On December 31, 2022, Brian Gale will present the sermonette, titled, “I Wouldn’t Have Done That!,” and Eric Rank will present the sermon, titled, “True Repentance.”

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

The other day, I was at our local library and snow was expected.  Two employees were discussing closing early. As the one with the authority walked away, the other remarked: “Remember, use your powers for good!” We’ve heard this phrase: “use your powers for good,” typically in a light-hearted manner and most often in the superhero storyline.

People enjoy seeing underdogs overcome evil. It is satisfying watching a porch pirate or an internet scammer receive his or her due. While we are not meant to deliver retribution, it is hard to watch evil and selfish people rise to power and corrupt cities, states, and nations; we want David to overcome Goliath.

God gave us the capacity to learn and develop our skills, and we are capable of significant accomplishment. If one studied the early actions by the Nazi command in WWII, one could see the role that radar and codes had in triangulating points in England to be bombed. In this way, the German Air Force could run raids regardless of weather or darkness.

The codes the Nazis used were complex and had so many combinations that breaking them proved to be nearly impossible. Mathematicians and others were at work at Bletchley Park, 50 miles northwest of London, attempting to break the codes.

Though fascinating, our focus is on the evil that inspired the work of creating the codes that would be used to destroy British military targets and level cities rich with history, culture, and people of all ages. It was a time that evil was establishing a foothold in Europe and had eyes on conquering the rest of the world. This behavior is clear to us in the book of Isaiah, chapter 5 and verse 20, and we read: “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!”

History is tainted by human perception, but provides some understanding of a moment in time. World domination and the eventual annihilation of a group of humans was not clear when Hitler rose to power in the mid-1930’s. The pursuit of excellence in industry, the arts, and technology is often the screen for more nefarious goals. As Hitler came on the scene, the nation was still recovering its economic footing following WWI. A leader who could galvanize people to action would have been welcome. However, understanding his deeper motivation was difficult in the early days of his role as Chancellor.

Evil can be masked and characterized in ways that people can be drawn to it and embrace it willingly. This was the case with Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin in that era. Of course, in our time, we are witnessing the rise of evil in so many ways, and it is not limited to government.

As Europe came increasingly under Nazi control, it became clear that revitalizing Germany was no longer the primary goal.  The military leaders could no longer deceive themselves into thinking that Hitler was nothing more than a strong leader. I suspect many Russian troops found themselves in a similar dilemma with their recent attempts to invade Ukraine. However, in time they too understood that the same treatment would be given to their homeland by the opposition, just as it occurred in WWII. War is evil and killing begets more killing.

In Galatians 6:7-8, we read: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” No manner of rationalization can alter this truth.

We know that God did not create us to be evil. This is the motivation of Satan; given the carnality and free will of mankind, we seek to do at times what we understand to be evil. God however wants us to obey and follow Him. In Ephesians 5:8-9, we see what God wants for us: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth)….”

Similar skills and expertise that led to the use of the codes and radar to kill, led to the creation of a replica of the code machine at Bletchley. This work began to turn the tide of the war; however, it did not end the evil and killing. The code breakers were using their skills for good, but war is immoral on all sides. We see this lesson in Romans 3:10:  ^“As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one.” And the point is enhanced in verse 23 of Romans 3: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Though we may believe our cause is just, unless it is God’s Will and in obedience to God, it cannot be just. Any action that leads to more killing is wrong and is not pleasing to God. He did not imbue us with skills to use for evil purposes. For example, God chose David to lead His people, but He was not pleased with David’s tendency for violence. It was God’s Will that allowed David to defeat Goliath, but in 1 Chronicles 22:8, we see how God viewed David’s war-like focus that he continued to pursue: “… but the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.’” Psalm 11:5 provides a blunt warning to all: “The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”

It may be tempting to see evil receive its due, but this is in God’s hands, and we need to focus on using our talents and abilities to honor Him with all we do. Remember, let’s all use our God-given skills for good and turn from evil whenever we confront it.

by Norbert Link

We begin reporting on, what has been termed America’s “worst winter storm in decades” and the troubles of Southwest Airlines; continue with the shameful adoption of the omnibus bill and even another secretly adopted interim spending bill, showing how utterly corrupt and incompetent Congress is [please view our new StandingWatch program, “The Omnibus Bill—An Insane Way to Run the Country.” ]; continue with the shameful action of the FBI in the Twitter scandal and its despicable “justification” of indefensible conduct, as well as the manufactured propaganda regarding the COVID pandemic; and point out how corrupt the sham-and-farce January 6 Committee has been in their effort to blame Donald Trump for the events, while conveniently ignoring and suppressing the culpability of Nancy Pelosi.

We address the animosity of American Jewish rabbis towards Israel’s new government; the strong condemnation of Europe by Israel’s Knesset members and Europe’s antisemitism; and an interesting discussion in a Knesset Committee regarding building the Third Temple.

We continue with Croatia’s adoption of the euro and its becoming the latest member of the Schengen Agreement; and speak on the fact that Europe is presently a mess; and how it is being humiliated by Ukraine’s President Zelensky. In this regard, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe Against Ukraine and Israel – YouTube”

We conclude with a cryptic message of Pope Francis and his ignorance of the true Jesus; and with the adoration, if not worship, of the Christmas Tree in Germany.

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

Worst Winter Storm in Decades in the USA

The Associated Press wrote on December 25:

“Millions of people hunkered down in a deep freeze overnight and early morning to ride out the frigid storm that has killed at least 24 people across the United States, trapping some residents inside homes with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to several hundred thousand homes and businesses.

“The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians…

“Some 1,346 domestic and international flights were canceled as of early Sunday… Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

“The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions, paralyzing emergency response efforts… and shutting down the airport through Monday…

“The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle… Across the six New England states, about 121,300 customers remained without power on Sunday, with Maine still the hardest hit…

“In South Florida, temperatures dropped to as low as 43 degrees (6.1 degrees Celsius) in West Palm Beach. The temperature drop was conducive to iguanas falling out of trees since the cold-blooded reptiles typically become immobilized in unusually cold weather.”

So much for man-made global warming.

Southwest Airlines Chaos

OpentheBooks Substack wrote on December 27:

“Southwest Airlines received $7.2 billion in federal subsidies for payroll and operations since 2020. However, the airline stranded tens of thousands of passengers around the country on the Christmas holiday when it canceled 5,400 flights in less than 48 hours…

“Southwest is blaming the failure on a crash of its internal systems that schedule flight crews and pilots. A union for Southwest Airlines flight attendants attributed the meltdown to outdated scheduling systems that should have been upgraded years ago.

“Late yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it opened a federal investigation into the airline… [CITING] concern about an ‘unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service.’

“Indeed. The Southwest mobile app, phone lines, and website were offline for much of yesterday afternoon and evening. In major hubs like Chicago Midway, some in-person customer service personnel walked off the job with hundreds of stranded passengers waiting to reschedule cancelled flights.

“Once bags were checked, the bags flew to final destinations even though no flights were available for canceled passengers. Stranded passengers found this baggage policy completely unacceptable – passengers were not able to reclaim checked luggage after flights were cancelled.

“It was absolute chaos for thousands and a logistical nightmare for the airline that won’t be solved for weeks…

“In September 2020, as part of massive COVID relief packages, Southwest received a $3.3 billion from the federal government. Its stock price also received a boost, with the US Treasury agreeing to purchase 1,054,907 shares of Southwest stock as part of the deal. In April 2021, as a part of the American Rescue Plan Act and other subsidies, Southwest received another $3.8 billion…

“In total, federal aid to the entire airline industry amounted to $64 billion in cash and loans during the Covid-period… While some of the aid was technically a loan, for example, Southwest only has to pay back 30% of the first $3.3 billion ($976 million) at a low interest rate over a ten year period.

“Southwest received so much federal aid, they turned a profit of $116 million in 2021… Other airlines were also received their cut of pandemic aid, of course, with the Treasury awarding over $37 billion of the first $54 billion in payroll support to the top ten airlines alone.

“During the 2022 Christmas holiday period, those airlines were able to keep their planes flying, by and large.”

Southwest Airline Chaos Continues

Newsmax wrote on December 28:

“Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with more than 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday… In all, Southwest has canceled more than 15,700 flights since winter weather began disrupting air travel Thursday… And the chaos seemed certain to continue. Southwest already has scrubbed nearly 1,400 for Thursday…

“Southwest’s problems began over the weekend and snowballed Monday, when Southwest called off more than 70% of its flights. That was after the worst of the storm had passed…  Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said the airline failed to fix problems that caused a similar meltdown in October 2021. ‘There is a lot of frustration because this is so preventable,’ Murray said. ‘The airline cannot connect crews to airplanes. The airline didn’t even know where pilots were at.’…

“The size and severity of the storm created havoc for many airlines, although the largest number of canceled flights Tuesday were at airports where Southwest is a major carrier… Spirit Airlines and Alaska Airlines both canceled about 10% of their flights, with much smaller cancellation percentages at American, Delta, United and JetBlue…”

Obviously, the storm cannot be blamed for Southwest Airlines’ incredible incompetence.

Shameful Omnibus Bill Approved

Breitbart wrote on December 23:

“The House passed the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill Friday by a vote of 225-201-1. Nine Republicans voted for the bill… Many of the GOP ‘yes’ votes came from outgoing members who lost their reelection bids in the 2022 cycle or are retiring [Of course, “RINOs” Adam Kinzinger  and Liz Cheney were among those “Republicans” voting for the scandalous bill. They might have figured, “I might as well vote for it, because my political career is over anyhow.”]…. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was the only Democrat ‘no’ vote. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) voted present…

“The House rushed to vote on the bill before the looming government shutdown Friday night. The omnibus passed the Senate by a vote of 68-29 on Thursday afternoon. Eighteen Republican Senators voted for the 4,155-page bill [Shame on them]…

“Critics of the bill opposed the $45 billion aid to Ukraine. That $45 billion is in addition to the $66 billion of taxpayers’ money lawmakers have already approved for Ukraine… America’s debt stands at over $31 trillion.”

Republican Opposition

Fox News wrote on December 23:

“House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill after it passed on Friday, calling it a ‘stain’ on this Congress… ‘For the first time in history, a bill in the House was passed without a physical quorum present—more people voted by proxy than in person,’ McCarthy tweeted… adding that proxy voting will be repealed…

“In total, the omnibus contains 7,200 earmarks that add up to over $15 billion. The bill drew complaints from Republicans and some Democrats, with Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky., saying that ‘The process stinks. It’s an abomination. It’s a no good, rotten way to run your government. $6 trillion entity. And they want 24 hours to process this and then they want to go forward,’ Paul said.”

McCarthy also criticized the bill for forwarding various “left-wing pet projects.” He said: “This is a monstrosity. That is one of the most shameful acts I’ve ever seen in this body,” continuing, “The appropriations process has failed the American public, and there’s no greater example of the nail in the coffin of the greatest failure of a one-party rule of the House, the Senate, and the presidency.”

Washington is doomed. America is doomed. Competent leadership is missing. This is a fiasco with a circus of leaders who should never be responsible for running the country. But Satan is the god, prince and ruler of this world, and those not being called by God (and very few are in this day and age) are following the Devil’s evil desires and devices.

This is even more appalling when considering the incredibly high amount of taxes which hard-working Americans have to pay to the government which is just misusing, pilfering and wasting taxpayers’ money. But an accounting will come when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, replacing all these incompetent leaders and demanding a reckoning for their evil deeds.

Just to name a few “pork” examples, the ludicrous omnibus bill includes, according to Breitbart, $11 million for LGBT-related projects; $410 million for border security for other countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman; $1.5 million for the “COVID–19 American History Project”; $3.6 million for the establishment of a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia; and $2 million in taxpayer dollars for the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland; and $2.3 million for the Allotment (going to the Secretary of Education) to “conduct outreach to borrowers” who could qualify for the Biden administration’s stalled plan to cancel the debt of student loan borrowers.

We doubt that tax-payers, IF they were asked, would approve of any of this wasteful spending, while they are suffering to bring food on the table and make ends meet. Please view our new StandingWatch program, “The Omnibus Bill—An Insane Way to Run the Country.” 

The entirely POLITICAL nature of this bill can also be seen, when considering the following two examples.

It’s Just Political

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 23:

“The sweeping package includes $45 billion for Ukraine aid… The legislation was passed just days after… Zelenskyy visited the White House to argue for the $45 billion aid. Failure to place the bill on Biden’s desk would have been a foreign policy embarrassment.

“One of the key provisions of the bill includes an overhaul of the 1887 Electoral Count Act… The new revision makes it clear that vice presidents do not have the power to overturn elections… Trump had exploited the loosely worded text of the 19th century law to argue that his deputy—Mike Pence—could halt the transfer of power.

“In response, Pence issued a statement rejecting the then-president’s claims that he could subvert the outcome of the election.”

Under the old law, Pence’s conclusion was highly debatable.

America’s Absolutely Corrupt and Incompetent Congress

Fox News wrote on December 25:

“Believe it or not, despite weeks of machinations, a 4,100-page bill and a House roll call vote on Dec. 23, Congress still missed its deadline to fund the government… Lawmakers dithered for weeks – dragging out the final vote on the omnibus spending bill until nearly the last moment…

“A big, complicated bill like the omnibus must be ‘engrossed’ and ‘enrolled.’ Engrossment refers to the final version of legislation when passed by one body or other – but before it’s sent to the other chamber. In other words, the Senate passed the omnibus and then altered the legislation on the fly, adopting a host of amendments. So, upon passage, the Senate sent the tweaked version to the House to pass.

“Once the House approved the bill [better, rubber-stamped, without even reading it], both bodies were in sync. But, it would take time for congressional enrollment clerks to finalize the bill for President Biden’s signature. This is not an easy process. In fact, it was likely the enrollment clerks would need a couple of days to get the bill into proper parliamentary form as it was…

“Federal law requires Congress to print the legislation on parchment. That’s a practice which dates back to the beginning of the republic. Printing the bills on parchment was a method to protect Congress against forgeries. Plus, the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate need to sign the bill. So, the technical process of getting the omnibus to the president to sign before the Friday night deadline was out of the question. This was going to take until a few days after Christmas at the earliest…

“Very quietly… both the House and Senate approved yet another interim spending bill. This would just keep the lights on for a few days, giving the enrollment clerks time to prepare the bill. It would only run through Dec. 30…”

This is SO incompetent and appalling. America’s governmental system is becoming a mockery.

Kamala Harris Strong Leader?

The New York Post wrote on December 23:

“Vice President Kamala Harris complained this week about poor media coverage — during a friendly interview with a Washington Post columnist — moaning that the press doesn’t focus on what she called ‘the strength of my leadership.’…

“[Interviewer] Capehart argued that contrary to conventional wisdom, Harris, 58, has ‘had a most excellent year’… Capehart [cited] Harris’ appearance at the Munich Security Conference in February just prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What he did not mention was that Harris was roundly mocked for telling reporters at that conference that Europe had enjoyed ‘peace and security’ since the end of World War II.

“That remark, as many critics pointed out, ignored the 40-year Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014.”

We would be hard-pressed naming a vice president as incompetent as Kamala Harris. Her proud self-adoration of strong leadership would be laughable, if it were not that serious.

The Shameful Action of the FBI

The Ron Paul Institute published on December 23 the following article by Law Professor Jonathan Turley:

“It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the … FBI in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. This week saw another FBI ‘nothing-to-see-here’ statement to the release of files detailing how it actively sought to suppress the Hunter Biden story before the 2020 election, gave millions to Twitter, and targeted even satire or tiny posts that did not conform with its guidelines… The FBI has largely shrugged and said that there is nothing concerning about over 80 agents working on the censoring of posters, including many American citizens.

“… the FBI is now adopting the language of pundits on the left that any objections to its role in censorship is a ‘conspiracy theory’… it is attacking free speech advocates who are raising the concern that Twitter had become an agent of the government in censorship. Notably, Twitter itself now believes that such an agency relationship existed.

“[The FBI] is still engaged in framing public opinion and echoing the narrative being advanced by the White House…”

As is so often the case, the villain becomes a denier or even the accuser.

How Twitter Suppressed COVID Information

Newsmax wrote on December 26:

“Twitter helped manipulate the COVID-19 debate by relenting to government pressure and censoring content related to the virus, according to the latest ‘Twitter Files’ release.

“Reporter David Zweig on Monday morning took to Twitter to post about COVID-19-related actions by the social media platform before billionaire Elon Musk assumed control… The reporter cited numerous examples, including how Twitter suspended journalist Alex Berenson hours after President Joe Biden, in the summer of 2021, said social media companies were ‘killing people’ for allowing vaccine misinformation. ‘Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson,’ Zweig tweeted.

“A recent summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s head of U.S. public policy, said the Biden team ‘was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more,’ Zweig tweeted… Twitter ‘did suppress views — many from doctors and scientific experts — that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.’

“That included some experts’ opinions, despite being in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries, being labeled ‘false information’ because they differed from the CDC guidelines. Zweig said that internal files he viewed showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations pressed Twitter executives and other social media platforms to moderate pandemic content.

“Zweig’s 40 posts on Monday morning concluded with an obvious question. ‘What might this pandemic and its aftermath have looked like if there had been a more open debate on Twitter and other social media platforms — not to mention the mainstream press — about the origins of Covid, about lockdowns, about the true risks of Covid in kids, and much more?’…”

A good question, but this was not in the government’s interest, showing how WRONG the government [with the “guidance” of Dr. Fauci and others] has been in dealing with COVID 19. And the government CONTINUES to be wrong with its ridiculous vaccine “recommendations” and mandates.  

How the Mass Media and the US Government Colluded on the Corona Narrative

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 28:

“From the beginning of the Covid panic, it felt that something was very wrong. Never had a pandemic, much less a seasonal pathogenic wave, been treated as a quasi-military emergency requiring the upending of all freedoms and rights… And what applies at Twitter pertains equally to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all platforms associated with those companies (YouTube, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp)… These platforms colluded with the federal government’s administrative arm to craft a particular Covid narrative, throttling and censoring dissidents and boosting any credentialed expert who was willing to toe the line.

“At this point, it is wise to trust no one and nothing but those who fought against this nonsense… I watched the population gradually fall into a medieval-style disease panic that tore families apart, kept loved ones from traveling, wrecked businesses and churches, and even violated the sanctity of the homes… The closing down of opinion and debate resulted in unspeakable human carnage. And even as I write, the largest sources of the mainstream media are still refusing to report on this...”

The Corrupt Conduct of the January 6 Sham-and-Farce Committee

On December 213, Life Site News reprinted the following article by WND News Center:

“A partisan congressional committee this week blamed former President Donald Trump for the January 6 riot at the Capitol that left an unarmed protester dead at the hands of police, asking the Department of Justice to investigate and charge him with four crimes. However, a new report from the House GOP suggested that outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her staff were more culpable than they’ve ever admitted…

“Jim Jordan (R–OH) who soon will be the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and heading up various investigations, said, ‘The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office.’ It’s been reported before that Trump had offered additional National Guard troops to be present at the Capitol that day, but those responsible for security of the building, including Pelosi, refused.

“That day hundreds of protesters amassed outside the Capitol to protest the expected congressional confirmation of President Joe Biden’s move into the White House, on the belief the election was stolen from President Trump… what has been documented are at least two significant influences on the election, either of which could have taken the win away from Trump.

“One was the $400 million-plus Mark Zuckerberg handed out, through foundations, to various local election officials who often used it for get-out-the-vote schemes in Democrat strongholds. The other was the decision by the FBI to interfere in the election and tell social media to beware of ‘disinformation’ about Hunter Biden’s scandal-ridden laptop computer, which he abandoned at a repair shop. However, the reporting on the Biden family schemes revealed that was all accurate…

“Just the News said while Pelosi denied any power over Capitol police or influence on security, ‘Two years later, that claim is directly challenged by contemporaneous text and email messages made public by five House Republicans showing her staff had direct contact with the officials who planned the security and even edited some of the plans and notifications in the fateful days before tragedy struck.’ And the details ‘are prompting serious questions about whether the January 6 Capitol breach could have been prevented while creating a new push for Republicans to summon Pelosi for testimony after they take over the House next month.’…

“Just the News reported police whistleblowers confirmed there were enough warnings that violence would occur, but ‘the leadership of the Capitol Police failed to adjust the security plan to address the threat while the political leadership in Congress repeatedly refused to provide resources to secure the building.’ Whistleblowers confirmed ‘congressional security leaders turned down resources like armed officers or National Guard troops ahead of the tragedy because of concerns about the political optics.’

“The document reveals House security planners slammed Pelosi for failing to provide the resources necessary for Capitol security. It was House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving who had to resign after the riot, but Just the News reported staff members believed he, and Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund, were made the ‘fall guys.’…”

All of this, and much more, has been reported before, but the sham-and-farce Committee, in its desire to blame Trump and protect Pelosi and other Democrats, chose to ignore these reports. In regard to Trump’s asking for National Guards, the Committee just said there was no “evidence” for that claim. And even though admitting that Trump did tweet twice right after the riot had begun, stating that violence should cease, the Committee said the tweets had no impact, apparently concluding that it could therefore ignore them.

American Rabbis Oppose Israel’s New Government

The Algemeiner wrote on December 23:

“Over 330 senior American rabbis are vowing to ban members of the far-right Religious Zionism bloc in Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government from appearing at their synagogues… Following a convincing victory to the right-wing bloc in November’s general election, Netanyahu brought in members of a far-right faction and promised an expanded national security ministry to firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir… The incoming government, which Netanyahu announced he formed late Wednesday, is expected to be the most right-wing in Israel’s history…

“An open letter from rabbis and other Jewish community leaders in the U.S. charges that the policies of Ben-Gvir and his associates ‘will cause irreparable harm to the Israel-Jewish Diaspora relationship.’ The signatories say they will not invite members of the bloc ‘to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other forums across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.’

“… However, not a single Orthodox rabbi signed the document.”

The anti-Israel stance by many left-wing American Jews is well-known. The rabbis’ “open letter” is another interesting development as the Bible says in the Book of Zechariah that Judah will fight against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:14; Revised Standard Version).

Russia’s Plan on the World Scene

Fox News wrote on December 27:

“Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said there will be no more joint projects with the European Union and said Moscow will instead turn to ‘like-minded’ allies for future diplomatic partnerships… The minister’s comments come as Russian President Vladimir Putin has increasingly looked to bolster ties with China and Iran in recent months, turning to the latter for arms as its looks to shore up economic ties with Beijing…

“The Russian foreign minister accused the EU of following in the footsteps of the U.S. and NATO… Lavrov has repeatedly accused the U.S. and its Western allies of waging war against Russia by providing Ukraine with defensive and humanitarian aid – including financial support to help Kyiv restore its energy infrastructure which Russia began targeting ahead of winter…”

Preparations are being made for the prophesied emergence of the kings of the East.

Putin Calls Netanyahu

Israel Today wrote on December 23:

“Just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was feted in the White House and US Congress, Wednesday, and hours after incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had formed a government, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Israeli to congratulate him on winning the General Election seven weeks before…  The two leaders reportedly spoke about Ukraine, with Netanyahu expressing his hope that a way would be found to bring the conflict to an end… Some journalists speculated that, going forward, Netanyahu might make an effort to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow…

“Other observers pointed to another ‘coincidental’ state visit taking place as Zelenskyy jetted across the Atlantic – that of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Xi Xinping in Beijing to discuss ‘advancing the bilateral relations in a new era and jointly promot[ing] global governance in a more just and reasonable direction’. These commentators suggested that Putin might have thoughts about trying to manoeuvre Israel into Russia’s orbit by driving a wedge between allies.”

No doubt, and Europe in particular will turn against Israel even more forcefully. And that with the help of Turkey, Jordan and other Arab nations, as Psalm 83 explains. We even read that America will be against Great Britain, and vice versa, and both will be against Israel (Isaiah 9:21).

Knesset Members Strongly Condemn the EU

Israel 365 News reported on December 23:

“Forty Knesset members sent an open letter to European Union leaders on Tuesday, protesting the recently exposed E.U. document outlining a strategy to expand the Palestinian presence in Israeli-controlled territory in Judea and Samaria. ‘[W]e learned of an official policy document of the European Union, a document the gravity of which cannot be overstated, one that leaves no room for doubt as to the one-sidedness and animosity of the E.U. towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people,’ the Knesset members wrote.

“Their letter was addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission; Charles Michel, president of the European Council; and Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament.

“‘The document completely ignores our people’s historical affinity to our homeland, completely ignores the political agreements and the status of the State of Israel in Area C and seeks to establish the 1949 borders as Israel’s final-status permanent borders—in complete disregard of the Jewish communities in the area,’ the letter continued… ‘Your efforts to expedite the Palestinian Authority’s seizure of Area C… constitute an extremely grave breach of the relationship between Israel and the European Union, causing irreplaceable damage to natural and archaeological treasures throughout Judea and Samaria,’ the lawmakers said.

“‘We were apparently mistaken in thinking that racist, religious hatred of Jews and Israel was a thing of the past. It saddens us to discover time and time again that under the thin veneer of the E.U.’s civility and manners and the seeming concern for human rights, the same old blood libels can be found, along with the same flames of primitive hatred that seek this time to persecute—not the individual Jew, but the tiny Jewish state,’ the Knesset members wrote.

“The letter concludes by calling on the E.U. to halt all illegal construction in sovereign Israeli territory, especially Area C; halt the damage done by E.U.-funded illegal activity to heritage sites and nature in Judea and Samaria; desist from funding delegitimization groups that promote antisemitism against the State of Israel; and cease funding Israeli organizations that promote E.U. foreign policy interests.”

Strong words. Will Europe listen? The answer should be obvious, and all lip-services aside, the Bible is very clear that there is a deep-seated European hatred for the state of Israel.

The EU’s Subversion of Israel

 Jewish News Syndicate wrote on December 22:

“Earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 13 revealed that a document drafted by the European Commission in eastern Jerusalem proposed helping the Palestinian Authority secretly take control of land in Area C—which is supposed to be under full Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords—and suggested using left-wing NGOs in Israel for this purpose.

“The document… said the E.U. should map the land to ‘prove’ Palestinian Arab rights in the disputed territories, as well as violate local land-planning law, without leaving any trace of its activities. The document also called for ‘following and monitoring Israeli archaeological activity in the area,’ claiming that this was being used as a pretext for settlement building in Judea and Samaria.

“What this really means is that the E.U. wants to stop these excavations because they are consistently uncovering indisputable archaeological proof that the Jews are the indigenous people of the land. By saying it wants to ‘prove’ Palestinian rights to the land, the E.U. revealed its true intention: to fabricate an entitlement that doesn’t exist. The only people with a legal, historical and moral claim to the land are the Jews… the E.U. and the Palestinian Arabs who are stealing land to which the Arabs have no entitlement… the Palestinian Authority and the E.U. are rapidly annexing areas surrounding Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria…

“The E.U. is in effect helping the Palestinians build a state in Judea and Samaria. It is also helping the Bedouin illegally carve up the Negev in a further dire threat to Israel’s security…

“Now the E.U. has been engulfed by revelations of a corrupt relationship with Qatar—the sponsor of Hamas and mortal foe of Israel. While details are still unfolding, this axis isn’t surprising. There’s a nexus between the universalism embodied by the E.U. and the desire to bring down Israel…”

Ultimately, the EU, under German leadership, WILL become a mortal enemy of the state of Israel. In this regard, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe Against Ukraine and Israel – YouTube”

Discussions in a Knesset Committee about the Third Temple

Israel 365 News wrote on December 22:

“During a discussion in a Knesset committee concerning a new law, a question was raised about its application after the construction of the Third Temple. Though the suggestion was in jest and generated light-hearted banter, most of the opposition to the law came from the religious MKs while many of the non-religious lawmakers said they supported the law and did not oppose the Temple…

“The question was raised by MK Michal Shir (Yesh Atid), a non-religious MK, if the government would be able, or even required to appoint an additional minister if the Third Temple is constructed. It should be noted that Shir opposed the bill and clearly intended the question to be a critical note of sarcasm to illustrate the shortcomings of the intended law.

“The suggestion caused a bit of consternation as questions were raised if voting in favor of the amendment implied support for the construction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Several MKs noted that they favored the law but not the Temple. Others noted that they opposed the law but not the Temple.

“This caused a moment of confusion when a vote was called with one MK asking if they were voting for the Temple or the amendment. Several of the religious MKs voted ‘Nay’, presumably opposing the amendment but not necessarily opposing the Third Temple. ‘You see, the Reform Jews will make the Temple for us,’ one religious MK noted. ‘I have no problem that there will be a Temple,’ MK Shir said. ‘It may as well come tomorrow, as far as I am concerned.’”

One must ask the question why “schizophrenic” RELIGIOUS MKs opposed the concept of building the Third Temple. Is it because of fear of political repercussions and reactions?

Croatia Adopts the Euro

The Los Angeles Times wrote on December 22:

“More than nine years after Croatia became the European Union’s newest member, the country is on a roll to make the most of its status as the EU member in the Western Balkans. [Croatia joined the EU in 2013, the last time the bloc admitted a new member]…

“Croatia is adopting the EU’s common currency, the euro, and joining the Schengen Area, Europe’s visa-free travel zone, on Jan. 1. Officials in the small nation of 4 million people say the developments will be remembered as one of the country’s biggest achievements since it gained independence during the breakup of Yugoslavia 31 years ago.

“Adopting the euro offers economic benefits stemming from deeper financial ties with the currency’s 19 other users and with the European Central Bank. It also means that the 340 million people who live in the current Eurozone will no longer need to exchange their euros for Croatian kuna. Schengen Area membership allows travelers to enter the country… from other Schengen nations without stopping at border controls.

“‘After 10 years of membership [in the EU], we intentionally and deservedly reached the stage where we would become the only country in history to join the Schengen and euro zones on the same day,’ Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a recent business conference on the upcoming integration milestones. ‘Some countries achieved the two goals one after another over a relatively short period of time, but none achieved both on the same day,’ he said…

“But not all Croats are so excited by the upcoming changes, especially the phasing out of their national currency. Some are sentimental about the kuna, which was introduced to secure monetary autonomy after Croatia’s split from the former Yugoslavia and after a devastating 1991-95 war…

“The Croatian kuna and the euro will be in dual use for cash payments for only 14 days, but as people enjoy post-holiday sales in January, they will receive only euros in change.”

More and more nations are joining the euro and the Schengen community, but this alone will not help Europe become a great economic powerhouse. Note the next article.

Europe—and Especially Germany—Is a Mess!

The Hill wrote on December 20:

“Europe is a mess. The three basic pillars of power have remained the same since the time of the ancient Greeks. What is the state of a country’s army? What is the state of a country’s economy? How politically unified is a country to act both within and beyond its borders? By these exacting and unchanging political risk standards, Europe remains a busted flush as a great power, a political entity promising much and perpetually underdelivering.

“First, the continent punches way below its weight in terms of its military. Germany, both Europe’s greatest power and the source of many of its ills, is a case in point. Berlin long has outsourced its military policy to America, its energy policy to Russia (ruinously), and its trade policy to China. Rather than serving as the engine of the European Union as a rising power, instead Germany has been an intellectual black hole over the past generation where every good idea for Europe’s revival goes to die.

“Whereas the U.S. will spend 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense, only France comes close to NATO’s required 2 percent of spending at 1.9 percent. In contrast, Italy will spend only 1.5 percent, Germany a laughable 1.4 percent, and Spain a risible 1 percent. This isn’t remotely intellectually serious even as the problem has festered for a generation…

“Economically, Europe is also so much less than meets the eye… Germany — the continent’s undoubted economic powerhouse — best explains the problem. Here the Ukraine war has done more than point out Germany’s military follies; it also underlines the fact that its vaunted economic model is now irretrievably broken.

“The German model was based on buying cheap Russian energy to make high-end products (machine tools, petrochemicals, luxury cars)… Now, in our dawning age of insecurity, the Russian cheap energy inputs that the German model requires are definitively at an end… The German model is definitively broken, and nothing has yet emerged to take its place…

“Finally, Europe is a Tower of Babel. How could it be otherwise? There are 27 countries in the European Union… As such, the EU’s policy outputs, even when generally on the money, will always amount to half-measures, compromises that do not genuinely ‘solve’ any of its problems.

“The common position on Ukraine is a case in point. Beneath a surface agreement about the war, deep fissures exist on the continent… As the war drags on into 2023, look for these hairline cracks to become canyons.

“Militarily anemic, economically sclerotic, and politically divided — this is the reality of a Europe that has been mastered by history over the past generation. It must face up to these festering problems… And there is simply no more time to waste.”

That is why ten European core nations or groups of nations will emerge, and they will in turn give their power to a European dictator of German or Austrian descent (compare Revelation 17:12-13).

Europe’s Humiliation

The Telegraph wrote on December 22:

 “Naturally, President Zelensky’s appearance before Congress as a war-time leader appealing for American support, has been likened to Winston Churchill’s address on almost exactly the same date in 1941. Yet by then the US had declared war on Germany and victory was arguably assured. Today in Ukraine, victory is far from assured. Putin could still win.

“A more appropriate comparison would be with Churchill’s conference with Franklin D Roosevelt on board the USS Augusta and HMS Prince of Wales in August 1941. As with Ukraine, the US had been supplying arms to the UK. Churchill’s purpose, like Zelensky’s, was to consolidate US support for a long war ahead.

“Though even this is not like-for-like. In 1941, with all of Europe occupied, Churchill had nowhere else to turn. That is, of course, not the situation today – Europe is free and prosperous. So why did Zelensky not make his address to the European Parliament in Brussels instead? Indeed, how extraordinary that after decades of peace on the Continent, with European nations claiming to have learnt the lessons of the Second World War, a fellow European nation battling tyranny still has to rely on the United States above its neighbours.

“Despite a comparable GDP to the US… EU countries are supplying less than half that of the US… Some of the wealthiest nations on the Continent have inadequate supplies to maintain their own sovereignty, let alone that of Ukraine or the West.

“But this is no excuse. The weakness of European will since February has been disgraceful. Remember when, as Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, several Western European countries were so terrified of antagonising Putin that they balked at the idea of providing even small, defensive-only equipment? For a time, Germany refused all arms exports, limiting military aid to 5,000 combat helmets and doing its best to hold up weapons supplies from Eastern European Nato members…

“France, with the second largest economy in the EU, is still only the 11th largest donor in the world. Germany, meanwhile, has repeatedly failed to follow through on the commitments it eventually made. Its ‘tank swap’, a scheme to replace Soviet-era tanks with German models, still remains largely unfulfilled. Thus, with the notable exception of brave Eastern European governments like those of Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, the Continent’s leaders have failed Ukraine.

“No wonder Zelensky had far more praise for Boris Johnson than either Macron or Scholz. And who can blame him for travelling across the Atlantic first? For without British and American strategy and leadership, EU nations would almost certainly have defaulted to their habitual compromise and capitulation, pressuring Zelensky into negotiations on Putin’s terms. Indeed, Macron pretty much confirmed that on his recent visit to Washington when he ridiculously spoke of Nato making security guarantees to Russia if negotiations began, when his talk should only have been of Russian guarantees to Ukraine… In 2022, the EU showed the world that, when push comes to shove, it is nowhere to be found. Now Britain, like Zelensky, is better off staying closer to Washington than Brussels.”

Ultimately, Ukraine and Russia will unite AGAINST Europe. And Europe will become a deadly enemy of the USA and Britain.

The Pope’s Cryptic Message

Life Site News wrote on December 22:

“In his annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis claimed that ‘true heresy’ involved not only ‘preaching another Gospel’ but in neglecting to ‘translate it into today’s languages and ways of thinking.’…

“Reiterating his argument for some kind of development of doctrine in ‘form,’ Francis employed the words of Scripture and placed his own interpretation on them, stating: ‘True heresy consists not only in preaching another gospel… as… Paul told us, but also in ceasing to translate its message into today’s languages and ways of thinking, which is precisely what the Apostle of the Gentiles did. To preserve means to keep alive and not to imprison the message of Christ.’

“The Pontiff did not expand on what imprisoning the message of Christ might look like, or how the Roman Curia was to change the ‘form’ of the Gospel while somehow keeping the ‘substance’ the same…

“Pope Francis has used such language… with increasing regularity over the past years. In his recent address to the International Theological Commission, Francis urged them to avoid ‘going backward’ in ‘Tradition’ instead asking them to promote the Gospel by consulting non-Catholic ‘experts.’… Pope Francis’ promotion of such themes is being evidenced through the agenda of his Synod on Synodality – which is pushing for female deacons and wider ‘inclusion’…”

Core Europe will unite with and under the tutelage of the Catholic Church. A new “Holy Roman Empire” will emerge—the last European revival of ancient Rome.

Pope Ignorant of the True Jesus

The Associated Press wrote on December 24:

“Recalling Jesus’ birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those ‘ravenous’ for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable, including children, in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism. In the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis presided over the evening Mass attended by about 7,000 faithful, including tourists and pilgrims… ‘Jesus was born poor, lived poor and died poor,’ Francis said…

“When the Mass ended, the pope, pushed in a wheelchair by an aide, moved down the basilica with a life-sized statue of Baby Jesus on his lap and flanked by several children carrying bouquets. The statue then was placed in a manger in a creche scene in the basilica.”

The contrast between the Catholic Church’s incredible riches and the Pope’s plea to help the poor should be noted, as well as the irony of making that plea “in the splendor” of St. Peter’s Basilica. But it is absolutely false to say that Jesus lived and died poor. Also, to carry a statute of Jesus is in violation of God’s Ten Commandments. Please read our booklets, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?” and “The Ten Commandments.”

Christmas Customs in Germany

The Local wrote on December 24:

“As is the case across most of Western Europe, Germany’s main day of celebration for Christmas is the 24th, the so-called ‘Heiligabend’. In the morning of the 24th, the Christmas tree is put up and decorated, and in the evening, children get to open their presents. Shops usually close earlier on this day, and businesses shut for the whole day or a half day.

“However, while Christmas Eve is the main event of the German Christmas calendar, the 25th and 26th are still designated ‘Feiertage’ (celebration days/holidays) with their own festive traditions…

“Christmas tree praising is a fabulous tradition in southern Germany, specifically southern Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, where visitors come to your home to admire and compliment your tree, usually with a reward of one (but probably a few more) glasses of schnapps. Because Christmas trees are traditionally put up on Christmas Eve in Germany (at least traditionally), the praising of the Christmas tree occurs during the period “zwischen den Jahren”, or between the years, meaning the period between Christmas and New Year.

“While this tradition can happen between neighbours – and can be a great way to get to know your community – it is often a feature of a group; for example, the staff of a small business or members of a football team will go to each individual’s house to praise their Christmas trees one by one. The praising can sometimes take an entire day and can end up quite merry. It can also get pretty competitive, with the most lavish, over the top tree being hailed the winner and given a special prize (most likely also in the form of a festive beverage).”

This adoration and worship of the Christmas tree is aptly described and condemned in the Bible. Compare Jeremiah 10.

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 a series of three Q&A’s entitled, “why do you consider the Old Testament so important?,” we discussed the close connection between the Old and New Testament which is shown by the number of times the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament.   The Old Testament had the approval of Jesus Christ and He quoted from it to prove the point.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, we learn an important lesson about ALL Scripture: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

As we explained in the previous series, Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers observes the following when discussing that it can be translated as: “Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof… “:

“The rendering followed by the English version, and which is certainly grammatically possible, by making—’all Scripture’ the subject, and ‘given by inspiration of God’ the predicate, declares positively the inspiration of all the Old Testament Scriptures, for this is what the Apostle must have referred to, if we understand this verse as we have it rendered in the English version above.”

In Acts 20:27, Paul wrote: “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God,” and that must have been from the Old Testament which was the main written text at that time plus the teachings of Jesus which were, for the most part, not yet part of the written Word of God. Scholars tell us that some of the New Testament texts (such as the gospel records according to Mark, Matthew and Luke, and 1 Thessalonians) were all written before the book of Acts.

A key verse in the New Testament can be read in John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom (which) the Father will send in My name, He (it) will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

Barnes Notes on the Bible are instructive about this verse:

“Will send in my name – On my account [or better: “through Me”]. To perfect my work. To execute it as I would in applying it to the hearts of men. See John 14:13.

“Shall teach you all things – All things which it was needful for them to understand in the apostolic office, and particularly those things which they were not prepared then to hear or could not then understand. See John 16:12. Compare… Matthew 10:19-20. This was a full promise that they would be inspired, and that in organizing the church, and in recording the truths necessary for its edification, they would be under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit. [We hasten to add that the Holy Spirit is not a Person, but God’s power emanating from the Father and the Son.]

“Bring all things to your remembrance – This probably refers to two things:

“1. He [that is, Jesus through His Spirit] would seasonably remind them of the sayings of Jesus, which they might otherwise have forgotten. In the organization of the church, and in composing the sacred history, he would preside over their memories, and recall such truths and doctrines as were necessary either for their comfort or the edification of his people. Amid the multitude of things which Jesus spake during a ministry of more than three years, it was to be expected that many things which he had uttered, that would be important for the edification of the church, would be forgotten. We see, hence, the nature of their inspiration. The Holy Spirit made use of their memories, and doubtless of all their natural faculties. He (better “it”, unless we speak of Jesus Christ, working through His Spirit) so presided over their memories as to recall what they had forgotten, and then it was recorded as a thing which they distinctly remembered, in the same way as we remember a thing which would have been forgotten had not some friend recalled it to our recollection.

“2. The Holy Spirit [that is, Jesus Christ, through His Spirit] would teach them the meaning of those things which the Saviour had spoken. Thus they did not understand that he ought to be put to death until after his resurrection, though he had repeatedly told them of it, Luke 24:21, Luke 24:25-26. So they did not until then understand that the gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles, though this was also declared before. Compare Matthew 4:15-16; Matthew 12:21, with Acts 10:44-48.”

The ministry then, and down through the ages until the present time, were instructed in 2 Timothy 2:15: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Therefore as “rightly dividing the word of truth” is required, the admonitions and teachings of the New Testament must be God-breathed in order for His ministry to accomplish this.

A look at some of the New Testament writers will reveal much about the God-inspired nature of their writings.

As mentioned above, Paul addressed the Ephesians’ Elders and stated: “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”  We know from Acts chapter 9 that Saul was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (verses 1-2).  On the road to Damascus, he met Jesus and, after 3 days of blindness which was healed, he was baptised (verses 3-18).   In verses 19-20, we read:

“So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.”   After persecuting those of “The Way,” he became one of the giants of the New Testament with many of his writings becoming part of the Word of God.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:37: “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”

There is further proof in 1 Corinthians 2:13-16: “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.  For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

In 2 Corinthians 2:17, there is further proof that what Paul wrote was of Godly inspiration: “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

In 1 Peter 1:12, Peter writes: “To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.”

It is interesting that Peter indicates that Paul’s writings are to be viewed as are the rest of the Scriptures:

“…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary observes: “other scriptures—Paul’s Epistles were, therefore, by this time, recognized in the Church, as ‘Scripture’: a term never applied in any of the fifty places where it occurs, save to the Old and New Testament sacred writings.”

In 1 Thessalonians 2:13 we read what Paul wrote to the Church there: “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”

We read in Luke 1:2-4: “… just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.”   It is clear that the physician Luke, who also wrote the Book of Acts, wrote this gospel record to inform positively to the “most excellent Theophilus” about the truth, life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

In the Book of Revelation which was the last book written and which was included in the Scriptures, we read the following in Revelation 1:1-2: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.”

This statement in the last book of the Bible clearly shows that Jesus Christ revealed to the apostle John those things that had to happen in the future. The Greek word for Revelation is apokalupsis (apocalypse) which is an uncovering, revealing or unveiling and it was God the Father who, through Jesus, gave this information thus sealing it with Godly authority.

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

“Europe Against Ukraine and Israel,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Presently, Europe, and especially Germany, are a mess, but don’t let that fool you. Europe’s real attitude towards Ukraine and the state of Israel are telling, and it will get much worse and dangerous, when decisive leadership will take over the continent.

“Europa gegen die Ukraine und Israel,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This program covers the same topic as described above for StandingWatch. 

“Gute Vorsätze für 2023,” this coming Sabbath’s new German sermon by Norbert Link, is now posted. Title in English: “Good Intentions for 2023.”

“Ein Stein des Anstosses,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Mike Richter, is now posted. Title in English: “A Stumbling Block.”

“A Short History of Christmas Observance,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Paul Niehoff, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The celebration of Christmas, as well as being Pagan, has had a long and confusing observance. December the twenty fifth is not the only time it was and is celebrated, and at different times and places, it was banned altogether. God commands us not to keep it.

“Why is Jerusalem Important?”, the sermon presented last Sabbath by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Jerusalem is the most contested city on the planet, and that status will become even more intense in the near future! Few understand that Jerusalem is destined to soon become the capital of the world but that tremendous problems lie still ahead!

On December 24, 2022, Paul Niehoff will present the sermonette, titled, “A Short History of Christmas Observance,” and Dave Harris will present the sermon, titled, “Why Is Jerusalem Important?”

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.

Do you ever have doubts about your prayers to the point you don’t know what to say?

Jesus made an amazing point for us when He taught about how we are to pray, and this is what He said, “‘…For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him’” (Matthew 6:8). He also taught: “‘Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things’” (Matthew 6:31-32).

God knows what we need, but we still must ask—that is, pray about it:

“‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened… If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!’” (Matthew 7:7-8, 11).

Although the Father knows what we need before we ask, we also must believe that He will answer us when we pray. We must learn to rely upon the Father and that requires faith, as Hebrews 11, verse 6, reveals: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Do you want to have great faith? Believe God! Jesus stated, “‘Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them’” (Mark 11:24).

The most vital key for us when we pray is that we always seek God’s Will:

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Don’t be wishy-washy when you pray! Come before God with confidence, and present your requests in the way that Jesus did. When Jesus struggled with the fact that He was about to die to pay the price for mankind’s sins, He went so far as to ask the Father to release Him from what He knew He was about to suffer: “And He said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will’” (Mark 14:36).

We can grow in faith by learning what the Will of the Father is: we can find that in His Word; we can learn the Will of the Father through the Church of God and the Ministry; and, we can come to deeply understand the Will of the Father by receiving His Holy Spirit.

No matter what we face in this life, we can pray about it—completely trusting that the Father knows exactly what we need!

We begin with reporting on further shocking and appalling revelations regarding the collaboration between the FBI and Twitter to suppress true stories, including the Hunter Biden laptop story, while the FBI was using ex-FBI general counsel Jim Baker for their purposes and paying Twitter over 3 Million Dollars “in exchange for devoting staff hours ‘processing requests from the FBI.’” Demands are getting louder to totally dismantle the FBI, which is being viewed by some as incurably corrupt. The FBI issued a “justification” for their conduct related to Twitter which is even more troublesome and frightening.

At the same time, hypocritical Europe threatens Elon Musk, claiming to be concerned about his restoration of free speech on Twitter. In this regard, “the long criminalization of speech in countries like France, Germany, and England” is being discussed.

We address the controversy regarding Title 42, pertaining to the “influx of migrants” “along the U.S. Mexico border”; and speak on the truly bi-partisan decision by Congress to abandon the Coronavirus vax mandate for the military, with the hope that all COVID vax mandates (including for healthcare workers and foreign visitors) will also be abandoned soon.

We continue with the recommendation of the falsely so-claimed “bi-partisan” House January 6 Committee to the Department of Justice to file criminal charges against Donald Trump. Many feel that this Committee, consisting of Trump-haters, has been a sham-and-a-farce “investigation” from the outset and throughout its existence and that it has been rightly described as a Kangaroo Court; and legal experts explain that the Committee’s “recommendation” has no legal relevance whatsoever. This Committee, which should have never existed in the first place, will be dissolved on January 3.

We report on the willingness of Democrats and Republicans to flagrantly violate the Law of God; the miserable condition of Germany’s army, mainly due to the incompetence of both major parties (the CDU and the SPD); the recommendation of Hungary to dissolve the European Parliament; Russia’s intent to enlarge its military by 30%; reactions to Ukrainian President Zelensky’s visit to Washington; riots in Jordan; and we conclude with the Vatican’s controversial dismissal of a popular pro-life American priest and some interesting comments by Pope Francis.

Regarding Washington’s desperate attempt to avoid a partial governmental shutdown, please view our new StandingWatch program, “The Omnibus Bill—An Insane Way to Run the Country.” riots in Jordan; and we conclude with the Vatican’s controversial dismissal of a popular pro-life American priest.

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

The FBI’s Inappropriate Conduct in the Twitter Scandal

The New York Post wrote on December 19:

“The FBI reimbursed Twitter to the tune of more than $3 million as it pushed the social media company to ban accounts and target so-called ‘foreign influence’ operations, the latest installment of the ‘Twitter Files’ revealed on Monday.

“In an email dated Feb. 10, 2021, an unidentified Twitter employee told then-deputy general counsel Jim Baker and then-general counsel Sean Edgett that ‘we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019! The email, published by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, explained that Twitter’s Safety, Content & Law Enforcement (SCALE) division had instituted a ‘reimbursement program’ in exchange for devoting staff hours to ‘processing requests from the FBI.’

“The message added that Twitter had opted not to exercise its right of reimbursement prior to October 2019, though it did not say why… The reports by Shellenberger and fellow independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, have revealed extensive collaboration and employee overlap between Twitter and the FBI, who Taibbi reported last week treated the social media company as a ‘subsidiary’ and repeatedly reported supposed ‘misinformation.’

“In the sixth installment of the Twitter Files, published Friday, Taibbi revealed that the bureau was so aggressive in sending Twitter ‘possible violative content’ to review that an employee described one set of materials as a ‘monumental undertaking’ that required several colleagues to pitch in and help.

“On Monday, Shellenberger reported that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth to dismiss The Post’s bombshell October 2020 report on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as a Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation. The files reveal the FBI could communicate with top Twitter executives through multiple channels, including email accounts and specially built encrypted portals. The bureau would often send the company lists of users they wanted investigated for terms of use violations.

“In some cases, Shellenberger noted, Twitter would probe cases presented by the bureau but come up empty, not finding evidence of a foreign influence campaign… ‘Time and again, FBI asks Twitter for evidence of foreign influence & Twitter responds that they aren’t finding anything worth reporting,’ Shellenberger writes. The FBI also made repeated requests for internal data from Twitter that the social media company refused to send over, citing privacy concerns.

“As recently as August 2022, Twitter continued to work with the FBI, which pressured the company to disclose more sensitive information. Baker and Edgett were fired after billionaire Elon Musk bought the social network in October.”

Has the USA become an autocratic dictatorship?

How the FBI and Twitter Suppressed the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

The Daily Mail wrote on December 20:

“Jim Baker, Twitter’s top lawyer and ex-FBI general counsel, personally intervened to say it [the Hunter Biden laptop story] should be banned. Baker told Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of security, that the laptop story should be blocked – a day after getting a top secret briefing from his former FBI colleagues… Baker’s shameless attempts to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story – which has since been proven to be accurate – where also shared by Shellenberger.

“Monday’s Twitter Files release also showed that so many ex-FBI staffers had joined the social media network, there was now a private Slack channel set up just for them… the latest batch of Twitter files have sparked concerns about what else those former government operatives may have been up to.

“The most recent ‘Twitter Files’ also revealed how an FBI official-turned Twitter lawyer sent a letter thanking the Bureau for its help suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story…

“Baker became involved… because he had previously held top secret security clearance during his work for the FBI – during which he had been involved in one of the Bureau’s investigations into Donald Trump… Once Baker was given clearance [by the FBI]… the FBI fed him information intended to influence… Twitter executives into believing that the [Hunter Biden] laptop story was hacked… Hours after The Post published their laptop story the next day, it was almost immediately censored by Twitter and thus undermined in the public eye. The files showed that… Hunter Biden was earning millions in foreign business dealings…”

The conduct of the FBI has been appalling. It might also have been illegal. Notice the next article.

Dismantle the FBI

Ron Paul wrote in his weekly column, which was published by the Ron Paul Institute, on December 19:

“As we learn more and more from the ‘Twitter Files,’ it is becoming all too obvious that Federal agencies such as the FBI viewed the First Amendment of our Constitution as an annoyance and an impediment. In Friday’s release from the pre-Musk era, journalist Matt Taibbi makes an astute observation: Twitter was essentially an FBI subsidiary.

“The FBI, we now know, was obsessed with Twitter. We learned that agents sent Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth some 150 emails between 2020 and 2022. Those emails regularly featured demands from US government officials for the ‘private’ social media company to censor comments and ban commenters they did not like.

“The Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), a US government entity that included the FBI as well as other US intelligence agencies expressly forbidden from domestic activities, numbered 80 agents engaged regularly in telling Twitter which Tweets to censor and which accounts to ban. The Department of Homeland Security brought in outside government contractors and (government-funded) non-governmental organizations to separately pressure Twitter to suppress speech the US government did not like.

“US Federal government agencies literally handed Twitter lists of Americans it wanted to see silenced, and Twitter complied. Let that sink in.

“This should be a massive scandal… As Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote over the weekend, a new Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found that even though the mainstream media has ignored the ‘Twitter files,’ Americans have not. Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that Twitter was involved in politically-motivated censorship in advance of the 2020 election. Some 70 percent of those polled believe Congress must take action against this corporate/state censorship.

“As Professor Turley points out, although the First Amendment only applies to the US government, ‘it does apply to agents or surrogates of the government. Twitter now admits that such a relationship existed between its former officials and the government.’ So now we have proof that the FBI (along with US intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security) have been acting through ‘private’ social media companies to manipulate what Americans are allowed to say when they communicate with each other. Is there anything more un-American than that? Personally, I find it sickening.

“We do not need the FBI and CIA and other federal agencies viewing us as the enemy and attacking our Constitution… End the Federal Bureau of Investigation!”

A demand which should be considered. But it won’t happen. Apart from the Democratic opposition to such a move, even too many House and Senate Republicans are unwilling to entertain that possibility.

The FBI “Responds”

Newsmax wrote on December 21:

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation defended itself following a slew of accusations levied against it by journalists releasing Elon Musk’s Twitter files… In a Wednesday statement, the agency suggested reporters Matt Taibbi, Lee Fang, and Bari Weiss, as well as author Michael Shellenberger, were ‘conspiracy theorists’ in their threads exposing internal Twitter documents. ‘The correspondence between the FBI and Twitter show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding, and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries,’ the statement read.

“The FBI further argued its tips from agents to Twitter employees provided ‘critical information’ to the social media platform to protect themselves and their customers… It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,’ it added.”

The FBI’s “defense” is even more troublesome, as the underlined sentences prove.

Europe Threatens Musk

The Ron Paul Institute published the following article by Professor Turley on December 17:

“I was struck by the European Union (EU) rushing into the controversy to threaten, again, sanctions against Musk.. We have been discussing efforts by figures like Hillary Clinton to enlist European countries to force Twitter to restore censorship rules… Clinton and others are resorting to good old-fashioned state censorship, even asking other countries to censor the speech of American citizens. It is an easy case to make given the long criminalization of speech in countries like France, Germany, and England.

“The EU responded immediately by threatening Musk that restoring free speech could result in immediate sanctions or an entire ban. Now, EU commissioner Vera Jourova warned that the EU’s Digital Services Act was preparing to act to defend press freedom…

“Jourova’s self-righteous tirade was almost comical given the EU’s long-standing attacks on free speech and silence of prior media suspensions… Where was Jourova and the EU when Twitter was aggressively suspending media like the New York Post for publishing the true story of Hunter Biden’s laptop? How about the slew of conservative writers and experts barred for questioning official accounts on issues ranging from Covid to climate change?

“Not surprisingly, the EU is threatening to use the unprecedented anti-free speech law recently passed by the body… [This is] a roadmap for state censorship on the Internet. It is the Western embrace of Chinese style speech controls on the Internet…”

And it will only get much worse in Europe.

Title 42 Stays, Pending Further Order

Fox News wrote on December 19:

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked an order that would lift Title 42, the pandemic-era health policy that has been used to deter migrants more than 2.5 million times. The order Monday by Chief Justice John Roberts comes as cities along the U.S. Mexico border have been scrambling to prepare for an expected influx of migrants in anticipation of Title 42’s end. Earlier Monday, 19 states had asked the high court for an emergency stay that would keep Title 42 in place. In the one-page order, Chief Justice Roberts granted a stay pending further order…

“El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico on Sunday were preparing for a surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day in anticipation of Title 42’s expiration… Immigration advocates sued to stop the use of Title 42 to limit who can apply for asylum, saying that the policy goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution…”

This controversy won’t end any time soon.

No More Vaccine Mandates for Members of U.S. Military

Breitbart wrote on December 16:

“Members of the U.S. military deserve ‘healthcare freedom,’ Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said on Thursday following the Senate approving the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which repeals the military vaccine mandate enforced under the Biden administration. The Senate on Thursday passed the NDAA — it saw overwhelming bipartisan support with a 83-11 vote — which repeals the military vaccine mandate…

“Lawmakers on the House side, while celebrating the end of the vaccine mandate on members of the military, are also warning that it does not go far enough... Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has… called for further action, demanding the end of ‘all COVID vax mandates’ remaining across the board:… ‘The military COVID vaccine mandate will end! Page 407 & 408 of NDAA text just released. Next steps: end all COVID vax mandates (healthcare workers and foreign visitors), and reinstate all members of military wrongfully terminated due to vax.’

“After passing both the House and Senate, the NDAA now heads to President Biden’s desk.”

The TSA will announce on or before January 8 whether to uphold or abolish the current vaccination mandate for tourists entering the USA.

The House Committee Urges DOJ to Charge Trump Criminally

The Associated Press wrote on December 19:

“The House Jan. 6 committee urged the Justice Department on Monday to bring criminal charges against Donald Trump for the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection, calling for accountability for the former president… the committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, in both the run-up to the riot and during the insurrection itself…

“The panel… will dissolve on Jan. 3 with the new Republican-led House…

“House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California… decided not to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to join seven Democrats... The committee members said that full accountability can only be found in the criminal justice system. ‘No one should get a pass,’ said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.”

Schiff is one to talk. Note that the Wall Street Journal had published the following article on May 22, 2020:

“In the good old days if a member of Congress was caught in a major lie, knowingly misleading Congress and the American public, there were consequences. His own party would denounce him, the electorate would surely vote him out of office but perhaps he would resign in disgrace beforehand. But not today.

“Rep. Adam Schiff was playing to the base with a calculated lie, cheered on by fellow party members and supported by most of the media. He is a hero—to some. There are not, nor will there be, consequences for him. How times have changed. Any wonder the approval rating of Congress is at such an abysmally low rating?”

No Legal Relevance of a “Political Stunt”

Fox News wrote on December 19:

“The committee’s unprecedented criminal referral holds no official legal weight, and a final determination in whether to pursue the charges will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department.

“The committee also referred several GOP House lawmakers Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Scott Perry, R-Pa., to the House Ethics Committee for not complying with subpoenas.

“A spokesperson for Jordan responded to the committee’s referral in statement to Fox News: ‘This is just another partisan and political stunt made by a Select Committee that knowingly altered evidence, blocked minority representation on a Committee for the first time in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives, and failed to respond to Mr. Jordan’s numerous letters and concerns surrounding the politicization and legitimacy of the Committee’s work.’”

Of course, this entire Committee consisting of Trump-haters has been a sham and a farce all along.

Newsmax wrote on December 19:

“… it’s unconstitutional for members of Congress to recommend prosecution for anyone, making the committee’s determination a ‘worthless piece of paper,’ Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said… not only should the DOJ reject the committee’s recommendation, but it should reprimand the committee for referring the former president to face charges, said Dershowitz.

“However, Dershowitz said he hopes for a reprimand, but he does not think that will happen, even if he does expect that the DOJ won’t take the recommendation seriously. ‘The Justice Department will say [to] Congress, Look we process, we investigate,’ said Dershowitz. ‘Don’t tell us who to investigate and who to prosecute. You had a kangaroo hearing. One-sided. You didn’t allow a cross-examination. You didn’t allow any adverse witnesses, so don’t expect us to take seriously any recommendations. You made a bad prosecution, so the American public should make no conclusions based on this one-sided recommendation and it should ignore it as well.’”

That is what the DOJ should say. We doubt that it will say that.

Pelosi’s Kangaroo Court

Newsmax wrote in a related article, on December 19:

“Former President Donald Trump’s campaign blasted the House Jan. 6 select committee on Monday for being a ‘Kangaroo court’ that ‘makes a mockery of democracy.’… When creating the committee in 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flouted House rules by not allowing the House Republican leadership to select their members. ‘Nancy Pelosi refused to accept two Republican members (Jim Banks and Jim Jordan) for the January 6^th select committee,’ Trump’s statement read.

“Instead, Pelosi and her committee itself selected the Republicans, picking Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., both among Trump’s biggest GOP detractors… Cheney was so zealous in her efforts to ‘get Trump,’ the Washington Post reported, that at least 15 former and current committee staff members suppressed other key findings in the final report…

“In revelations made by the House Committee…, no evidence has been provided to the public that indicated Trump or his top aides orchestrated or encouraged the protests at the Capitol. But significant evidence, including text messages from top White House officials, Trump family members, and other close supporters, showed that the protests caught the president and his inner circle completely by surprise.”

All of this is truly shameful and unworthy of the USA—or any supposedly free democratic nation.

Democrats and Republicans in Opposition to the Law of God

Life Site News published on December 20 the following editorial by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America:

“A large scandal has been created, as well as discouragement, upon learning the news of the gala event hosted by President Donald J. Trump for openly homosexual supporters of the Republican Party. This endorsement of LGBT ideology is even more serious if one considers that, only two days previously, Joe Biden signed the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ which recognizes the legal validity of so-called homosexual marriages in the United States, in violation of the Natural Law and also the Law of God.

“The Democratic Party is totally anti-Christian and obstinately determined to implement the globalist agenda of the New World Order. On the other hand, the Republican Party is recklessly pursuing a minority of voters who are indulging in lifestyles that are contrary to the Commandments and to the common good. American Catholics find themselves today in the impossible situation of being represented by a political class that is revealing itself to be completely incapable of representing and expressing Catholic convictions in moral and religious matters. This causes voters to become disaffected, which is added to electoral fraud and scandals that are emerging about media censorship and the manipulation of electoral consensus.

“Up until now, certain aspects of the political platform of the Republican Party were able to be overlooked to some extent due to the much more serious threat embodied by the Democratic Party. But it is now evident that the action of the deep state has contaminated the entire political elite without distinction, even involving Donald Trump, who up until now seemed to be a source of hope for the future of the United States.

“A nation that offends the Law of God cannot hope to be blessed by the Lord, and those who support sinful lifestyles ought to think of the Judgment that awaits them rather than pleasing those who are corrupt in a calculated effort to win votes. This nonchalance in political action by Republicans is no less harmful than the open opposition to the perennial Magisterium of the Church on the part of Democrats.”

This world is thoroughly in the hands of Satan the Devil.

Germany’s Disastrous Military

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 19:

“The German military faced yet another PR disaster on Monday after reports emerged over the weekend that a training exercise involving one of its key weapons, the Puma tank, left not a single one operational. The conservative opposition was quick to jump on the news as supposed evidence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s mismanagement of the Bundeswehr, particularly under the control of Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht. ‘It’s a nightmare,’ Christian Democrat (CDU) parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul told German  public broadcaster ARD. ‘The Puma is supposed to be a main weapon system of the German army. And if the Puma is not operational, then the army is not operational.’…

“The new debacle comes on top of several alarming headlines in the German media recently about the state of the country’s military. These suggested the Bundeswehr only has enough ammunition for two days of intense fighting — a figure apparently leaked by unnamed sources in defense circles. If this is true (and such information cannot be confirmed, as it is a state secret), German ammunition supplies are well below the standards expected by NATO, which requires each member to have 30 days’ worth of ammunition. To make up that shortfall alone, defense experts say Germany needs to invest another €20 to €30 billion.

“The state of the Bundeswehr’s hardware has long been a topic of concern: There have been several stories in recent years about tanks and helicopters that needed repairing, rifles that fail in hot weather and soldiers having to train in the cold without thermal underwear.

“Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a ‘Zeitenwende’ (turning of the times) which was hailed as a sea-change in the country’s approach to foreign policy and military strategy.

“To prove he meant it, Scholz announced an increase in the annual defense budget, making it the largest in all of Europe, as well as a €100 billion ($112.7 billion) one-off ‘special fund’ to modernize the military. Nine months later, some are wondering where that mountain of money is… Rafael Loss, a defense analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)… says Germany lacks a sense of urgency in reacting to the geopolitical implications of Russia’s attack on Ukraine…

“NATO partners in northeastern Europe have already expressed concern that Germany is not a military partner to rely on in a crisis. At a conference in Berlin in late October, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks asked his European colleagues, ‘We’re prepared to die, are you?’ Addressing the Germans specifically, he said, ‘A lot will depend on the military power of your country, and, I’m sorry, your military power is currently not there.’…

“Germany has signed a deal to buy 35 American-made F-35 fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of Tornados, at a cost of €200 million each. But it will take until 2027 before these are ready for use… Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended everything. The stories about Germany’s ammunition shortages emerged partly because questions were raised about maintaining supplies for the weapons Germany is sending to Ukraine. ‘We need roughly 15 times more ammunition to ensure a sustained supply of ammunition for the weapons provided to Ukraine, while rebuilding the German armed forces at the scope required,’ said [defense analyst] Loss.

“But there are also underlying long-term issues. In the past few decades, the Bundeswehr has sold off many of its Cold War-era storage bunkers — meaning that even if it did have the NATO-stipulated 30 days’ worth of ammunition, the military would be struggling to find anywhere to keep it.

“For that reason, defense analyst Loss thinks the criticism from the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) sounds hollow. ‘Things weren’t different for the last 16 years when the CDU was in power,’ he said. ‘It’s funny seeing the SPD and the CDU blaming each other for the sad state of the German armed forces, but I think both share roughly equal blame.’”

That is why the current political system in Germany with all its incompetent leaders will be replaced soon with a charismatic dictator—the “beast” of the Bible—with horrible consequences for the entire world.

Hungary for Dissolution of EU Parliament

Radio Free Europe wrote on December 21:

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose right-wing nationalist government has been targeted by corruption accusations and criticized for backsliding on the rule of law, on December 21 accused the European Union of ‘Hungarophobia’ and pointed the finger at the scandal-ridden European Parliament, calling for its dissolution…

“One of the European Parliament’s vice presidents earlier this month was charged in connection with allegations of bribery by soccer World Cup host Qatar. ‘The swamp should be drained,’ Orban said, using a phrase first coined by former U.S. President Donald Trump, a close Orban ally… ‘What the EU is doing today is a few rule-of-law people trying to impose their will on a few countries,’ Orban said.

“Orban is widely considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest EU ally and has repeatedly claimed that sanctions prompted by Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine have caused more damage to European economies than to Russia.”

The irony is, Europe WILL change in that ten nations or groups of nations will emerge, leading to a total autocracy and dictatorship.

Russia To Increase Military By More Than 30 %

France 24 wrote on December 21:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin supported a proposal by [the] Defence Minister to boost the Russian military by more than 30% on Wednesday… ‘It is necessary to increase the number of armed troops to 1.5 million servicemen, including 695,000 contract soldiers,’ Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin…

“Shoigu also proposed raising the age range for mandatory Russian military service to 21-30, compared to 18-27 at the moment.”

The military buildup by Russia, China and other Far Eastern nations will lead to a powerful collaboration between those nations, called in the Bible the “kings of the East.”

Russia Fumes After Zelenskyy’s Visit

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 22:

“Moscow on Thursday denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington claiming that it showed Kyiv was ‘not ready for peace.’ Zelenskyy met with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday and addressed Congress in his first official trip outside of Ukraine since Russia launched the war in February.  

“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow regretted that neither Biden nor Zelenskyy said ‘even a few words that could be perceived as potential readiness to listen to Russia’s concerns.’    

“Biden announced on Wednesday that the US would provide Kyiv with an additional security aid of $1.85 billion (€1.737 billion), including the Patriot air defense system. Peskov said that this signaled that the US was ‘continuing its line of de facto fighting an indirect war with Russia to the last Ukrainian,’ adding that the Patriot missile would not deter Russia from achieving its goals in Ukraine.

“In a statement issued by the Russian Embassy in the US on Thursday, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov’s [said]: ‘What was essentially announced […] was the need to continue the ‘proxy war’ against our country’…

“The Russian envoy said the US supplying weapons to Ukraine was ‘deeply disturbing.’ He added that Moscow stressed that ‘the provocative actions by the US are steadily leading to an escalation, the consequences of which cannot even be imagined.’”

Tucker Carlson Bashes Biden Over Zelensky’s Visit

Express wrote on December 22:

“Tucker Carlson (Fox News) … bashed Biden for refusing to ‘specify’ the details of what winning conditions would look like for the administration… [He asked:]  ‘Push the Russian Army back to pre-invasion borders? That sounds reasonable, that’s what most Americans likely assume, those still paying attention…

“‘But that is not what Zelensky means, it is not what he is asking for, Zelensky is demanding regime change in Russia… What happens if he wins? What does the ensuing chaos look like? Who secures the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons? Strangely those questions didn’t come up today… The point was to fawn over the Ukrainian [leader] and hand him billions more dollars from our own crumbling economy.’”

Riots Break Out in Jordan

Israel Today wrote on December 21:

“In recent days, violent demonstrations in the Kingdom of Jordan have been expanding, leading to, among other things, fatalities in the security forces. Escalating fuel prices have triggered the current spate of violence… truck and taxi drivers went on strike and demonstrated in the streets of the kingdom. Many Jordanians joined them. They burned tires and blocked roads. The Jordanian government opened an emergency command center to monitor and deal with the crisis, and a decision was taken to expand the Jordanian army’s forces in the south of the kingdom to prevent further demonstrations…

“The riots climaxed Friday, when one of the patrols sent to suppress the protesters came under fire. Jordanian TV officially reported the death of Ma’an’s deputy police chief, Lt. Col. Dr. Abdel-Razzaq Al-Dalba… In response to violent incidents, the Jordanian government announced that it had taken steps to block some social media countrywide.”

At the same time, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he has been able to form a right-wing and extremely conservative government, which is bound to clash with Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations. JTA wrote on December 21:

“Netanyahu hasn’t officially signed any coalition deals yet with other parties (he has until 48 hours before the new government is seated Jan. 2 to do so), and some of his expected new partners are first demanding new legislation that has been delayed until after coalition talks.”

Vatican Defrocks Pro-Life Priest

Newsmax wrote on December 18:

“The Vatican has defrocked Father Frank Pavone — who has been described as ‘the most vocal Catholic priest in America for the pro-life movement’ — in a move that has shocked Church conservatives… [The] priest [was stripped] of his religious title and powers, returning him to the laity with no official status in the Church.

“The letter [of the Vatican] alleges that Pavone was guilty of ‘persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop’ and ‘blasphemous communications on social media.’ The letter doesn’t spell out what the disobedient acts Pavone had engaged in, or identify the ‘blasphemous communications,’ but supporters of Pavone were quick to come to his defense.

“‘The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth & the murder of the unborn at every turn,’ Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas wrote on his Twitter account Saturday. ‘Vatican officials promote immorality & denial of the deposit of faith & priests promote gender confusion devastating lives…,’ Bishop Strickland continued…

“Pavone has come under fire in the past over his statements in support of former President Donald Trump and actions he has taken as a leader in the pro-life movement…

“Pope [Francis’s] decision to laicize Pavone appears to be part of a wider effort to undermine the Church’s traditional stand to protect the unborn…”

Reuters wrote on December 18:

“The [Vatican’s] letter… says Pavone will not be allowed to appeal… After Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, Pavone was among Trump supporters who questioned the validity of the elections…

“In a one hour, 40 minute video on Sunday… he said: ‘I’m never going to leave the priesthood.’”

The ongoing conflict between liberals and conservatives within the Catholic Church may ultimately lead to an “explosion.”

The Elegant Demon in the Vatican

The Daily Mail wrote on December 22:

“The Pope told Vatican staff to beware the ‘elegant demon’ that lurks in self-righteous Catholics in his traditional Christmas speech. Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to again put the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See on notice that they are particularly vulnerable to evil. Pope Francis has long used the annual speech as a chance to rebuke bureaucrats in an examination of conscience to help them repent before Christmas.

“Francis told attendees that by living in the heart of the Catholic Church, ‘we could easily fall into the temptation of thinking we are safe, better than others, no longer in need of conversion.’ ‘Yet we are in greater danger than all others, because we are beset by the ‘elegant demon’, who does not make a loud entrance, but comes with flowers in his hand,’ Francis told the churchmen…

“Francis appeared to also want to take broader aim in this year’s speech at arch-conservatives and traditionalists who have become his biggest critics. Francis blasted their way of living the faith, insisting that being Catholic doesn’t mean following a never-changing set of strict rules… Some have even gone so far as to accuse him of heresy for some of his gestures and preaching, including allowing ‘pagan’ statues in the Vatican.

“Francis dedicated the bulk of his speech this year to the need to be vigilant about the work of the devil… He told the Vatican bureaucrats it’s not enough to merely condemn evil or root it out, since it often comes back in different guises, stronger than before. Francis used the term ‘we’ repeatedly, suggesting he includes himself among those in the Vatican who must remain mindful of the devil in their midst… ‘That is how these elegant demons are: they enter smoothly, without our even being conscious of them.’…”

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.

Confusion exists as to who the Hagrites were, and where they could be found today. Some suggest that they are living in Syria today; others claim that they were Egyptians and are living in Egypt. Others even claim that the Hagrites are the ancestors of the modern Hungarians. And then there are those who say that the Hagrites are Ishmaelites or Saudi Arabians. What does the Bible say?

We find an interesting end-time prophecy, mentioning the Hagrites in Psalm 83:1-8, where we read the following:

“A Song. A Psalm of Asaph. Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah…”

Some translations say “Hagarites” or “Hagarenes” for “Hagrites.”

We say on page 16 of our free booklet, “Germany in Prophecy” that they were “originally cattle breeding nomads in East Canaan.”

The above-quoted prophecy in Psalm 83 mentions the Ishmaelites as part of the anti-Israel confederacy. Ishmael, the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, is according to Jewish and Christian tradition the ancestor of the Arabic peoples. Jerome stated that in his time, they called the districts of Arabia by the names of the Ishmaelite tribes mentioned in the Bible.

In our Q&A, we wrote this:

 “The last European revival of the ancient Roman Empire and the powerful military leader (the beast) will cause the Great Tribulation. Just prior to that time, they will begin, at first, to temporarily collaborate, to an extent, with Arab nations (including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan) and Turkey in their common goal of destroying ‘Israel’ (Psalm 83:1-8). This collaboration might not endure until the return of Christ…

“To interject, the collaborating nations mentioned in Psalm 83 are Ishmaelites—the kingdom of Saudi Arabia—as well as other Arabic tribes, such as the Hagrites, who will enter into an anti-Israeli confederacy with nations such as Edom (Turkey); Moab (parts of Jordan and perhaps Iraq); Ammon (Jordan); Amalek (perhaps today violent groups like the PLO); Philistia (Palestinians); Lot (Jordan); and, most noteworthy, Assyria or modern-day Germany. These are some of the nations which will ‘escape’ the hands of the beast. Daniel 11:41 says: ‘… these shall escape from his hands: Edom (Turkey), Moab (Jordan and Iraq), and the prominent people of Ammon (Jordan).’

“At the same time, we are also informed in Daniel 11:42 and 43 that ‘the land of Egypt shall not escape… also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.’

“How do we have to understand the phrase, ‘…shall follow at his heels’? Since Libya will be allied with Egypt at that time… and since Egypt will be overthrown by Assyria, it appears that Libyans and Ethiopians will also be overthrown and become captives of the Assyrians. In any event, they will all be subject to modern Assyria, either because of volition or compulsion.”

Of particular interest for this Q&A is the identity of the “Hagrites.” We are informed that the Hagrites were mentioned and described as Arab tribes by the Greek geographers Strabo and Ptolemy and by Pliny, the Roman.

We said this in our Q&A, “What does the Bible say about Saudi Arabia?”, in making further statements about the Hagrites and also their reference in Palm 83:

 “Ishmael had twelve sons—among them Ishmael’s second-born son, Kedar (‘powerful’); Dumah (‘silence’; compare Isaiah 21:11; Joshua 15:52); Naphish (‘numerous’); Tema (‘sun burnt’); and Jetur. The Bible, when addressing the descendants of Ishmael, sometimes refers to Ishmael, sometimes to Ishmael’s second-born son Kedar (synonymously used in Scripture with Ishmael); sometimes to Ishmael’s mother Hagar; sometimes to any of the other above-quoted names of Ishmael’s sons; and sometimes simply to ‘Arabia’ (‘wilderness’) or ‘Arabians.’ Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible explains that ‘Arabia today consists mainly of Saudi Arabia. However, it also includes the two Yemens, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and the Sinai peninsula.’

 “The Bible describes the relationship between Israel or Judah and Ishmael and his descendants mostly as a hostile one. We read in 1 Chronicles 5:19 that the sons of Reuben, the Gadites and half of the tribe of Manasseh made war with some of Ishmael’s descendants, i.e., the Hagrites, Jetur, and Naphish [as well as Nodab].

“1 Chronicles 5:10, 19-20 tells us that King Saul made war with the Hagrites, who are, as mentioned, the descendants of Hagar, the mother of Ishmael (The margin of the New King James Bible confirms that the Hagrites are descendants of Hagar.)…”

“We also read, in Psalm 83:6 that Ishmaelites—the kingdom of Saudi Arabia—as well as other Arabic tribes, such as the Hagrites, will enter into an anti-Israeli confederacy…”

That the Hagrites, mentioned in Psalm 83, seem to be descendants of Ishmael’s mother Hagar, the Egyptian maid servant of Sara, is also the opinion of many commentaries.

The Benson Commentary says:

“And the Ishmaelites — Some of the posterity of Ishmael, called by their father’s name, as others of them are supposed by many to be called Hagarenes, from their grandmother Hagar.”

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible adds:

“The Hagarenes were properly Arabs, so called from Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham, the mother of Ishmael. Genesis 16:1; Genesis 25:12. As connected with the Ishmaelites they would naturally join in this alliance.”

The commentary also says this, in speaking about 1 Chronicles 5:10:

“The ‘Hagarites’ or ‘Hagarenes’ are generally regarded as descendants of Hagar, and a distinct branch of the Ishmaelites… They appear to have been one of the most wealthy and widely-spread tribes of the Syrian Desert, being found on the side of the Euphrates in contact with the Assyrians, and also in the Hauran, in the neighborhood of Palestine, in contact with the Moabites and Israelites…”

Matthew Poole’s Commentary agrees: “Hagarenes, from their grandmother Hagar.”

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible says:

“… the Hagarenes are the same with the Hagarites, 1 Chronicles 5:10, who dwelt to the east of the land of Israel, so called from Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham…’

The Pulpit Commentary writes:

“The ‘Hagarenes,’ or ‘Hagarites,’ are only mentioned here [in Psalm 83] and in 1 Chronicles 5:10, 19-22.  They were probably a branch of the Ishmaelites, named after Hagar, Ishmael’s mother.”

The Jamieson Fausset and Brown Commentary says:

“Hagarites—or, ‘Hagarenes,’ originally synonymous with ‘Ishmaelites,’ but afterwards applied to a particular tribe of the Arabs (compare Ps 83:6).”

The Hagrites or Hagarites would then have been descendants of Hagar, the concubine of Abram and mother of Ishmael. If 1 Chronicles 5:19 lists Jetur, Naphish and Nodab as the leaders of the Hagrites, as some suggest, then they would have been the direct descendants of Ishmael, son of Hagar, as Jetur, Naphish and Nodab are listed as Ishmael’s sons in Genesis 25:12-15 and in 1 Chronicles 1:29-31.

Turning to future prophetic events, we do not read specifically how the Ishmaelites (including the Hagrites) will be defeated in war. But it is possible that the modern Assyrians will turn against them, after the break-up of their confederacy, described in Psalm 83.

We say this in our Q&A, “What does the Bible say about Saudi Arabia?” 

“When God intervenes in world affairs, He will begin to pour out His wrath and fury over all nations, by bringing the sword over them (Jeremiah 25:15-17), including Arabia and Tema, one of Ishmael’s sons (Jeremiah 25:23). This will happen during the Day of the LORD of God’s wrath (Jeremiah 25:33), which will begin approximately one year prior to Christ’s return.

“We find a remarkable and somewhat detailed prophecy about the future of Saudi Arabia in Isaiah 21:13-17, stating: ‘The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge… For thus the LORD has said to me; “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of [Ishmael’s second-born son] Kedar will fail; and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.’”

“This Scripture tells us that ‘Arabia’–Saudi Arabia today–will experience defeat in war, and the time span of one year is given, apparently referring to the Day of the LORD. We are not specifically told who exactly will defeat the Arabs in war, but we note that in Old Testament times, the Assyrians did so, and most commentaries apply the prophecy of Isaiah to that occurrence. They overlook, however, that the prophecy is primarily for our times today…, but the question is whether the prophecy is dual, in that Assyria will again be the enemy defeating the Arabs in war, after they first had entered into an alliance with Assyria against Israel.”

It appears then that the modern Hagrites are a very prosperous distinct branch or tribe of the Ishmaelites. Their prosperity might be a reason as to why the modern Assyrians under the beast or the king of the North may turn against it and defeat it in war, as he will also conquer Egypt, and “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt” (Daniel 11:43).

Ishmael’s connection with Egypt should not be overlooked, as Hagar, the mother of Ishmael and grandmother of the Hagrites, was an Egyptian maid. Also, Ishmael married a woman “from the land of Egypt,” perhaps an Egyptian or someone living there (Genesis 21:21). This woman might be the mother of the Hagrites [making the Hagrites two-third Egyptian if that woman married to Ishmael was Egyptian], but that woman might not have been the mother of the Hagrites, as according to tradition, Ishmael had more than one wife.

As we point out on pages 4 and 5 of our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy,” even though Egypt will not be part of the anti-Israel confederation described in Psalm 83, it won’t help Israel and Judah either (Hosea 7:11-12). In fact, Egypt will at first fight with Assyria against Israel (Nahum 3:9), but then Assyria will conquer Egypt and some of Israel’s descendants will be captives in Egypt (Isaiah 27:13).

In any event, there is no evidence that the Hagrites are living today in Egypt or that the Bible views them as Egyptians.

Furthermore, there is no biblical evidence that the Hagrites are Syrians or that they are living today in Syria. Syria is the biblical Aram. As we point out in our before-mentioned booklet on pages 12 and 13, Syria and Damascus will ultimately be destroyed, perhaps through the beast or the king of the North.

The Hagarites are not modern-day Hungarians, either. Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible points this out correctly, when addressing 1 Chronicles 5:10:

 “‘And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites…’  Not with the Hungarians, as the Targum, a people not then in being; but the Ishmaelites, so called because they descended from Hagar’s, Sarah’s maid; the same that are placed by Pliny and Ptolemy in Arabia, near the Batanaeans, or inhabitants of Bashan.”

From all the evidence, it appears that the Hagrites are today a very prosperous tribe or branch of the Ishmaelites in Saudi Arabia.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“The Omnibus Bill—An Insane Way to Run the Country,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

In this program, we address the omnibus bill as an example of  the “insane way” of Congress to run the nation; recite a new and up-to-date version of an old Christmas poem; and end with a sincere blessing for all of our viewers. 

A new Member Letter (December 2022) has been written and will be sent to our subscribers. Kalon Mitchell writes about the power of God which is available to us and  our challenge to choose to use His help as we face the many trials of this life.

“Zugang zu Gott dem Vater (Gott der Vater ist der Höchste, Teil 3),” is the title for this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Access to God (God the Father Is the Highest, Part 3).”

“Wie geht es Ihnen?”, last week’s German sermonette presented by Dmitrij Niemann, is now posted. Title in English: “How Are You?”

“What Do You Owe?”, the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Do we as Christians owe anything? If so, who and what do we owe? What does the Bible say about owing?

“Reconciliation with God the Father,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cut off from God the Father, the Highest in the God Family. In following Adam and Eve’s example, the whole world has been cut off from God. Atonement for our sins and reconciliation with and access to God the Father can only come through the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

On December 17, 2022, Kalon Mitchell will present the sermonette, titled, “What Do You Owe?” and Norbert Link will present the sermon titled, “Reconciliation With God the Father.”

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.

After Mr. Norbert Link’s last sermon on “God the Father Is the Highest, Part 2”, I have been thinking about the power that is God’s and how that power is a part of us who are true Christians.

We are alive at this moment because this is what He has foreordained. Everything in the world has led up to the moments that we are living. We would not be here if God hadn’t made sure that we would be (compare Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 49:15; Psalm 71:6; Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15). God would not have spent so much time and effort in making sure of this fact just to have us fail our calling.

How we choose to live each day becomes a byproduct of our lives. We live each day, day by day, moment by moment. Who we set out to become is dictated by the things that we do or do not do (1 Peter 1:13-25).

If we choose to do so, we live with the Spirit of God! It emanates from the Father and Jesus Christ and is given to us to dwell within us and help us. And yet, what do we do with it? Does it stagnate within us? Does it live dynamically through us? How is it put to use in our lives?

We are the responsible party to make sure that we are making spiritual progress. Yes God is full of power and willing to share – but it is useless unless we are the willing participants, actively seeking Him. Growth happens when we are engaging the Spirit of God.

Hebrews 6:1 explains that as we continue on our path, and we are able to use more of God’s Spirit within our lives, in all the little details, it will hopefully lead to us sinning less and less: “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection (maturity), not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” This is something that takes spiritual maturity – growth.  Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 14:20: “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.”

The Father is the highest. He is perfect in all His ways, His thoughts, His actions – in everything! He does not and cannot sin because He has willed not to. It is from this mindset and this power that we draw upon His power and strength.

Hebrews 4:16 powerfully tells us to approach God’s throne with conviction, and makes clear that we can never ask God for TOO MUCH. It doesn’t tell us there is a limit with what we can approach God. It is not like we get a 10-ticket punch card per day, and then, that is it. NO, it says: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When we are in need, when we are in doubt, when we are facing a problem or series of problems, our ONLY way forward is to approach God and to pray—to pray without doubt (James 1:6-8), without reservation, and with sincere conviction (Luke 22:44), and to pray without ceasing.

To be close to God is on the one hand very easy to do. It takes consistent prayer, Bible study, meditation and forethought. It also takes planning and preparation. It takes a willingness and a want to stay in contact with Him.

On the other hand, we are facing the physical person – the person who should have died at baptism; we face the pressures of this world; and we face Satan and his demons. This is not an easy war! There are many, many battles to be fought and won. There are fights that we cannot and will not win, unless we are intimately involved in our relationship with God.

We must give over ourselves to God’s Spirit; that great power with which Christ holds the universe together and sustains all things. The same power that Christ used when He was here on this earth, and by which He did many miracles. This power is emanating and being spilled out from us towards others. We were called for a reason. We have God’s Spirit for a reason. Galatians 5:16-26 tells us we have a choice to walk according to the flesh – and all that it desires – or we learn to walk in the Spirit. To the degree that we learn how to walk in the Spirit, so will our power, influence and obedience grow. We will become more and more powerful as we become more and more obedient to God

Paul tells us that while it is our potential to become God beings, this process is actually in progress right now. We are to be using the power from God to become more and more spiritual. Not that we are Spirit yet, for that is our potential at Christ’s return; but rather, that we have the power now, dwelling within us. Romans 8:9-11 states:  “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who [better, “which”] dwells in you.”

This entire chapter of Romans 8 really speaks to the power of God’s Spirit which we must allow to dwell in us. As we have heard in Mr. Link’s above-mentioned sermon, when we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we essentially have the Father and Christ dwelling in us. Christ tells us one of the most powerful things in John 14:23: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.’” God the Father and Christ are living in us. That Truth is incredible to think about. If we really meditate on this, we will do everything in our power to overcome the part of us that fails.

This is all incredible information! What we choose to do with it is up to each of us. We cannot neglect this great power to which we have access. Now is our opportunity!

by Norbert Link

We begin with events in and pertaining to Israel and the Jewish people; address Poland’s fear of the emergence of an autocratic Germany; and speak at length about the Twitter scandal of the century.

We address the controversial exchange of Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout; Biden’s signing the controversial gay marriage regulation (“Respect for Marriage Act”); highly controversial activities of billionaire George Soros; and the declaration of independence by controversial Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

We continue with the alleged coup to overthrow the German government (“The Coup that Never Would Have Happened”); the propaganda of the mass media in this regard; and the highly disturbing past and present of Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

We also address developments pertaining to Russia and Ukraine; Turkey’s dictatorship; unbelieving and unchristian Brits and Americans; San Francisco’s suspension of creating “terminators”; and the increase of volcanic eruptions.

Please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “America’s Future Grim and Hopeless”

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

Ten Days Extension for Netanyahu

The Times of Israel wrote on December 9:

“President Isaac Herzog on Friday granted Likud leader and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu 10 additional days to finish forming a government, while indicating concern that the coalition Netanyahu is assembling — set to be the most right-wing in Israeli history — could potentially damage Israel’s democratic checks and balances, breach the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and alienate Jews overseas.

“The presumed incoming prime minister formally asked Herzog for the maximal extension of two weeks on Thursday, saying that the complexity of cobbling together his coalition required extra time, but Herzog gave him only 10 days. Netanyahu’s 28-day mandate to assemble a government was set to expire at midnight on Sunday night, and he will now have until December 21 to form a government. Herzog did not specify why he chose not to grant Netanyahu the maximum 14-day extension…

“Herzog told Netanyahu to form a government that ‘must work for the entire public in Israel.’ With the incoming coalition determined to constrain or even neuter the power of the High Court of Justice to block legislation and government decisions it deems contradict Israel’s quasi-constitutional basic laws, via a so-called ‘override clause,’ Herzog added that ‘the coalition being formed must maintain a respectful and responsible dialogue between the authorities—executive, legislature, and judiciary.’…

“Nonetheless, Netanyahu is widely expected to ultimately resolve remaining differences with his allies, secure Knesset approval for his new coalition, and take office in the coming weeks…”

Trump Attacks American Jewish Leaders

JTA wrote on December 9:

“Donald Trump said Jewish leaders ‘lack loyalty’ and ‘should be ashamed of themselves,’ his latest broadside against the American Jewish community, this time because of criticism of his dinner with two prominent antisemitic figures.

“‘How quickly Jewish Leaders forgot that I was the best, by far, President for Israel,’ Trump said Friday on his social media platform Truth Social… ‘They should be ashamed of themselves. This lack of loyalty to their greatest friends and allies is why large numbers in Congress, and so many others, have stopped giving support to Israel.’

“This is not the first time Trump has accused American Jews of being disloyal, but in the past he has said they were not loyal enough to Israel, not other ‘greatest friends.’ Calling out ‘Jewish leaders’ instead of Jewish Democratic voters also is a new point of rhetoric.”

Poland Afraid of German Dominance in the EU

The Associated Press wrote on December 9:

“Poland’s ruling party leader claims Germany seeks to dominate Europe. He warns that Poles could end up under the ‘German heel.’… Many Poles, like others in central Europe, have been critical of Germany’s stance toward Russia in the years leading up to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, particularly for gas deals that created dependence on Russian energy and helped Russia build up its war chest…

“Kaczynski also said that ‘Germany’s attitude so far gives no reason to believe that they will decide to intercept Russian missiles.’… It remains unclear how successful anti-German rhetoric will be in the elections next year, coming 77 years after the end of WWII and with many Poles highly anxious about the current war in Ukraine. Many voters also see the economy as their top concern…

“Kaczynski last year accused Germany, which is the largest country in the 27-member EU, of using its role in the bloc to try to rebuild the ‘Fourth German Reich.’”

Twitter Blacklisted Conservative Voices

Breitbart wrote on December 8:

“Released by former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss in yet another lengthy Twitter thread, the revelations on Thursday showed that several mainstream conservative voices, from Charlie Kirk to Dan Bongino, were shadowbanned by the social media company…

“At one point, Twitter even placed Stanford professor, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, under the label ‘Trends Blacklist’ [which prevented his tweets from trending] for arguing that coronavirus lockdowns would harm children…”

Newsmax wrote on December 9:

“Former President Donald Trump on Friday morning assailed the FBI and Justice Department for conspiring with Big Tech to carry out ‘their most sinister act in history.’ Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to comment following revelations that Twitter colluded with the Biden 2020 presidential campaign, and also censored conservative voices and posts… ‘What everyone is REALLY waiting to see, however, is the Twitter information and thought process leading up to the time of the so-called “Election,” and ultimately the “Deplatforming” of the President of the United States…’

“Musk on Thursday, via journalist Bari Weiss, revealed ‘that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics — all in secret, without informing users.’

“Following Taibbi’s report, Musk said ‘more smoking guns’ would be revealed. He also noted the anger directed at him by progressives and Democrats for exposing Twitter’s political bias. ‘I do not have any suicidal thoughts,’ Musk said Saturday night on the Twitter Spaces audio platform. ‘If I committed suicide, it’s not real,’ he added, a reference to the theorists that repeat the mantra that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.”

In an obvious attempt to detract from the revelation of Twitter’s political bias and their censoring conservative voices with the help of the Democrats,  Adam Schiff sent a threatening letter to Elon Musk. But his action has already backfired. Note the next article.

Schiff “Demands” Action?

Fox News reported on December 9:

“Twitter users roasted Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his tweet Thursday ‘demanding action’ from Elon Musk on his claims of rising hate speech, which the CEO denied. Schiff spoke on behalf of Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., after they wrote a formal letter to Musk and condemned his leadership, tweeting: ‘On Elon Musk’s Twitter:- Slurs against Black people have tripled – Slurs against women are up 33% – Slurs against Jewish people are up 61% – And slurs against gay men are up 58%,’ Schiff tweeted. ‘These numbers are abysmal – and unacceptable. Today, @RepMarkTakano and I are demanding action.’ Musk replied, ‘False, hate speech impressions are actually down by 1/3 for Twitter now vs prior to acquisition.’

“Musk was far from the only user to torch Schiff’s tweet. Many on Twitter slammed Schiff’s credibility, while also debating about the nature of what does or does not count as hate speech. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton offered his assessment of the situation: ‘Corrupt congressman abuses office to call for mass censorship using fake stats. Threatens @ElonMusk.’ Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald used Schiff’s tweet as an educational moment for his audience: ‘Aside from these made-up numbers: do you see how — to Democratic Party politicians — dictating to social media companies what they can and can’t platform, how they must censor, the role Democratic politicians play in all this, is just assumed as normal?’

“Lawyer Will Chamberlain offered a similar critique of the cozy relationship between government officials and big tech companies: ‘Read the First Amendment again, Adam. You don’t get to bully private companies into censoring lawful speech.’ ‘The Rubin Report’ host Dave Rubin targeted Schiff’s credibility itself: ‘Got any evidence of this? Or is it like Russia collusion? Resign in shame.’

“Former Biden Senate aide Tara Reade, who accused the president of sexual assault in 2020, called out Schiff as well. ‘Yet @RepAdamSchiff you will not investigate Biden though I filed complaint w[ith] Senate at the time and there is a police report,’ she tweeted. ‘I was a Senate staffer sexually harassed and assaulted by Biden. Where is my justice? You have the nerve to call out @elonmusk while Dems abused power?’

“Other commentators claimed Twitter has changed for the better since Musk took over…

“Conservative news personality Rob Schmitt tweeted, ‘Child exploitation on twitter has been gutted, not sure why you don’t care about that…’

“Yet more Twitter personalities balked at the suggestion that the government should be policing offensive phrases at all. ‘Musk denies this is accurate. But even if it’s true, what exactly does “demanding action” mean?’ Substacker Damon Linker asked… Author Michael Malice asked Schiff…, ‘Have you ever considered the possibility that you are one of the bad guys?’”

Schiff’s demand for action against Musk is incredible and laughable. At the same time, the EU threatened Musk that if he does not abide by European laws regarding hate speech and sexual discrimination, Twitter may be taken down.

More Revelations of Twitter Suppression with Help of FBI

The New York Post wrote on December 9:

“Twitter executives decided to ban then-President Donald Trump from their social media platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, while maintaining regular check-ins with the FBI and other federal authorities as they decided what postings should be targeted for censorship, the latest report from new company CEO Elon Musk reveals.

“In one of a series of tweets Friday evening, independent journalist Matt Taibbi said internal company messages showed how Twitter’s internal standards eroded during the months leading up to Jan. 6, with high-ranking executives violating their own policies while interacting with various federal agencies.

“Taibbi posted messages that he said ‘show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies.’ In one, Yoel Roth, then Twitter’s head of trust and safety, appears to describe how he struggled to disguise the purpose of weekly meetings with FBI and other government officials that helped guide the company’s decisions on policing posts on its platform.”

Breitbart wrote on December 9:

“Elon Musk’s Twitter released another batch of internal discussions on Friday night, which revealed that executives at the social media company had established the ‘framework’ for banning Donald Trump’s account before the events of January 6, and used the Capitol riots as their excuse to finally blacklist the President. The goal of the left-wing executives is clear in statements such as, ‘the narrative that Trump and his friends have pursued over the course of this election and frankly the last 4+ years must be taken into account.’…

“[The documents also]  revealed that executives at the social media company had met with federal agencies amid the Hunter Biden laptop story, and that the FBI reported tweets it didn’t like to workers at the company.”

Jack Dorsey Gave Up Fighting Twitter’s Powerful Activists

The New York Post wrote on December 14:

“Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has taken full responsibility for the social media platform’s many failings — admitting he ‘completely gave up’ pushing back against powerful activists in the company… He said his ‘biggest mistake’ was helping to build tools for Twitter to ‘manage the public conversation’ rather than ‘tools for the people using Twitter to easily manage it for themselves.’ ‘This burdened the company with too much power, and opened us to significant outside pressure,’ he conceded.

“‘I generally think companies have become far too powerful, and that became completely clear to me with our suspension of… Trump’s account in January last year,’ he said. That suspension — only recently overturned by new owner Elon Musk — was ‘the wrong thing for the internet and society.’ Now, Dorsey is a ‘strong believer that any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it.’ ‘Content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible,’ he wrote.”

It’s called “free speech.”

Twitter, Democrats and FBI Guilty of a Form of Treason?

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 12:

“The biggest story of the past decade is not the covid pandemic, the January 6th protests, the war in Ukraine, the BLM riots, or even the stagflationary crisis in the US. Behind these major events is another story, one that connects them all together in a disturbing way. Even more important than the effects of geopolitical and economic chaos is the effect of mass censorship; without the free exchange of information and debate the public remains ignorant.

“…governments and elitists from around the world often seek to manipulate the ways in which people digest information. The idea is rather simple – They believe that ‘we the people’ cannot be allowed to come to our own conclusions. They think we cannot be trusted to develop the ‘proper’ viewpoints and we are not smart enough to understand the implications of governmental decisions.

“… The establishment will give numerous reasons why they need to censor, suppress, spin and misrepresent the facts of any given situation… This is pure authoritarianism. It’s the stuff of nightmares and revolutions. But for many years now a large subsection of the world has denied such a dynamic exists. It’s ‘conspiracy theory’… to claim that a small number of elites work together in secret to control public perception and govern our society from the shadows. After all, where is the proof?

“… Proof of such secretive governance and control is everywhere these days, but some people prefer willful denial. Take for example the ongoing data drops for what is now being called ‘The Twitter Files.’

“The mainstream media is barely responding to the information dump initiated by Elon Musk. They seem to be far more interested in Donald Trump’s tax records. When they are forced to acknowledge the story, they are hostile… It’s a classic psychological tactic of typical narcissists and criminals – When they get caught, they act indifferent, as if neither the evidence nor their crimes really matter…

“The content of these files is astonishing, but at the same time it is true that the conclusions are not surprising. The files simply confirm almost everything conservative and libertarian commentators have been saying for years; all those ‘conspiracy theories’ about Big Tech censorship of conservatives turned out to be true. Not only that, but the theory that government agencies and officials from the DNC worked with Big Tech to silence and undermine their political opponents was also true.

“Twitter has long denied that they ‘shadow ban’ users, but this was a lie. The data shows that small groups within Twitter… suppressed up to 200 accounts per day. Usually these were accounts of larger and more influential conservative politicians and celebrities. And, these teams operated in coordination with Democrat officials and agencies like the FBI. In some cases the goal was to mute a particular individual. In other cases the goal was to steer national elections…

“The exposure of Twitter is the biggest story of the decade because it provides proof of a hidden cabal. It shows the ugly mechanics behind the scenes and exposes a network of elites and their errand boys who were involved in direct operations to destroy the 1st Amendment for the sake of ideological supremacy.

“It’s the classic definition of fascism, a definition that Benito Mussolini reiterated when he argued: ‘Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.’ And, if this brand of Fascism was happening within the halls of Twitter, then there is little doubt it is also happening at companies like Google/YouTube, Apple, Facebook, etc. Before we had evidence, now we have confirmation…

“The bottom line is this: According to the Bill of Rights, it is illegal for agents of the US government to obstruct the free speech of law abiding American citizens. It does not matter if the action is done by using ‘private businesses’ as middlemen. And, if a private business is colluding with government to implement political policy then it is no longer a private business. Twitter was participating in a form of treason, along with the agencies that they cooperated with. It’s a huge story, and one that should lead to punishment for those involved.”

America’s decline into dictatorship, authoritarianism and – it appears – a form of fascism, allegedly committing treason, is stunning.

Another Win for Putin against Biden

The New York Post wrote on December 8:

“It is good news that Brittney Griner, a political pawn of Vladimir Putin, is free. Too bad it is because of a terrible deal by Team Biden. It’s an outrage that Washington sprang notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange, without even also winning the release of as-unjustly ‘convicted’ Paul Whelan, who’s been languishing in Russia since 2018 with a decade-plus left to serve.

“This is fresh ugly proof of how weak the United States has become on the world stage, thanks significantly to the doddering foreign policy emanating from the White House. Griner’s arrest, sham trial and subsequent outrageous sentence to nine years’ hard labor earlier this year (for accidentally packing pot oil-filled vape cartridges in her suitcase) were nothing less than Putin making a big bet against the US with a naked act of political targeting.

“Well, with the Bout exchange, he’s won. We folded. And we couldn’t even get this bad deal done ourselves. We had to outsource it to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Yes, getting Griner back was 100% the right thing to do morally — but at what cost? Bout is a true war criminal responsible for endless death and chaos, who at one point was the second-most-wanted man in the world after Osama bin Laden…”

Biden Signs Key Gay Marriage Regulation

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 13:

“US President Joe Biden signed key gay marriage legislation into law in front of thousands, in a symbolic ceremony for the growing acceptance of same-sex unions. ‘This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,’ Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House. ‘And that’s why this law matters to every single American.’’

“The ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ is supposed to safeguard gay marriages if the US Supreme Court were to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, its 2015 decision to legalize same-sex unions. The new law also protects interracial marriages. ‘Congress has restored a measure of security to millions of marriages and families,’ Biden said in a statement when the legislation passed last week. ‘They have also provided hope and dignity to millions of young people across this country who can grow up knowing that their government will recognize and respect the families they build.’

‘‘Together, we showed that it’s possible for Democrats and Republicans to come together to safeguard our most fundamental rights,’’ Biden said.”

Biden is a professing and practicing “good Catholic,” according to the Pope. The Catholic Church declares same-sex marriages as sinful.

Soros Willing to Buy 2024 Presidential Election

Life News wrote on December 9:

“Liberal billionaire George Soros is upping his accolade as the ‘largest donor’ for the 2022 midterm elections to the next level by reportedly signaling that he’s ready to buy the 2024 presidential election. Politico revealed Dec. 7 that Soros pumped a whopping $50 million into his leftist super PAC — Democracy PAC — ‘building on an already large investment in Democratic groups and candidates for the 2024 election cycle and beyond.’ This is on top of the $128 million he spent during the 2022 midterm elections…

“The talking heads at the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows predictably ignored the report during their Dec. 7 broadcasts…

“The news of Soros’ new political spending also comes on the heels of MRC Business’s latest report documenting Soros’ financial ties to 253 journalism and activist media groups across the world. These groups wield massive power over the flow of information in national and international politics. So not only is Soros spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elect his radical candidates, he’s also ensuring that the global media amplify his radical leftist messaging on issues including abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism to help secure the political outcomes he desires.”

Democrat Senator Sinema Becomes Independent

Axios wrote on December 9:

“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said… that she’s leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent… It’s a political earthquake that will shake up the Senate — and a gut punch for Democrats just three days after they secured a 51-49 majority…

“Arizonans — including many registered as Democrats or Republicans — are eager for leaders who focus on common-sense solutions rather than party doctrine,’ Sinema says… in The Arizona Republic, her state’s largest paper. ‘That’s why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.’’”

Even without Sinema, Democrats still have the majority in the Senate, with a 50 to 49 lead.

The Coup That Never Would Have Happened

On December 8, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung criticized that several media outlets were informed about the operation in advance and were present during the raids:

“Obviously, the investigating authorities as well as the accompanying media were focused on strong images and their popular education effect. Anyone who is led away in public is expelled from society for the time being. In a liberal constitutional state which is based not least on the presumption of innocence, such an advance conviction is no trifling matter. … It leaves an unpleasant aftertaste, the conflicted impression that the security authorities wanted to flex their muscles for all the world to see, muscles that are used far less energetically when it comes to other threats.”

The Neue Zuercher Zeitung wrote on December 8:

“The raid on the ‘Reichsbürger’ was also staged for the media. It is good that the rule of law is taking tough action against violent extremists. However, it weakens itself if it announces its measures to numerous media in advance and thus turns arrests and searches into a public spectacle. Of course, not even the investigating authorities claim that a coup by the so-called Reichsbürger was imminent…

“Did Germany’s security authorities really thwart the great Reichsbürger conspiracy, or did they shoot sparrows with cannons? The historic large-scale operation and the accompanying media coverage raise questions.”

Deutschlandfunk wrote on December 7 that the raid had been an open secret with the media for at least a week and that the addresses of the raids had been known to the press for at least a week.

Cicero wrote on December 7:

“According to the excited media coverage and the statements by politicians and security authorities, an imminent coup d’état was just prevented. Viewed in the light of day, however, the hype surrounding the environment of two crazy Reichsbürger revolutionaries and their plans to overthrow [the government] seem rather grotesque… Even at the risk of being considered ‘trivial’: I have now read through all the available news about the allegedly imminent coup d’etat – and find the downright hysterical reporting somewhat grotesque.”

Of course it is… but the reaction of the “establishment” is the dangerous consequence.

The following is an example of the typical reaction by the mainstream media:

The Tagesschau wrote on December 7:

“It was not a quarter to twelve: the attempted coup was not imminent. But anyone who tries to laugh this off is making a mistake. … The remarkable thing about this group is its composition: the Reichsbürger (the self-annointed ‘Citizens of the Reich’) joined forces with people from what is considered the centre of society – lawyers, doctors, plus quirky esoterics and former soldiers with access to weapons. Some of the people in this group were already present as agitators at Covid-related protest events. … The constitutional state must answer such people with all its might. That is what it has done today.”

They must be bad people and a danger to democracy when they demonstrated against the unconstitutional governmental corona restrictions.

Proving Your Innocence?

Die Welt wrote on December 9:

“After soldiers and a judge were also arrested during the ‘Reichsbürger’ raid, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to change the disciplinary law: officials with ‘subversion fantasies’ should in the future have to prove their innocence. An idea that gives a deep insight.”

This was so predictable. Rather than being concerned about the alleged planned “Reichsbuerger” putsch, we should be concerned about the resection by the German government, the opposition parties, and the mass media.  One has to ask whether the entire raid was instigated by the police and the government to bring about their secret goals of suppressing dissenting and unpleasant voices, thereby attempting to abrogate constitutional rights and freedoms… as was done before by enacting unnecessary and illegal coronavirus restrictions.

Controversial Plan

Bild Online wrote on December 9:

“Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said in the Bundestag and on TV that she wanted to reverse the burden of proof for officials on the subject of loyalty to the constitution! Lawyers are appalled. Professor Ulrich Battis from the Humboldt University: ‘Demanding a reversal of the burden of proof is legal nonsense…’

“Constitutional lawyer Josef Franz Lindner (University of Augsburg): ‘What the interior and constitutional minister explains here is frightening from the point of view of the rule of law. It is correct that the BVerfG accepts the dismissal of civil servants by administrative act. However, the civil servant can bring an action before the administrative court. In a constitutional state, the burden of proof or determination of the existence of the grounds for dismissal naturally lies with the employer and not with the civil servant who was dismissed…’”

Report 24 wrote on December 11:

“So-called Reichsbürger are perceived by politicians as the greatest threat. Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach allegedly almost fell victim to a kidnapping by such a group. After the raid on the scene, the politicians, who were already plagued by fear, find themselves exposed to another danger: this is said to come from the AfD. Demands for increased protection of the Bundestag are becoming louder.

“Germany is a safe country and there is danger – if at all – only from the right, that’s what politicians want the citizens to believe. This is not surprising given that quite a few members of the government have veered so far to the left that anyone who thinks otherwise must simply be a rightist, Home Secretary and Antifa sympathizer Nancy Faeser being a good example…

“3,000 officers were involved in the large-scale operation, who risked their lives and arrested a total of 25 people (there are probably 54 suspects in total) and an interesting arsenal of weapons, consisting of, believe it or not, two long guns, a handgun, as well as swords and crossbows, blank and signal guns. Cash was also found…

“Faeser recognizes an ‘abyss of terrorist threat’ in the group’s foiled ‘plans for overthrow.’ The media at home and abroad are literally falling over themselves with reports; according to the ‘Washington Post’ even a ‘Fourth Reich’ was prevented…

“The fact that the judge and former AfD member of parliament Birgit Malsack-Winkemann was among those arrested in the raid seems to trigger further fears in politics, as the entire AfD is now identified as a threat – how could it be otherwise? For this reason, SPD and Greens politicians are now not only calling for increased security measures for the Bundestag, but also for measures such as monitoring the party by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The AfD is once again under general suspicion.

“So, in a major operation, a few poorly armed pensioners are arrested who supposedly wanted to overthrow the government. Whether there were actually realistic plans and what they looked like is not known. The mainstream cheers the supposed blow against the right in the usual way. For the citizens, the whole thing seems staged and is reminiscent of a farce...

“The government seems to have no interest in a discussion about the violence they imported from migrants, to which the population is exposed on a daily basis. As is well known, migrants are not to be placed under general suspicion, but politicians of the AfD obviously can be. Incidentally, there are actual fantasies of a coup among left-wing groups, but that doesn’t seem to matter: Left-wing crackpots don’t pose a threat, they’re the good guys…”

As expected, the AFD is now being accused by the Greens of playing down the danger from Reichsbürger members. And that makes headlines again in the German mass media.

“Germany to Weigh Stricter Gun Laws After Suspected Coup Plot”

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 11:

“Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the German government needed to ‘exert maximum pressure’ to remove weapons from far-right extremists of the Reichsbürger movement.

“Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told German newspaper Bild am Sontag on Sunday that the government had plans to tighten its gun laws… ‘We need all authorities to exert maximum pressure’ to remove their weapons, Faeser was quoted as saying…

“Although citizens in Germany can own guns, the country has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe. Private possession of firearms is rare…

“German domestic intelligence agencies estimate the number of members at around 23,000, which Faeser said represented an increase of 9.5% compared with last year. ‘These are not harmless crazy people but suspected terrorists who are now sitting in pre-trial detention,’ Faeser was quoted as saying.”

Is Faeser saying that 23,000 members of the Reichsbürger “movement” are suspected terrorists? Only 25 suspects are in detention at this point.  

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser No Stranger to Controversy

News 64 had written on January 20, 2022:

“Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, of all people, is questioning the constitutional right of assembly for critics of corona measures.

“According to media reports, Faeser is said to have published a very confusing tweet in which she asked demonstrators to stop taking their protest to the streets.

“The interior minister wrote verbatim on the social network Twitter: ‘I repeat my appeal: you can express your opinion without meeting in many places at the same time.’

“But what does the minister mean exactly, and whom is she addressing? Here are the attempts of explanation by the spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior: ‘The statement by the minister should be seen in the context of the corona protests and against the background of the dramatically high number of corona infections,’ she explained to the media.

“Demonstrating against Corona measures: No. Demonstrating for climate protection: Yes. The minister seems to use double standards. As late as September 2019, Faeser wrote on her Facebook page: ‘I am absolutely amazed at how many people took to the streets yesterday for climate protection… schoolchildren in particular have changed the consciousness of many people. I think this is great and it’s time for action,’ she wrote. Even during the pandemic, the minister advocated demonstrations for other causes.

“Article 8 of the Basic Law states: ‘All Germans have the right to assemble peacefully and without weapons without prior registration or permission.’

“Constitutional expert and constitutional lawyer Prof. Josef Franz Lindner from the University of Augsburg made the following statement to the media: ‘The basic right of freedom of assembly means that people get together and do not make their opinion known in the living room. That is a problematic statement for a constitutional minister.’”

Of course, Article 8 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) has been flagrantly violated consistently by the German government in connection with the coronavirus restrictions.

The Limited Times had written on February 2, 2022, crediting “Merkur” as the source:

“A right-wing newspaper criticizes Nancy Faeser, Bild joins in and CDU/CSU politicians also agree… The reason for the debate is a guest contribution by Faeser to the Association of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime…

“The first criticism from a new-right newspaper, Junge Freiheit… With her contribution to the VNN-BdA, Faeser showed her affiliation with left-wing radicals. A few days later, the Bild newspaper followed suit. Faeser wrote… for an ‘anti-constitutional newspaper’.

“Further criticism of her guest contribution follows – including from Matthias Hauer (CDU). He commented on Twitter as follows: ‘A federal interior minister who wrote a guest article for a left-wing extremist newspaper six months ago has completely disqualified herself for her position. As a minister, Nancy Faeser is supposed to fight enemies of the constitution instead of supporting them.’ CDU politician Christoph de Vries also spoke of a ‘highly explosive process’ in the matter…

“De Vries criticized that the SPD was ‘largely blind in the left eye’… the former State Secretary at the Federal Minister of the Interior, for Construction and Homeland, Stephan Mayer (CSU) also commented. He said that Faeser’s guest post was a ‘big mistake’ and that he expected a ‘rapid apology and the withdrawal of the post’.”

To our knowledge, none of that ever happened, and naturally, the political party “Die Linke” (the Left”) supported Faeser. But Faeser did not seem to have a problem with any of this, as these were not alleged “right-wing extremists”, but alleged “left-wing extremists.” And what about Sharia Law in Germany? Note the next article.

Sharia Law in Germany

Bild Online wrote on December 13:

“In the name of the people was yesterday, now the capital [Berlin] is apparently supposed to be trained in the name of the Islamic Sharia…

‘In November, an advanced course on solving social problems in ‘immigrant communities’ took place in the Berlin Senate Department for Justice. According to the Senate paper, ‘conflict solvers’ would work there to ‘resolve disputes out of court and restore legal peace in accordance with the traditions accepted in the communities.’

“In plain language: so-called ‘peace judges”’ who ensure law and order bypassing the German judiciary.”

War Between Russia and Ukraine to Escalate?

Life Site News wrote on December 12:

“The United States has given the green light to long range strikes inside Russia. This was a measure which was effectively off limits to the Ukrainians before last week, which saw drone strikes take place deep inside Russian territory.

“Another strike came last week, on a civilian hotel in Russian-held Melitopol. This betokens a change in policy by the United States, whose former refusal to supply long range HIMARS missile capability has now been effectively rescinded…

“The Russian leadership has warned that attacks on Russian territory will be met with an overwhelming response… Contrary to the blanket reportage in the West, which presents an image of Russian failure and suggests victory is inevitable for Ukraine, there are serious problems in Ukraine…

“Generations of Western leaders worked successfully to avoid direct military conflict with the Soviet Union. They recognized that, unlike Moscow, the West has very little strategic interest in who controls Donetsk…”

Russia’s Powerful Nuclear Weapons

The U.S. Sun wrote on December 14:

“VLADIMIR Putin has renewed his nuke threat against the West by appearing to ready a nuclear missile for launch.

“Footage shows a huge Russian Yars rocket able to hit the UK and the US being loaded into a silo at a base near Moscow. The intercontinental ballistic missile has a 7,500 mile range and when nuclear-armed is reportedly 12 times more destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

“It was seen in Russian propaganda being installed in a launch-pad using a special transport and loading unit – but there is no indication of any order for an imminent launch… Russia is building up to more nuclear showboating as it marks the annual Strategic Missile Forces Day on 17 December.”

Turkey’s Dictatorship

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 14:

“A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu to two years and seven months in prison for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council. Imamoglu is a key opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan…

“The court also imposed a political ban on Imamoglu that could lead to his removal from office and would be even more likely to rule him out from standing in next year’s presidential election. The sentencing and the political ban must be confirmed by an appeals court… Imamoglu narrowly won local elections in 2019. His victory, which was confirmed after a rerun, ended a 25-year domination by Erdogan’s conservative allies in Istanbul.

“He was tried over a 2019 speech in which he said the annulment of the first round of the election was ‘foolishness.’ Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu publicly accused Imamoglu of ‘defaming’ the election officials. Imamoglu denies insulting the officials, and says that the comment was a response to Soylu for using the same language against him.

“The Turkish regime has used defamation and ‘insulting’ charges to crack down on dissent. Those convicted of particularly insulting the president face a jail sentence of between one and four years. Since Erdogan became president in 2014, thousands in Turkey have been convicted of insulting the president…”

Turkey is clearly a dictatorship under autocrat Erdogan.

Unchristian Brits

IFN wrote on December 10:

“Great Britain, where King Charles III is the head of the Church of England, is facing a dramatic change in religious identity–for the first time, less than half of the inhabitants of England and Wales declared themselves Christians.

“The results of the 2021 census have just been released, showing that the British society, which has had its own national church since the 16^th century, is increasingly secularized and demographically diverse. In terms of religion, statistics show a new trend among the English and the Welsh: abandoning the Christian faith and turning to new cults, such as shamanism, paganism and Wiccanism.

“The government’s Office for National Statistics announced that 46.2 percent of the population in England and Wales (27.5 million people) declared themselves as Christian, down from 59 percent (33.3 million people) in the 2011 census. The data for Scotland has not yet been fully processed… the Church of England can be worried because its spiritual flock is gradually falling away. According to the Telegraph, between 2010 and 2019, a total of 423 Anglican churches closed.

“The new British monarch, who will be crowned by the Bishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on 6 May 2023, is aware of the changes related to the religious status of his subjects, which is why he recently said: ‘I am obliged to respect those who follow other spiritual paths, as well as those who want to live in accordance with secular ideals.’”

We wonder how God looks at comments like these.

Unbelieving Americans

Israel 365 News wrote on December 11:

“A recent survey showed that in the wake of the global pandemic, the belief that we are currently at the end of days is rising. This contrasts sharply with Jewish tradition…

“A recent Pew Research survey found that 39% of Americans surveyed believed that they were currently living at the end of times as compared to 59% who did not.

“47% of Christians believed we are at the end of time. For Christians, the end of days marks the imminent return of Jesus… 49% of Christians say we are not living in the end times, including 70% of Catholics and 65% of mainline Protestants…

“When asked if Jesus ‘will return to Earth someday,’ more than half of all U.S. adults (55%), including three-quarters of Christians, say this will happen. Protestants in the evangelical (92%) and historically Black (86%) traditions are more likely than other Christians to say there will eventually be a second coming of Jesus. Roughly four-in-ten Americans either do not believe Jesus will return to Earth (25%) or say they do not believe in Jesus (16%).”

Public Outcry Forces San Francisco to Reverse Its Decision on Robots

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 8:

“On Tuesday of last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to authorize police to use drones or robots to kill via remote control in the California city. Then, a week later — on Tuesday of this week, the board reversed course, voting to prohibit this siccing of killer robots or drones on people. The board voted 8-3 for the reversal — the same vote total by which the board the week before had approved the police using robots or drones to kill… the reversal by the Board of Supervisors followed a ‘wave of public outcry from community members’ and outvoted board members threatening they would push for the matter to be decided by a public vote if the board did not reverse its decision.

“The remote killing authorization, though, is still not itself fully killed… Concerned individuals in San Francisco will need to remain vigilant in their effort to ensure that a remote-control killing authorization does not creep back into the city’s police policy over the next week or in the longer term. And concerned individuals across America would do well to keep close watch over the police policies of their local, state, and national governments.”

Volcanic Eruptions on the Rise

Israel 365 News reported on December 9:

“27 different volcanoes are erupting at this moment and many others are showing signs of waking up. Several of these eruptions have experts concerned.

“The two biggest volcanoes in Hawaii erupted simultaneously two weeks ago. Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted for the first time since 1984 while the smaller but more active Kilauea also erupted. Both are located on the archipelago’s Big Island. Dual eruptions haven’t taken place since 1984.

“On Sunday, the Stromboli volcano off the coast of Sicily erupted, spewing dark ash and generating volcanic lightning. Stromboli is considered one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and has continuously erupted since 1932. Meanwhile, Mount Semeru in Indonesia just erupted as well. Authorities raised the volcano’s warning status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people. People have been urged to keep at least 5 miles away, as ‘hot avalanches’ of lava poured from Semeru… The eruption also follows a series of earthquakes, one of which hit last month, killing 300 people. Indonesia sits on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire,’ where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes…

“The Ring of Fire, a 25,000-mile-long horseshoe-shaped region encompassing the Pacific Ocean, is the most seismically active area on the planet. It includes most of California, Washington State, and Alaska. The Ring of Fire includes a total of 452 volcanoes, more than 75 percent of active volcanoes existing in the world today. About 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes and 81 percent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. All but three of the world’s 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire.

“There is no doubt that volcanic activity is on the rise. There were about 25 significant volcano eruptions globally in the first 18 years of this century compared with approximately 65 in the entire 20th century…”

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.

Firstly, the Bible was written in three main languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Classical Hebrew was used for most of the Old Testament. Some parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra and one verse in the book of Jeremiah (chapter 10, verse 11) and one word in the book of Genesis (chapter 31, verse 47) were written in Aramaic. Hebrew and Aramaic were both Semitic languages, and if one was understood, much of the other could also be understood, due to their similarities.

Considering the Old Testament, the Hebrew that the Bible was written in was different from the modern Hebrew spoken in Israel today. For a start, there were no vowels but only consonants. Vowels were added later, which is a reason that the correct pronunciation of God’s name is uncertain today. Also, there was no punctuation and, according to “Got Questions.org”, there were no spaces between words, which can cause some difficulties in understanding.

However, as far as we are aware, the copying of the Scriptures was very meticulous. The Masoretic text used for the last thousand years is amazingly consistent with the Dead Sea scrolls and the Greek Septuagint versions. To demonstrate this meticulousness, there is an alteration in Judges 18:30 that was made in the text that has been incorporated into the Authorized Version and the New King James Bible. The term “the son of Moses” was changed to “the son of Manasseh” so as not to dishonour Moses due to him having an idolater for a grandson. The addition of one letter changed Moses to Manasseh. However, anyone reading the Hebrew text would notice that it is obviously an alteration because of the position of the added letter, a feature that has not been changed in the continual copying of the scrolls.

The Hebrew Bible was translated into a number of different languages, beginning with the Septuagint, a translation into the Greek language around 200 BC. This was a translation by 70 Jewish scholars carried out at Alexandra—hence the name Septuagint. (In Latin, septuaginta means seventy.) This translation was made so the Jews living in Egypt who may not have known Hebrew could still read the Scriptures.

Other Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into other languages, especially for the Jews in exile in the area near Babylon, well known ones being Aramaic and Arabic. One erroneous feature of the Arabic translation by Saadiah is that God does not have human features like a mouth, eyes, hands, feet, emotions of the heart or laughter. He also wrote that God does not travel, is not a warrior and is not a consuming fire. This heretical feature has become generally accepted even today by “traditional” Christianity.

The next major translation of the Hebrew Bible was into Yiddish in the 1200s. The main target of this translation was to women and children as the men could access the Hebrew Scriptures. Translations into Spanish, French and Italian followed. Surprisingly, a complete German translation of the Jewish Scriptures by and for Jews was not made until about 1830. It is interesting that the English Jews used the Authorised Version for over a hundred and fifty years before seeing the need to produce their own translation, and their English translations did not deviate much from the Authorised Version until the middle of the twentieth century. The obvious difference between the Jewish Bible and the Old Testament is the order of the books and the fact that the book of Joel has four chapters and the book of Malachi has three chapters in the Jewish versions (but there is no difference in the text itself).

Considering the New Testament, as far as we are aware, all of the New Testament books were written in Greek (with a few sentences written in Aramaic). However, it was not classical Greek, but the Greek that the ordinary people would understand.

Once God inspired the books that were to form the whole Bible, the first major translation was made into Latin by the scholar Jerome in about the year 400. This was termed the “Vulgate” because it was to be used by the common or vulgar people. This became the only translation that was allowed to be used in Western Europe according to the Roman Catholic Church.

Some portions of the Bible were translated into Anglo-Saxon; for example, the Gospels or the Psalms, but no complete translations of the whole Bible are known to have been made until the time of John Wycliffe, when he, and possibly his assistants, translated from the Latin Vulgate into an early form of English in about 1382. At that time, only the Vulgate was available and very few common people could read Latin. This was before the invention of the printing press, and all copies were made by hand, greatly limiting its circulation. At first glance, the handwriting appears impossible for us to read, but when reproduced in a modern font, the first verses are as follows (in Genesis 1:1-3): “In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe. Forsothe the erthe was idel and voide, and derknessis weren on the face of depthe; and the Spiryt of the Lord was borun on the watris. And God seide, Liyt be maad, and liyt was maad.”

The limited copies were spread around England by the Lollards. In 1415, Wycliffe was declared a heretic because of enabling the common people to read the Bible for themselves. All his works were to be burned and his remains exhumed. Anyone who read the Scriptures in English “would forfeit land, cattle, life and goods from their heirs forever.” In 1428, at the command of Pope Martin V, Wycliffe’s corpse was exhumed and burned, and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth. Fortunately, about 250 copies of his works are thought to have survived, and some are found in museums and libraries today.

The next major event in the provision of the English Bible was the work of the Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. He was moved to correct the Latin Vulgate, believing it to be corrupt. He had no desire to take part in the Protestant Reformation, but only to correct the Vulgate. In 1516, he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was his own translation that he had made from six partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts which were more accurate and reliable than the Latin Vulgate. The six manuscripts contained the whole of the New Testament except for the last six verses of Revelation  which he back translated from the Vulgate into Greek. (According to some commentaries and translations, this would explain why an alleged mistake had been made and has been retained in the Authorised Version, in verse 19, where the “Book of Life” is mentioned, even though it is claimed that the original Greek says, “Tree of Life.”)

Of interest is the fact that these manuscripts did not contain the spurious verse 1 John 5:7, so for his first and second editions, Erasmus did not include it. When Martin Luther translated his German Bible, he used Erasmus’s second edition for his New Testament and also did not include it. This, of course, was very controversial, as it was a verse used to supposedly prove the Trinity doctrine. Finally, someone did find a Greek manuscript which included this spurious verse, so Erasmus included it in his third edition of 1522. Even so, he still believed it was a spurious addition. While it is assumed that the term Textus Receptus (Received Text) was used for the work of Erasmus, it was actually not used until 1633 when it was used in a publisher’s preface to the Bible. The full text of this preface in English was: “So you hold the text, now received by all, in which is nothing corrupt.” The term was then retroactively applied to Erasmus’s editions. The full title shown above is interesting in that it claims that in this text there is nothing corrupt. In other words, it is perfect, a remarkable claim.

The Greek text provided by Erasmus and used by William Tyndale was his third edition which included the spurious verse as mentioned above. He used it to translate an English New Testament for the common or uneducated people. At the time, the only Bible available was the Latin Vulgate, and only highly educated people could read Latin. He finished his New Testament translation in 1525 and then started the translation of the Old Testament, translating from the Hebrew. He finished the first five books of Moses in 1530 and went on to translate Joshua to Chronicles and Jonah before being burnt at the stake in 1536 because of translating the Bible into English.

He had been very fluent in about six languages and then studied Hebrew in Germany to enable him to translate the Old Testament. His translation is said to have been used in over seventy-five percent of the Authorised Version and many later versions. However, he had difficulties with shortcomings of the English language. In translating the New Testament, there was no English equivalent to the Greek word “Pascha” (Passover) so he used the nearest one, it being “Easter”, about twenty-six times, not wanting to use a Greek word in his English Bible. The same problem arose in the book of Exodus, so he invented the word Passover. He also invented words like Atonement. In fact, he invented more new English words and expressions than any other author. It is said that he refined and standardised the English language like no other, including William Shakespeare.

In his translation, he preferred words like “love” rather than “charity”, “congregation” rather than “Church”—the latter because he understood that the Greek did not mean a building but a group of people. His New Testament was printed in Europe and smuggled into England often in bales of textiles. This was because the Catholic authorities had banned Tyndale’s translation and burned every copy they found. According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the bishop of London agreed to purchase every copy available and to burn and destroy them all. It is believed that the purchase price enabled more copies to be printed. Since at the time there was only the Catholic Church, his translation had no sectarian bias but was as accurate as he could possibly make it.

Myles Coverdale and John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers had remained loyal disciples the last six years of Tyndale’s life, and they carried the English Bible project forward and even accelerated it. Coverdale finished translating the Old Testament, and in 1535 he printed the first complete Bible in the English language, making use of Luther’s German text and the Latin as sources since he was not proficient in Greek or Hebrew. Thus, the first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible. The king of England at the time was King Henry the Eighth, and he encouraged the Coverdale Bible to be published and available in every Church. Coverdale’s English was even more directed to the common people. He replaced “elect” with “chosen”, “descended” with “went down”, often “sons of God” with “children of God”. Because of the king’s encouragement, the Coverdale Bible would have been the first English Authorised Version. (However, some say the Great Bible of 1539 was the first Authorised Version of the Church of England.)

John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537 as a reference or study Bible. He printed it under the pseudonym “Thomas Matthew” (an assumed name that had actually been used by Tyndale at one time), as a considerable part of this Bible was the translation of Tyndale, whose writings had been condemned by the English authorities. It was a composite, made up of Tyndale’s Genesis to Chronicles and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and the Coverdale Bible. John Rogers also added a few passages, translated by himself. It remains known most commonly as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. It went through a nearly identical second-edition printing in 1549. John Rogers was executed as a heretic during the reign of Catholic Queen Mary by burning at the stake in 1555.

Up until this time, the Bible was divided into chapters, but not verses; the chapters having different sections, labelled A, B, C, D, etc., each consisting of a number of what we now know as verses. However, in 1551, Robert Estienne added verse divisions to his Greek New Testament. This enabled the Geneva Bible of 1557 (New Testament) and 1560 (whole Bible) to contain both chapters and verses as we know them today.

The Geneva Bible, printed in Switzerland, was a very popular English Bible, containing cross references and copious notes to help in studying the Bible. The last edition of the Geneva Bible was published probably in 1644, thirty-three years after the Authorised Version was published. Copies of the Geneva Bible were even taken to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Its English was suitable for the common people, and it was printed in an easy-to-read Roman style text, unlike previous Bibles which were often printed in a Gothic text style.

Unfortunately, the copious notes, and some of the Scriptural variations in the Geneva Bible, were influenced by Calvinist and Puritan teachings which were, among other ideas, against the rule by kings. Several of the notes spoke fiercely about the right of subjects to resist their king. This was one reason why King James commissioned the Authorised Version. It’s also one of the reasons why the Catholic English version Rheims-Doual was produced from 1582 (NT) to 1610 (OT).

After the Authorised Version was commissioned, King James banned the printing of the Geneva Bible in England because of its notes which emphasised Calvinist teachings. He had had enough of Calvinist teaching in Scotland where he had been King James VI before coming to the throne in England. However, one printer in England continued to print the Geneva Bible for some time but he gave every copy a date of 1599. Other printers put the Geneva Bible within the covers of the Authorised Version.

This brings us up to the Authorised Version commissioned by King James I and produced in 1611. It used much of both the Tyndale translation and the Geneva Bible but originally and most often without the notes and commentary of the Geneva Bible. The scholars, in order to show the majesty of the Bible, reverted to some more archaic English. Among other things, they changed “congregation” back to “Church” and “love” back to “charity”.

During the period between 1611 and 1769, numerous modifications, errors and corrections had been made to the Authorised Version; so much so that the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford sought to produce an updated standard text. This has remained almost unchanged from 1769 until today. There were many typographical errors; for example, in one printing the word “not” was left out of the seventh commandment which caused that version to be named the “Wicked Bible”. Another well-known misprint gave two printings the unofficial titles the “He Bible” and the “She Bible”, depending on whether he (Boaz) or she (Ruth) went into the city (compare Ruth 3:15).

In the Authorised Version, the word Easter was replaced with Passover in all cases except one in Acts 12:4. This is interesting in that the Geneva Bible had always replaced “Easter” with “Passover”. Some have speculated that there was a logical reason for this, but it is difficult to know what the translators had in mind over four hundred years ago.

There is another section printed in some versions of the Bible, this being the Apocrypha. (For details, see the Q&A, “Why don’t many editions of the Bible contain the Apocrypha?”) It is not included in the Hebrew Scriptures as it was uninspired, but was included in the Septuagint. After that, it was included in the Latin Vulgate and hence in all versions based on the Vulgate. This included the Wycliffe version, William Tyndale’s version, Martin Luther’s version, the Geneva Bible and the Authorised Version up until 1885 when it was removed. When King James commissioned the Authorised Version, anyone who dared to print the Bible without the Apocrypha he threatened with a heavy fine and a year in jail.

Considering the Authorised Version, it is still on the top-selling list of Bibles, earlier this year being in the number four position with the New King James Bible being in the number six position in popularity. Previously, the Authorised Version was in the number two position for many years, and prior to that, it was the top selling version, which would probably make it the highest number of Bibles, or possibly even books, ever produced.

After 1611, when the Authorised Version was printed, a few minor revised versions were made, but it was not until 1881 that an official Revised Version was authorised to be used in England. It was to adapt the King James Version to an updated English Language but retain the form of the Authorised Version. In the USA, the American Standard Version was produced from 1900 to 1901 as a revision by American scholars of the Revised Version. From this time forward, another three major translations were made, and from 1979 to 1982, the New King James Bible was produced. Its aim was to update the vocabulary and grammar of the King James Version or Authorised Version. A broader number of ancient manuscripts were used in its preparation, and, with good reason, it has become one of the most popular English translations.

And, as time goes on, more and more versions have been produced of varying qualities. As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:12, “of making many books there is no end”.

(For more information, please read chapter 2 of our free booklet, “The Authority of the Bible.”)

Lead Writer: Paul Niehoff (Australia)

compiled by Dave Harris

“America’s Future Grim and Hopeless” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: 

A powerful enemy will attack America soon. Most have no idea that this will be happening, and who that enemy is. At the same time, most Americans have lost confidence in their military, and they have virtually no confidence that God will fight their battles.

“Der ‘Putsch’ der Reichsbürger und Nancy Faeser,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link.Title in English: “The ‘Coup’ der Reichsbürger and Nancy Faeser.” 

“Gott der Vater ist der Höchste, Teil 2,” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “God the Father Is the Highest, Part 2.”

“Römer 13,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Christian Mrosek is now posted. Title in English: “Romans 13.”

“Attempt to Overthrow the German Government?–Comments on News and Prophecy, December 10, 2022,” the first message presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Was there really an imminent attempt to overthrow the German government? 3,000 police officers were deployed to search over 100 apartments and objects, arresting 25 people, believed to belong to the “Reichsbürger” movement.  As more facts about the raid come to light, the narrative of the mass media has reached “such a level of absurdity” that it encourages people to ask critical questions. The reaction of the German government is telling. Germany’s Minister of the Interior “wants to change the disciplinary law in that officials with ‘subversion fantasies’ should in the future have to prove their innocence.” What is REALLY going on in Germany?

“God the Farther Is the Highest, Part 2,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

In the second and final part of this series, we give additional biblical proof that God the Father is the highest in the Godhead, and we also concentrate on the extremely important role of Jesus Christ as the only Mediator between God and man. We show how Christ acts in this regard, who gives us the Holy Spirit, and what it means to pray to the Father in Christ’s name.