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.

On December 10, 2022, Norbert Link will present Comments on News and Prophecy and the sermon titled, “God the Father Is the Highest, Part 2”

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 FIFA Football World Cup is nearing its final stages in Qatar. This four-yearly event features the world’s best 32 football teams who fight it out over about a 4 week period to become World Champions.

Since the voting took place in 2010 to have the venue in Qatar, there has been much controversy over the venue for many reasons (including the allegation of FIFA’s corruption and bribery) and since the start of the competition on November 20^th, more controversy has arisen because of the refusal of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) to allow teams to wear the ‘OneLove’ rainbow armband in a show of solidarity for the LGBT+ community and as protest against many human rights violations in that country.

England, Germany and seven other teams had planned to wear the armband as an equality gesture but players faced being booked and even banned under strict FIFA dress rules, as uniquely applied by FIFA to the World Cup in Qatar. In addition, because homosexuality is still illegal in Qatar and many violations of human rights, torture and killing have been taking place in that country, the armband would have highlighted this – not good publicity for the host nation.  On Friday 25^th November and subsequently, many fans of the Welsh team were, however, allowed to wear rainbow coloured hats.

On the other hand, the World Cup in other countries and many other sporting events in many ways have turned out to be a circus of protestation.  The equality movement started out, some time ago, by being about racial discrimination, then morphed into general discrimination and then LGBT+ was added on.   Just like the frog in boiling water, they get to their desired destination bit by bit and which was allowed by society with little dissent and then, when they had achieved their goals through freedom of speech, they now want to close that right, and freedom of speech on this matter becomes unacceptable.   All because they think that what they promote is absolutely correct. Very clever but transparent for anyone with eyes to see.  It has been a thoroughly successful brainwashing exercise.

It seems therefore, on the face of it, that this support of homosexual and other deviant sexual behaviour is approved by all, but is that true?   The only voices you seem to hear are the loud and strident ones who are in favour of behaviour of which the great Creator God disapproves.   But what of others?   From what I see and hear, there are many who very much disagree with this obsession but if they argue to the contrary, they are immediately vilified by all and sundry and, in many cases “cancelled”.   And they will automatically be called homophobic.

Can you imagine what the odds are of ALL the professional footballers (soccer players) in the English leagues ALL approving of this lifestyle but none of them daring to come out and disagree with this current fashionable lifestyle?   It surely cannot be so as so many of them, particularly from abroad, cross themselves and other revealing characteristics when they enter the field of play, which reveals that they are Roman Catholics and Catholicism doesn’t approve of homosexuality (At least, that is the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church, while many members may have a different point of view. Therefore, if they go along with the current thinking, they are denying what their church teaches which makes it hypocrisy (But what else is new?).

Can you imagine what the odds are of all the television and radio commentators and presenters ALL disapproving of this lifestyle but none of them daring to come out and disagree with this current fashionable lifestyle?   If they did they would, almost inevitably, lose their jobs.

Can you imagine what the odds are of ALL the nation of the UK, ALL approving of this lifestyle?  Of course, that is not so, but the expectation is that everyone must approve it because they believe their cause is 100% correct.

We can see from the following example of what happens if you say that homosexuality is condemned by the Bible as happened in 2019 when it was reported at that time that “An Australian rugby player is losing his $4 million contract for social media comments about homosexuality. A three-person panel determined Friday that Rugby Australia will sack fullback Israel Folau for social media posts listing homosexuals among those condemned to Hell.  Folau considers himself a devout Christian. One of his recent Instagram posts warns that ‘drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters’ will go to Hell unless they ‘REPENT’” (He was slightly misquoting 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Interestingly, Wikipedia reports that “In May 2019, a Code of Conduct hearing was undertaken, during which the CEO of Rugby Australia, Raelene Castle, suggested she would have terminated Folau’s contract if he had ‘photocopied Bible passages’ and posted them to his social media.”  And so, it would appear that putting Scriptures on social media is not acceptable.   How far have some separated themselves from God!

Israel Folau was sacked by Rugby Australia and signed for the Catalans Dragons team in the UK in 2020.  He caused controversy again, in the first game of the season against, St Helens, being the only player of both teams refusing to take the knee, which is being used in that context to symbolize solidarity against police brutality and racism.  That proves the point as to what would happen if soccer players did the same.

It works this way – you either go along with it or you are in trouble.

Just because professional sportsmen think it is acceptable doesn’t of itself make it right.

Just because all of the presenters in the media think it is acceptable doesn’t of itself make it right.

Just because the “noise” in society seems to be in favour of this and think it is acceptable doesn’t of itself make it right.

The problem is that they don’t understand and don’t want to understand what God determines.

But God tells His ministers to “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1), and we must do that, but with wisdom.

However, God does tell the people of God how to behave with such matters.   We are all made in the image of God and are important to Him.

We are to love our fellow man as the second great commandment, summarizing the last six of the Ten Commandments, enjoins us to love our neighbour as ourself (compare Matthew 22:39), but we are to hate sin committed by others (and ourselves).   God hates sin as we read in Psalm 5:4: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You” and we are to become like God.  That is to love the sinner but hate the sin! Unfortunately, society, in general, doesn’t understand that, or want to understand it, preferring to go along with the status quo being the easy option.

We will not be able, at this time of man’s rule, to change deeply held, but incorrect convictions of others, but in the Kingdom of God, man will be taught the ways of God and perverted lifestyles will simply not be part of that education or allowed as an alternative lifestyle.

by Norbert Link

This issue highlights many cases of governmental suppression in the USA and other countries, painting a troublesome and quite dangerous picture of corruption and the goal of abolishing or at least severely limiting individual liberties and freedoms.

We begin with the incredible massive corruption scandal perpetrated by Twitter in conjunction with the US government, thereby manipulating and interfering with the presidential election in 2020, which might have prevented Trump’s victory. We continue with the (questionable) criminal conviction of two Trump organizations; Biden’s signing a law criminalizing railroads if they were to strike; the loss of trust by many Americans in the military; and the Biden administration granting Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman immunity, thereby preventing any civil or criminal lawsuit against the despot’s involvement in the gruesome murder of a Washington Post journalist.

We address the looming trade war between Europe and the USA; the EU’s intention to buy weapons “as a bloc”; and the (as of now unproven) allegation that a ”terrorist” group was preparing to overthrow the German government, leading to the arrest of numerous ”suspects.”

We point out troubling developments pertaining to the “fight” of governments (especially of China and the USA) against COVID and the alleged suppression of important facts; and address Justin Trudeau’s incredible hypocrisy in condemning China’s “authoritarian crackdown” on demonstrators.

We conclude with a weird story about San Francisco’s desire to arm police with armed robots, which could bring about “autonomous, robotic assassins that Terminator envisioned would be deployed by 2029.”

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

How Twitter Suppressed the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Newsmax reported on December 2:

“Elon Musk rolled out his internal probe into how Twitter handled the Hunter Biden laptop story on Friday, showing extreme lengths the company went through to protect President Joe Biden. In a thread from journalist Matt Taibbi, endorsed by Musk, leaked documents suggest the company disproportionately favored Democrats on content moderation before the billionaire took control.

“The Rolling Stone contributing editor laid out a series of redacted files alleged to originate from Twitter employees’ communications, appearing to show collusion between Twitter’s top brass and the Biden campaign, as well as the Democratic National Committee.

“In one of the documents dated Oct. 24, 2020, an employee is seen linking to a set of tweets from accounts flagged by a group referred to as ‘the Biden team.’ Three hours later, another employee replies that he ‘handled these,’ implying what appears to be removal…

“But the greatest attention was focused on accusations surrounding Twitter’s suppression of evidence obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, initially published by the New York Post. ‘Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography,’ Taibbi wrote.

“Taibbi then described how the story was removed on the basis of violating Twitter’s ‘hacked materials policy’ and was made ‘at the highest levels of the company but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey.’… According to several anonymous employees, flagging a post for hacked materials normally ‘required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack.’ However, that never appeared…”

Almost 80% of voters said they believe that if Americans would have known about the Hunter Biden scandal and the possible involvement of Joe Biden, which was suppressed by Twitter and the left-wing mass media, just prior to the presidential election in 2020, they would have voted differently. In response, Trump said the Constitution should be suspended and new elections held. He was strongly condemned by Democrats and some Republicans for this statement, daring to question the “sanctity” of the Constitution,

“Twitter Invented a Reason to Help Joe Biden Win in 2020”

The New York Post published the following opinion piece by the Post Editorial Board on December 2:

“The Post’s reporting wasn’t just blocked, it was suppressed…

“Twitter was directly involved in tilting an election. Everyone could see it, but because they were desperate for Donald Trump to lose and Joe Biden to win, that the media barely made a peep. Even after Hunter Biden’s former business partner gave a public press conference backing up exactly what The Post had reported.

“After it became untenable to say the laptop wasn’t real, Twitter told us we could have our account back — we just had to delete the original Tweet. We could even put up a new Tweet linking to the Hunter Biden story, one that wouldn’t be censored, but we had to delete the original one.

“The logic behind this blackmail escaped us. The Post refused. It would be 17 days before Twitter finally backed down and unfroze our account.

“The bias was clear… And, by the way, nothing really changed afterward. Twitter went right back to censoring those who didn’t toe the line on COVID and any other number of topics… The Democratic National Committee and the Biden administration were in direct email contact with the Twitter content team, pointing them exactly to the Tweets they wanted destroyed.

“It took a very expensive change of ownership for these details to come to light, and for the promise of less censorship in the future. That’s why the left is losing their minds.”

How Much Was the FBI Involved?

In a related article, the New York Post wrote on December 3:

“Elon Musk half-delivered on his promise to tell all about Twitter’s censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election. What was missing were details of specific warnings we know the FBI made to Twitter about a Russian ‘hack and leak operation’ involving Hunter during their weekly meetings with top executives of the social media giant in the days and weeks before The Post published its exclusive bombshell.

“We know that FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan testified Tuesday in a lawsuit against the Biden administration brought by Republican attorneys that he organized those weekly meetings with Twitter and Facebook in San Francisco for as many as seven Washington-based FBI agents in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election…

“Musk reveals that a crucial player in Twitter’s censorship of The Post was former FBI general counsel James Baker, a central player in the Russia collusion hoax, who had become Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel…

“It is not known whether Musk has withheld material in Twitter’s records after an intense pressure campaign from President Biden, the White House, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and threats that Big Tech compatriots Apple and Google would banish Twitter from their app store.”

Let us sure hope that he did not, and that the entire ugly truth comes to light soon.

Baker Fired

Newsmax reported on Tuesday, December 6, that “Musk fired deputy general counsel James Baker, a former counsel to FBI director James Comey,  on Tuesday, following revelations that he was slow-walking the release of files regarding government collusion with the social media company to journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss…

“Over the weekend… it was [Weiss] who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When she called to ask ‘Jim’s’ last name, the answer came back: ‘Jim Baker.’… Taibbi adds that ‘news that Baker was reviewing the ‘Twitter files” surprised everyone involved, to say the least.’ On Tuesday, Musk tweeted, that ‘in light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today.’”

Good for Musk.

According to the Liberty Report, dated December 7, “The ‘former’ FBI Agent [Jim Baker] at the center of the bogus ‘Russiagate’ operation was brought on by Twitter’s previous management, where he played a key role in suppressing the Hunter Biden bombshell. Musk decided to release the internal communications of ‘old’ Twitter around the censorship and that same ‘former’ FBI agent [Jim Baker] was caught red-handed [allegedly] removing the evidence before it could be released.”

Culprits Remain Silent

Breitbart wrote on December 3:

“Former top intelligence officials who signed an open letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a Russian operation just weeks before the 2020 election were silent after internal Twitter emails acknowledged there was no evidence the story involved material that was illicitly obtained…

“Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary, John Brennan, a former CIA director, Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, and Jim Clapper, a former director of national intelligence — who all once said The Post’s reporting had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,’ — declined or did not respond to request for comment about whether the latest disclosures had changed their opinion…

“Five days after questions were raised at Twitter about relying on a hacking justification to suppress the story, more than 50 former intelligence officials published an open letter on October 19, 2020, that argued that, based on their experience and expertise, the story came from the Russian government… The letter was also signed by former acting CIA Directors John McLaughlin and Michael Morell…”

At a very minimum, no confidence can be placed in their “experience and expertise.” That’s how politics are made and how “facts” are being fabricated. And when the truth is revealed, the culprits remain silent and go into hiding.  

A Massive Corruption Scandal by the US Government

On December 5, Ron Paul wrote in his weekly column in the Ron Paul Institute:

“The release, in coordination with truly independent journalist Matt Taibbi, demonstrated indisputably how politicians and representatives of ‘official Washington’ pressed the teams that were then in charge of censorship at Twitter to remove Tweets and even ban accounts that were guilty of nothing beyond posting something the power-brokers did not want the general public to read. Let’s not forget that many of those demanding Twitter censorship were US government officials who had taken an oath to the US Constitution and its First Amendment.

“It is important to understand that both US political parties were involved in pushing Twitter to censor information they didn’t like. There is plenty of corruption to go around. However, as the Twitter Papers demonstrated, vastly more Tweets were censored at the demand of Democratic Party politicians simply because Twitter employees on the censorship team were overwhelmingly Democratic Party supporters…

“Elon Musk himself openly stated before the release that, prior to his taking control of the company and engaging in mass firing, Twitter had been manipulating elections. So all those years we heard lies from the Washington elites that Russia was interfering in our elections when after all it was Twitter. Of course that raises the question about other large social media companies like Facebook. Will Mark Zuckerberg come clean about his own company’s election interference? Will anyone have the courage to demand that he do so?

“How did they get away with all of this? As another truly independent journalist, Glenn Greenwald, pointed out on the Tucker Carlson show the night the ‘Twitter Papers’ were released, while it was once controversial for the CIA to attempt to manipulate what Americans consume in the mainstream media, nowadays these outlets openly hire ‘former’ US intelligence leaders and officers as news analysts. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and the rest of them all bring on ‘former’ members of the intelligence services to tell Americans what to think. ‘Big tech censorship is a critical tool of the national security state,’ Greenwald told Tucker. ‘Whenever anyone tries to do anything about it these former people from the CIA and the Pentagon and the rest jump up and say “we cannot allow you to restore free speech.”’

“This is a corruption scandal so massive that it is almost guaranteed to never be properly investigated. Government itself is among the most guilty and we know ‘government commissions’ are really about covering up rather than uncovering the crimes committed. But the truth is powerful. Some 58 years after the Warren Report whitewashed the assassination of President Kennedy, polls show that few Americans believe the ‘official’ narrative… No amount of lies can withstand the disinfectant of truth. Thanks to Elon Musk for his courage and we encourage him to continue.”

A massive corruption scandal indeed! But it is by no means the only one. For example, note our articles below regarding the alleged cover-up of the Chinese and US governments regarding COVID origins, as well as the Biden Administration’s granting immunity to a despot accused of murdering an American journalist.

“Trump Organization Convicted of Tax Fraud; Hunter Biden Still Walks Free”

Breitbart wrote on December 6:

“Former President Donald Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of tax fraud and other financial crimes on Tuesday in the case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden continues to walk free, despite admitting in December 2020 — after the presidential election — that he was under federal investigation for possible tax violations linked to his foreign business activities.

“Trump’s real estate organization was convicted on all 17 counts on the second day of deliberation following the trial, where the Trump Organization was accused of being complicit in a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on job perks ‘such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars,’ the Associated Press reported.

“The organization could face up to a maximum of $1.62 million, which is a comparably small amount for the company’s size, but the AP noted that ‘the conviction might make some of its future deals more complicated.’ Overall, the conviction comes after New York prosecutors have spent the last three years investigating the former president and his businesses.

“Trump himself was not a target of the investigation or prosecution. The case against the company was based on the testimony from the Trump Organization’s former finance chief, Allen Weisselberg. Weisselberg testified in exchange for only having a five-month jail sentence after previously pleading guilty to charges that he manipulated the Trump Organization’s books as well as his own compensation package to reduce his taxes. Weisselberg refused pressure to testify against Trump as part of the plea deal.”

One could read between the lines…

“Biden Signs Law Making Railroad Strike Illegal”

Fox Business wrote on December 2:

“Biden signs [a] bill forcing rail unions to accept [an] agreement, averting [a] crippling strike… The agreement passed by Congress was approved by eight of 12 transportation unions involved in negotiations. The four dissenting unions, representing about 100,000 rail workers, said the deal was unfair because it included insufficient paid-sick leave time.

“They had asked for seven paid sick days, but Congress did not include their demand in the bill, despite an effort from progressive lawmakers and even some conservatives like Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to amend the legislation.”

Senator Rand Paul did not vote for the bill, saying on Fox Business to Larry Kudlow: “Congress should not get involved in contracts.. Congress should not [be]dictating our will.. This is determined in the market place. The whole thing was wrong… The more Congress gets involved, the more the other side expects that to happen… Republican voters across the country are upset with the old establishment up here [in Washington].”

Kudlow totally agreed with Paul. Ronald Reagan had famously said about human governments:

“Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem… Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them… Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one… Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

The term “political prostitutes” would aptly apply.

Democrats Win Georgia

NBC News reported on December 7:

“Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican football star Herschel Walker on Tuesday in Georgia’s Senate runoff election, handing President Joe Biden and his party a key win.

“Warnock’s victory will give Democrats an outright majority in the Senate [of 51 to 49 votes] after two years under a 50-50 divide, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes.”

With the House in the hands of Republicans and the Senate in the hands of Democrats, this now looks more and more like a stalemate in US politics.

Americans Are Losing Trust in Their Military

Modern Diplomacy wrote on December 6:

“The current era is marked by fading trust in U.S. institutions, but confidence in one pillar has held up: the military. But now even that is eroding, and the question is whether the brass will get the message… The Reagan Institute releases an annual survey of public attitudes on national defense, and this year only 48% reported having ‘a great deal of confidence’ in the U.S. military… That’s down from 70% in 2018, and within the margin error of last year’s 45%. Some 52% also had reduced confidence in uniformed officers.

“General Mark Milley’s speech to Congress last year that he wanted to understand ‘white rage,’ in response to reasonable inquiries about whether cadets at West Point should be learning critical race theory, was a lapse in judgment. Many Americans think the military is no longer an institution that runs on excellence, merit and individual submission to a larger cause. The Pentagon denies this is a problem, but it surely is if half the public believes it.

“Americans on the left have their own reasons for declining confidence in the military: 46% cited right-wing extremism, even though this scourge has been wildly overstated… Some 75% in the Reagan survey viewed China as an enemy, up from 55% in 2018, and the percentage of those worried about Russia has doubled. Some 70% are concerned China might invade Taiwan within five years, and 61% support increasing the U.S. military’s Pacific footprint.”

The Bible says in Ezekiel 7:14 that when the trumpet sounds, no one in America will be willing to fight.

Lawsuit Against Bin Salman Dismissed… Another Blatant Example of Miscarriage of Justice

The Guardian wrote on December 6:

“A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman that claimed he conspired to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the crown prince was entitled to sovereign immunity despite ‘credible allegations’ that he was involved in the murder. Judge John Bates, a US district court judge with a long history of presiding over cases involving national security, acknowledged ‘uneasiness’ in making the decision, but said that his hands were in effect tied by the Biden administration’s recent recommendation that Prince Mohammed be given immunity…

“The dismissal of the civil claim against Prince Mohammed and two of his close associates – Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Asiri – means the Saudi heir can now travel to the US and other jurisdictions freely. Although the case was not brought by US prosecutors with the power to arrest him, if it had been allowed to proceed, the case would have created a legal minefield for the crown prince and if he had been found guilty, could have put his financial interests in the US in jeopardy…

“Khashoggi’s brutal murder in 2018 created an international outcry. An investigation by Agnes Callamard, then the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, found that Khashoggi had been the victim of a ‘deliberate, premeditated execution’ for which the state of Saudi Arabia was responsible under human rights law… In an angry statement to the Guardian, Callamard, who is now director general of Amnesty International, listed multiple parties who she claimed had ‘contributed to the impunity for the state murder of Jamal Khashoggi’, from Saudi Arabia itself, to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, to Joe Biden…

“Judge Bates’s ruling comes years after then-candidate Biden promised that he would hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for the murder if he was elected president and suggested that Prince Mohammed ought to be treated as a ‘global pariah’ for his alleged role in the killing.

Shortly after entering the White House, it appeared that Biden would follow through on the campaign promise. His administration released an unclassified intelligence report that concluded that ‘MBS’, as he is known, had likely approved the killing. But no further sanctions against the crown prince or his vast business interests in the US followed… ‘The Executive Branch remains responsible for foreign affairs, including with Saudi Arabia, and a contrary decision on bin Salman’s immunity by this court would unduly interfere with those responsibilities all the same,’ the judge wrote.”

The New York Post added on December 6:

“Judge John Bates wrote in an opinion filed Tuesday that the suit… ‘must be dismissed at this time,’ despite a request by the plaintiffs’ attorneys that the judge challenge the Biden decision [to grant immunity to the Prince]. ‘As the branch of government primarily responsible for international affairs and diplomacy, the Executive Branch may be hindered or embarrassed should the judiciary second-guess its foreign immunity decisions,’ Bates wrote.

“‘Despite the Court’s uneasiness, then, with both the circumstances of bin Salman’s appointment and the credible allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, the United States has informed the Court that he is immune, and bin Salman is therefore “entitled to head of state immunity . . . while he remains in office”’, Bates continued. ‘Accordingly, the claims against bin Salman will be dismissed based on head-of-state immunity,’ he added.”

Incredible! Politics galore!!! What kind of a “justice system” do we have where a potential murderer cannot even be held accountable? And so, as we have seen so often, Biden’s declarations and promises mean absolutely nothing.

Griner Exchanged for the Merchant of Death

The U.S. Sun wrote on December 8:

“BRITTNEY Griner has been released from prison in Russia. The WNBA star was released Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer [and “merchant of death”] Viktor Bout…  Griner was held for months in a Russian prison after being convicted of drug charges. The one-for-one prisoner exchange was approved by president Joe Biden within the last week… 

“The deal between the US and [Russia] leaves American corporate security executive and former Marine Paul Whelan imprisoned in Russia in what American officials have called fraudulent charges. Russian courts sentenced Griner to nine years in prison on August 4 on drug smuggling charges for bringing hashish oil into the country…

“Bout was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the states after being convicted by a federal court in 2011 for conspiracy to kill US citizens and officials.

“Biden addressed the nation on Thursday from the White House alongside Harris and Griner’s wife Cherelle, saying ‘this was a day we’d worked for for a long time.’… The president also spoke of Whelan, saying ‘we have not forgotten about’ him and pledged to not stop fighting for his release…

“[Viktor] Bout exploited the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and ran a fleet of planes, shipping ammunition to war-torn countries in Africa. He’s also accused of supplying ammunition to brutal regimes and warlords. In 2011, Bout was convicted on charges of conspiring to kill American citizens and officers. He was also found guilty of providing resources in the form of weapons to a foreign terrorist organization.”

America’s New Trade War With Europe

German Foreign Policy wrote on November 23:

“The trade war is expanding between the EU and the USA over investment programs worth hundreds of billions. According to reports, these programs threaten not only the production of electric cars and their batteries, but also the wind and hydrogen energy sectors – all the industrial sectors crucial to Berlin’s and the EU’s futuristic plans. This is caused by these US measures, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which promise hundreds of billions of US dollars in subsidies, however, granted only for products manufactured in the USA. To take advantage of this boost in subsidies, Washington is coaxing companies from Europe, but also from Japan and South Korea to relocate to the United States. Whereas France is calling for resolute countermeasures, Berlin is playing it down, restricting the EU to negotiations with the USA. According to economists, ‘a great number of industries of the future’ are ultimately at stake. Former Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser even warns of an ‘industrial and capital exodus from Europe’ to the USA…

“The purchase of electric cars is being subsidized with US $7,500 each. However, only cars produced in the USA are subsidized. This also applies to components, such as batteries. Even their raw materials must initially be mined and processed to 40 and – in the long term – to 80 percent in the United States, or alternatively in a country linked to the USA by a free trade agreement. This excludes China, but also Germany and the EU – not only in regards to individual products but also to complete supply chains…

“South Korea is… seriously affected. Hyundai, for example, has a few successful electric car models, with which the company is competing with the US’ Tesla. However, these are not being produced in the USA and therefore, are totally excluded from the subsidy programs. This has proven an embarrassment for South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol. Since he assumed office last May, he has supported Washington’s measures…, for example favoring US chip production, and thereby running the risk of tensions with China. Now he realizes that cooperation with the USA is economically costly for his country. There is enormous anger in Seoul…

“An amendment to the Inflation Reduction Act is considered out of the question, also because the US Congress must be in favor, which is even less conceivable now, given the results of the latest mid-terms, wherein the Republicans have won a majority in the House of Representatives. Theoretically, changes of the implementation regulations would be possible – but there is nothing to indicate that Washington would agree to anything beyond mere cosmetic adjustments..”

Biden could make changes via executive orders, but will he? After the debacle with the railroad strike [see above], how much more is he willing to do to risk his political survival within the Democratic Party?

Brewing Trade War Between USA and Europe

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 3:

“German Finance Minister Christian Lindner warned Saturday over a brewing trade war between Europe and the United States… Smoother transatlantic ties since President Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump have hit a stumbling block… ‘The USA is our partner of shared values, but at the same time there is an enormously protectionist economic policy,’ he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper…

“Lindner said that the German economy, unlike France’s, is closely linked to the US market. He was referring to the US being a huge market for German automobiles, while French carmakers do not export there… Lindner’s remarks follow a call earlier this week by German Economy Minister Robert Habeck for a ‘robust’ response by Brussels to the new US subsidies.

“The EU is not Washington’s only ally frustrated at the new [IRA] subsidies. South Korea has also raised concerns that its carmakers will not be eligible for the US tax breaks. During a visit to the United States this week, French President Emmanuel Macron described Washington’s new tax breaks as ‘super aggressive’ and warned that the package would ‘divide the West.’

“Biden acknowledged that there were ‘glitches’ in the IRA which favors American-made climate technology, adding ‘there are tweaks we can make’ to satisfy allies, he said. Despite the conciliatory words, several Democratic lawmakers said they have no plans to revisit the legislation, which passed after more than a year of negotiations without any Republican support.”

EU to Buy Weapons as a Bloc

The Telegraph wrote on November 15:

“European Union countries must buy weapons as a bloc in the same way they negotiated for coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s foreign policy chief [Josep Borrell] said on Tuesday… Mr Borrell told EU defence ministers that the EU was now the world leader in the production of vaccines and that the plan could hand a similar boost to European arms companies… Joint purchasing will increase the interoperability of European armies because they would have similar technology, and the proposal could be seen as a step towards the… future prospect of an EU army…

“‘Member states need to immediately restore the readiness of their forces, address critical capability gaps and replenish depleted stocks,’ [Mr Borrell and Thierry Breton, the French commissioner for the internal market] said in a letter obtained by The Telegraph… The fully-fledged joint purchasing scheme is… called the European Defence Investment Programme. Once backed by the 27 EU member states, it will coincide with moves to accelerate ‘EU defence manufacturing capacity’.”

After Europe has become the world leader in the manufacture and sale of vaccines, Europe might soon become the world leader in the manufacture, purchase and sale of weapons, followed by the long-awaited establishment of an all-powerful European army.

Conspiracy to Overthrow the German Government?

DNYUZ reported on December 7:

“Special Forces in Germany have arrested 25 people suspected of supporting a domestic terrorism organization that planned to overthrow the government and form its own state, the federal prosecutor said on Wednesday.

“In early-morning raids carried out across the country, Special Forces officers detained people believed to be members and supporters of the group, which prosecutors said had been formed in the past year and was operating on the conviction that ‘Germany is currently ruled by members of a so-called deep state’ that needed to be overthrown. Prosecutors said two other people had been arrested outside Germany, one in Austria and another in Italy.

“The prosecutors described the group, which they did not identify, as being influenced by the ideologies of the conspiracy group QAnon and a right-wing German conspiracy group called the Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich, which believes that Germany’s post-World War II republic is not a sovereign country but a corporation set up by the Allies who won the war.

“Many of those arrested had military training and included former German soldiers, including from the army of the former East Germany, and were known to have been heavily armed with weapons acquired illegally. The group was most likely formed in late 2021, the prosecutors said. Among those arrested was a man who tried to make contact with representatives of the Russian government over the plans, according to a statement from the federal prosecutor, but there were no indications that they had received a positive response from the Russian sources they had contacted…

“Its aim was ‘to overcome the existing state order in Germany and to establish its own by its own form of state, the outlines of which have already been worked out,’ using military means and violence against state representatives, the prosecutors said in the statement. The group’s plans included an armed attack on the German Parliament building, the Reichstag, the prosecutors said. The members had also formed a sort of shadow government that they intended to install if their plans were successful. ‘The members of the organization were aware that this goal can only be achieved through the use of military means and violence against state representatives,’ the prosecutor’s statement said. ‘This also included commissioning killings.’

“According to the members of the group, liberation is promised by the imminent intervention of the ‘Alliance,’ a technically superior secret alliance of governments, intelligence services and militaries of various states, including Russia and the United States, according to the prosecutors.”

Deutsche Welle added on December 7:

“The trigger for the raids was an investigation into another Reichsbürger group that had planned to kidnap German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach…

“Speaking at a press conference,  German Attorney General Peter Frank said… the group had established a council that was intended to act as the government of the new state with some individuals already designated for ministerial roles. Among them, said the attorney general, was a former member of the Bundestag who was to take over the justice portfolio…”

“The movement argues that the German constitution prior to World War II was never properly nullified and that the formation of the former West Germany in 1949, and now reunified Germany, was therefore never valid.”

The Guardian added on December 7:

“… the [arrested] group’s alleged ringleader [is] Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuß von Greiz, who claims descent from a royal line that ruled for 800 years in Thuringia until the breakup of the German monarchy…

“The group, under the leadership of Heinrich XIII and a former commander of a paratrooper battalion, had been preparing for so-called ‘Day X’, on which about two dozen people were to storm the Reichstag building, home to the German parliament, and to handcuff and arrest MPs and parliamentary staff in an operation taking as its example the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.”

ntv wrote on December 7:

“The idea that he [Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuß von Greiz] and his comrades-in-arms actually took power in the country seems absurd. That ‘the people’ would have joined them, that the police and the Bundeswehr would have thrown off 70 years of democracy and happily offered themselves to a new monarchy – that was pipe dreams. But it would have shaken the republic to the core if crazy Reich citizens had broken into the Reichstag and shot people there…

“It is unknown how Reuss convinced his fellow campaigners. It’s also not clear if he was the driving force at all. It is not to be expected that he would have won over the masses. Not only because hardly anyone knew him to this day…”

At this point, we have only heard the allegations and accusations by the prosecution. Whether there was really a plot to overthrow the German government will have to be seen when more facts come to light.

Failed Overthrow of the System?

Report 24 wrote on December 8:

“A brutal overthrow of the system was thwarted at the last second – so read the lurid reports of the mainstream press. Responsible are not radical climate activists, whose fantasies of overthrow are offered a worldwide stage, but so-called Reichsbürger: 3,000 police officers were allegedly needed to make 25 arrests in the pensioner milieu, oh no, in the ‘right swamp’. The narrative of the media has reached such a level of absurdity that it shakes up believing citizens and encourages them to ask critical questions…

“Then last night my mother called me, completely upset and deeply concerned. In her perception… Germany narrowly escaped an attempted coup by a heavily armed right-wing extremist army of Reichsbürgern controlled by Russia and Putin yesterday, which could only be stopped with great difficulty with almost 3,000 heavily armed special police forces…

“In my opinion, radicalism in whatever form is never good. But the totalitarian climate stickers that block ambulances and rescue vehicles and prevent people from getting to work, or the electricity and gas prices as well as the skyrocketing food prices or the children harmed by the government’s corona measures really worry me more than 25 or 50 people entertaining bizarre subversive fantasies in Telegram chat groups.”

Child Sacrifice Did Not Help the Azteks, and Won’t Help Us

Life Site News wrote on December 1:

“Dr. Roger Hodkinson said on a recent podcast that leaders in Canada and the rest of the world have perpetrated the ‘biggest kill ever in medicine’s history’ as a result of COVID lockdowns and vaccine coercion… As much as he said politicians are to blame, he said that ‘physicians are principally culpably because they have allowed [the] government to influence how they manage their patients, which has never, ever happened before.’

“Hodkinson was particularly harsh on physicians who looked ‘into the eyes of a pregnant woman and [told] her that this experimental product [vaccine] is safe.’ He added that any physicians ‘that has done that should be in jail.’… After becoming emotional relaying the horror of sick people dying without loved ones present due to COVID restrictions, he said, ‘What about our children? Now being vaccinated against something they don’t need, and being killed by it.’

“He called the push to jab kids ‘child sacrifice to appease these new gods’… ‘Child sacrifice didn’t work for the Aztecs, it didn’t make the rain fall, and it won’t save granny in the nursing home.’”

COVID—the Greatest Cover-Up in History

Just the News wrote on December 4:

“Former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance Dr. Andrew Huff says that he worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in China and he knows that COVID was genetically engineered and leaked. Huff says that COVID was ‘one of the greatest cover-ups in history’ and the ‘biggest US intelligence failure since 9/11.’

“Whistleblower Dr. Huff wrote a book titled The Truth About Wuhan in which he claims that the COVID-19 pandemic happened because of the U.S. government’s funding of genetic engineering of coronaviruses in China [and] that China knew from day one that this was a ‘genetically engineered agent.’

“Huff, an epidemiologist and army veteran who worked for EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016, said it was China’s gain-of-function experiments — and shoddy biosecurity — that led to the lab leak at the U.S.-funded lab. ‘The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese,’ he told The Sun Online. Dr. Huff wrote in his book that ‘greedy scientists killed millions of people globally’ and the U.S. government helped cover it up.”

If proven true, they all should be punished.

Dictator Justin Trudeau Denounces Dictatorial China

On December 2, the Ron Paul Institute republished the following article by Professor Jonathan Turley:

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left many of us gob smacked this week when he denounced China for its crackdown on protesters. Many of us denounced Trudeau for his authoritarian crackdown on truckers protesting Canada’s Covid policies.

“Trudeau used terrorist laws to freeze bank accounts, treat truckers as terrorists and treat truckers as effective weapons. This is a continuation of Trudeau’s utter lack of self-awareness (and the media continuing lack of objectivity). He previously was praised for his stance against Cuba’s crackdown on protestors…

“Justin Trudeau, like his father, has never been a strong supporter of free speech. Indeed, he has more often championed its limitations…”

What a dangerous hypocrite! And what a despicable political press.

Terminator Comes Alive

On December 1, the Rutherford Institute  published the following alarming and disturbing article:

“… in an 8-3 vote on Nov. 29, 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to allow police to arm robots with deadly weapons for use in emergency situations. This is how the slippery slope begins…. police now have the power to kill with immunity using remote-controlled robots…. It’s only a matter of time before these killer robots intended for use as a last resort become as common as SWAT teams.

“Frequently justified as vital tools necessary to combat terrorism and deal with rare but extremely dangerous criminal situations, such as those involving hostages, SWAT teams—which first appeared on the scene in California in the 1960s—have now become intrinsic parts of local law enforcement operations, thanks in large part to substantial federal assistance and the Pentagon’s military surplus recycling program, which allows the transfer of military equipment, weapons and training to local police for free or at sharp discounts…

“How long before these armed, militarized robots, authorized to use lethal force against American citizens, become as commonplace as SWAT teams and just as deadly?… how long before mistakes are made, technology gets hacked or goes haywire, robots are deployed based on false or erroneous information, and innocent individuals get killed in the line of fire?

“…We’re gaining ground fast on the kind of autonomous, robotic assassins that Terminator envisioned would be deployed by 2029…  It’s the boiling frog analogy all over again, and yet there’s more at play than just militarization or suppressing dissent.

“There’s a philosophical underpinning to this debate over killer robots that we can’t afford to overlook, and that is the government’s expansion of its power to kill the citizenry. Although the government was established to protect the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of the American people, the Deep State has been working hard to strip us of any claims to life and liberty…

“Having claimed the power to kill through the use of militarized police who shoot first and ask questions later, SWAT team raids, no-knock raids, capital punishment, targeted drone attacks, grisly secret experiments on prisoners and unsuspecting communities, weapons of mass destruction, endless wars, etc., the government has come to view ‘we the people’ as collateral damage in its pursuit of absolute power… we are at a dangerous crossroads. Not only are our lives in danger. Our very humanity is at stake.”

Human governments with uncontrolled and unchecked powers are very dangerous.  

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

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

In the previous instalments, we looked at some reasons why both the Old Testament and the New Testament combine to make up the complete Word of God.  We continue, in this final instalment, with some further reasons and conclude that anything less than the full Bible is insufficient for a true Christian.

5. Only the Old Testament was available when Jesus was on earth.

The New Testament hadn’t been written until the end of the first century, which was after Jesus’ death. In the Old Testament, we find a number of Scriptures that prophesy of Jesus’ first coming.   If we only relied on the New Testament, we wouldn’t have the prophecies to review and see how they were fulfilled.   Let us review just a few of these Old Testament prophecies.

In Isaiah 7:14 we read: “Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

This was written about 700 years before the birth of Jesus and was brought to fruition as we read in the New Testament – please see Matthew 1:22-23.

In the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah are remarkable prophecies:

Verse 5: “But He was wounded [pierced] for our transgressions, He was bruised [crushed] for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Compare Matthew 8:16-17.)

Verse 7: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” (Compare Matthew 26:63, 27:12-14, Acts 8:32-33.)

Verse 9: “And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.” (Compare Matthew 27:57-60, 1 Peter 2:22.)

We read in Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

This was written over 800 years before Jesus was born and pinpoints the town where He was to be born – see Matthew 2:6 for the fulfilment of this prophecy.

The accuracy is unerring.

There are more references, but to repeat what was written in the previous point, there are at least a minimum of 414 references in the Old Testament referring to Jesus’ first coming. And there are many Old Testament Scriptures speaking about Christ’s second coming.

6. The Old Testament is vital to understand many biblical teachings.

It is in the Old Testament that we find God giving Abraham promises.   In Genesis 12:2-3 we read: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

We in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and other English-speaking nations are still, today, reaping the benefit of Abraham’s obedience to God; although the blessings now seem to be ebbing away due to man’s behaviour and lack of trust in Him.   Please see our free booklet “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America” where on pages 6 and 7 we read about the “Birthright Blessings of Abraham Were Passed On” and “Blessings Withheld for Disobedience”.   On page 9 is a section headed, “Throne of David to Continue Until the Return of Christ”.   How would we have understood all of this vital information if we just had the New Testament?

On the first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the New Testament Church as recorded in Acts 2, Peter stood up and gave an address which referred to the prophet Joel (2:28-32) and to David in Psalm 16:8-11.

When Stephen, amongst others, was chosen as one of the seven deacons to serve, he was described as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5).   He was accused of blasphemy (Acts 6:11) and when he was challenged, he gave an address (Acts 7:2-53) which covered many Old Testaments events and which culminated in his death by stoning (Acts 7:57-60).   This address would not have taken place, nor the reigning religious elite chided about his behaviour, had the Old Testament been unimportant and not necessary for the early Christian Church.

In Acts 8:26-38, we read that Philip preached Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch and referred to Isaiah 53:7-8.

In Acts 13:13-41, we read that the apostle Paul was reading from the Law and the Prophets.

Old Testament examples were given in 1 Corinthians 10.  In verse 4 we read that “that spiritual Rock that followed them… was Christ”.   Verse 6 of this chapter reads: “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”   The apostle Paul gave the clear indication that the Old Testament was necessary for the fledgling Corinthian Church to learn lessons from.

7. The Church of God must preach “the whole counsel of God.”

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

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers observes the following: “Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof… by making… ‘all Scripture’ the subject, and ‘given by inspiration of God’ the predicate, [Paul] declares positively the inspiration of all the Old Testament Scriptures, for this is what the Apostle must have referred to…”

It follows, therefore, that those who profess Christianity must have, and use, the Old Testament as part of their faith.

We learn further from Romans 15:4: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

We read in Acts 19:8: “And he (Paul) went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.”   This was also the subject of His teaching in Acts 20:25 and 28:30-31.  In 28:23 we read: ^“So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. (See also Acts 26:22-23.)

We read in Acts 22:3 that Paul (previously Saul of Tarsus) said: “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.”   It is, therefore, safe to assume that Paul, with his background and training, knew the Old Testament and applied this to Jesus Christ.   He would be able to preach the whole counsel of God (compare Acts 20:27).

While the Old Testament was written thousands of years ago, we are still the recipients of that body of knowledge and, combined with the New Testament, is the information that God wants us to have.

Jude wrote in his short epistle in verse 3: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”   This is part of the whole counsel of God.

CONCLUSION:

In our booklet “The Authority of the Bible,” we read the following on pages 4 and 5 under the heading “The Bible Proves Itself”:

“The answer to that question is simply, THE BIBLE PROVES ITSELF! Human interpretation is not the final authority when it comes to the Word of God! But that is exactly how those who selectively pick and choose what they want to believe, view the Bible. It is also the position taken by so many who simply reject the Bible.

“So, again, how can we know what is true and what is false?

“Jesus Christ made an utterly profound statement in answer to Pilate’s questioning: ‘Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice”’ (John 18:37). Jesus Christ Himself bore witness of the Word of God, and that included the Holy Scriptures—the Old Testament at that time. The prophecies of His birth, death and resurrection proved to be true!”

Jesus also quoted the Old Testament passages of the Bible when tempted by Satan three times in the New Testament (see Matthew 4:1-11).  He responded to Satan each time with the phrase “It is written…” and then followed by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 and Deuteronomy 6:13.  If we didn’t have and use the Old Testament, we wouldn’t realise that the references came from that source.   By using these verses, Jesus confirmed the validity and necessity of the Old Testament.

Unfortunately, there are those who acknowledge and use the Old Testament but they “believe that we don’t necessarily have to take everything in there as literal and factual history, and we can consider other options to interpret the Old Testament.”  As we have said so many times, if there are errors in the Bible, then it cannot be trusted, and then we cannot believe that God’s Word is infallible.

With such a weight of evidence showing how the whole Bible is necessary to understand the creation of man, promises made to Abraham right down to the present time, prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, being fulfilled in the New Testament, and the whole plan of God – and much more – there can surely be no disputing that the Old Testament is vital and necessary.

The evidence that we have reviewed in this series is but a small selection to prove the point that the whole Word of God must be used to understand, as much as we are able and what has been revealed to us, what God has in store for those who are obedient to His Will and live a life pleasing in His sight and which will lead to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

A Tech Team meeting was conducted via Google Meets on December 4, 2022. Hosted by Eric Rank, discussions centered on our ongoing ad campaign featuring our booklet, “The Fall and Rise of the Jewish People.” We continue to receive requests from North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and other areas. In fact, we have had to reprint this booklet twice. We also began planning an additional ad offering for another booklet. This coincides with a similar ad campaign directed primarily to European German speakers.

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

“Wie ein Mann gegen die Welt,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Marc Voeller, is now posted. Title in English: “Like One Man Against the World.”

“Erst denken, dann handeln,” the sermon presented last Sabbath in Germany by Michael Link, is now posted. Title in English: “First Think, Then Act.”

“Will the Church of God Fight in War?—Comments on News and Prophecy, December 3, 2022,” is the title of a message presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

In addition to discussing the deeper significance of the bi-partisan passing of a law by Congress and President Biden’s signing the same, prohibiting railroad unions to strike, we address the biblical warning for Laodicean Christians not to fight in war, while emphasizing the fact that many will do just that.

“Our Unique Talents,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Michael Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Each one of us is blessed with unique talents which God has given us to use. There are examples in the Bible of individuals who had specific talents for God’s purpose.

“Shepherds and Sheep,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Why does the Bible use Shepherds and Sheep extensively throughout its pages? What can we learn by studying what it says about these creatures and the people who were to tend them? How can we learn to become better in both regards so that God can use us perfectly in all ways?

On December 3, 2022, Michael Link will present the sermonette, titled, “Our Unique Talents”   and Kalon Mitchell will present the sermon titled, “Shepherds and Sheep.”

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

In recent weeks and months, several prominent changes in global leadership have taken place. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to his position of power as Prime Minister of Israel, despite his indictment in a national scandal. After an exceptionally short 50-day stint as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss resigned, giving way for Rishi Sunak to take her place. In the United States, mid-term elections shifted the balance of partisan power in Congress and several gubernatorial seats among the states. The recent changes in political power appear as a game of chess, in which different pieces take their positions according to the strategy of the players.

Understanding biblical prophecy, we know that God is working out His Will to carry out His plan. He is the one moving the chess pieces on the chessboard of geopolitical power. Even though this is Satan’s world who gives his power to whomever he wants, he can do nothing against God’s Will, and sometimes, God intervenes directly to carry out His plan. Daniel acknowledged God’s preeminence as he reflected upon the rulership of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. “And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding” (Daniel 2:21). It might seem surprising for Daniel to acknowledge God’s divine role in placing Nebuchadnezzar in power, considering that he had taken the nation of Judah captive. Yet, God had a purpose in using Nebuchadnezzar to execute His Will. Why should we think that anything would be different today?

God is the One who may bring leaders to power for a purpose that He designs according to His Will. In Daniel’s time, God used Nebuchadnezzar to bring Judah into captivity as a punishment because of their disobedience. To the human mind, it might seem cruel to raise up a devious king for the purpose of punishment, but God executes His plan perfectly to bring about the results that He designs.

As He used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Judah in the time of Daniel, God will likewise use Assyria again in the future for the purpose of punishment. “‘Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, And against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, To seize the spoil, to take the prey, And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.’” (Isaiah 10:5-6). The modern nation of Assyria, which we understand to be the nations of Germany and Austria today, will rise to power according to the Will of God as a rod of punishment against the descendants of the Israelite nations because they have strayed from Him and embraced sin. Sadly, even the extreme circumstances that the Bible prophesies will not be sufficient to wake many people up from the state of sinful stupor they are in.

Knowing that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (compare Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8), we can be confident that He continues to bring about changes in leadership according to His Will today. The recent changes in leadership around the world have taken place according to His Will. This does not mean that God necessarily caused those changes directly, but He allowed them to occur for His reasons. And His purpose is completely different from those who participate in elections to bring about their own human will. “‘They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold They made idols for themselves—That they might be cut off’” (Hosea 8:4).

It displeases God to see mankind forsake Him and make feeble attempts to improve the world through leaders they elect. The effect is the election of individuals who may even carry out the Will of God—but in ways that they do not expect. According to biblical prophecy, the elected leaders in the world today will only bring further decay, resulting in terrible circumstances throughout the world.

Some will try to make the argument that it is the duty of Christians to vote in governmental elections so that virtuous leaders can take positions of power. Yet, it is clear that even the most so-called virtuous politicians fall far short of living and promoting a godly life. Many times, those who come to power are not virtuous at all, but God may use them to carry out His desire and plan under certain circumstances. It will take the return of Jesus Christ to establish God’s government to make any meaningful correction. For this reason, we do NOT vote in governmental elections, nor do we participate in worldly politics. To do so is futile because Satan is the god of this world, and governments function according to the policies of man, not God.

Even though the current circumstances in the world seem hopeless, we look forward to the leadership of Jesus Christ! His government will bring about a complete transformation over the face of the Earth, putting an end to war and establishing peace forever (compare Isaiah 9:6-7). At that time God will continue to raise up kings. Those leaders will be the ones who have overcome the world of sin by tenaciously clinging to the ways of godly righteousness. In Revelation 1:5, John honors Jesus Christ saying, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” If we are able to endure in our love for this Way of Life, those kings whom God will raise up will include you and me.

by Norbert Link

We begin with reporting on developments pertaining to an “inevitable” railroad strike in December, unless Congress intervenes. The Biden Administration asked for such controversial action by Congress which is supported by some Democrats and Republicans, while others object. In this regard, please view our recent message on the topic, titled, “War and the Railroad Strike–Comments on News and Prophecy, November 26, 2022.” 

 We continue with reports on Ukraine and the increasing deterioration between the EU and the USA. In this regard, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe and USA on Collision Course” .

We are also focusing on interesting developments in the UK pertaining to their army and religious issues.  

We speak on Angela Merkel’s defiant attitude; Israel’s new forming government; as well as Ethiopia; and continue with collaborative efforts between China, North Korea and Cuba, and point out demonstrations against the governments in China and Iran. We speak on Russia’s collaboration with India; the sudden and suspicious death of Belarus’ Foreign Minister; and Turkey’s threat to US security in Syria.

We continue with the amazing fact that the US government is still hiding important documents about the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and report about an open letter by several national and international media outlets pleading with the US government to drop criminal charges against Julian Assange.

We speak on Dr. Fauci’s “vanishing” memory; Justin Trudeau’s defense of his indefensible dictatorial conduct against truckers; another deadly shooting at Walmart; and a devastating earthquake in Indonesia.

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

Railroad Strike Inevitable?

Breitbart wrote on November 23:

“A national freight rail strike is viewed as increasingly inevitable as four rail worker labor unions have rejected a tentative agreement with rail companies… a strike [could] take effect early next month [by December 5 or December 9]… American consumers could be plagued with far-reaching economic turmoil, and Congressional intervention would become increasingly likely…

“Biden and his fellow pro-union Democrats in Congress face a tough political predicament…

“Rail companies have estimated that some $2 billion daily would bleed from the American economy during a strike… Railroads haul about 40% of the nation’s freight each year… if a strike drags on for a month some 700,000 jobs would be lost as manufacturers who rely on railroads shut down, prices of nearly everything would increase even more and the economy could be thrust into a recession.

“And although some businesses would try to shift shipments over to trucks, there aren’t nearly enough of them available… 467,000 additional trucks a day would be needed to handle everything railroads deliver. The ability to transport crucial chemicals, packaged food for humans, food for livestock, and retail goods would be greatly undermined as families get ready for Christmas and Hanukkah.”

What Would a Prolonged Railroad Strike Do to Consumers?

PBS and AP wrote on November 22:

“It wouldn’t take long for the effects of a rail strike to trickle through the economy. Many businesses only have a few days’ worth of raw materials and space for finished goods. Makers of food, fuel, cars and chemicals would all feel the squeeze, as would their customers. That’s not to mention the commuters who would be left stranded because many passenger railroads use tracks owned by the freight railroads…

“Chemical manufacturers and refineries will be some of the first businesses affected, because railroads will stop shipping hazardous chemicals about a week before the strike deadline to ensure that no tank cars filled with dangerous liquids wind up stranded… the chlorine that water treatment plants rely on to purify water, which they might only have about a week’s supply of on hand, would become hard to get. It would be hard for manufacturers to make anything out of plastic without the chemicals that are part of the formula.

“Consumers will also pay more for gasoline if refineries shut down either because they can’t get the ingredients they need to make fuel or because railroads aren’t available to haul away byproducts like sulfur…

“About 30 percent of all packaged food in the U.S. is moved by rail… That percentage is much higher for denser, heavier items like cans of soup.

“Some products, like cereal, cooking oils and beer, have entire operations built around rail deliveries of raw ingredients like grain, barley and peanuts, along with shipments of finished products. Those companies typically keep only two to four days’ worth of raw ingredients on hand because it’s expensive to store them… and grocers also keep a limited supply of products on hand… big food companies don’t like to discuss the threat of a rail strike because of worries about product shortages can lead to panic buying…

“Any disruption in rail service could threaten the health of chickens and pigs, which depend on trains to deliver their feed, and contribute to higher meat prices… a rail strike now would hit pork and chicken producers in the southern U.S. hardest, because their local supply of corn and soybeans from this year’s harvest is likely exhausted and they’d have to ship feed by truck, dramatically increasing costs…

“Retailers are also concerned about online orders. Shippers like FedEx and UPS use rail cars that hold roughly 2,000 packages in each car…

“Drivers are already paying record prices and often waiting months for new vehicles because of the production problems in the auto industry related to the shortage of computer chips in recent years. That would only get worse if there is a rail strike, because roughly 75 percent of all new vehicles begin their journey from factories to dealerships on the railroad. Trains deliver some 2,000 carloads a day filled with vehicles.

“And automakers may have a hard time keeping their plants running during a strike because some larger parts and raw materials are transported by rail.”

Should/Will Congress Intervene?

The Prospect wrote on November 23:

“Congress could end talk about strikes and worker lockouts by passing a joint resolution, under the Railway Labor Act of 1926, which is then sent to President Biden’s desk. If he signs, the resolution could force workers to accept the contract approved by the Presidential Emergency Board, the board set up by the president to mediate the dispute. If that happens, it would run counter to Biden’s repeated commitment to being the ‘most pro-union administration in American history.’…

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 led to John Carroll’s order to the National Guard to put down the strike, and Baltimoreans attacked the troops. Street battles between the striking workers and the Maryland militia left 10 dead and 25 wounded. By the end of August 1877, the strike had ended primarily due to federal government intervention, the use of state militias, and the employment of strikebreakers by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.

Launched on July 1, 1922, by seven of the sixteen railroad labor organizations in existence at the time, the strike continued into the month of August before collapsing. A sweeping judicial injunction by Judge James Herbert Wilkerson effectively brought the strike to an end on September 1, 1922.

The last time US railroads went on strike was in 1992. That strike lasted two days before Congress intervened. The Los Angeles Times reported at that time, on June 26, 1992:

“Congress and the White House moved with rare speed Thursday night to end a crippling two-day nationwide rail shutdown that already had begun to threaten the economy by forcing layoffs at coal mines and auto assembly plants. The House and Senate passed emergency legislation barring strikes and lockouts by large margins…

“Bush signed the legislation early today. Many lawmakers objected strongly that the action was anti-labor, but anxiety about the impact of a prolonged stoppage on the still-fragile economy overrode those concerns.”

All of this poses a no-win situation for the Biden Administration. Please view our new program, “War and the Railroad Strike–Comments on News and Prophecy, November 26, 2022.” 

“Democrats Prepare To Impose A Rail Union Contract That Many Workers Rejected”

The Huffington Post wrote on November 29:

“The party of paid family leave finds itself in a very awkward position.

“Congressional Democrats are moving toward a vote that would override the wishes of unionized rail workers by imposing a new contract with the nation’s major rail carriers. The memberships of four out of twelve rail unions — including the largest — have voted against the proposal sending their leaders back to the bargaining table for a better deal. But top Democrats are planning to force the contract on them through legislation in order to head off a massive rail strike in early December that could hurt the economy.

“President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass a bill enforcing the tentative contract… House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed Biden’s plan… [So did Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)].

“To make things even more awkward for the party, workers have been holding out largely for paid sick days and better quality-of-life provisions in their contracts — issues for which Democrats fashion themselves as champions… Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the omission of paid sick days ‘outrageous’ and suggested he will push for an amendment to the bill providing more leave…”

The New York Post added on November 29:

“Rail workers unions blasted President Biden on Monday after he pressed Congress to force the organized labor groups to accept a tentative agreement in order to avert a strike. ‘Joe Biden blew it,’ Railroad Workers Union treasurer Hugh Sawyer said in a press release… ‘He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations,’ Sawyer added…

“The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, the third-largest rail union in the US, said in a statement Tuesday that it was  ‘deeply disappointed’ with Biden’s decision to appeal to Congress to force an agreement…

“Organized labor is one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies…”

That may not continue for long.

Newsmax added on November 29:

“The National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC) and The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) apparently have no plans of relenting from its respective bargaining positions… the NRLC and BMWED didn’t share the Biden administration’s optimism for concocting a labor resolution within the next 10 days.

“Congressional legislation regarding a railway strike ‘denies railroad workers their right to strike while also denying them of the benefit they would likely otherwise obtain if they were not denied their right to strike,’ the statement reads. ‘Additionally, passing legislation to adopt tentative agreements that exclude paid sick leave for railroad workers will not address rail service issues. Rather, it will worsen supply chain issues and further sicken, infuriate, and disenfranchise railroad workers as they continue shouldering the burdens of the railroads’ mismanagement.’”

Republicans Against Congressional Intervention

 Breitbart wrote on November 30:

“Rubio ripped Biden… stating his belief that the parties should negotiate new terms of the contract without congressional involvement and pledged he would only vote for a deal that union members support. ‘Just because Congress has the authority to impose a heavy-handed solution does not mean we should. It is wrong for the Biden Administration, which has failed to fight for workers, to ask Congress to impose a deal the workers themselves have rejected,’ said the senior senator from Florida…

“Sen. John Thune (R-SD) [the No. 2 Senate Republican] shared the same sentiment that Congress should not intervene, stating the matter is the Biden administration’s ‘responsibility.’ In calling on Congress to impose a contract, Biden, a pro-union Democrat, has effectively disregarded the lingering sick time concerns of union members in fear of substantial economic consequences, which would have further negative impacts on Americans who have already been grappling with inflation not seen for decades.

“Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called the idea of congressional intervention insane and said he ‘won’t support it.’”

On Thursday, Congress DID intervene, totally ignoring some of the dissenting voices… See the next article.

House and Senate Adopt Bill Coercing Dissenting Railroad Unions

Newsmax reported on December 1:

“The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September. That settlement had been rejected by some of the 12 unions involved, creating the possibility of a strike beginning Dec. 9.

“The Senate vote was 80-15. It came one day after the House voted to impose the agreement. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature…

“The House passed the legislation enacting September’s labor agreement with broad bipartisan support. A second measure adding seven paid sick days for rail workers passed on a mostly party-line vote in the House, but it fell eight votes short of a 60-vote threshold needed for passage in the Senate.”

This move might very well backfire.

Europe Accuses US of Profiting From Ukraine War

Express wrote on November 26:

“Putin’s strategy of using Russia’s gas supplies against the West is starting to sow dissent among NATO as top European officials take aim at Joe Biden, accusing him of ‘profiting from this war’. Multiple high-ranking officials from the bloc have accused the US president of capitalising on the opportunity represented by the invasion and jacking up the price of weapons and gas…

“Speaking to Politico, a senior EU official said: ‘The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the US because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons.’ Another said: ‘We are really at a historic juncture.’ The official added that the combination of trade disruption and high energy prices jeopardises the US’s reputation with countries on the other side of the Atlantic.

“They said: ‘America needs to realise that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.’ Emmanuel Macron has also accused the US of not being ‘friendly’ in its approach to the EU. The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, meanwhile, called on the US to acknowledge the impact they were having on the European economy…

“However, the US has refused to concede that they are impacting the price of gas in the EU… The EU has turned to the US as an alternative to Russian gas, in order to avoid indirectly funding Putin’s war and giving him leverage over them for the crucial resource. However, Europeans say the price they are facing in the US is nearly four times as high as the same fuel costs in America.

“This row is compounded by a surge in orders for US-made military gear, as the EU’s supply of weapons to Ukraine leaves them running low themselves… [According to the Daily Mail, “… the Americans continue to send more, with the cost of supplying Ukraine to the US now at over $19billion as another $400million was added earlier this week.”]

“Germany’s economy minister called on Washington to show more ‘solidarity’ by reducing their energy costs… An EU diplomat added: ‘It’s not good, in terms of optics, to give the impression that your best ally is actually making huge profits out of your troubles.’

“The high gas prices add to existing tensions over Mr Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a huge tax, climate, and healthcare package for the US – but which caused one EU official to question whether Washington was ‘still our ally’. Fears are rising of a transatlantic trade war as a result of the package, which EU officials say put European industries at risk of collapse.

“Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher said the IRA is ‘very worrying’, adding: ‘The potential impact on the European economy is very big.’ An official from France’s foreign affairs ministry described the IRA as ‘discriminatory subsidies that will distort competition.’ Tonino Picula, the European Parliament’s lead person on the transatlantic relationship added: ‘The US is following a domestic agenda, which is regrettably protectionist and discriminates against US allies.’”

The Daily Mail added on November 26:

“European nations, now dependent upon the U.S. and its gas supply, say they are fretting over the impacts of the $369 billion green subsidies [mainly for products made in the USA] and what it will look like for them after already being squeezed on gas prices.’…

“The nearly $400 billion subsidy ‘scheme’ introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes Americans into buying products that are both U.S. made and energy efficient. The IRA provides tax credits for businesses and individuals who purchase ‘green’ products, including wind turbines and elective vehicles. The credits are mostly available, however, for products made in the United States.”

Europeans are getting increasingly upset with America.

Coming Trade War Between USA and EU?

 In regard to a potential trade war, caused by the IRA, The Associated Press wrote on November 25:

“The European Union and the United States are treading precariously close to a major trans-Atlantic trade dispute at a time when the two Western giants want to show unity in the face of challenges from Russia and China. EU trade ministers on Friday insisted they would be forced to respond if Washington stuck to all the terms of its Inflation Reduction Act, which is favorable to local companies through subsidies and, according to the EU, will unfairly discriminate against its firms that want to compete for contracts.

“‘Nobody wants to get into a tit-for-tat or subsidy race. But what the U.S. has done really isn’t consistent with the principles of free trade and fair competition,’ Irish Trade Minister Leo Varadkar said. ‘What we are asking for is fairness. We want and expect European companies and exports to be treated in the same way in the U.S. as American companies and exports are treated in Europe,’ EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said.

“And beyond the European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the 27 member nations on trade issues, the concerns are largely shared in EU national capitals, too. ‘All the member states are concerned,’ said Czech Trade Minister Jozef Sikela…

“Trade disputes have been a red line for decades in trans-Atlantic relations, highlighted by fights over aircraft subsidies and steel exports and affecting everything from hormone-treated beef to liquor exports…”

When Biden began to occupy the White House, many Europeans thought that the relationship between Europe and America would improve. The opposite has been occurring.

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 30:

“French President Emmanuel Macron is on a state visit to Washington. This week’s visit should mark the end of a quarrel between the two countries…”

Dream on, Deutsche Welle.

Blame America

Politico wrote on November 30:

“It’s gotten cold in Europe, the economy is tanking and the natives are getting restless. There’s only one answer: Blame America. Pointing across the Atlantic has long been a favorite diversionary tactic for Europe’s political elites when things start to get dicey on the Continent. Whether it’s the war in Ukraine (Washington shouldn’t have expanded NATO), natural disasters (too many American SUVs fueling climate change) or the demise of French as a lingua franca (cultureless Hollywood), America is inevitably the culprit.

“… While Europeans are understandably upset that their gas prices are four times what they are in the U.S., no one told them to make themselves dependent on Russian gas or to switch off perfectly functioning nuclear power plants (in fact, Washington told them for years not to)… While American defense contractors stand to benefit from replacing stocks and from stronger demand for arms among NATO allies, so too should their European counterparts. Yet therein lies the rub: European firms should benefit as much as Americans, but don’t. The main reason is that Europe has underinvested in its defense industry...

“The Europeans fear the generous ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ subsidies will undermine their industry and are threatening a trade war. The inconvenient truth, however, is that Europeans are having difficulty getting their own companies to invest at home because governments have placed more emphasis on subsidizing household gas bills than helping the region’s industry weather the crisis… it’s difficult not to conclude that Europe’s blame game is really about something else — envy…

“In Germany,  a book titled ‘Ami, It’s Time to Go!’ (Ami is German slang for Americans) has become a bestseller. The author is Oskar Lafontaine, a former finance minister who once led the Social Democrats before breaking with the party. ‘We have to free ourselves from the tutelage of the U.S.A.,’ Lafontaine writes, describing America as the root of most evil and arguing that Europe needs to blaze its own path….”

For more information, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe and USA on Collision Course” 

Europe’s Goal in the Ukraine Debacle?

Indian Punchline wrote on November 30:

“The meet-up location of NATO foreign ministers on November 29-30— Bucharest — was where ten years ago, former US President George W. Bush persuaded America’s transatlantic partners that Ukraine and Georgia should one day join their military alliance. The foreign ministers duly ‘reaffirmed’ that decision yesterday and left it at that.

“However, their statement on the conflict in Ukraine emphatically stated that the NATO ‘will never recognise’ Russia’s incorporation of four Ukrainian regions… [But] there are…  growing signs of disunity on [the] Ukraine issue among the US’ European allies and between the latter and the Biden Administration… Macron still hopes to be the western leader to accept President Putin’s surrender terms and go down in history books, but in reality his credibility is in shatters in Europe and Atlanticist circles in particular, and even within France.

“Europe’s number one priority at this juncture… ought to be its strategic autonomy to act in its own interests. But that requires deep thinking as to what is it that Europe wants to be autonomous about…  Europe… is struggling with its demons…

“Russian forces are outnumbering Ukraine’s and Russian fortifications have been significantly strengthened… the narrative of victory in Kiev — that Ukraine is winning the war and is about to capture Crimea, etc. — is becoming unsustainable for much longer… The regime-change-in-Russia propaganda is not going to wither away even under the emerging stark realities of the… ground situation in Ukraine…”

It is difficult to decide whom to believe these days regarding the reports on the war situation in Ukraine.

Western Apathy Is Ukraine’s Deadliest Foe

The Guardian wrote on November 27:

“As blacked-out Moldova warned last week, another huge humanitarian and migrant crisis looms, akin to that of last spring. It will challenge every EU country. Yet as the strain of multiple Ukraine-related problems begins to tell, European support may be faltering at this critical juncture. The war and its atrocities are being normalised and, increasingly, discounted… Nine months in, western public opinion is dulled, deadened and desensitized… People are no longer shocked, nor even greatly surprised. They feel powerless. The majority still wants Ukraine to prevail. But victory is not expected soon… war fatigue teeters towards apathy…

“As the war becomes a familiar fact of daily life, and negative fallout spreads, will public support soften further?… The Ukrainian people are a formidable force. They have shown they can beat their enemies. But should they fear their friends? A weakening of US and European support, leaving Ukraine out in the cold, is perhaps the most dismaying hazard they face. Putin is counting on it.

“Might the peoples of the west, for the sake of a quiet life, really get ‘fed up’ with the war to the point where they are ready to ignore or even tolerate mass murder, war crimes and the evisceration of a sovereign nation as the new normal? It’s democracy’s biggest test. Every day, it gets harder in Ukraine. One thing is certain: it’s going to be a long winter.”

Ultimately, Russia and Ukraine will unite.

US Military Aid in Ukraine Missing

Fox News wrote on November 27:

“President Biden’s administration is scrambling to track the nearly $20 billion in military aid it has sent to Ukraine as Republicans warn of impending audits when they take control of the House in January.

“Kevin McCarthy has said his party will not be giving Ukraine a ‘blank check’ to fend off Russia’s invasion. A potential audit would determine how much, if any, of the U.S. aid is ending up in the wrong hands…

“The Republican push to ramp up oversight enjoys some bipartisan support in Congress… The lawmakers agree that current monitoring efforts appear woefully inadequate, with the Biden administration inspecting just 10% of the 22,000 weapons the U.S. has provided to Ukraine between February and November 1… U.S. allies in Europe have expressed hope that Republican skepticism of Ukraine aid will not lead to a widespread cutting of funding, however…

“‘No one in Republican leadership has called for an end to aid for Ukraine,’  Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said Monday. ‘People on the Republican side are saying, “Why do we have to pass a $40 billion package to send $8 billion to Ukraine?”’”

There have been many concerns that the weapons and the money being sent to Ukraine are ending up in Russian hands.

“Slick Use of Loophole Keeps Russian Oil Flowing Into Britain”

The Times wrote on November 20:

“As Vladimir Putin’s army bombarded Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steelworks in May, the tanker Mariner III pulled out of the south Russian port of Tuapse carrying nearly 200,000 barrels of oil. After five days at sea, the 170m (558ft) ship stopped alongside a bigger tanker, the Greek-owned Marinoula, in the waters off Kalamata, Greece. Over the next 36 hours, the two vessels were connected by large rubber pipes while the Marinoula siphoned off some of the Mariner’s cargo. After the ship-to-ship transfer, the Marinoula sailed to the UK, where it docked at Immingham in Lincolnshire and, on June 6, offloaded about 250,000 barrels of oil.

“Official records, however, declare that the UK received no oil from Russia in June or in July. The shipment was classified and reported correctly under British reporting protocols and there was no breach of maritime rules. The fuel was one of at least 39 cargos of Russian oil, worth more than £200 million, to have arrived at British ports since the invasion of Ukraine but to have been classified as imports from elsewhere. Almost £80 million of this was in June and July. In total, £778 million of Russian oil has arrived at ten UK ports since March…

“One arrived last week. On Wednesday, the 244m Delta Pioneer docked at Immingham, carrying oil directly from Russia. According to Refinitiv data analysed by Global Witness, a research group, the vessel brought half a million barrels of fuel to the port. It is not yet known how the fuel will be classified. Official records show that Russian oil worth about £23 million that has arrived at Immingham since March has been recorded as imports from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

“The Sunday Times has tracked four vessels that have carried more than a million barrels of Russian oil to Immingham. Two of the cargos involved ship-to-ship transfers, while a third brought Russian oil from Rotterdam. At least 13 shipments, including the Marinoula’s, arrived in June and July. The east London port of Thamesport has received £130 million of oil from Russia since March. These were classified as imports from Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands…

“The import of Russian oil to the UK is legal until December 5, when all imports will be barred…  However, maritime experts say the way the UK registers imports, as well as the increased use of ship-to-ship transfers, will make it difficult for the UK to sanction Russian oil… it is the country of dispatch that is used to measure the nationality of an import, not the country where it was produced. This means a cargo of Chinese-made goods could be registered as being from Germany if it were imported to the UK by a German firm…

“British ports accepted more than £78 million of Russian oil in June. These were reported as imports from the Netherlands, Estonia, Poland or Belgium. A further £1.5 million of Russian oil arrived at UK ports in July and was logged as imports from France, the Netherlands, Germany and Latvia…”

Whenever greed and money are involved, “loopholes” are found.

Unchristian England and Wales?

AFP wrote on November 29:

“For the first time, less than half of the population in England and Wales identifies as Christian, according to census data released Tuesday. The 10-yearly census carried out in 2021 showed rapid growth for the Muslim population, but ‘no religion’ was the second most common response after Christian, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

“In an increasingly secular age, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said it was no ‘great surprise’ that the Christian proportion was declining over time…

“Some 27.5 million people or 46.2 percent in England and Wales described themselves as Christian, down 13.1 percentage points from 2011. ‘No religion’ rose by 12 points to 37.2 percent or 22.2 million, while Muslims stood at 3.9 million or 6.5 percent of the population, up from 4.9 percent before.

“The next most common responses were Hindu (1.0 million) and Sikh 524,000), while Buddhists overtook Jewish people (273,000 to 271,000)…”

Christianity Today had written on December 23, 2016:

“The last 18 months may have significantly dented the UK’s faith in God, a poll for The Times indicates. The proportion of people who say they believe in God has dropped four points from 32 per [cent] in February last year to 28 per cent now… Meanwhile those saying they actively do not believe in any form of God or higher power has gone up five points…

Express had written on October 16, 2012:

“Nearly 60 per cent of people believe we are not alone in the universe and that alien life-forms exist, a new poll has found. While a report carried out by the University of Chicago claims that just 37 per cent of us believe in God.”

There could be, of course, a link between denying the existence of God and believing in the ungodly theory of evolution and the existence of aliens.

UK’s Army “Overstretched”

Express wrote on November 30:

“[Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak has been accused of ‘completely’ underestimating the global threats facing the UK, as Britain embarks on ‘swathing’ cuts to the army. Chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood told Express.co.uk that the world has ‘moved into a dangerous era’, warning that the British army is ‘overstretched’.

“Mr Ellwood has urged Mr Sunak to commit to spending three percent of GDP on defence, one percent more than the UK currently spends… ‘We need to see those swathing cuts which were outlined in the last defence review reversed. Cuts to our tanks, ships and planes, as well as our troop numbers… “

Merkel in Defiance

The Guardian wrote on November 25:

“Angela Merkel has insisted that her position as a lame duck in the last months of her time in office made it more or less impossible for her to influence the behaviour of Vladimir Putin. The former German chancellor appeared both defensive and quietly defiant about her inability to change the course of the Russian president’s decision-making in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine in February…

“‘I no longer had the power to push my ideas through because everyone knew “she’ll be gone by autumn”’ she said [during an interview with Der Spiegel], describing how she had tried to establish a round of European talks after a meeting in the summer of 2021 between the US president, Joe Biden, and Putin. ‘Had I been standing again in the September I’d have kept drilling down, but … at my final meeting in Moscow [with Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov], the feeling was clear: from a political power point of view, you’re finished. For Putin it is only power that counts.’

“In her interviews with Alexander Osang, which took place over a period of a year and in various locations, Merkel insisted that her stance on the Minsk agreement – which brought a ceasefire after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula – had been right. Key points of the Minsk peace talks, including disarmament and supervision by an international body, were never followed through. But Merkel said the agreement had nevertheless helped buy Kyiv time to arm itself better against the Russian military.

“According to Osang, she repeatedly implied that she felt misunderstood over what she had tried to achieve as German leader, facing as she now does a barrage of accusations over some of her choices, such as her decision to block Ukraine’s admission to Nato in Bucharest in 2008, seen by many as having harmed its ability to defend itself. Her refusal to acknowledge her mistakes in allowing Germany to become ever more dependent on Russian gas supplies is another major criticism.

“Merkel also appeared to be loosely comparing her behaviour to that of Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister associated with the flawed policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler by allowing him to expand the territory of Nazi Germany in the 1930s…

“Merkel added it was unfair to suggest she had not paid Ukraine enough attention in 2013 and 2014…

“Among the anecdotes she relays in a wide-ranging interview in which she is reflective and sometimes gloomy about her time in office, are encounters with the Queen – though Merkel said she was never able to establish what the British monarch thought about Brexit – and a G7 meeting with Boris Johnson, who she said had been attempting to undermine the Northern Ireland protocol…

“She had also watched the Queen’s funeral on television, and taken an interest in many of the guests she had recognised, including Tony Blair, whom Osang said she referred to as a ‘great political talent who had lost his reputation’ over the Iraq war…

“Merkel said she had no regrets about not standing for office again, after 16 years at the helm. ‘Somebody new was needed. Domestically it was high time and from a foreign policy perspective… (there were) so many things we tried again and again, but were not moving a millimetre on. Not just over Ukraine, but also Transnistria, Moldova, Georgia, Abkhazia, Syria and Libya. It was time for a new approach.’

“She said she sometimes woke in the night and worried about many of the dramatic events taking place in the world. ‘I think about… how the horror disappears as the eye witnesses die. And the spirit of reconciliation also disappears.’”

Germany’s “new approach” can be seen in its current government—arguably the most incompetent government Germany has ever had since World War II. And Merkel’s wrong appeasement policies over many years towards Russia and Germany’s dependency on Russian oil can by no means be ignored.

Ben-Gvir to Be Head of Police

JTA wrote on November 25:

“Itamar Ben-Gvir… will head Israel’s police forces, under the terms of a deal inked with Benjamin Netanyahu early Friday.

“The deal would expand the ministry of internal security… into the ministry of national security and would also give Ben-Gvir authority over border police in Palestinian territories...

“In the role, Ben-Gvir will have the power to carry out some of his long-held wishes, including loosening rules so that officers can open fire on Palestinians who throw stones and expanding the ability of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, the Jerusalem site that is home to the Al-Aqsa mosque.

“Ben-Gvir… has ignited conflict by accompanying Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, where Jewish prayer has been strictly limited… Twice convicted of incitement in Israeli courts, Ben-Gvir has also called for annexing large parts of the West Bank and for deporting Arabs who are not loyal to Israel… The Biden administration is considering refusing to meet with Ben-Gvir…

“Netanyahu is still working to finalize an agreement with Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionist party. Netanyahu has reportedly agreed to give Smotrich authority over Israel’s administration of the West Bank…”

This will undoubtedly lead to more friction between Israel and the USA and most other countries, especially Europe.  

Ethiopia in the News

USA Today wrote on November 25:

“Tigray, Eritrea and Ethiopia’s 2-year-long civil war has killed more people than the war in Ukraine, yet nobody’s talking about it… An estimated 383,000 civilians died in Tigray between November 2020 and August 2022…

“Ethiopia is the oldest state in sub-Saharan Africa and the only state in Africa that has never been colonized. It has more than 2,000 years of history. It is where the oldest biblical texts have been found. Various forms of Pentecostal Christianity are widely followed in Ethiopia, including by [Prime Minister Abiy] Ahmed, who uses religious terminology in his speeches to explain his own power. He claims he has a divine mandate…”

FP wrote on June 18, 2022 about Ahmed:

“An ancient Christian imperialism is resurging in Ethiopia today under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. This archaic vision promises to unify Ethiopia and restore its divine glory. But it appears to be shattering Ethiopia and fueling catastrophic suffering.

“Its core belief is that Ethiopia is a Christian nation created and destined by God for greatness under Christian leadership. Today it is supercharging enmity and silencing critical voices calling for the end of war, genuine dialogue, and an inclusive Ethiopia where diverse people can belong together…

“Abiy became Ethiopia’s first Evangelical prime minister. His father was Muslim, his mother Orthodox, and Abiy himself converted to Pentecostalism in his 20s. (In Ethiopia, Protestantism, Evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism are overlapping Christianities.) Abiy was ecstatically hailed by many Ethiopians—especially Evangelicals—as a messiah, as a new ‘Moses’ or ‘King David’ who would save Ethiopia from disintegration.

“In an early speech, Abiy announced himself as Ethiopia’s ‘seventh king,’ a reference to his Orthodox mother’s prophecy over him as a child. This self-presentation powerfully evoked the ancient history of Ethiopia’s Christian imperialism and the promise of Ethiopia’s restored greatness…”

Ethiopia should be watched.

Xi and Kim and Miguel to Work Together?

Thomson/Reuters wrote on November 25:

“Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that China would be willing to work together with North Korea for regional and global peace, stability and prosperity, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Saturday, citing Xi’s letter to Kim.

“KCNA did not mention North Korea’s recent missile launches that have heightened tensions around the Korean peninsula following joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.”

The Associated Press reported on November 25:

“Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart [Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez] pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states’ ‘core interests’…  China generally defines core interests as the defense of its economic and political development aims, along with control over territory it claims, especially self-governing Taiwan.”

Newsmax wrote on November 27:

“China has agreed to restructure Cuban debt and provide new trade and investment credits to the beleaguered Caribbean Island nation after a meeting in Peking between the two Communist countries’ leaders…

“Chinese trade and investment has slowed in recent years due to Cuba’s failure to meet restructured debt payments… Analysts estimate the debt in the billions of dollars, although no official figures are available. Cuba last reported its foreign debt in 2019 at $19.6 billion.

“China is Cuba’s most important commercial partner after Venezuela, though trade has declined from over $2 billion in 2017 to $1.3 billion last year, according to the Cuban government.”

Unprecedented Protests in China

The Daily Mail wrote on November 27:

“Chinese police have clashed with thousands protesting the country’s draconian COVID lockdowns – as unprecedented civil unrest gripped the nation. Demonstrations erupted in at least seven cities – including Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou – with violence breaking out between local cops and furious protesters. The largest demonstration appeared in Shanghai – home to 26million residents – with many boldly demanding President Xi Jinping resign. Officers used pepper spray against about 300 protesters, according to a witness, but western journalists reported the numbers to be in the thousands.

“Meanwhile last night hundreds gathered to mourn the deaths of at least 10 people in an apartment fire last week in Urumqi in the Xinjiang region, where residents were sealed in their buildings to try to stop the spread of COVID. It comes amid China launching another mass crackdown on the virus with crippling lockdowns put in place across the country, nearly three years after the pandemic started there…

“Public fury forced authorities in the far western Xinjiang region to open up parts of the capital Urumqi, which has been subject to a punishing ‘zero-Covid’ lockdown for more than three months…

“President Xi Jinping´s government faces mounting anger at its ‘zero-COVID’ policy that has shut down access to areas throughout China in an attempt to isolate every case… the ruling Communist Party faces growing complaints about the economic and human cost as businesses close and families are isolated for weeks with limited access to food and medicine…

“Internet users posted videos and accounts on Chinese and foreign social media showing protests in Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu and Chongqing in the southwest and Urumqi and Korla in Xinjiang… Posts on Chinese social media were quickly deleted, which Beijing often does to suppress criticism it worries might serve as a rallying point for opposition to one-party rule…

“The unprecedented protests, and anger online, are the latest signs of frustration at China’s approach to tackling Covid. It is the only major country still fighting the pandemic with mass testing and lockdowns…”

But other countries are still imposing massive restrictions in their alleged “fight” against Covid, and it may be only a matter of time until similar protests (and worse) will break out in those countries.

Demonstrations in Iran

Express wrote on November 27:

“… demonstrations have challenged Iran’s government following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 having been detained by the country’s morality police.

“The protests have seen at least 450 people killed since they started, as well as over 18,000 arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran…”

Iran’s powerful dictatorial government could find itself in hot water, as demonstrations and disagreement grow in the country.

Ties Between Russia and India Deepen

Express wrote on November 26:

“Russia has unveiled a new plan to boost the energy efficiency of Russian-built nuclear reactors in India… Despite Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year, New Delhi and Moscow have been deepening their energy ties, much to the West’s chagrin…. According to Hindustan Times, despite the war in Ukraine, Moscow has continued supplying vital components to build the 1000-MW nuclear reactors…

“India and Russia’s partnership on nuclear energy has a long history, with the Soviet Union first supplying New Delhi with nuclear reactors and fuel after it was hit with sanctions from the West for its refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.”

Far Eastern countries like Russia, China, India and others will ultimately be part of the biblical “kings of the East.”

Belarus Foreign Minister Dies Suddenly

The Daily Mail wrote on November 26:

“The foreign minister of Russian ally Belarus died suddenly today at the age of 64, it was announced in Minsk. Vladimir Makei was seen as the only main channel of communication to the West in dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s hardline pro-Moscow regime. His sudden death came the day after he met with the Pope’s envoy Ante Jozić amid speculation they were discussing a secret peace plan over the war in Ukraine.

“Career spy Makei had been foreign minister for a decade and was due tomorrow and Monday to host Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Minsk.  Lavrov’s spokeswoman said Russia was ‘shocked’ at his passing. No cause of death was given – but several sources speculated that his demise could be suspicious…The pro-war Russian Telegram channel Mardan posted: ‘Strange death. Just in time. Just yesterday he discussed a peace plan with the envoy of the Pope.’ Narrative channel said: ‘Makei was Lukashenko’s main channel of communication with the West. ‘A career intelligence officer, Makei was closely associated with Austrian intelligence and the Austrian elites…’

“HVS channel said Makei was a politician ‘in whose natural death one can never believe’… While Lukashenko is Putin’s closest international ally, the Kremlin has remained concerned that Belarus has failed to fully sign up to his war in Ukraine – even though Moscow has troops stationed in Belarus. There were also concerns that Lukashenko – despite being a pariah – was seeking to do a secret deal with the West…

“The Belarus Foreign Ministry did not recognise the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘people’s republics’ – sparking anger in Moscow…”

Suspicious indeed.

Turkey Threatens US Security in Syria

Newsmax wrote on November 25:

“Turkey earlier this week launched drone, air and artillery strikes on Syria and has vowed revenge on U.S.-allied Kurds for a Nov. 13 terror attack in Istanbul, a move that could lead to the release of thousands of imprisoned Islamic State terrorists…

“The United States has allied with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against Islamic State group in Syria, causing a deep rift with Turkey. SDF is led by the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG). Thousands of Islamic State terrorists from more than 50 countries have been incarcerated by Syrian Kurdish Forces…

“The White House told Axios the escalation in Syria ‘and along the Turkish-Syrian border in recent days is dangerous and a threat to the safety of civilians and U.S. personnel in Syria.’ ‘We strongly oppose military action that further destabilizes the lives of communities in Syria and risks the Global Coalition’s hard-earned progress against ISIS,’ the White House National Security Council spokesperson added. The U.S. still has around 900 troops in Syria.”

The rift between Turkey and the USA will deepen.

US Government Still Hides Information Regarding JFK’s Assassination

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on November 25:

“Fifty-nine years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. These many years later, the United States government continues to hold in secret piles of information related to the assassination.

“After the popular theatrical run of director Oliver Stone’s movie JFK that dramatically challenged the Lee Harvey Oswald as ‘lone gunman’ explanation for Kennedy’s assassination, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 became law. It created the Assassination Records Review Board tasked with reviewing and releasing records held by the US government related to the assassination. While some US government records have since been released, others remain hidden away.

“On December 15, the remaining Kennedy assassination records are scheduled for release. But, don’t get your hopes up. Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF) President and Kennedy assassination researcher Jacob G. Hornberger predicts in an October 21 FFF article that President Joe Biden will, like President Donald Trump did in 2017 when the deadline for release of the final materials first occurred, refuse to let the public see all the information. Indeed, Biden already did so once in 2021 when the secrecy extension period Trump had set for the remaining records passed…

“Legal scholar Andrew Napolitano, who has known Trump since before Trump’s 2016 presidential run, provides some insight on Trump’s change of mind regarding the release of the still secret Kennedy assassination records in a Tuesday video conversation with Gerald Celente of the Trends Journal. Napolitano, who is an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute and was a state trial judge in New Jersey, discusses a late December of 2000 phone conversation he had with Trump in which Trump not releasing the records during his presidential term was discussed. Napolitano relates that Trump, who was then finishing up his presidential term, told Napolitano, ‘Judge, if you saw what I saw, you would know why I can’t release them.’ Queried then by Napolitano concerning what Trump was talking about, Napolitano relates Trump said he could not tell Napolitano over the phone but could tell Napolitano next time they meet in person — something that is yet to happen.

“Napolitano, in the video conversation, speculates regarding why Trump changed his mind regarding releasing the Kennedy assassination records, stating, ‘… Whatever it was it was proof of more people involved than Lee Harvey Oswald — people in the government, and he didn’t want to reveal it even though many of those people are themselves now dead… I think they scared him or threatened him,’ further states Napolitano…”

If those documents are not released on December 15, then we know that something really troublesome has been going on all these years.

Dropping Charges Against Assange?

The New York Times wrote on November 28:

“The New York Times and four European news organizations called on the United States government on Monday to drop its charges against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, for obtaining and publishing classified diplomatic and military secrets.

“In a joint open letter,  The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País said the prosecution of Mr. Assange under the Espionage Act ‘sets a dangerous precedent’ that threatened to undermine the First Amendment and the freedom of the press. ‘Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists,’ the letter said. ‘If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.’

“Mr. Assange, who has been fighting extradition from Britain since his arrest there in 2019, is also accused of participating in a hacking-related conspiracy. The letter notably did not urge the Justice Department to drop that aspect of the case, though it said that ‘some of us are concerned’ about it, too…”

Fauci’s Memory “Vanished”

The New York Post wrote on November 25:

“A federal judge compelled Fauci to answer questions from lawyers suing to reveal the role of ‘dozens of federal officials across at least 11 federal agencies’ to suppress ‘disfavored speakers, viewpoints and content on social-media platforms.’ That lawsuit is exposing how Biden’s war on disinformation is demolishing Americans’ freedom of speech.

“Fauci was deposed on Wednesday by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Landry labeled Fauci the ‘man who single-handedly wrecked the US economy based upon “the science, follow the science.’” But ‘over the course of seven hours, we discovered that he can’t recall practically anything dealing with his COVID response,’ Landry said…”

Telling. Fauci should be held accountable for all the harm he has caused. But will that ever happen in man’s political “justice” system?

Trudeau Defends His Controversial Dictatorship

Fox News wrote on November 26:

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said he is convinced he ‘made the right choice’ in invoking historic emergency powers earlier this year to shut down the Freedom Convoy protests against Canada’s COVID-19 mandates. Trudeau defended his actions in testimony before a commission tasked with investigating his use of the Emergencies Act to end the trucker protest…

“Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada’s history during February’s Freedom Convoy protest in the capital city of Ottawa. In doing so, he granted the federal government temporary powers to quell truckers and others protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other pandemic-related restrictions and freeze the bank accounts of those suspected of supporting the convoy. The emergency powers were lifted on Feb. 23.

“Trudeau’s actions were highly controversial, and civil liberties advocates questioned whether the circumstances of the protest necessitated his extreme response. Lawyers for the convoy and others said that Trudeau had ignored a plan prepared by Ottawa police and argued that the emergency powers were unnecessary to end the protest…

“Additional testimony and documents obtained by the inquiry revealed that U.S. officials had pressured the Canadian government to shut down the protests and remove blockades at border crossings between the U.S. and Canada… White House aides had reportedly contacted Trudeau’s staff as well, ahead of a Feb. 11 phone call that took place between the prime minister and President Biden.  On that call, Trudeau reportedly informed the president that his government had a plan to end the protests and blockades.”

Shameful… but not surprisingly, Biden and his aides were apparently instrumental in Trudeau’s dictatorial action to suppress liberties and freedoms.

Deadly Walmart Shooting

Fox News wrote on November 25:

“… a Walmart employee killed six people inside a Chesapeake, Virginia store, wounded several others and taking his own life… In a manifesto, Bing allegedly claimed he ‘was harassed by idiots with low intelligence and a lack of wisdom.’… He legally purchased the 9mm handgun used in the shooting from a local store that morning and had no criminal history, police said Friday.”

It appears that demons become increasingly influential in the lives of people.

Earthquake in Indonesia

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 27:

“The death toll from the earthquake that struck Indonesia’s main island of Java this week has risen to 321 as rescuers found more bodies… The 5.6-magnitude quake struck the highly populated Cianjur region of West Java province on Monday. It damaged more than 62,000 houses and displaced more than 73,000 residents…

“While the magnitude of the earthquake itself would typically be expected to cause light damage, experts say proximity to fault lines, the shallowness of the quake, and inadequate infrastructure that cannot withstand earthquakes all contributed to extensive damage.

“Experts monitoring seismic activity said that 284 aftershocks with gradually lessening intensity have occurred since the main quake struck on Monday.”

Christ warned that in these end times, we will be hearing more and more about earthquakes “in various places” (Matthew 24:7).

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

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

In the first instalment of this series, we saw how there are those who do not believe that the Old Testament is necessary for a Christian today.  We continue in part 2 to look at reasons why such thinking is wrong. We saw, under the first of seven points, that both the Old Testament and the New Testament combine to give revelation about God, His creation of the universe and of man.   Let us move on discussing more reasons why the Old Testament is so important.

2. The Old Testament is vital for God’s revelation about His master plan of salvation for the whole of mankind.

In Leviticus 23:1-2, we read about God’s Holy Days: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.’”

It should be noted that they are God’s Feasts, not Israel’s or of the Jews.   Today, as we will know, these generally are no longer kept by professing Christians except by the true Church of God with very few others understanding their necessity. Even most Jews do not keep them in the way prescribed by God. Mainstream Christianity have their own set of days which they keep, namely Christmas, Easter and other days.    These Holy Days, and their meaning, can be studied in our free booklet “God’s Commanded Holy Days” where we read on page 1, the following:

“Why did ancient Israel and Judah have to go into captivity? Was God angry with them? And why does God warn this modern world that calamity is fast approaching? Is God angry with us?  Is there a correlation?

“Could our failure to observe God’s weekly Sabbath and His annual Feast Days have anything to do with it? Before we shrug our shoulders and scoff at such an idea, let us review God’s Word—the Bible—to learn what our Maker has to say about our national, collective and individual sins.

“To suggest that God still requires man to observe the Seventh-Day Sabbath and His annual Holy Days sounds strange, indeed, to most people. After all, weren’t those days given only to the Jews, ultimately to be replaced by Christians with Sunday and with such festivals as Christmas, Easter, and even Halloween? Wouldn’t the keeping of the Sabbath and the annual Feast Days mean returning to Old Testament rituals that were done away by Christ when He died for us? Weren’t the Sabbath and the annual Festivals just part of the Old Covenant that was replaced by the New Covenant?

“Undoubtedly, these are some of the arguments you have heard over the years, intended to convince you that the observance of the original Holy Days, and especially the weekly Sabbath, is no longer required or even permitted. Are these arguments based on Scripture, or are they based on human reasoning and opinion? How can you know the truth of the matter?

“We believe this booklet will present the Biblical truth regarding the Sabbath and Holy Day observances.”

And if we fast forward, we read on page 52 under the heading “Conclusion”:

“As we have shown you throughout this booklet, God’s weekly Sabbath and His annual Festivals are still to be kept holy today. God wants EVERYONE—including YOU—to observe them. There is no Scripture in the New Testament that does away with God’s requirement to keep His weekly Sabbath and His annual Holy Days holy, as He made them holy. God had to severely punish ancient Israel and Judah for violating His commandments, including profaning His Holy Sabbaths. God is very angry with the world today—especially the modern houses of Israel and Judah, who should know better—for trampling His Sabbaths under foot. His judgment is coming soon on the whole world.”

Further information is available in the booklets: “The Meaning of God’s Spring Holy Days” and “The Meaning of God’s Fall Holy Days.” 

We would have no knowledge of God’s Holy Days were it not for the Old Testament although there are references to them in the New Testament.   Today, mainstream Christianity ignore the fact that the early Church kept these Holy Days, as did Jesus.  How much more would they be ignored (if that is possible) if Leviticus 23 was not available where it confirms to whom the Holy Days belong.

3. The Bible is incomplete without the Old Testament.  Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament are sufficient on their own.

Under the first 2 points above, it can be clearly seen that both the Old Testament and the New Testament are needed to understand the items briefly discussed above and without both, our future would not be set out clearly as it is.

They are inter-connected and make up the Word of God. We read in Genesis 3:1-13 how God dealt with Adam and Eve’s transgression and continuing in verses 14-19: “So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.’ To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.’  Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it”: Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.’”

Above we read how God addressed both the serpent and man.   The curses spelled out show how a curse came upon humanity because of sin.  In Revelation 22:1-3 we read: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.”

We read that the curse will be removed and this knowledge would be incomplete without both Testaments.   This is but one of so many connections that is necessary to get the full picture.

Another connection would be quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament.  On the blueletterbible.org website we read:

“The close connection between the Old and the New Testament is shown by the number of times the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament. Bagster’s Bible gives 889 quotations and allusions. George F. Pentecost gives the number at 885, a few of the allusions given by Bagster’s Bible being disputed. Every book of the Old Testament is quoted except Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Esther. There is only one quotation from the Song of Solomon.”

In the four gospels and the book of Acts, taken from the above calculations, there are around 285 quotations from the Old Testament, showing that the early Church knew the value of the Old Testament.

We read in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

It refers to the Scriptures, that is, of the Old Testament—the writings of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms, as well as those parts of the New Testament, which had already been written by the time Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. Later, Peter would refer to Paul’s writings as part of the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:14-16).

4. The Old Testament contains many prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. 
5. We read in John 1:45: “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”

We further read Christ’s words in John 5:39: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”  And in verses 46-47: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

We find Jesus expounding the Old Testament (the only Scriptures available at His time and which we will cover later), and in Luke 24:27 we read: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

And in verses 44-46: “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’  And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day…’”

In Acts 1:3, we read about Jesus appearing to His apostles after His resurrection: “…to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”

On the website: biblearchaeology.org, there is an article entitled, “400 Prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament” by Paul Humber, reading as follows:

“The Lord Jesus Christ made it very clear that the Old Testament spoke of Him, stating: ‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me’ (John 5:39). My recently published book, ‘400+ Prophecies, Appearances, or Foreshadowings of Christ in the Tanakh (Old Testament),’ is a conscientious effort to take Jesus at His Word and to discover Him in pages of the Old Testament.

“Many people have the idea that the Old Testament was written BC (‘before Christ’). It was indeed written before Christ’s incarnation—but not before Christ, the Son of God. Nothing was ‘before’ Christ. In fact, He is the Creator of all—including even time itself. Thus, Jesus often even appears in the OT pages. In addition, there are many prophecies of His coming into the world to fulfil His unique role as Messiah.

“There are at least 117 prophecies, appearances, or foreshadowings (PAF’s) of Christ in the Law, at least 144 PAF’s in the Writings, and at least 153 PAF’s in the Prophets.  A minimal total for the entire Old Testament, therefore, is 414.”

With such a weight of evidence, it is difficult to imagine how anyone could think that the New Testament alone is sufficient for a Christian.

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

compiled by Dave Harris

“Europe and USA on Collision Course,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Europe is accusing the USA of profiting from the war between Russia and Ukraine, while exploiting the EU. There are also fears of a new trade war because of America’s new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which allegedly unfairly discriminates against EU firms. What does this all mean?

“Europa und USA auf Kollisionskurs,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This program covers the same topic as described above.

“Erst denken, dann handeln” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Michael Link. Title in English: “Think First, Then Act.”

“Gottes Hilfe bei Problemen?” is the title of last Sabbath’s German sermonette, presented by Andreas Raetz. Title in English: “God’s Help with Problems.”

“Unsere Gedanken spiegeln unser Leben,” is the title of last Sabbath’s German sermon, presented by Thilo Hanstein. Title in English: “Our Thoughts Reflect Our Lives.”

“War and the Railroad Strike—Comments on News and Prophecy, November 26, 2022,” is the title of the first message presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Was it ever God’s intent that humans should resort to violence and fight in war? What did the Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong teach on this issue? Is a railroad strike inevitable, beginning in early December? What would such a strike do to our economy? Would Congress have to intervene? If so, what would the reaction be of labor unions and left-wing Democrats? What can we learn from the history of prior railroad strikes?

“God the Father Is the Highest,” is the title of last Sabbath’s sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

There is a tendency in many churches to either under- or overemphasize the role and position of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. It is of tremendous importance that you understand the truth in this regard, as it is revealed in the pages of your Bible. This sermon will show that God is a Family and a Hierarchy, and this means, God the Father and Jesus Christ are NOT equal in authority.