.

“The site features an online social network, online chat, groups, UK Covens Database, UK Moots Database, campaigns, UK and global events, an Agony Witch page, forums, blogs, an online Book of Shadows and much more.”

On another website, paganfed.org, is more information about paganism: “The site features an online social network, online chat, groups, UK Covens Database, UK Moots Database, campaigns, UK and global events, an Agony Witch page, forums, blogs, an online Book of Shadows and much more.

The website whatchristianswanttoknow.com gives additional information on this matter:

“The word ‘pagan’ originally meant a ‘region delimited by markers,’ like a city or a state or even a region that was easily marked off. Now it literally means anyone else’s religion or belief system that rests outside of their own religion. In other words, to the Orthodox Jews, Muslims are pagans, and to the Muslims, the Jews are pagans…and just about every other religion classifies those outside of their own beliefs as pagan or sometimes, referred to as heathen.

“The difference is, heathen are not particularly religious, but pagans are known for the elaborate rituals, ceremonies, and other practices that involve worship of their god or gods (whichever the case may be). Even though this word is no longer commonly used today, if you called someone a pagan in ancient times, you really weren’t identifying them as a religious group or community, but using it as a derogatory term or slang that essentially said, ‘They’re unbelievers…they’re hopeless…they’re dogs.’”

Wikipedia has this to say about modern paganism in the United States: “(It) is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan (also known as neo-pagan) religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism (also known as Heathenry) and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.”

whatchristianswanttoknow.com tells us: “Paganism is making a very strong comeback. What attracts so many is their spirituality and carte blanche philosophy for no limits to the human mind. It comes striking close to self-worship because worshiping nature is essentially, worshiping self, as the ‘self is part of the whole.’ Some of the harder edged pagan religions almost see those who do good as evil and those who do evil as good, so paganism isn’t just one belief, it is like the word religion, meaning there are many different belief systems that fall under paganism, such as the Wicca, Witchcraft, Zoroastrianism, Celtic, Druids, and all other sorts of neo-paganisms.

“Some are listed under ‘Spirituality’ in publications and on websites. Some of these have been around for thousands of years, while most of the others are recent human inventions. Let’s be clear. If these are not for God, then they are against God, and we should stay as far away from these as possible… Paganism is growing stronger and stronger, and our children and grandchildren are more at risk than when we were a child.”

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

“The Biggest Loser in the Trump/Harris Debate,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is the summary:

Who lost the most? Was it Trump? Harris? Their ABC Moderators? The Mass Media? Or perhaps something else?

“Der größte Verlierer in der Trump/Harris Debatte,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This video covers the same topic as described above.

A new Member Letter (September 2024) has been posted. Pastor Rene Messier reflects on the impact of the death of those close to us, while encouraging that we consider our own relationship with God—especially in accomplishing our part in God’s Work.

“Who Is Jesus Christ?—His Many Descriptions in the Bible!” is the title of our newest booklet, which is currently being reviewed.

A Tech Team Meeting was conducted on Sunday, September 8, 2024. Hosted by Eric Rank, we discussed the improvement in our ad campaign responses, Feast plans and broadcast issues.

“Begreifen SIE eigentlich den Sinn IHRES Lebens?” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: Do YOU Actually Understand the Purpose of YOUR Life?

“Die Entscheidung liegt bei uns!” last Sabbath’s German sermonette presented by Robert Indlekofer, is now posted. Title in English: “The Decision is Ours!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hj8mcY0HBI  

“Covid – A Precursor of Future Events?”, last Sabbath’s sermonette presented by Brian Gale, is now posted. Here is the summary:

We have seen what great havoc was caused by Covid- and this was just a foretaste of what is to come during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.

“The Coming End of the World,” last Sabbath’s sermon presented by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is the summary:

Does the Bible really describe the coming end of the world? And if so, how and why would this happen? What would be the consequences? Would humanity’s depraved lifestyle have anything to do with it? And wouldn’t there be a way out and survival for anyone? If so, who would be protected from destruction?

On September 7, 2024, Brian Gale will present the sermonette, titled, “Covid – A Precursor of Future Events?,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “The Coming End of the World.”

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

In the face of trials, what do we do?

“‘Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.
“‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me’” (Psalm 50:14-15).

When we find ourselves greatly blessed, what do we do?

“‘Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!

“‘For His mercy endures forever’” (1 Chronicles 16:34).

In our time, thankfulness to God is not something practiced or even rightly understood. God is not glorified as the Creator of all things. Rather, He is ignored and shamelessly disobeyed! Nevertheless, Jesus said of the Father that “‘…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’” (Matthew 5:45).

King David extolled God with overflowing thankfulness. His Psalms reflect praise and thankfulness to God (Psalm 23; 145), and many other Psalms in the Bible also laud and exalt God (Psalm 100;148).

We need to take the time to reflect on the majesty of God in the context of our own lives—especially our calling to the Truth of God and eternal life. David wrote:

“LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
“Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?” (Psalm 144:3).

We have been called to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). Being thankful to God in the darkness of this age is our great challenge: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

by Norbert Link

We begin with a critical analysis of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and the feeling that America is moving towards an autocratic dictatorship; and that it is a “beached” superpower in Europe.

We continue with an article stating that abortion is always wrong [please see our new StandingWatch program, titled, “What Does God Say About Abortion and IVF?”] and report on America’s “missionaries” bringing “evil” to Africa.

We speak on the dictatorship of Brazil and its Supreme Court persecuting Elon Musk; and show that without Telegram, some facts would have never been revealed.

We speak on the newest debacle of Olaf Scholz’s government; the idea of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount, and the murders by Hamas’s butchers of many of the Israeli hostages.

Daily Mail’s Terrible Indictment of Harris and Walz

The Daily Mail wrote on August 30:

“Four weeks into campaigning, she finally granted an interview — to a very friendly CNN, toting her VP pick Tim Walz along for reasons unknown. Moral support, perhaps?… it wasn’t a winning look for someone who wants to be president of the United States. As for her answers: Harris was vague, policy-free, and at times just plain full of it… In attempting to answer Dana Bash’s unimaginative first question — ‘What would you do on Day One in the White House?’ — Kamala was the proverbial car engine struggling to turn over, delaying an actual answer with extraneous, redundant verbiage…

“Kamala… claimed she was taken by total, utter surprise when President Biden called her on that fateful Sunday, informing her of his decision to withdraw from the 2024 race. Bash allowed Kamala to feign shock — even though the Democratic plot to oust Biden… is now well reported…

“Walz, sitting uselessly by…, doubled down on the lies he’s already told. If this otherwise pointless interview proved one thing, it’s that Harris clearly saw a fellow traveller in Walz: a shameless prevaricator and a fraud who will say anything…

“Harris is incapable of articulating her thought processes because they don’t exist. She cannot speak extemporaneously. She has no intellectual reservoir, no internal editor, no cogent line of reasoning… Asked why she should be president, she said: ‘I believe that I am the best person to do this job.’ In an interview where Harris was unclear on nearly everything, one fact came into sharp focus: she is quantitatively not the best person for this job.”

In a related article, the Daily Mail wrote on August 30:

“The fact CNN had agreed to Walz’s presence showed the network had effectively thrown in the towel before the interview even started. As president, Harris would have to deal with the world’s most powerful dictators… Yet she doesn’t feel up to facing a middling broadcast journalist like Bash on her own? It was all a bit pathetic…

“The interview was pre-recorded, Harris’s people (probably rightly) concluding that ‘live’ was too risky…

“Though we learned nothing new and Harris made no serious gaffes, the interview reminded us of what has largely been forgotten in her recent reinvention: that in essence Harris remains a mediocre lightweight given to glib answers with no substance.…”

And she wants to be America’s next President? It is hard to believe that apparently many (willfully ignorant?) Americans are willing to vote for her…

George Clooney—the Weasel

On September 2, the New York Post published the following article by Piers Morgan:

“… it was [actor George Clooney] who first publicly plunged the knife into Biden’s back with a withering op-ed in the New York Times in which he demanded his presidential head on a plate. But it was the details of Clooney’s reasoning that were so brutal…  The op-ed was the catalyst for many other leading Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, to join in the humiliating campaign to force Biden to quit the 2024 race, something he had made absolutely clear he didn’t want to do…

“What he did to Biden was a political hit job of the most ruthless kind. He took a cold, calculating sniper aim at his friend and metaphorically sprayed him with a hail of bullets…

“Yet now the same George Clooney wants us to believe Biden’s in fact the new George Washington who many polls of Americans say was not only the nation’s first president but also its greatest. In a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, he waxed lyrical about the man he’d just politically assassinated… Nobody, as Judas Iscariot could attest, forgets a famous friend who so publicly betrays another famous friend. Least of all Joe Biden, who is reportedly still spitting blood at the way you all set him up….”

USA—Moving Towards a Totalitarian Society

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on August 29:

“Facebook worked in concert with the Biden administration to censor content related to COVID-19…  The government is not protecting us from ‘dangerous’ disinformation campaigns. It is laying the groundwork to insulate us from ‘dangerous’ ideas that might cause us to think for ourselves and, in so doing, challenge the power elite’s stranglehold over our lives…

“The steady, pervasive censorship creep that is being inflicted on us by corporate tech giants with the blessing of the powers-that-be threatens to bring about a restructuring of reality straight out of Orwell’s 1984, where the Ministry of Truth polices speech and ensures that facts conform to whatever version of reality the government propagandists embrace. Orwell intended 1984 as a warning. Instead, it is being used as a dystopian instruction manual for socially engineering a populace that is compliant, conformist and obedient to Big Brother…

“Eventually, depending on how the government and its corporate allies define what constitutes ‘extremism’, ‘we the people’ might all be considered guilty of some thought crime or other… We should all be alarmed when any individual or group—prominent or not—is censored, silenced and made to disappear from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram for voicing ideas that are deemed politically incorrect, hateful, dangerous or conspiratorial…

“Eventually, as Orwell predicted, telling the truth will become a revolutionary act. If the government can control speech, it can control thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry… With every passing day, we’re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy and intolerance, all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security, tolerance and so-called ‘government speech.’

“What we are witnessing is the modern-day equivalent of book burning which involves doing away with dangerous ideas—legitimate or not—and the people who espouse them. Seventy-plus years after Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 depicted a fictional world in which books are burned in order to suppress dissenting ideas, while televised entertainment is used to anesthetize the populace and render them easily pacified, distracted and controlled, we find ourselves navigating an eerily similar reality.”

Canada has already become a dictatorship. The USA is next in line, perhaps together with the UK. Of course, we all should know the path Europe is walking.

America a “Beached” Superpower

The Hill wrote on August 30:

“The root problem is growing uncertainty about America’s willingness to fight and die on behalf of its nominal allies… Would the U.S. mobilize to fight a hot war against Russia in Eastern Europe?… There is already dispositive evidence that America will not fight in defense of non-NATO members in Eastern Europe… The U.S. can be counted on to supply critical military and economic aid — for a time, at least — but it has announced in no uncertain terms that Americans will not be placed in harm’s way in defense of non-allies in Europe.

“In reality, there is also reason to doubt whether the U.S. would risk nuclear war with Russia in defense of some NATO members, such as Poland or the Baltics… sitting U.S. leaders would work hard to de-escalate any future conflict with Russia, even if it meant abandoning nominal allies in a time of need…

“The U.S. is a beached superpower [in Europe]…”

The allies will not be helped by the USA, and the USA will most certainly not be helped by its allies.

Abortion Is Always Wrong

The Federalist wrote on August 27:

“The intentional ending of an innocent human life is always wrong; so too then is every abortion and every destruction of a human embryo by an IVF clinic. However, a majority of Americans will never vote to ban all abortions or prohibit the destruction of embryos created for IVF. Our country has tumbled too far down the slope of situational ethics, brainwashed along the way with the rhetoric of choice. And if the overturning of Roe v. Wade proved anything, it was that a large swath of Americans will readily accept the lies of abortion apologists to prevent even a hypothetical complete ban on abortion — even if that means sacrificing a few thousand near-term babies demand by the Left’s extremism of abortion on demand, until birth.

“… the Republican platform and the Trump-Vance ticket has abandoned any effort to advance pro-life positions, and, to the contrary, appears supportive of the unregulated destruction of human embryos through IVF…

“Trump may not govern as a pro-life president, but Harris will most assuredly be the most pro-abortion president ever elected…”

So, there are really no good choices for voting-hungry Americans. When it comes to IVF clinics and procedures, the Heritage Foundation wrote on February 15, 2023:

“One key battleground is in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is the process whereby ova are fertilized with sperm in a laboratory rather than in a woman’s body. The resulting live embryo is then implanted in the biological mother or a surrogate. For those who believe that life begins at conception, IVF is morally troubling indeed… To date, over one million babies have been born using IVF. Another one million embryos are frozen… They are ‘disposable’ babies due to common IVF practices like embryo destruction, freezing, genetic testing, and genetic editing.

“Let’s take embryo destruction. IVF is an attractive option for couples who are struggling with infertility, same-sex couples, and single persons. To raise their odds of success, doctors create multiple embryos. After testing them for genetic problems or physical traits, they then destroy the ‘unfit’ embryos. The remaining embryos are either implanted or frozen. Embryo freezing serves many purposes. In each case, it allows men and women to delay childbearing beyond normal limits. Stories like the embryos created in 1992 but not born until 30 years later will only become more common. Still, many don’t realize that only 53% of defrosted embryos result in a live birth.

“When it comes to genetic testing…, doctors routinely destroy the embryos suspected of carrying traits the parents deem undesirable. If they’re hoping for a male baby, out go the female embryos. Embryos with a treatable disease like cystic fibrosis face a similar fate. Genetic editing takes this process one step further… [It] alters the very makeup of an embryo. It can be used to change an embryo’s IQ, physical ability, or the ability to contract a disease…

“Rather than accept children as gifts, IVF treats children like products to be bought, sold, or designed. Worse, it destroys embryos that are deemed not good enough. Any practice that destroys or subverts innocent human life, even at the earliest stages, is at odds with pro-life principles.”

This horrible practice is of course ungodly. The Bible calls it murder.

America’s ”Missionaries” Bring “Evil” to Africa

LifeSiteNews wrote on August 29:

“African Catholic archbishops are sounding the alarm over Western efforts to indoctrinate Africans into homosexual lifestyles in what one prelate describes as a new kind of proselytism – one of ‘evil.’… The efforts are pervasive enough that archbishops from Kenya to Cameroon and Ghana to Tanzania are all testifying to similar problems, which reportedly include LGBTQ classroom indoctrination and gay sex parties. Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast, Ghana described… how tourists will entice boys with money to pull them into homosexual activity… Archbishop Palmer-Buckle alluded to a growing phenomernon in Africa in which boys are paid money, which is little by American standards but astronomical by African standards, to be in homosexual pornography films. These boys are then sent to recruit others, for which they are paid even more.

“Archbishop Leonard Nkwande [of Tanzania] said [that his] experience has also suggested that the Biden administration has been involved in promotion of homosexuality in his country… This is consistent with the declaration of U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby last year that so-called ‘LGBTQ+ rights’ are a ‘core part’ of U.S. foreign policy, and the December 2023 report that the U.S. had spent more than $4.1 billion in taxpayer money on LGBT-promoting initiatives around the world…

“The West is not only corrupting Africans through on-the-ground efforts but through virtual influence via social media… This is especially the case in places like Kenya, where more than 60 percent of residents have a smartphone, much more than in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa…”

That is the kind of example the “ungodly” nation of the USA is setting.

Now Persecution of Musk in Brazil 

The Hill wrote on August 30:

“X owner Elon Musk slammed Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes [a Catholic] as an ‘evil dictator [cosplaying as a judge]’ Thursday as he threatened to shut down the billionaire’s social media platform in the country….

“The months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes reached a fever pitch Wednesday night when the judge ordered X to name a legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours or face a ban… ‘Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,’ X’s Global Government Affairs team said in a post. 

“X closed its office in Brazil earlier this month after de Moraes ordered the platform to remove posts from the site. If X failed to comply, the judge said he would levy a daily fine of $3,650 and an arrest decree against its representative, Rachel Nova Conceicao….  Starlink, Musk’s satellite company, also revealed Thursday that de Moraes had frozen its finances and was blocking the firm from conducting financial transactions in Brazil…  ‘It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil…’”

Brazil’s Dictatorship

The Associated Press wrote on August 31:

“Brazil started blocking Elon Musk’s social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through its mobile app after the company refused to comply with a judge’s order… To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday at midnight local time, major operators began doing so… The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it…

“X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings… but it has since been restored.”

Even Apple and Google were initially instructed to remove X from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN obstacles that would make it more difficult for users to find access, but de Moraes later reversed that part of his order, saying it would not be needed.

Judge de Moraes has a controversial history. He was a member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party. He was accused of covering up police violence. He was accused of defending Brazil’s main drug trafficking group. Already in 2020, he was criticized by outlets such as The Intercept on the basis of censorship and attack on the freedom of the press. In 2022, he ordered the suspension of the messaging app Telegram, accusing it of repeatedly failing to block accounts spreading disinformation (so he said), and ignoring previous court decisions. President Bolsonaro called the ruling “inadmissible“. In October 2022, the Superior Electoral Court gave de Moraes the unilateral authority to order the removal of online content that did not comply with previous TSE rulings, as part of an effort to combat disinformation. Bolsonaro supporters and legal experts criticized the move, fearing that it could allow for censorship. American journalist and lawyer Glenn Greenwald has criticized several decisions of de Moraes, accusing him of censorship and undermining freedom of speech.

In 2023, the New York Times published a piece questioning if the decisions of de Moraes were beneficial for democracy, and noted that he “has jailed people without trial for posting threats on social media; helped sentence a sitting congressman to nearly nine years in prison for threatening the court; ordered raids on businessmen with little evidence of wrongdoing; suspended an elected governor from his job; and unilaterally blocked dozens of accounts and thousands of posts on social media, with virtually no transparency or room for appeal.”

It is clear that this Supreme Court Judge rules as an unhinged dictator.

Without Telegram Many Things Would Not Have Been Possible…

Report 24 wrote on August 30:

“When the arrest of Pawel Durow was announced – according to rumors, the Telegram founder was even lured to France by… Macron personally – the MFG party invited people to the big freedom demonstration in Vienna. Durow is now out on bail – but he is not allowed to leave France and is in danger of becoming the next ‘Assange case’…

“One thing is certain: Without Telegram, many things that probably saved millions of lives from the dangerous mRNA experiment would not have been possible. With the free messenger, Pawel Durow opened up the opportunity to live freedom of expression.  The problem in recent years has not been that there has been a problem with radical, dangerous or violence-glorifying opinions. It was simply about being able to openly express and promote a completely legal opinion guaranteed by fundamental rights, the constitution and the basic law.

“The ‘Western’ governments have banned and censored these dissenting opinions as they did in the darkest days of the past. A uniform opinion was and is sold as ‘science’…

“And one must not forget: Just because Durov is temporarily free on bail, doesn’t mean that the Deep State doesn’t want to lock him up for a long time – or want to blackmail him into restricting or turning off Telegram’s privacy and capabilities.”

The Bible makes it very clear that Europe will become a complete dictatorship. We are already seeing the beginning of this prophesied development.

Scholz—Germany’s Best Chancellor?

ntv wrote on August 30:

“Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach emphatically praised Chancellor Olaf Scholz shortly before the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia. When asked whether Scholz was the right candidate for chancellor for the SPD in the next federal election, Lauterbach told ‘Stern’: ‘Olaf Scholz is the best chancellor we have ever had.’ He is convinced of that… 

“Lauterbach himself expressed interest in holding the office of Health Minister for another term…”

Lauterbach has been called the German Dr. Fauci. His credibility is finally gone… if he even had some credibility left. But calling the worst German chancellor after the Second World War the best chancellor is the absolute height of ludicrous nonsense.

Victory for AfD in Thuringia and Saxony

Report 24 wrote on September 1:

“[FPÖ leader] Herbert Kickl congratulated the AfD and the voters in the German states of Thuringia and Saxony on the historic election results: ‘The clear victory in Thuringia and the head-to-head race with the CDU in Saxony – each with the historic ones best results – are an expression of hope for a system change. The system parties were massively punished. At the federal political traffic light, all three lights went out at the same time. [The coalition parties of the government] were presented with the bill for her harmful policies with a total of less than 15 percent for three parties in both federal states.

“‘The election results are also a lesson for all those who exclude and refuse democracy, who now have to show whether they are still capable of learning or whether they want to stubbornly continue their path to political insignificance,’ said Kickl.”

The FPÖ is an Austrian right-wing party that was led at one time by Joerg Haider and was later a coalition party in Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s government. In 2024, the FPÖ reached first place in the election for the European Parliament.

The CDU won in Sachsen with 31,9 percent; the AfD reached second place with 30,6 percent. In Thüringen, the AfD won with 32,8 percent, and the CDU only got 23,6 percent. The coalition parties of the government were far behind in both states. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is “a fresh embarrassment for Olaf Scholz’s government” and “a political earthquake and a milestone for a continent where centrist parties are increasingly on the defensive.”

“Correction” of German State Election in Thuringia

Breitbart wrote on September 2:

“Right-wingers and populists have devastated legacy left-wing parties in two state elections in Germany, even if a ‘software error’ in one state was blamed for changing the initial official results, taking two seats away from the right. The right-populist anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won a state election for the first time, taking 32.8 per cent of the vote in east Germany’s Thuringia… This is particularly consequential to the AfD, as it no longer has a blocking minority in the state, which could have allowed it to block certain votes like the appointment of constitutional judges, the state auditors, and even a vote to dissolve the parliament. In such instances, votes need a two-thirds supermajority to pass, and now the AfD is one seat short…

“In both elections, voter turnout was at historically high levels, and in the case of Saxony, it was the highest state election turnout in modern German history…  In many cases, responses to the state-level success of the AfD in this election have been dismay in the international press, with the label ‘far right’ routinely applied to the AfD, even as such words lose their power through over-use…

“For the AfD themselves, the votes in their favour yesterday are all about the German public rejecting tone-deaf, failed establishment parties delivering stagnation…

“As is now typical for many European elections, while a populist-right party may have the largest number of seats, it does not hold close to a majority and few friends to build coalitions with, which may leave these states heading towards yet more rainbow coalition governments to keep the border control right out at all costs…”

One might wonder about the “software error”…

Nazi Comparisons Exaggerated and Punishable?

Report 24 wrote on September 2:

“The election results from Thuringia and Saxony are just as displeasing to the traffic lights [Germany’s governing coalition] as they are to the loyal system press: Corresponding derailments were to be expected. Yesterday, September 1, ZDF [Germany’s second public broadcast company] viewers witnessed particularly disrespectful statements: Editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten quickly put the election in the context of the start of the Second World War 85 years ago:

“‘On September 1, 1939, World War II began with the Wehrmacht attack on Poland. Germany spread suffering and death across the world and murdered 6 million Jews. On September 1, 2024, 85 years later, a party will become the strongest political force in the German state of Thuringia, which, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is proven to be right-wing extremist, with a candidate at the top who talks like a fascist and can also be called one. This is difficult to bear and makes this September 1 a political milestone and a reminder to those born after. More than 30% of voters in Thuringia and Saxony voted right-wing extremist. For the most part, they are not neo-Nazis, but, and this is no less shocking, they don’t care about voting right-wing extremist.’

“What users on social networks find particularly difficult to bear is the fact that they also finance the constant defamation and criminalization of voters with their compulsory fees. Sharp criticism also comes from legal experts: Volker Boehme-Neßler, professor of media and telecommunications law, demanded [Schausten’s] immediate dismissal.

“Lawyer Markus Haintz has now filed a criminal complaint against Schausten – and it is based on an argument from the same public prosecutor’s office, according to which an alleged comparison with the Third Reich in the Corona context constituted incitement to hatred. Thus, in Haintz’s view, any argument against the existence of sedition in Schausten’s case is a dismantling of one’s own previous argument. On X he discussed:

“‘According to the public prosecutor’s own argument, to whom I sent the criminal complaint, this is a case of sedition. A client… was charged with a criminal warrant by the same public prosecutor’s office due to an alleged COVID-related settlement and was convicted in the first instance by a district court for alleged incitement to hatred. The appeal against this has been with the regional court for almost 2 years, which is obviously having problems handling the case…

“A conviction by the district court should never have been made. Based on the arguments of the public prosecutor’s office and the district court, I also filed a criminal complaint against Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on suspicion of incitement to hatred. A preliminary investigation has been initiated in this regard, which as far as I know has not yet been completed… In his speech on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Steinmeier made a connection between the Ukrainian War and the Wehrmacht’s war of annihilation in Eastern Europe. Schausten provided a context with the Wehrmacht’s attack on Poland on September 1, 1939 and 6 million murdered Jews.

“I’m really curious to see how the politically dependent public prosecutor’s office… will try to get out of this ‘legal dilemma’. I call on my legal colleagues to oppose the countless wrong decisions made by courts and authorities, the unconstitutional impairments and the state’s excesses of power, especially since March 2020…’

“What happens with the legal complaint remains to be seen. In Germany, politicians and their court reporters are often said to have the freedom of fools that is typical of totalitarian systems. This would be an opportunity to prove that the same ‘right’ still applies to everyone. But will [this opportunity] be used?”

Mongolia Asked to Arrest Putin

The Sun wrote on August 31:

“Putin is due to visit Mongolia on September 3… Ukraine has called on the Mongolian government to arrest Putin blasting him as a war criminal… But Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov shot back at suggestions of an arrest saying: ‘No, no worries about this. We have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.’…

“Arresting the dictator and sending him to The Hague is up to the signatory countries as the ICC doesn’t have its own police force. Many powerful countries are not members of the court – such as the US, Russia, and China.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March of last year against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation, saying it is politically motivated.

“The warrant obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory… Putin is set to visit the country to mark the 85th anniversary of the victory of Russian and Mongolian forces over Japan in WW2….”

Putin will not be arrested in Mongolia—home of Genghis Khan. It will be seen what action, if any, other signatory member states of the ICC will take against Mongolia.

Russian and Mongolian Cooperation

Reuters wrote on September 3:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin received a red carpet welcome on Tuesday on a state visit to Mongolia, whose failure to arrest him under a warrant from the International Criminal Court was criticised by Ukraine as a blow against justice… The Mongolian leader said he hoped the visit would boost trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

“Mongolia is on the planned route of a major pipeline that Russia wants to construct in order to carry 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from its Yamal region to China. The project, Power of Siberia 2, is part of Russia’s strategy to compensate for the loss of most of its gas sales in Europe since the start of the Ukraine war. It is the planned successor to an existing pipeline of the same name which already supplies Russian gas to China and is due to reach its planned capacity of 38 billion cubic metres per year in 2025.”

A Synagogue on the Temple Mount?

Israel Today wrote on August 28:

“The US State Department stated on Tuesday that it ‘strongly opposes’ Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s call for construction of a synagogue on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The proposed Jewish house of worship ‘on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount’ would ‘demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,’ Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said…

“Ben-Gvir said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Monday that Jewish prayer is allowed on the Temple Mount. That prompted a denial from the Prime Minister’s Office… During the interview, Ben-Gvir was asked repeatedly if he would build a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He replied, ‘yes.’

“Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were among the Muslim countries that officially condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments…”

A synagogue or a Temple on the Temple Mount? Even though some are still determined to dispute the overwhelming biblical evidence and the signs of the time, a Third Temple will be built PRIOR to the return of Jesus Christ.

Hamas—a Murderous Terrorist Organization

Newsmax wrote on September 1:

“Israel said it recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza where they were apparently killed shortly before its troops reached them… ‘they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,’ military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… said Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible… Senior Hamas officials said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a ceasefire agreement, was to blame for the deaths… The recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages captured during the Hamas-led shock incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year. Their deaths leave 101 Israeli and foreign captives still in Gaza, but around a third of these are known to have died, with the fate of others unknown…”

How anyone, including Americans, Europeans and others, can think that one can or should negotiate with murderous lying terrorists is beyond comprehension.

Biden vs. Netanyahu

The Times of Israel wrote on September 2:

“US President Joe Biden on Monday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, while revealing that his administration was ‘very close; to presenting a final hostage deal offer later this week… At a press conference later Monday, Netanyahu denounced calls for Israel to make concessions after Hamas ‘murderers executed six of our hostages.’ ‘They shot them in the back of the head…and now, after this, we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions,’ Netanyahu stated, speaking in English in response to a question.

“‘The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes, they say no all the time. But they also murdered these people. And now we need maximal pressure on Hamas. ‘I don’t believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving their release would seriously ask Israel, Israel, to make these concessions,’ the prime minister argued…

“The Israeli sources said Monday that Biden’s statement that Netanyahu was not doing enough to reach a deal was also dangerous because it came days after Hamas executed [six hostages] who were all kidnapped on October 7.”

The position of the Biden Administration and most of the international community is not only stupid and incompetent, it is also dangerous, anti-Semitic and extremely worrisome. 

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

In the previous installments of this series, we showed that both the last revival of the Roman Empire [through the raising up of the ancient Chaldeans, and their subsequent defeat] and the preaching of the gospel are described as the Work of God. We then concentrated on God’s Work in these end times, as it relates to the preaching of the gospel and to the warning of the nations. In this final installment, we will talk about the connection between aspects of the Work of God and our salvation, as well as the marvelous Truth that the more we are involved in God’s Work of preaching the gospel, the more we will overcome our sins and our human nature… which is necessary to be able to enter the Kingdom and Family of God.

First, we need to understand that some aspects and tasks might have been referred to as the Work in the past, even though that may not necessarily have relevance for us today. But whenever God used people to do His Work, they had to do it with their whole heart, and in complete obedience to God’s instructions.

One of these aspects was the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness. When everything was done, we read in Exodus 40:16, 19, 21-27, 29, 32-34:

“Thus Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did… And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the LORD had commanded Moses… And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD had commanded Moses… He put the table in the tabernacle of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil; and he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses. He put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting, across from the table, on the south side of the tabernacle; and he lit the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses. He put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil; and he burned sweet incense on it, as the LORD had commanded Moses…  And he put the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses… Whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting, and when they came near the altar, they washed, as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

When the people had completed the building of the tabernacle, under Moses’ direction, that aspect of the Work of God was finished.

When God had inspired David to prepare the building of the first temple, which would be accomplished through his son Solomon, we read David’s admonition in 1 Chronicles 29:1: “Furthermore King David said to all the assembly: ‘My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced; and the work is great, because the temple is not for man but for the LORD God…’”

The Israelites were willing to participate in the Work of the building of the temple. When David asked in verse 5, “Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?”, we read in verses 6-10:

“Then the leaders of the fathers’ houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the officers over the king’s work, offered willingly. They gave for the work of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD, into the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly, because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly to the LORD; and King David also rejoiced greatly. Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: ‘Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever..’”

When the building of the temple was completed, THAT aspect of the Work of God was finished.

Jesus, the Son of God, became a Man to fulfill the great purpose of becoming Savior of Mankind. But that was not the only reason for His coming. We explain in our free booklet,  “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?”, chapter 18, “The Purpose of Jesus’ Coming,” pages 87-92, the many aspects of the Work of God and the many purposes which He had to fulfill.

He said early on in His ministry, in John 4:34: “‘… My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”

He also said in John 5:36: “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

In His prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, in John 17:4:  “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

When He died at the cross, He said at that moment: ”It is finished” (John 19:30). He finished that part of the Work which the Father had given Him to do as a human being.

And so, His disciples who were alive at that time were entrusted with the task of finishing that part of God’s Work that had been given to them.

We read what Christ said in a parable, in Mark 13:34-37:

“It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

The admonition to watch their spiritual condition applies to all Christians at all times, as nobody knows the time of their death and they need to be ready at every time, to meet their Maker in the resurrection, but Christ clearly referred foremost to the actual time of His Second Coming.

And so, God has given His end-time Church the WORK of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God as a witness, which includes warning the nations of impending disaster.

That aspect of the Work had NOT been given to the Church in prior times, after the early apostles had died. Of course, God’s Church did warn people or nations at certain times (compare Christ’s and the disciples’ warning to the Jews that Jerusalem would be destroyed under Titus), and the Church did preach the gospel (compare 2 Corinthians 5:18-20) and warn that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10), but the Work of preaching the gospel to the world as a witness and the warning message to the end-time nations was decisively given to God’s end-time Church, because it was to be THE sign of Christ’s speedy return, once that aspect of the Work was fulfilled (Matthew 24:14). Today, this preaching has been made possible through the invention of the internet and many other means of electronic communication.

The gospel message is also a message of repentance (Luke 24:47), which includes the realization of what sin is—the transgression of the Law of the Ten Commandments (1 John 3:4).  God had originally written the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone; today He is writing them in and on our hearts. Both are aspects of the Work of God. We read in Exodus 32:15-16:

“And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.”

Today, the law must be written in our hearts. In Isaiah 51:7, we read: “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.” Compare also Psalm 37:30-31; 40:8.

Jeremiah 31:33 says: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

This, God has already done to those spiritual Israelites whom He has called and converted in this age to become born-again members in His Family. In 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, Paul says to the Church members at Corinth: “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

When the early apostles began to do God’s Work of preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, they encountered opposition from the religious establishment. But let’s notice what one of the wise men in the Sanhedrin advised his colleagues in Acts 5:38-39—an advice which is relevant for our times as well:

“And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”

We are called co-workers with Christ. We read that God the Father works, and Jesus Christ works (John 5:17), and we must be working with them. Regarding our labor, God says in Isaiah 61:8: “I will direct their work in truth.”

But those whom God has called to fulfill the end-time commission of His Work are also to become more and more holy, as God is holy. Isaiah 52:11 says about our challenge to leave the philosophies and customs of this world behind and become different: “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.”

We also read in Deuteronomy 6:24-25 what God, through Moses, told the Israelites of old; and what He tells us today:

“And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.”

In doing the Work wholeheartedly, and being involved in the Work, be it through prayer and financial support, or be it in actively helping the Work, wherever we can and whenever an opportunity presents itself, the more we will be growing in Christ’s grace or favor and His knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), and the more we will be able to overcome sin and to become more and more righteous.

This connection becomes clear when considering John 6:26-29:

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.’ Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’”

The Work of God is to believe in Christ. That’s the starting point. But it does not stop there. Our belief in Christ will motivate us to DO something. Christ also said above: “Labor… for the food which endures to everlasting life.” Believing in Christ is just the beginning. We must then also believe Christ (believe what He tells us), repent, accept His Sacrifice for us, become properly baptized and receive thereby the gift of the Holy Spirit, being led by the faith of Christ—Christ’s faith living in us—and in the end, after constantly overcoming, we will receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom and Family.

Our faith is shown by our works, as we read in the letter of James. He admonishes us in James 1:22-25:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

What Work are James and Christ talking about? Why is believing in Christ, as the starting point, the Work of God? Again, what IS the Work of God Christ makes reference to?

We read in Philippians 1:3-6:

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

Here, Paul is saying that God has begun a good work IN us. And so, we read in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The New Jerusalem Bible states: “We are God’s work of art…”

We can see that Christ’s statement that this is the Work of God that we believe in Him describes our road to salvation. We are God’s Work which He wants to bring to completion.

We read God’s assessment of the people of this age in Isaiah 29:13-16:

“Therefore the LORD said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.’ Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, And their works are in the dark; They say, ‘Who sees us?’ and, ‘Who knows us?’ Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? (The Authorized Version says: “… shall the work say to him that made it, He made me not?”). Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”

The marvelous Work which God is doing is two-fold: Whatever wisdom and understanding the wise of this age—including their religious and political leaders—might have had will completely vanish. But God adds another remarkable prophecy, in verse 23:

“But when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel.”

Job knew that he was God’s Work, and that God was working in and with him. We read in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.”

Even though all of mankind are the Work of God’s hands (Job 34:19; Isaiah 19:25), many do not recognize this fact at this time and the responsibility which that entails, but some do. Many will come to that understanding later.

Isaiah 60:20-22 says: “Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the LORD will be your everlasting light, And the days of your mourning shall be ended. Also your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land [better: the earth] forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”

Isaiah 64:7-8 adds: “And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”

Isaiah 62:11 confirms that especially those who turn to God ARE the Work of God: “Indeed the LORD has proclaimed To the end of the world: ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.”’”

God grants us salvation as a gift; we are not saved through our works; we cannot earn it through our works. But God expects of us to labor, to work—even working out our own salvation with fear and trembling—thereby showing that we are serious about God’s calling and our potential, but it is still God who does His Work in us, as Philippians 2:12-13 tells us:

“… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Isaiah 26:12 confirms this: “LORD, You will establish peace for us, For You have also done all our works in us.”

We read in Romans 14:17, 20: “… for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.”

The Work of God is equated here with the Kingdom of God. We are warned not to do anything which causes a stumbling block for others which will prevent them from entering the Kingdom, as they, too, are part of the Work of God.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, we read: “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul tells the Church members that God counts them worthy and fulfills in them the Work of faith with power so that the name of Jesus is glorified in them.

The Work of God will be short in these end times, and God says that He will finish the Work and cut it short in righteousness (compare Romans 9:28). This is also a reference to us—God’s Work—as we have only been given a short time, comparatively speaking, to qualify for God’s Kingdom.

God’s Work which we must be concerned about deals with the creation of man and man’s ultimate potential. God wants that every man be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Some will reject salvation, but that is not God’s desire. God’s Work is to enlarge His Family, and then, to rule with His enlarged Family for all eternity.

And so, we must do whatever God has given to us to do within His marvelous end-time Work to support and assist in this process. And we need to watch ourselves, to be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man when He returns (Luke 21:36; 1 Timothy 4:7-8; but compare also 1 John 2:28).

Christ said that this is the Work of God that we believe in Him; in other words, that we are God’s Work, and the first step to reach our destiny is to believe in Jesus. And that we must keep laboring for the food which leads to eternal life, while remembering that believing in Christ is the Work of God because He gives us that belief. That is how the Work of God begins in us.  It is God who accomplishes all of this. God leads us and gives us the strength to persevere, but we have to follow His lead and accept what He offers us. All glory belongs to God, for without Him, we can’t do anything (John 15:5).

Today, we are just the firstfruits of God’s Work—the forerunners or pioneers. God will give the opportunity to all of mankind to be a part of His Work—to enter His Kingdom and Family as born-again God beings.

In conclusion, God’s Church—God’s Work—is commissioned today to proclaim the warning message of the final rise of the European Empire and what it will set in motion, and to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness, and then Christ will return. As John the Baptist prepared the people for Christ’s First Coming, so God’s Church is to prepare the world for Christ’s Second Coming. As we are involved in faithfully and zealously fulfilling our commission, we are growing and maturing in our Christian Way of Life and to qualify abundantly for entrance into the Kingdom of God (2 Peter 1:10-11).

Malachi 3:2 asks the pertinent question: “… who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?”

Psalm 24:3-5 tells us:

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

And Psalm 15:1-5 adds:

“A Psalm of David. LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.”

Let’s do this, and we will live (compare Luke 10:25-28)—as the Work of God.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“What Does God Say About Abortion and IVF?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is the summary:

The ending of innocent human life is always wrong, and there cannot be any exceptions. But what about IVF procedures, and how do they work? Are they morally acceptable? What does God say? This program will show amazing parallels between the creation of human life and the spiritual begettal of a Christian, and shows WHY the destruction of innocent embryos is never justified.

“Gottes Werk—die endzeitliche Verkündigung des Evangeliums!” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “God’s Work—the End-Time Proclamation of the Gospel.”

“Niedergang und Aufstieg des Jüdischen Volkes,” the German version of our booklet, “The Fall and Rise of the Jewish People,” has been sent to our printer in Germany.

“Kreuzigung Jesu Christi und die Auferstehung von den Toten,” last Sabbath’s German sermonette presented by Tahir Coban, is now posted. Title in English: “Christ’s Crucifixion and the Resurrection from the Dead.”

“Choose the Path,” last Sabbath’s sermonette presented by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is the summary:

In the Book of Jeremiah, we are told to stand at the crossroads of our lives, and we are to choose paths. How can we ensure that we are taking the proper paths that God wants us to?

“Godlessness and Perversion in Our End—Time Society!” last Sabbath’s sermon presented by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is the summary:

How does the Bible describe people living in the end times today? How do they think and act? What is their attitude and motivation? Why will there be a near-total annihilation of the human race—nuclear world wars that will threaten the survival of humanity like never before? Could ungodliness, indifference, self-importance, mockery, and other terrible sins in their many forms have something to do with it? The Bible shows exactly what people are like TODAY and how corrupt and spiritually sick and perverted our society is.