On, November 9, 2019, Kalon Mitchell will present the sermonette, titled, “What Do You Expect As a Christian?” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “How Boldly and Courageously Do You Talk with God?”

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 we had such an inspiring and joy-filled Feast of Tabernacles, it does not take Satan long to start creating problems for and among the brethren. After all, he is the accuser of the brethren, an agitator and a provocateur, and he is like a vicious roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He discourages and causes problems for us in the hope we will fall short of the mark.

Some, returning from the Feast, had difficulty with flight delays and some had to stay in a hotel overnight due to flight interruptions. One couple came home to a flooded basement due to a water-valve failure.

I came home to find only two of my nine chickens were alive. Some wild animal killed seven of them while we were away, due to the failure of those who were supposed to take care and feed them according to my instructions.

So we can expect more trials and tests as we settle into the coming winter months, with shorter days and inclement weather in various parts of the country.

Trials and tests are part and parcel for those who are seeking to obey God, and we only need to read what Paul, an apostle of Christ, went through. He outlined and summarized his experience in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, which included beatings and being stoned, as well as the added stress of care for the brethren and church congregations.

In spite of all this, he never took his eyes off the reward and his crown which he would receive from Christ at His coming and at the end of the race. This is such an encouragement and example for us. As he endured and remained faithful to the end, so can we, since it is unlikely that we will have to experience all the trials that he went through.

There will be several long months until the Spring Holy Days, so let us ensure we stay close to God by not neglecting our responsibilities in our efforts to further the Work of preaching the Gospel to the world as a witness and never taking our eyes off the great reward that lies ahead.

by Norbert Link

While especially the American media is obsessed with every little nuance of the impeachment circus against the President, we have chosen to ignore “reporting” on this, except for a passing reference in an article on Israel and one article claiming that President Trump will be reelected because of the attempt by Democrats to impeach him, which is, of course, doomed to fail in the Senate at the latest.

Instead, we are showing, among other things, how terribly divided the nation is; that many Americans are tired of their country’s endless wars; and that the dollar is under attack.

We also speak on an important defeat of the Trump Administration regarding a contemplated change in the immigration law; and report on President Trump’s obsession with the ancient emperor Cyrus. We also ask what America would do in case of a war between Israel and Iran.

We address – briefly – the ongoing Brexit debacle and the EU’s resolve to become more relevant on the world scene and build a powerful army [please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe—the Coming New Superpower,”] and speak of alarming signs of increasing anti-Semitism in Germany. We also address the horrible violent situation in Mexico, due to the government’s inability to deal with its drug cartels.

We speak on more scientific foolishness; a long-overdue decision by Austria to ban public smoking; the way in which governments control their citizens; and the new trend of microchipping; and we conclude with ongoing paganism in the Roman Catholic Church.

USA—A Deeply Divided Nation

The Associated Press reported on November 3:

“The nation will plunge into the election as deeply divided as it has been politically in more than half a century, when cities were in flames with protests over war and civil rights… Many of those divisions existed before Trump, but his presidency has exacerbated them…

“Indeed, no president in the history of public opinion polling has faced such deep and consistent partisan polarization.”

The USA is deeply divided. A house divided cannot and will not stand.

Piers Morgan: Trump Guaranteed to Win in 2020

Newsmax wrote on November 1:

“The impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump will backfire, Piers Morgan predicted on Friday, saying it will fire up his base, demoralize his liberal opponents and … virtually guarantee him another win. Morgan, the host of ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain,’ wrote in an opinion piece for The Daily Mail on Friday that Democrats have misjudged their opportunity, and will inadvertently hand Trump victory in 2020. ‘I don’t think this impeachment has a… chance of being successful, given the hyper-partisan nature of current US politics,’ he wrote…

“Morgan goes on to say that ‘what the Democrats don’t seem to have realized, or have chosen to ignore in their self-righteous desperation to nail Trump for anything, is that a failed impeachment attempt will hugely help him get re-elected.’ He adds that this, combined with a strong recent job reports, including record-low unemployment for African-Americans, the recent killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ‘virtually guarantee him another win.'”

We agree.

America Tired of Fighting Endless Wars

Breitbart wrote on November 3:

“American Veterans who risked their lives in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are increasingly opposing foreign interventionism that continues to dominate the Washington, DC, political establishment. The latest Pew Research Center survey on the issue finds that 64 percent of Veterans say the Iraq War is ‘not worth fighting,’ along with 62 percent of all American adults who agree. Only 33 percent of Veterans say the Iraq War is worth fighting.

“Likewise, nearly 60 percent of Veterans and all American adults say the Afghanistan War was not worth the fight. Less than 40 percent say the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was worth fighting…

“Even when it comes to the U.S. intervention in Syria, Veterans by a majority oppose the effort. The Pew Research Center survey found that 55 percent of Veterans said U.S. involvement in Syria is ‘not worth it’ while almost 60 percent of American adults agreed.

“Former President George W. Bush led the U.S. into war in Afghanistan and Iraq with more than 4,500 Americans dying in Iraq — including more than 3,500 killed in combat — and up to 205,000 Iraqi citizens dying in the war since March 2003. In total, Bush’s post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and intervention in Pakistan have resulted in the deaths of between 480,000 and 507,000 people — including nearly 7,000 American soldiers who had deployed to the regions.”

What is reflected in the article is an interesting phenomenon: The Bible has predicted that Americans will be tired of fighting and refusing to go out when the trumpet for war sounds… but not because they realize that war is wrong per se. That change of heart will only come when Christ has returned.

US Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s Health Insurance Visa Restriction

Deutsche Welle reported on November 3:

“A judge in the United States on Saturday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to insist on immigrants having health insurance, or the resources to pay for medical care, before they can get visas. The legislation was due to come into effect as of November 3 but Federal Judge Michael Simon in Portland, Oregon, granted a 28-day restraining order on the proposal.

“Simon said the possible suffering to would-be incomers and their families prevented him from approving the bill. ‘Facing a likely risk of being separated from their family members and a delay in obtaining a visa to which family members would otherwise be entitled is irreparable harm,’ Simon wrote in a statement that was 18 pages in length.

“Saturday’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by seven US citizens and an advocacy organization, arguing it ‘rewrites our immigration and healthcare laws by Presidential fiat.’ ‘We’re very grateful that the court recognized the need to block the health care ban immediately,’ Justice Action Center senior litigator Esther Sung said. Sung, who acted on behalf of the plaintiffs, added: ‘The ban would separate families and cut two-thirds of green-card-based immigration starting tonight, were the ban not stopped.’

“The Trump administration wanted the new legislation in order to stop taxpayers from bearing the ‘substantial costs in paying for medical expenses incurred by people who lack health insurance or the ability to pay for their healthcare.’ However, healthcare policy specialists stated immigrants use the system far less frequently than US citizens.

“In addition, according to a study carried out by Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University, newcomers to the US who arrive without insurance were responsible for less than one-tenth of 1% of medical expenditures in 2017.”

This is good news. The only question is, how long will the temporary blockade last? Will the 28-day restraining order be prolonged; will it be replaced by a permanent order prohibiting Trump’s proposals to re-write America’s long-standing immigration laws, and will the highly political US Supreme Court agree or disagree with Judge Simon or President Trump?

The US Dollar under Worldwide Attack

CNBC wrote on October 30:

“The U.S. dollar has been the world’s major reserve currency for decades, but that status could come under threat as ‘very powerful countries’ seek to undermine its importance… China, Russia and the European Union are some ‘major movers’ behind this push. One of those reasons driving their shift away from the dollar is the prospect of being subject to U.S. jurisdiction if they transact in dollars…

“When the U.S. dollar is used or transactions are cleared through an American bank, entities are subject to U.S. jurisdiction… Europe wants to do business with Iran. It doesn’t want to be subject to U.S. law for doing business with Iran… Nobody wants to be picked up at an airport for doing business with countries that the U.S. isn’t happy that they’re doing business with…

“But if the dollar declines in influence, other currencies could fill the role traditionally played by the greenback…”

According to the Bible, it will be the Euro which will replace the US Dollar.

The Trump Administration’s Obsession with Persian Emperor Cyrus

The Washington Post wrote on November 1:

“On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commemorated a moment more than 2,500 years ago. ‘Today in 539 BC, Cyrus the Great entered Babylon and freed the Jewish people from captivity,’ Pompeo tweeted…

“Pompeo was referring to a rather famous event in history. According to sources including biblical scripture, Cyrus allowed the Judeans deported and exiled following the ravages of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II to return to their homeland. His conquest of Babylon cemented his dominion over much of the lands we now consider to be the Middle East, an empire that stretched from the Indus River basin to the Mediterranean Sea. Like any other ancient warrior king, he presided over massacres and pillage, including a notorious incident immortalized by the ancient Greek chronicler Herodotus where Cyrus burned a vanquished foe and 14 young boys alive on a funeral pyre.

“But Cyrus is memorialized by Iranians (and non-Iranians) as a unifying proto-national hero, an all-powerful emperor who still allowed for toleration and coexistence among different peoples, sects and religions. The Cyrus Cylinder, a barrel-shaped tablet etched in Babylonian cuneiform that was unearthed by archaeologists in the late 19th century, announced his victory and his desire to let his new subjects retain their traditions… the cylinder… casts Cyrus as an agent of the Babylonian god Marduk… A replica of the ancient artifact sits on display in the lobby of the United Nations…

“Some right-wing Christian evangelical supporters of the president have embraced the idea of a ‘Trump prophecy,’ seeing in Trump’s political gifts to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu – including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – a glimmer of divine providence. ‘Some evangelicals, who support Zionism out of the belief that the Jewish migration to Israel would trigger the Second Coming, have eagerly elevated Trump to the status of a biblical ruler,’ Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi noted earlier this year. ‘He, in turn, has happily obliged and made a number of political concessions to Israel, out of the rather worldly consideration that the evangelical vote could win him re-election next year.’

“Trump’s closest Israeli partner is only happy to oblige. Netanyahu has declared Trump to be one of a singular set of non-Jewish heroes ‘in the long sweep of Jewish history,’ linking his deeds with those of the British Lord Balfour, President Harry S. Truman and, yes, Cyrus the Great.

“Pompeo, a devout evangelical himself, has entertained other parallels also, citing the Old Testament story of Queen Esther, the Persian Jewish queen who foiled a plot to kill all Jews in the Achaemenid kingdom. Earlier this year while in Jerusalem, Pompeo was asked whether ‘President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?’ He responded: ‘As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible.’”

What is missed by the author of the article—whether because of ignorance or deliberately–is the role of Cyrus to allow the Jews to build the Second Temple. As was pointed out in other news outlets, it appears that Trump believes that he has the providential role of helping to build the Third Temple… as a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

What Will the US Do in Case of an Israeli-Iran War?

The Atlantic wrote on November 4:

“The senior ministers of the Israeli government met twice last week to discuss the possibility of open war with Iran. They were mindful of the Iranian plan for a drone attack from Syria in August, aborted at the last minute by an Israeli air strike, as well as Iran’s need to deflect attention from the mass protests against Hezbollah’s rule in Lebanon. The ministers also reviewed the recent attack by Iranian drones and cruise missiles on two Saudi oil installations, reportedly concluding that a similar assault could be mounted against Israel from Iraq… Israel is girding for the worst and acting on the assumption that fighting could break out at any time…

“And over all of them looms a pressing question: How will the United States respond?… Whether inadvertently… or purposefully… the United States has empowered Iran… Donald Trump failed to respond forcefully to the Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia and on international shipping in the Gulf, or even for the downing of a U.S. Navy drone last June… the hasty withdrawal of American troops from Syria appears to many in the Middle East as yet another American move that will strengthen Tehran…

“I recall President Obama’s comment to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office six years ago this week, on the last day of my service as Israeli ambassador. ‘The United States will always come to Israel’s aid in the event of a war,’ he said, ‘because that is what the American people expect.’ But I also remember that, back in 1973, Egypt and Syria saw a president preoccupied with an impeachment procedure, and concluded that Israel was vulnerable. In the subsequent war, Israel prevailed—but at an excruciating price. The next war could prove even costlier.”

Trump Meddles in Brexit Debacle

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 30:

“US President Donald Trump urged Britain to speed up its departure from the European Union and advised Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to team up with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the upcoming elections… Trump said that Britain is being ‘held back by the European Union’ and that the country would be ‘much better without it,’ particularly as it would enable the UK ‘to do much more on trade with the United States.’ The president added: ‘Brussels is very difficult to deal with.’

“However, Trump cast doubt over the current deal the EU and the UK have in place, saying it limits the possibility of trading between the two English-speaking nations… ‘this Brexit deal — certain aspects of the deal -—you can’t… trade,’ he said.”

Johnson responded by refusing to line up with Farage, and stating that he disagrees with Trump on his assessment on the proposed EU-UK deal.

Johnson Leads…

Money Morning wrote on November 1:

“… this general election is going to purge Parliament. Of the 57 MPs who are stepping down, the vast majority are Remainers. Many more of those who have scuppered the Brexit process… are likely to lose their seats. The Speaker himself is gone. Parliament is going to be a very different place on 13 December.

“The polls show Boris Johnson has a strong lead… it looks as though Johnson is going to have the majority he needs to make Brexit happen along the lines of his deal.”

Time will tell, as so far, all predictions—pro and con—have failed.

Europe Is Ready for Its Own Army

On September 5, 2019, Foreign Policy wrote:

“As the United States retreats, the EU is shaping its own military…

“The United States still has military bases all over the world and significant troop deployments on NATO’s eastern borders, so it could still intervene to stop, for example, direct military aggression against NATO members from a resurgent Russia. Washington can still choose to project power in the region as it pleases. But if European NATO countries cannot know for certain that the United States will do so in any given circumstance, they must now start taking the idea of defending themselves seriously. In effect, Trump has granted Europe its political independence.

“European leaders, foremost among them French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have grasped the new reality with a speed that should alarm policymakers in Washington. Some quarters of Europe… have long aspired to a continental military force…

“France has its own, highly developed arms industry and runs its own missions and deployments, notably in Francophone Africa, without asking anyone for permission. The French army is almost never not at war somewhere, officially or otherwise… So it should not be surprising that France has been the first to call for the formation of a European army. What is new, is that most other Western European countries agree, and most significantly that Germany agrees… There’s a traditional division of roles. France is the muscle, Germany is the money. The union of the two is a game changer.”

A powerful European Army is prophesied to happen.

The EU vs. GB

New Statesman wrote on October 30:

“…there is only one other empire that has the same reach and ability to shape the global system as the US and China: the EU… there are some moves afoot in Brussels to make the EU a third power bloc that can help its members resist pressure from the competing giants. Many European states realise that the only way of defending their national sovereignty from secondary sanctions is through common action…

“The EU has signed a series of new trade deals with Japan, Canada, South Korea and Vietnam. It is shoring up European defence by moving towards a defence union and a powerful fund for common military projects…

“Many Brexiteers believe that Europe is a paper tiger, and yet the EU has shown that it was able to move the needle in some important areas. Its data privacy code (GDPR) has set global standards for regulating data flows and privacy in the new great power competition, leading some experts to declare that it is the ‘Brussels effect’ of global rule-setting that makes Europe a third bloc…

“The EU’s powerful trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström has led an impressive push-back against Trump’s tariffs and restrictions of transatlantic trade, with EU counter-tariffs and credible threats of what would happen if the US were to escalate the transatlantic trade war.

“All of this reinforces the strategic dilemma for the UK in the world of blocs after Brexit. Will European sovereignty… be organised against Britain? The experience with the European Galileo GPS system – where Europeans forged ahead without the UK – shows that being left outside European projects and decision-making can be tough. The same sort of dilemmas could develop in other areas… in a world of great power blocs Britain may find itself at the mercy of other powers…”

The Bible says that very soon, the USA, the UK and Israel will fall together.

Germany and Europe to Control their Military Destiny

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 7:

“German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer [AKK] said in a speech delivered Thursday at the Bundeswehr University in Munich… that allies are increasingly asking for Berlin to play a proactive role in global security… She pledged to boost defense spending to… eventually make Germany the third largest defense spender in the world, behind the US and China… In an earlier interview… she urged Berlin to take an increasingly active role in military engagements abroad…

“But her proposal was met with caution from other Cabinet members. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the idea of a more assertive German military required robust support from European allies… [He said:] ‘… we as part of Europe play a leading role in competition between superpowers.’…

“French President Emmanuel Macron has called on European allies to ‘wake up’ to the realities of the transatlantic alliance before it’s too late. ‘What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,’ Macron said in an interview… The French president warned that Europe will ‘no longer be in control of our destiny’ if it fails to recognize its strategic relevance as a geopolitical power.”

Pompeo’s, Merkel’s and Mass’s Views Irrelevant

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 7:

“Merkel… condemned comments by French President Emmanuel Macron [on NATO]… ‘This view does not correspond to mine,’ she said. Merkel described Macron’s statement as ‘drastic words’ that she did not agree with, and she reconfirmed Germany’s commitment to its role within NATO. ‘Such a sweeping attack is not necessary,’ she said.”

Macron is totally correct, and Merkel’s expressed views and her role become more and more irrelevant.

The Associated Press wrote on November 7:

“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his German counterpart (Heiko Maas) stressed the close ties between their two countries Thursday, batting away talk of trans-Atlantic friction and insisting that the NATO alliance that both are part of remains relevant today… U.S. President Donald Trump has worried many NATO members with comments that the trans-Atlantic alliance is ‘obsolete”…

“Maas, who was widely criticized in recent days for failing to mention the U.S. contribution to ending the Cold War in an op-ed that was published in 26 European newspapers over the weekend, appeared to go out of his way to name American leaders who helped bring the divided nation back together again in 1989…”

Trump is directing American foreign policy, not Pompeo. Maas, the proverbial politician, is also becoming equally irrelevant as Merkel and AKK. A new powerful leadership—replacing Germany’s current lame duck and/or unpopular politicians—will arise soon.

Germany’s Descent into Anti-Semitism

The Jerusalem Post wrote on November 2:

“US Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, has sharply criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government for its blasé dismissal of Iran’s threat to destroy the Jewish state. ‘Threatening the destruction of Israel is something that should not be dismissed, especially when the threats come from Iranian regime officials who regularly use terrorism as a weapon of intimidation,’ Grenell told Fox News last week…

“Grenell, who enjoys enormous popularity among German Jews, pro-Israel advocates and Israeli government officials, responded to two Iranian officials who recently called for the obliteration of Israel…

“When pressed by the Post if the Iranian regime’s call to exterminate the nearly seven million Jews in Israel meets the definition of antisemitism, [Merkel’s] spokespeople said it is just ‘anti-Israel rhetoric.’…

“Antisemitism experts in the United States and Germany expressed outrage over the Merkel government’s cavalier attitude toward Iran’s genocidal antisemitism targeting Israel.”

Germany’s descent into Anti-Semitism is deeply worrisome.

US Nazi Group Issues Death Threats to former Co-Leader of Germany’s Green Party

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 2:

“Police are investigating a death threat to Cem Özdemir, the former co-leader of Germany’s Green party. A US neo-Nazi group was linked to the email, which featured the politician among a list of its assassination targets. An offshoot of the US-based neo-Nazi group Atomwaffe Division Deutschland (AWD) appeared to be behind the message, which featured Özdemir — one of Germany’s highest-profile politicians with Turkish origins — at the top of an assassination hit list…

“Long a recipient of police protection, Özdemir is no stranger to intimidation. A staunch critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he has received numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists…

“Members of the AWD in the United States have been linked to several murders and planned terror attacks. The group, organized in cells, operates largely online and has repeatedly called for attacks on minorities. While the group formed in the southern US, it has since expanded across the country and into the UK, Canada, Germany and the Baltic states.”

Satan is busy as never before. He looks for and finds his people who are willing to carry out his evil devices.

Mexico’s Hopeless “Fight” against its Cartels

In light of the horrible terrorist attack by members of a cartel on several American-Mexican citizens living in Mexico, The Guardian wrote on November 5 about a prior incident:

“Cowed and outgunned: why Mexico’s police ‘don’t stand a chance’ against drug cartels. The 14 October massacre that left 13 state police dead was just one extreme episode of violence in a recent litany of horrors… More than 30 suspected cartel gunmen ambushed the police officers in the town of El Aguaje on Monday as they were traveling in a convoy to serve a warrant, killing 13 officers and wounding nine others…

“Corruption among the ranks [of the police force] is also encouraged by dismal salaries from which officers are not only expected to buy their own bullets, but often their own uniforms as well…the president has given orders to avoid direct confrontations with the cartels… Meanwhile, the president insists that his newly formed militarized national guard will enforce the law, but so far the new force has been busier blocking migrants from reaching the United States than pursuing organized criminals…

“But while Mexico waits for justice, a new generation is growing up that has only known life amid a multi-sided conflict where there are no clear good guys.”

It is not clear which cartel was behind the gruesome massacre and what the reason for the mass killing was.

More Scientific Nonsense… What Was Before the Big Bang?

Express wrote on November 2:

“THE Big Bang theory has long been accepted as scientific fact as an explanation of [how] the universe came into being – but it has always begged the question ‘what happened before the big bang?’ Now an international team of researchers looking at the timescale of the early universe – measured in trillionths of seconds – think they know. But it’s complicated. And we are still not quite there. Two theories exist as to exactly what happened 13.8 billion years ago when the universe, which is now unaccountably huge, emerged from something so unimaginably small – according to the new research one hundred billionth the size of a proton.

“First there is cosmic inflation – a period BEFORE the Big Bang when, according to physicists, an ultra-high energy particle inflated at an incomprehensible speed and scale. During this period matter, such as it was, remained a cold dark formless mass. Then, less than a trillionth of a second later, came the Big Bang – an almost infinitely hot fireball which exploded ultimately forming all the matter as it now exists, and eventually Earth and us.

“But scientists struggled to link the two processes – how a cold dark soup could trigger the most explosive moment conceivable? Now a team of physicists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aided by teams as far away as Holland, have discovered a linking period – a phase they call ‘reheating’. The inflation to reheating period was clearly a crazy time. At one point gravity worked in reverse and another it was modified by quantum effects – and it was this which allowed the hot Big Bang to emerge from the cold Cosmological Inflation period.

“Professor at MIT, David Kaiser, said: “Reheating was an insane time, when everything went haywire. ‘The postinflation reheating period sets up the conditions for the Big Bang, and in some sense puts the ‘bang’ in the Big Bang. It’s this bridge period where all hell breaks loose and matter behaves in anything but a simple way…

“However, as clever as the research is, the question of where the Universe came from remains unanswered… The research was supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.”

What utter nonsense and what a terrible waste of money, energy and time. That’s how taxpayer money is WASTED. The answer has been there all along: “In the beginning GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth.”

Smoking Banned in Austria

Deutsche Welle wrote on November 1:

“Austria banned smoking in bars and restaurants on Friday, bringing the country’s laws into line with most other European nations. The indoor smoking ban came into effect after lawmakers approved the move in July.

“Before the new law came into force, Austrians were still able to light up while drinking and eating inside bars and restaurants larger than 50 square meters (540 square feet), and as long as it was in a separate area, although this was not strictly enforced. The smoking ban will now apply to all such establishments and will be enforced with heavy penalties.

“Smokers who break the ban will have to pay €1,000 ($1,115), and owners of establishments who allow patrons to smoke will be fined $2,000 rising to €10,000 if found repeating the offense. The smoking ban also applies to shishas and electronic cigarettes.

“Austria has an above-average percentage of smokers with 25% of its 8.8 million inhabitants smoking in comparison with an 18% average in other EU nations. Currently, 17 EU countries have comprehensive smoke-free laws. Ireland, the UK, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Spain and Hungary have the strictest laws with bans on smoking in all enclosed public spaces, on public transport and in workplaces.

“In the Czech Republic it is up to the bar owner to decide if they want to permit smoking or not. In Denmark, smoking is banned indoors except in Copenhagen, where it is permitted in bars under 40 square meters. The debate about the ban has been ongoing for over 10 years, with the far-right Freedom Party — formerly led by a keen smoker — opposing the measure.”

Smoking is wrong and hazardous and deadly to the health of the active and the passive smoker. In addition, somebody who smokes in the presence of a non-smoker only shows his stupidity and selfishness, as well as his lack of love for God, himself and his neighbor.

How Governments Control the Internet… and the Minds of their Citizens

PCMAG wrote on October 31:

“On Nov. 1, Russia is poised to disconnect from the internet—in theory. That is when a long-planned internet bill will go into effect and lay the foundation for a national network whereby internet service providers are controlled by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom agency. The goal is to give Russia the power to disconnect from the global internet in the event of a cyberwar and, in the interim, serve up a walled-off version of the web sanctioned by the Russians. It also gives President Vladimir Putin greater control over Russian citizens…

“Russia’s system uses a proxy to steer packets of information away from the public DNS [Doman Name System] resolver by default, look at where the data is located, and either let that information through, redirect it, or block it completely. We see examples of this kind of control in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China…

“China restricted its web access from the start, with the Communist Party legislating in 1996 (two years after the internet arrived there) that all service providers be licensed by the government and that all internet traffic go through state-owned telecommunication companies…

“Russia has reportedly spent about $300 million on its sovereign internet plan. But while the country has restricted access to certain services in recent years… it’s unlikely the Russian government will be able to exert on its citizens the level of control China has accomplished with its Great Firewall by Nov. 1…

“… while the American view of the internet—heavily influenced by its history of free markets and free speech—might be closer in theory to the open internet that was proposed by the web’s pioneers, the hegemony of Silicon Valley has created a state in which the majority of the internet is de facto under the control of the US government… In a world of splinternets, it’s easier to say that you have an open system when the nexus of power is within your borders. The future will likely bring more legislation like Russia’s…”

The Bible condemns those who suppress the Truth. The trend to do so, especially on the Internet, is clearly alarming.

Microchipping the new Trend?

Der Spiegel wrote on October 25:

“An estimated 5,000 people in Sweden, which has a total population of 10.2 million, have had chips planted under their skin, which they use to open their front door or even as a digital train ticket…

“The idea… of employees getting chipped raises numerous questions. In Germany… it would be a horror scenario… if there’s anything we have learned in recent years, it’s that where data is collected, it also has the potential to be abused…

“In 2018, [the EU] parliament commissioned a study investigating ‘the use of chip implants for workers.’ The report states that every EU citizen has the right to the integrity of the human body and that companies cannot force their workers to be chipped. But the study also advises against voluntary chipping — for data-protection reasons. ‘The chips are not necessarily secure,’ the report concludes. The report also states that the possibility cannot be ruled out that they could get hacked or become the subject eavesdropping, cloning, deactivation or manipulation…”

As the article points out, Europe and especially Germany is at this point strongly opposed to microchipping their citizens. Some have suggested that the mark of the beast has something to do with microchipping. This assumption is clearly wrong. We explain the mark of the beast in these Q&As: https://www.eternalgod.org/q-a-14976/ and https://www.eternalgod.org/is-bitcoin-the-mark-of-the-beast/ .

No Pagan Idols in the Catholic Church?

Life Site News wrote on October 30:

“Three cardinals and three bishops have separately voiced opposition to paganism in Church ceremonies in the Vatican surrounding the Amazon Synod, including the Oct. 4 pagan ceremony in the Vatican Gardens where people bowed down and worshiped the Pachamama idol as Pope Francis and other top-ranking prelates looked on.

“Catholics around the world were indignant to not only see the pagan statues present in various ceremonies, but to see Pope Francis actually bless one of them during the Vatican Gardens ceremony…Paulo Suess, one of the key authors of the Amazon Synod’s working document, commented on this ceremony, saying ‘so what. Even if it would have been a pagan rite, then it is nevertheless a pagan worship of God.’…

“Cardinal Gerhard Müller… said that the ‘great mistake was to bring the idols into the Church, not to put them out, because according to the Law of God Himself – the First Commandment – idolism [idolatry] is a grave sin and not to mix them with the Christian liturgy’…

“Bishop Athanasius Schneider… stated that ‘Catholics cannot accept any pagan worship, nor any syncretism between pagan beliefs and practices and those of the Catholic Church.’ ‘The acts of worship of kindling a light, of bowing, of prostrating or profoundly bowing to the ground and dancing before an unclothed female statue, which represents neither Our Lady nor a canonized saint of the Church, violates the first Commandment of God: ‘You shall have no other gods before Me,’ he added…”

If the dissenting cardinals and bishops were consequential, they would have to condemn everything pagan in the Catholic Church… including the celebration of pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Note the next article.

Paganism Nothing New in Catholic Church

Catholic Outlook, in trying to defend paganism in the Roman Catholic Church, wrote on November 1:

“Roman Christianity basically put a cross on… ‘pagan’ temples and on the people that worshiped there. Church authorities… ‘baptised’ those elements that could be useful, or at least were not detrimental, for making people members of the Christian faith… The cult of Christian saints, miracles and holy myths – and how that is celebrated – has been influenced by these now baptised, pre-Christian religious customs.

“Even the calendar of some [of] the most important Christian festivals – including Christmas – originated from such inculturation. The Christian faith – its architecture, forms of worship, symbols – continued to adapt from the Greek and Roman cultures and adopt what was useful from them. The Roman Catholic Church has more exterior elements from the old Roman Empire than it does from the Nazareth or Jerusalem of Jesus’s time.”

It is well-known that the Catholic Church has ALWAYS incorporated pagan doctrines, rites and practices in its worship services by giving them a Christian mantle. The two reasons for this were its desire to attract pagans and its Anti-Semitism.

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.

The Bible teaches that the first resurrection is a resurrection to eternal, immortal life—to an existence in the spirit realm, when converted men and women become born-again members in the Kingdom and Family of God. We are told that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50), and that in the first resurrection, we will have incorruptible spiritual bodies, when we are “raised in glory” (verses 42-44).

We will be like Christ, bearing His very image (1 Corinthians 15:49), and Christ is the exact image of God the Father (2 Corinthians 4:4). We will be glorified God beings, as the Father and Jesus Christ are glorified. We will in that sense look like Christ.

We can find a description of the resurrected Christ in His glorified state in numerous passages of the Bible, and none of them implies that He has a physical body. For instance, we read in Revelation 1:14-16: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice the sound of many waters… and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength…” (Compare also Revelation 2:18). A similar description of Christ, as He appeared in glory prior to His temporary existence as a human being, can be found in Ezekiel 1:26-28. This describes also His glorified state today, as the Father glorified Christ in His resurrection with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5).

And it is that same glory which will be bestowed on us in the first resurrection (1 John 3:1-2; Romans 8:18). Jesus Christ was the very first who was raised in the first resurrection (Acts 26:23)—being the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). His followers will be resurrected in the same way as He was, at the time of His return.

When we can see Christ as He is, in His glorified state, we are told in God’s Word that He has an appearance of a Man. Also, God the Father is described with a man-like appearance (compare Revelation 4:3; 5:1; 21:5; Daniel 7:9-10, 13). They are not described as animals. (Christ is referred to as a Lamb in the Book of Revelation, but only in a figurative sense, as He is the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb, who took away the sins of the world).

They are not described in any way as women either. God is our Father, not our Mother; and Christ is the Son of God, not the Daughter of God.

Those in the first resurrection are called the sons and daughters of God (2 Corinthians 6:18). They will have a glorified appearance as God does; with the exception that those who were women in this life will look like (glorified) women; there is no biblical evidence that all humans made immortal look like men. Even though God is male, He made man, in his physical appearance, as male and female (Genesis 1:27).

A most-misunderstood Scripture does not say that there will be neither male nor female in the resurrection to eternal life; only that those in the first resurrection will not marry or are given in marriage as they will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25). The reference to angels does not say that we will be angels; nor, that we will be male because angels are allegedly only male (there are female angels too, and many angels look like animals); rather, that we will not marry anymore and that we cannot die anymore as angels don’t marry and as they are immortal as well (Luke 20:35-36).

Even though we will look like Christ insofar as our outward glorified appearance is concerned (that is, as glorified God beings, we will still have a glorified face, eyes, a mouth, ears, the shape of a human-like body with arms and feet etc.), how will we appear when we manifest ourselves to human beings?

Again, we can note many examples showing us how Christ appeared to humans so that they could see him (we cannot see a glorified God being with our human eyes, except in a vision). From that we can ascertain how we will look when we manifest ourselves.

First, we should clarify that no one has ever seen the Father or heard His voice. We know that the God of the Old Testament appeared to humans (He even appeared to Moses in His glorified state, but Moses was only allowed and able to see His back). That God being was none other than Jesus Christ. We are told that God the Father made everything through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:10; Colossians 1:15-17).

We read that no one has ever seen God at any time (John 1:18), but Christ elaborated to explain that no one has ever seen the form of God the FATHER at any time, nor has anyone ever heard His voice (John 5:37; 6:46). And yet, we read that some of the ancients in the Old Testament saw the very form of God, and they heard His voice (Numbers 12:8; Deuteronomy 5:4). This means, they saw and heard Jesus Christ, but not God the Father (compare 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, 8-9).

We read in Genesis 14:18-21 that Christ, as Melchizedek, appeared to Abraham, then called Abram, who gave Him the tithe of everything. Hebrews 7 confirms that Melchizedek was indeed Jesus Christ who lived at that time as High Priest among the people (compare verses 3, 8). He had not become a Man, but He lived for a while “as” a man; that is, He manifested Himself as a man. Abram knew who Melchizedek was, and it appears that this was the first time that He saw Him in His physical manifestation.

Before that occurrence, we read that the LORD “spoke” or “appeared” to him, but not in the way as He “appeared” to him in Genesis 14 and later in Genesis 18. There, Christ and two angels “appeared” to Abraham as “men” (verse 2) when they were about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. They ate and spoke with him (Genesis 18:1-15). But this does not mean that they actually WERE men–that is, flesh and blood human beings. They just manifested themselves AS human beings.

Abraham knew right away that one of the three was Christ, calling Him “My Lord” in verse 3 (compare also verses 27, 30, 32). The word is Adonai, which Abraham used in reference to God (compare Genesis 15:2). He recognized Christ, having seen Him before when He appeared to Him as Melchizedek. (In passing, the word Adonai is actually a plural word, meaning “my lords”; the singular form is adon. This is another proof that Abraham knew that God consists of more than one Person.)

Did Christ look like Melchizedek when He was born as a human being? One might not think so as He came from the tribe of Judah and His mother was Jewish, and as Christ had existed long before there was any human, let alone a Jew. This however overlooks the fact that God and Christ knew that there would be human beings, and that Christ would be born from the tribe of Judah, and this from the beginning of the world, before there was time. This is true for those whom God has predestined to be called in this day and age; it is most certainly true for Jesus. So, they both saw in the future and knew how Christ would look like as a Man, and it is therefore logical to conclude that He appeared in that form to Abraham, Moses, and to the other ancients of old.

Upon further scrutiny, we will see that the same is true for His appearance, as a man, after His resurrection. He did not appear as a young child, nor as an animal or a woman, but as a man.

When He appeared to the apostles, they thought at first that He was a ghost or an apparition (Luke 24:36-42). Christ manifested Himself to the disciples as a being with flesh and bones. He even ate food in their presence to convince the disciples that it was He, not a spirit or a demon.

As a Spirit being, He does not have a disfigured body. He did not manifest Himself to Mary in a disfigured state. It is true that He later appeared to the apostles and “doubting Thomas” with wounds in His hands and at His side to convince them that it was He (John 20:24-29; Luke 24:39-40), but there is not the slightest hint that He did so on other occasions. And it is of course absurd to think that He, as a Spirit being, still carries with Him in His spiritual body the physical wounds inflicted upon Him when He was a human being. From this it follows that He does not always manifest Himself and appear in exactly the same way.

In the case of the disciples having gone fishing, after Christ’s resurrection, they were on the lake and Jesus was at the shore (John 21:1-4), so the distance was far enough so that they were unable to recognize Him at first. Even before His death, there were times when they did not recognize Him, thinking at first that He was a ghost or an apparition (Mark 6:47-50).

When Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him at first at the grave, after His resurrection, it was perhaps because she did not see or look at Him that closely (John 20:11-16; note verse 14: “She turned…”). She thought He was the gardener, and as an unmarried woman, it was the custom at that time (which Jesus did not follow) not to look at another man too closely or to engage in public in a conversation with Him, as we can see from the account of Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman, which surprised His disciples (John 4:27) .

After His resurrection, Christ manifested Himself occasionally as a physical being, but at least on one occasion, He did so “in another form” (Mark 16:12). What is meant with that phrase?

The Nelson Study Bible states that “Jesus’ appearance in another form may indicate that He appeared differently to the two on the road than He had appeared to His followers before.”

Part of the reason that they failed to recognize Him was the fact that their eyes were closed and had to be opened (Luke 24:31), and that they did not expect to see Him at all, thinking He was dead and in the grave. We read that the disciples did not believe the women who claimed that they had seen Him alive (Luke 24:11).

The word “form” in the Greek is “morphe” and means “form, shape, outward appearance.” The Benson Commentary states that “he appeared in another form, or habit, namely, different from that which he formerly had when he conversed with them.”

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible adds the following thoughts:

“… he appeared in another form: it seems to have been the form, or habit of a gardener that he appeared in to Mary; since she thought him to be one, and to be the gardener that belonged to the garden, in which the sepulchre was: but now it was in another form, or habit, that he appeared; very likely in the habit of a Scribe, or doctor; since he took upon him to expound the Scriptures to the persons he appeared to; as also took bread, and blessed it, when at supper with them…

“This is not to be understood of any change in the shape of his body, or the features of his face; for as soon as their eyes were opened, which had been before held, they knew him perfectly well: whereas, if there had been such an alteration made in him, that he could not have been known for the same, there would have been no need of holding their eyes, that they should not know him, Luke 24:16.”

Jesus Christ manifested Himself in the way in which He looked as a human being. But He was not always recognized right away, as people did not know what to look for, and because their eyes had not been opened.

When Christ manifested Himself, He did so in such a way that those who had known Him could recognize Him. Sometimes, they recognized Him by His voice before they looked at Him closely to recognize Him by His appearance; at other times, they recognized Him by particular mannerisms, which they had been familiar with while He was in the flesh.

In the same way, we will manifest ourselves to those who knew us before our death, so that they will be able to recognize us. When we were male, we will manifest ourselves as a male. In fact, even as glorified beings, a man will still have a glorified “male”-appearance, not a glorified female appearance. The reverse is true for those who were female in this life. They do not suddenly become “males” in the resurrection, nor will they manifest themselves as males when they appear to human beings. Furthermore, and this should go without saying, they will not appear as animals or with animal-like features which many of the angels possess.

As Christ apparently manifested Himself as the Man whom people were familiar with when He died, so it stands to reason that we will do likewise, but we will also be able to make ourselves known to those who only knew us in our younger years. We may do so by our voice, mannerisms or the recitation of other peculiar and unique circumstances or experiences, so that they will be without any doubt that we will be the ones who had known and dealt with them when we were in the flesh.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“Europe—the Coming New Superpower,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Europe is becoming the world’s new superpower. Most do not understand or are aware of this fact. This program shows the most recent “new reality,” which, as one article puts it, is occurring with “a speed that should alarm policymakers in Washington.”

“Sollte ein Christ den Martinstag halten?” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Should a Christian keep Saint Martin’s Day?”

“Wie kühn und offenherzig sprechen Sie mit Gott?” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. The title in English: “How Boldly and Courageously Do You Talk with God?”

“Die Verwerfung Jesu Christi,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath in Germany by Thilo Hanstein, is now posted. Title in English: “The Rejection of Jesus Christ.”

“Proper Balance,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Michael Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

What are the steps that we should take in order for us to have proper balance, both in our physical and spiritual lives?

“From Darkness to Light,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The world lives in utter darkness, but that must not be true for Christians. Our lives must picture and exemplify the coming true Light for all mankind; there must not be any darkness in us when we want to be lights in the world.

On, November 2, 2019, Mike Link will present the sermonette, titled, “Proper Balance,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “From Darkness to Light.”

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.

Having just returned from the last of the annual Fall Holy Days of God, reality is settling in. In much of Western Society, Halloween has been observed by tens of millions of utterly deceived people.

In my neighborhood there are the relevant displays. One in particular catches my attention when I leave the house. It is of macabre inflatable Halloween figures positioned in front of a nearby home. Due to the cold weather, these rather cheap displays often deflate and have to have more air pumped into them.

This is, in a sense, not so unlike the whole commercialization of this world’s maddening observance of customs and practices which have absolutely no godly or biblical basis. But there is a real source and unyielding support for these celebrations—it is Satan!

It is revealed by God that the whole world is not only deceived (Revelation 12:9), but that it lies under the powerful influence of Satan (1 John 5:19; 2 Corinthians 4:4).

And so it will go—with Christmas, Easter and Sunday observances—by those who read the Bible and little realize what they are really doing! Paul’s warning to the Church of God in Ephesus still holds true, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

As Christians, we have to contend with these things, and in our calling to the Truth of God, we often face serious trials—especially among our unconverted families. And yet, some who have known of the demonic influence in this world’s religious holidays (especially Halloween) have chosen to return to their observance and bondage to Satan:

“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’” (2 Peter 2:20-22).

God established the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. Observance of the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people (Exodus 31:12-18). Likewise, the annual Sabbaths of God and their observance is commanded by God. Satan, on the other hand, promotes his own false days and seasons, and, indeed, what he inspires marks those who follow him.

As the darkness of deception blinds humanity, God has called us to be examples, and just as Jesus Christ came into the world to be its light, so let us, as true Christians, also shine to this, our generation.

by Norbert Link

We begin with this week’s election results in the German state of Thuringia which do not look good for established parties and Angela Merkel, while favoring extremist parties such as the Left and the right-wing AfD. We continue with another delay in the Brexit debacle, which seems to signalize defeat for Boris Johnson, while the Germans are growing more and more impatient with the Brits. However, the outcome of the new elections on December 12 might or might not change everything for Johnson.

Turning to the USA, we point out that the predicted housing crash is already here; wonder whether we will be facing civil war; give an update on the Trump Administration’s attempts to close US borders to most immigrants; and address America’s growing illegal drug problem and the devastating consequences for America’s relationship with Mexico. We also ask whether President Trump is finally losing support from white Evangelicals.

Addressing Israel, we report that the country feels betrayed by the USA; address the ongoing zeal to build a third temple; and publish an article advocating that Europe MUST intervene now in the Middle East. We also focus on Pope Francis’ remarkable statements, while pointing out his fragile relationship with traditionalist Catholics and the Vatican.

We conclude with a series of articles on the next inevitable pandemic for which the world is unprepared; the prophesied pure language of the future; historic events explaining how the world might have become “void and empty”; and warnings against Satan’s festival of Halloween—one of the most important days for Devil worshippers. Please view our new StandingWatch program in this regard, titled, “Do You Keep Satan’s Feast of Halloween?”

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

Germany—the Left and AfD Win and Merkel and SPD Lose in State Election

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 27:

“Voters in the eastern German state of Thuringia boosted the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in regional elections on Sunday… but the Left party will remain the dominant political force in the state… the Left party winning 31% of votes in the state that was once part of the communist former East Germany.

“The far-right AfD party snagged 23.4% of the vote, making it the second-largest party in the assembly — and pushing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party into third place with 21.8%.

“The turnout for the Thuringia polls was unusually high. Nearly 65% of the state’s 1.7 million voters cast their ballots, compared to less than 53% five years ago…

“The populist AfD party in Thuringia is led by Björn Höcke, who often draws attention to himself with firebrand statements. Höcke has notably criticized the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, describing it as a ‘memorial of shame’… The AfD boasts strong support in other eastern states, winning 27.5% in Saxony-Anhalt and 23.5% in Brandenburg in September…

“Support for the SPD… slid down to 8.2%, losing some 4% compared to its 2014 result… the Greens suffered a smaller loss, and are now hovering around 5.2%… Preliminary results put support for the FDP at 5% — just enough for the party to clear the threshold to enter parliament…

“Merkel’s CDU suffered the greatest loss during Sunday’s election, dropping down 11% from 2014. The result is a heavy blow for the center-right party and a win for the AfD, which had eyed the CDU’s disillusioned supporters. Projections showed that the AfD pulled the most support from voters who did not participate in Thuringia’s last state election, followed by voters who previously voted for the CDU…”

These results are a total debacle for Germany’s established parties. Weimar and the subsequent rise of Hitler come to mind.

Merkel under Fire

AFP wrote on October 29:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces renewed pressure from within her Christian Democrats… Her conservative critics charge that Merkel has dragged the CDU too far to the left on immigration, climate and other issues, allowing the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) on the extreme right.

“A long-time rival who hopes to succeed Merkel, Friedrich Merz, suggested the veteran leader dubbed ‘Mutti’ (mummy) is already a lame duck and should bow out long before she plans to leave politics in 2021…

“News website Spiegel Online asserted that the state election showed that ‘the state of the CDU is at least as desolate’ as that of the SPD. The big difference for now was that the CDU remains the party of the chancellor, it said, adding however that ‘this could easily be missed given that Angela Merkel is barely heard or seen these days’.

“It was after a similar state poll setback last year that Merkel dramatically handed over the CDU leadership to her preferred successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, widely known by her initials AKK.

“AKK in a later vote beat Merz for the party chair’s position and more recently also took on the post of defence minister, but in recent months her political star has dimmed. Doubts about AKK have grown after several blunders and gaffes…

“An outsider, the Free Democrats’ co-leader Wolfgang Kubicki, [declared] that Kramp-Karrenbauer simply ‘lacks the stature’ to lead the CDU or run for chancellor.

“Things are likely to come to a head toward the end of the year, when the SPD will decide whether to stay in Merkel’s coalition or leave, which could spark new elections…”

Jews and Muslims Worried

JTA wrote on October 28:

“Electoral gains by Germany’s strongest far-right party has both Jews and Muslims here worried… ‘Something has fundamentally gone off the rails in our political system,’ former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, told reporters on Sunday… Aiman Mazyek, head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, in a tweet expressed shock that so many voters supported ‘a right-wing radical party… it is much worse than merely a warning sign.’

“International Auschwitz Committee Executive Vice-President Christoph Heubner said in a statement that Holocaust survivors see the AfD’s climb up the political ladder as ‘a renewed signal of terror, which gives rise to fears that right-wing extremist attitudes and tendencies in Germany will continue to consolidate.’

“Meanwhile, a newly released study shows an increase in open anti-Semitism in Germany. Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner on fighting anti-Semitism, commented that, while anti-Semitism was always present, people are expressing it more openly than before…”

AfD’s Björn Höcke

The Algemeiner published on October 28 an article with the following headline:

“Shock in Germany as Far-Right Demagogue Björn Höcke Strengthens Position With Regional Election Victory for AfD.”

The article continued:

“Höcke leads a hardline nationalist faction within the AfD called Der Flügel (‘The Wing’), which is militantly anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic, and which supports the repeal of legislation in Germany banning the denial of the Nazi Holocaust. In an interview with the German news outlet taz in the lead-up to the Thuringia elections, Mike Mohring — the center-right CDU’s candidate —  said that he was in no doubt that ‘Höcke is a Nazi.’

“In January 2019, the official German agency tasked with countering political extremism announced that it was treating both Der Flügel and Höcke’s AfD party in Thuringia as a threat to Germany’s ‘democratic governance.’ But after the party’s success in Thuringia on Sunday, the German news magazine Stern noted, members of the AfD’s leadership with known reservations about Höcke found themselves with little choice other than to defend him… his position within the AfD has continued to strengthen.”

Even though the mass media and political parties are demonizing Björn Höcke, some of his positions are clearly in line with biblical standards, while others are in opposition. Some are also contrary to what is prophesied to happen in Germany. Wikipedia wrote the following:

“Björn Höcke was born in Lünen, Westphalia. His grandparents were expelled ethnic Germans from East Prussia. After his Abitur… he served in the Bundeswehr and went to law school at the University Bonn, which he did not finish… He is married and has four children… He supports the return to national currencies… Höcke is an advocate of the heterosexual elementary family… He opposes sexual education in elementary schools and wants to ‘stop the dissolution of the natural polarity of the two genders.'”

EU Agrees to further Brexit Delay… Big Defeat for Johnson

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 28:

“The European Union on Monday agreed to give the United Kingdom a Brexit extension until January 31, European Council President Donald Tusk wrote on Twitter… the former Polish prime minister tweeted that the 27 member states were in agreement…

“This is the third delay since the UK invoked Article 50 in March 2017, beginning what should have been a two-year exit process. Prime Minister Boris Johnson… had previously said he would rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than ask for an extension…”

 Johnson had sent three letters to Brussels. The first one, which was not signed by him, asked to delay Brexit beyond October 31, the second made clear that the first one was from Parliament – not the Government, and the third one urged Brussels NOT to grant an extension.

A Brexit on Satan’s festival of Halloween would have made a lot of sense, but it appears that God has another time table in mind. As we said from the outset, Johnson will either turn out to be the biggest loser or the biggest winner in the ongoing Brexit debacle. As of now, it seems that he has been losing all the way, but the last word has not been spoken yet. Note the articles below.

Already on October 20, Germany’s mass tabloid, Bild, had written the following:

“I am sick and tired of your chaotic parliament and your endless parliamentary Brexit blabbering. It is an affront to all of us. You don‘t know of any yes or no. Get out of here, you Brits. The question really is: Do I love you or don’t I love you anymore? This debate must stop. Yes or no. Both is okay.”

The Bild newspaper has usually a correct understanding as to how most Germans feel. While politicians are still reluctant to make an end to this ongoing Brexit nightmare, the people in Europe become increasingly dissatisfied with their leaders, and might be willing to replace all or most of them very soon.

New Elections on December 12

The Sun wrote on October 28:

“BRITAIN is on track for a Christmas election as [“leftie boss”] Jeremy Corbyn FINALLY agreed to go back to the people today… Jeremy Corbyn… made the spectacular reversal today after a crunch meeting with his shadow Cabinet this morning. He told his MPs that No Deal was now off the table as the EU have offered and accepted a third Brexit delay… Just last night the PM’s latest attempt to force a festive poll was torpedoed by Labour, making it short of the 434 MPs needed to get it through…

“Yesterday’s extension news means the PM’s ‘do or die’ promise to leave the EU by October 31 has now been completely shattered. Boris refused to resign for breaking his promise, or say sorry…  It means Britain will be in the EU until January 31 now, or could leave sooner if a deal is passed before then.”

The Sun added on October 29:

“BORIS Johnson has FINALLY won backing in the Commons for a Christmas election tonight as MPs voted for his plan to go to the polls on December 12. Brits will be given the chance to give the PM a majority to push through his Brexit Bill by the New Year… Parliament will be shut down from November 6 ready for the election to take place.”

The New Election Is Risky

The Associated Press wrote on October 29:

“…an early national vote… could break the country’s political impasse over Brexit — or turn out to be merely a temporary distraction… after three years of inconclusive political wrangling over Brexit, British voters are weary and the results of an election are hard to predict…

“An election is a risk… Opinion polls currently give Johnson’s Conservatives a lead, but there’s a strong chance that an election could produce a Parliament as divided over Brexit as the current one. Theresa May called an early election in 2017 with the aim of boosting the Conservatives’ majority and strengthening her hand in negotiations with the EU. The party ended up losing its majority in Parliament, and May failed to pass her key Brexit measures.

“Many voters are fed up with politicians from all sides after more than three years of Brexit drama, and all the parties are worried about a backlash from grumpy voters asked to go to the polls at the darkest, coldest time of the year.”

What Will Come Out of It?

The Independent wrote on October 29:

“Over the next six weeks, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will ‘break the Brexit deadlock’ by screaming at each other about absolutely anything but Brexit…

“The MPs can’t agree on any form of Brexit, or indeed any form of non-Brexit, and so the people must do their bit… we can say with absolute certainty that nobody has a clue what will happen. The polls are not just hopelessly volatile but extremely unhelpful…

“It is distinctly possible, likely even, that this election fails to achieve anything. That the deadlock returns with the same certainty. But it is also distinctly possible, likely even, that the country will take decades to recover from it. Indeed, it may never do so at all.”

US Housing Market Crash Is Here!

CNN wrote on October 25:

“… the monthly price decline was the biggest seen since September 2014… a sign that a US housing market crash is here… flailing consumer confidence seems to have struck the US housing market…

“Just last month, Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller predicted that home prices are headed for a crash. His prophecy stands true now… Americans became more concerned about the security of their jobs… With the probability of a recession looming large, consumers can be expected to play it safe and not go for big-ticket purchases. That’s bad news for the US housing market… we shouldn’t be in denial and accept the fact that the US housing market crash has officially arrived.”

It will get much worse. America’s highly praised booming economy is not as great as some politicians want it to be.

At the Brink of Civil War?

The Washington Examiner wrote on October 23:

“Partisan political division and the resulting incivility has reached a low in America, with 67% believing that the nation is nearing civil war… ‘The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war. That to me is a very pessimistic place,’ said Mo Ellaithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.

“And worse, he said in announcing the results of the institute’s Battleground Poll, the political division is likely to make the upcoming 2020 presidential race the nastiest in modern history… voters [are] angered with compromise and growing unfavorable ratings of President Trump and most 2020 Democratic presidential candidates…

“84% believe that ‘behavior that used to be seen as unacceptable is now accepted as normal behavior.’”

Sadly, this is true. Civil war might very well happen in this country.

Update on US Immigration Status

National Law Review wrote on October 26:

“The Trump administration’s public charge rule is on hold, at least temporarily. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State each introduced a version of the rule. Both versions were scheduled for implementation on October 15, 2019, and would have established expansive new tests to be used by those agencies when determining if certain visa applicants were likely to become public charges—a determination that would generally make them inadmissible to the United States…

“Federal district judges in five states (New York, California, Washington, Illinois, and Maryland) recently issued injunctions blocking the implementation of DHS’s revised public charge rule. If implemented, the rule would not only have greatly expanded the types of public benefits to be considered toward the ground of inadmissibility, but also increased the discretion given to immigration officers when determining if an individual was ‘more likely than not’ to become a public charge. At least one court also blocked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from implementing a series of new and revised petition and application forms issued in furtherance of the rule. The forms would have required certain applicants to provide a substantial amount of personal information and documentation, including credit scores, evidence of health insurance, and/or school transcripts…

“Litigation challenging DHS’s public charge rule will continue to play out in the courts, as there are still a number of lawsuits pending in additional jurisdictions. The Trump administration is likely to appeal the injunctions. Many expect that the Supreme Court of the United States will ultimately decide the public charge issue, as was the case with the travel ban…

“With all of the attention focused on the public charge rule right now, it is easy to overlook the Trump administration’s new health insurance requirement. As of November 3, 2019, immigrant (i.e., permanent resident) visa applicants applying through a U.S. consulate will be required to prove that they will obtain approved health insurance within 30 days of entering the United States or that they can afford to pay for reasonably foreseeable medical expenses while they are in the United States. However, unlike the public charge rule, where health insurance is just one of a number of weighted factors immigration officers will consider, the presidential proclamation provides that lack of health insurance alone will result in the outright denial of an immigrant visa. The proclamation does not apply to nonimmigrant visas (e.g., work permits, visitor visas, etc.).”

The handwriting is on the wall.

Americans Love Illegal Mexican Drugs … While Mexico Is Slipping into National Chaos

The New York Post wrote on October 27:

“A recent RAND Corporation study reports that Americans spent just shy of $150 billion on illegal narcotics in 2016. The bulk of this money goes to Mexico, which also has become a major conduit into the United States for synthetic opioids like Chinese-manufactured fentanyl, upping the cartels’ take.

“Americans, in other words, love their illegal chemicals, they have the ready cash to indulge themselves — and they are not particularly mindful of the consequences of this for others. Hence the emergence of the Mexican drug cartels, not the sole supplier of the American drug market, but pretty much at the top of the list. Mexico’s fragile political institutions, and its long history of overtly corrupt local government, made it fertile territory for the rise of extra­legal quasi-governments…

“Mexico… is either unable, or unwilling, to protect its citizens from organized lawlessness… And this, in turn, ratifies a warning from US Joint Forces Command that Mexico is slipping toward national collapse — and this was before government troops were losing all-out gun battles with criminals. It doesn’t take much imagination to anticipate what such a collapse would mean for the United States. A legitimate refugee crisis would dwarf the manufactured border chaos that convulsed American politics this year. And it remains that Mexico is America’s third-largest trading partner, amounting to some $557 billion in business in 2017.

“Potential solutions are elusive. Enhanced law enforcement stands only to drive up drug prices and cartel profits. And a more radical approach — attempting to remove profits through drug legalization — would encounter so many legal, cultural and moral barriers in the United States that it is an ­effective nonstarter.

“So the crisis is likely to proceed. But as it does, don’t lose sight of one core truth: America is, and has long been, the world’s largest importer of illegal drugs… As the philosopher Walt Kelly once noted: ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us.’”

Is Trump Losing His Grip on White Evangelicals

Politico wrote on October 24:

“President Donald Trump is on a rescue mission to preserve his grip on the religious right. In call after call over the past two weeks, Trump has sought counsel from prominent evangelical figures on how to protect his relationship with conservative Christians amid mounting criticism over his withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria…

“It’s a first for Trump’s presidency: The same evangelical leaders who’ve been notoriously unmovable through prior controversies have spoken out forcefully to condemn his policy toward Syria. Televangelist Pat Robertson said Trump was ‘in danger of losing the mandate of heaven.’…

“There is also the shadow that impeachment has cast over Trump’s presidency, and how white evangelicals are responding. A much-discussed Fox News poll found that nearly three in 10 white evangelicals want the president impeached and removed from office… [and] only 62 percent of white evangelicals said they definitely plan to vote for Trump next fall…”

Still, Trump will be re-elected. His success in killing Isis leader al-Bagdhadi at this time and in light of his terrible Syrian policy is interesting and not just coincidental. His “mandate of heaven” will be carried out, but only very few seem to know what that mandate really is.

Preparing to Build the Third Temple?

Breaking Israel News wrote on October 24:

“At a Parliament meeting in the Gaza Strip… Hamas MP Ahmed Abu Khaliya decried the ‘disturbances’ of ‘Zionists’ in the al-Aqsa mosque and their ‘desecration’ of it… Achmad Abu Khalbiah, who heads the Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Commission in the Palestinian parliament, categorized permitting Jews to practice freedom of worship on the Temple Mount ‘a blatant provocation’ and warned that Israeli officials seek to demolish the Al-Aqsa mosque and build the temple on its ruins…

“On the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) alone, 3,881 Jewish pilgrims entered the Temple Mount, a 42% increase since 2015. Additionally, more high profile celebrities are also ascending the mount…”

It was also pointed out that nearly 1,800 Jews, which is unprecedented, ascended the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in observance of the annual Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the first and the second Temple.

Breaking Israel News reported on October 30:

“In September, the Sanhedrin hosted the first conference for the Organization of 70 Nations. The organization will bring together all of the nations under the common belief in the sanctity of the Bible…

“The Sanhedrin has received responses from several nations since the conference from the most unexpected sources… One such response came from a respected academic Palestinian scholar who lives in Judea… ‘He contacted the Sanhedrin and wants to work with us…’ Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the Sanhedrin, told Breaking Israel News. ‘…He accepts the historical truth that Jewish Temples once stood on the Temple Mount. He wants the Palestinian people to be part of the Organization of 70 nations and is aware this includes a Biblically mandated Sanhedrin, court of nations, and a Third Temple as a House of Prayer for all nations.’… The members of the organization agree to the sanctity of Jerusalem and the Temples…

“Another purpose of the conference and the organization of the 70 Nations is to begin the return of the lost ten-tribes of Israel…

“Last year, a World Creation Concert was held adjacent to the Temple Mount. During a ceremony held at the concert, representatives from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico signed an agreement with the Sanhedrin to accompany the people of God, as peoples, nations, and individuals toward establishing the Temple in Jerusalem as a house of prayer for all nations as prophesied in the Bible.”

Israel Feels Betrayed

Breaking Israel News wrote on October 11:

“At the 46th annual Yom Kippur War memorial service on Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu recalled the event [in 1973] and how the United States abandoned their closest ally in the Middle East during their time of need… Referencing the Biblical prophet Balaam, Netanyahu added that: ‘We do not aspire to be “a nation that dwells alone,” but that is how we were forced to stand at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War,’ he said, reminding those present that American aid arrived only towards the end of the 1973 war…

“But then, Netanyahu compared the events of that time to today saying: ‘We always remember and apply the basic principle that guides us: Israel will defend itself, by itself, against any threat.’ This statement was a clear reaction to what many perceive to be Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds, also a close US ally, to Erdogan’s war machine. Reading between the lines, it appears as though Netanyahu is preparing for the day when Trump abandons him too…

“Netanyahu isn’t the only Israeli leader who believes that it’s only a matter of time before Trump abandons Israel. Former MK and popular politician Moshe Feiglin took it a step further. That’s because after Trump justified his abandonment of the Kurds by noting that the ethnic group ‘didn’t help us in the Second World War’ and ‘didn’t help us with Normandy’ Feiglin understood this to mean that Trump will abandon any country who didn’t help the US in WW2, including Israel. That’s why Feiglin took to social media saying: ‘Israel didn’t help the US with Normandy either.’ Echoing Netanyahu’s comments, New Right party leader Naftali Bennett said: ‘The lesson for Israel is simple. Israel will always defend itself by itself.’”

Ultimately, the USA WILL abandon Israel, but only after Trump has fulfilled his role in regard to helping the erection of the Third Temple.

USA Back in Syria?

The Guardian wrote on October 28:

“The US military has started reinforcing its positions around oil fields in eastern Syria, saying the new deployments are part of its continuing counter-terrorist mission after the killing of the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi…

“Video footage from the region showed US military convoys re-entering Syria, days after Donald Trump had ordered them out in advance of a Turkish invasion. The change of mind reportedly came after Pentagon officials persuaded the president that it was essential to protect east Syrian oil resources…

“Trump has defended his decision to abandon the [Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF, saying it was not America’s job to police a longstanding conflict between Turks and Kurds…

“[Defense secretary Mark Esper] would not say whether the deployment meant that there were more or less US soldiers in Syria than before Trump ordered the withdrawal last month, paving the way for Turkey’s invasion into north-eastern Syria. But the defense secretary insisted that: ‘At the end of the day we will be sending troops home.’”

This confusing lack of clarity and Trump’s indecisive backpedaling do not give “allies” any confidence in America’s reliability.

Europe Must Intervene in the Middle East

Politico wrote on October 10:

“The Kurds have been abandoned, again. Theirs is a long history of Western betrayal, dating back to colonial times. That the West would once again turn its back, after enlisting Kurdish help in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State, has been in the cards for years… But U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision this week to provide a de facto green light for yet another Turkish offensive into Kurdish-held territory in Northern Syria is not just another instance in a long, unfortunate pattern in Western-Kurdish relations. It’s the turning of a new page in the history of the Middle East… For Europeans, in particular, it should serve as a shock that moves us to act.

“The sudden power vacuum has Europe looking weak and unprepared. But the truth is that Europe has not led in the region for decades. As long as upheavals in the region unfolded under the shell of U.S. hegemony, Europeans operated in Uncle Sam’s shadow. Sometimes European countries complemented American action, at other times they sought to moderate it. But they never opposed it or charted an autonomous path. If our weakness has been exposed, it’s because we can no longer hide behind the U.S.’s skirts…

“Erdoğan gambled on Trump’s isolationism and on Europe’s cowardice… As the U.S. retreats from the Middle East, Russia is gloating on the sidelines… Erdoğan’s incursion — and Trump’s acquiescence — makes clear Europe needs to learn to stand on its own. Europeans do not have the U.S. luxury of being able to walk away. They are bound to Turkey and to the Middle East for historical, geographical, societal and economic reasons. The question we need to ask ourselves is how can we regain influence in the region, and in particular with Turkey…”

 And so, Europe will do just that, including militarily.

Big Win for Salvini

Politico wrote on October 28:

“After half a century of left-wing rule, the central Italian region of Umbria voted for a regional government spearheaded by Matteo Salvini’s far-right League… As the scale of the League’s victory became apparent Sunday night, Salvini told reporters: ‘We are writing history here tonight.’ The result is a major blow to the PD-5Stars government, whose formation two months ago removed the League from power… the governing parties’ disastrous defeat is certain to have major repercussions for the already-fragile coalition…

“Salvini will use the League’s landslide victory to demonstrate he still has the backing of most Italians despite having pulled the plug on the government over the summer and having been forced into opposition. The next big test for the PD-5Stars alliance will come in another regional vote, in Emilia-Romagna, in January…”

Pope Francis under Attack

Express wrote on October 13:

“POPE FRANCIS is facing a potential religious coup from within the Catholic Church, but there is also an emerging threat from outside the Vatican…

“The current tenure of Pope Francis has been one of the most polarising moments in the history of the Catholic Church, as his progressive and status-quo denying values provoke disdain from Vatican norms. One of the unorthodox features of the current Pope’s tenure is his appointing of cardinals from less notorious churches spanning further across the globe…

“His critics have grown impatient with this policy with [former pope] Benedict demanding he remains domiciled in an apartment on Vatican grounds amid his own doubts of Francis’ methods. He is attracting opposition from right-wing politicians in Italy too, including Matteo Salvini who recently withdrew his support in the coalition government leaving Rome in political chaos…

“The right-wing politician has also enlisted the help of former White House strategist Steve Bannon, whose Brussels-based international group, ‘The Movement’, was denied access to the Vatican for political training… Bannon advised Salvini himself that the actual Pope is a sort of enemy… Salvini [is] claiming that conservatives in the Vatican were on his side… he was also pictured in 2016 holding a shirt saying ‘Benedict is my pope.’”

“With Francis continuing to take on the right in Italy and the Catholic Church, the political grappling is expected to continue.”

This is very remarkable. We must watch these developments to see who the announced false prophet or the “man of sin” is going to be.

Is Pope Francis Changing Catholic Doctrines?

CNS News wrote on October 9:

“Pope Francis’ longtime atheist friend and interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, claims that the Pope told him that once Jesus Christ became incarnate, he was a man, a ‘man of exceptional virtues’ but ‘not at all a God.’

“The teaching of the Catholic Church and most Christian churches is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as fully man and fully God.

“As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ‘The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.’

“… Scalfari states… ‘Those who, as it has happened many times with me, have had the luck of meeting him and speaking to him with the greatest cultural intimacy, know that Pope Francis conceives Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, man, not God incarnate… Once incarnate, Jesus stops being a God and becomes a man until his death on the cross.’…

“In a March 2018 interview with Scalfari, Pope Francis reportedly said, ‘There is no Hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.’ That interview caused an uproar… The Vatican did not deny what Scalfari reported but said it could not ‘be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.’ The Pope himself never denied what Scalfari reported and the article never ran a correction or removed the article from its website…

“In a statement issued Oct. 9…,  the Vatican said, ‘As has been affirmed in other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes between quotes to the Holy Father during his colloquies held with him cannot be considered as a faithful account of what was effectively said, but represent more a personal and free interpretation of that which he heard, as appears entirely evident from what was written today concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ.’

“Church Militant’s Michael Voris commented, ‘That is the relevant part of the statement, and it, in itself, is now creating its own firestorm because it does not actually deny Scalfari’s characterization, merely hinting at the possibility.’”

 If reported accurately, then the views of Pope Francis on the humanity of Christ and the non-existence of an ever-burning tormenting hell fire would be biblically correct.

And Now… Married Priests?

The Associated Press wrote on October 27:

“On the heels of a landmark call by Amazon region bishops for married men to become priests, Pope Francis on Sunday exhorted Catholics to be open to fresh ways of evangelization, saying the church must ‘open new roads for the proclamation of the Gospel.’ He also cautioned against self-righteousness, in an apparent slap at conservative critics who fear he is weakening the church’s foundations.

“Allowing married men to be ordained in remote Amazon areas with severe shortages of priests would chip away at the church’s nearly millennium-old practice upholding priestly celibacy. It would also help the church compete with evangelical and Protestant churches that have been increasingly winning converts there… Francis… has said he will put his response in writing by year’s end…

“Francis has often praised celibacy for priests. If the Argentine-born pontiff embraces the appeal from bishops on his native continent, it is not clear whether that might trigger an erosion of the celibacy rule elsewhere. Ordaining married men, even in limited circumstances, risks deepening the antipathy in strongly conservative church circles toward Francis, whom they deem to be dangerously progressive…

“His critics, including so-called traditionalist Catholics, insist the Vatican adheres strictly to centuries-old rules demanding that priests be celibate, unmarried men. But in the first centuries of the church, married men did serve as priests… Peter… was married, as were many of the first apostles.

“Currently, the Vatican allows married men to become priests in Eastern rite churches. Eager to include converts, it has also allowed married Anglicans to remain priests when they join the Roman Catholic church…”

A clash between Francis and “traditionalist Catholics,” even including within the Vatican, might be inevitable.

Highly Unprepared for the Next Inevitable Pandemic

The Daily Mail wrote on October 25:

“No country is fully equipped to deal with the next global pandemic, a major report has claimed. Scientists say an outbreak of a flu-like illness could sweep across the planet in 36 hours and kill tens of millions due to our constantly-travelling population.

“But a review of health care systems already in place across the world found just 13 countries had the resources to put up a fight against an ‘inevitable’ pandemic…

“Writing in their report, the scientists said: ‘… a threat anywhere is a threat everywhere. Deadly infectious diseases can travel quickly; increased global mobility through air travel means that a disease outbreak in one country can spread across the world in a matter of hours.’”

The Bible says that due to pandemics and disease epidemics, millions upon millions of people will die in our time.

The Pure Language

Breaking Israel News wrote on October 27:

“Modern linguists have speculated that a single language… is the predecessor of all other human languages. Dr. Isaac E. Mozeson’s life’s work has been to document that this original language, the one first spoken in the Garden of Eden, is the source for all the world’s languages. He named this proto-human language Edenics for its connection to the Garden of Eden. Not surprisingly, Edenics is very similar to Biblical Hebrew… Mozeson claims that Edenics is the ‘Semitic mother tongue’ that ‘was scrambled into 70 languages’ 3,784 years ago, after the episode of the Tower of Babel. According to his theory, every human language today shares elements of Biblical Hebrew…

“Rabbi Tuly Weisz, publisher of Breaking Israel News, wrote, ‘The ultimate purpose of the return of the Jewish people to the Land is to serve God and to correct the sin of Babel, and to speak the one ‘language of purity,’ Hebrew. And in these days of redemption, not just the Jews, but all the people of the world will learn the Hebrew language.’”

We do not know whether it was indeed Hebrew or a language from which Hebrew was derived, which was spoken by Adam and Eve prior to the Tower of Babel incident. Nor do we know whether the pure language of the Millennium will indeed be a purified version of Hebrew.

How the Earth Might Have Become Void and Empty…

The Atlantic wrote on October 23:

“The worst day in the history of life on Earth, so far, happened almost exactly 66 million years ago, when an asteroid roughly the size of Manhattan slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula… The asteroid… immediately drilled a 20-mile hole into the planet’s surface, vaporizing bedrock and spewing it halfway to the moon. The planet shuddered with magnitude-12 earthquakes, loosing tsunamis across the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the ejected debris condensed in orbit and plunged back to Earth as searing spheres of molten glass, which torched the land and turned forests into firestorms. Other debris remained high in space, where it blocked the sun’s rays and began to chill the surface of the planet… By the time it was over, about 75 percent of all species on Earth had died, including all nonavian dinosaurs. The event, which ended the Cretaceous Period and began the Tertiary Period, is named the K-T extinction…

“The impact changed the chemical content of the ocean, rendering seawater more acidic and inhospitable to the tiny plankton that form the base of the marine food chain. Combined with the other effects of the asteroid—darkened skies and a snap of global cooling—this ecologic disruption doomed much of life on Earth…

“When the asteroid hit, untold megatons of that old organic material—rich in nitrogen and sulfur—instantly became dust and shot up into the atmosphere. Soon it began to fall back down, now as nitric oxide and sulfuric acid… It was raining brimstone and acid from the sky…

“Ocean acidification also likely worsened other sweeping environmental changes wrought by the impact, such as the years-long darkness caused by orbiting debris and ash from the global wildfires… it now appears that all three of the worst mass extinctions in Earth’s history featured huge spasms of ocean acidification. They include the K-T extinction; the End-Triassic Extinction, when volcanoes in New Jersey killed 75 percent of all species; and the dread End-Permian Event, the worst extinction in the history of the planet, which killed roughly 85 percent of all species and nearly sterilized the oceans. Scientists call that event ‘the Great Dying.’…”

We read in the Bible that after God had created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, the earth became (as it should be translated) void and empty, and that darkness was upon the face of the deep, until God began to remove that darkness.

Halloween—Spookier and Deadlier than You Might Think

Country Living wrote on September 4:

“…in the midst of the parties and games and sugar rushes, have you ever stopped to wonder what the history of Halloween even is in the first place?… Halloween falls on October 31 because the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, considered the earliest known root of Halloween, occurred on this day. It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but (more importantly) observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin at this time, enabling them to connect with the dead. This belief is shared by some other cultures…

“The early pagan holiday of Samhain involved a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to connect to spirits… many believe the Celts celebrated in costumes… as a disguise against ghosts, enjoyed special feasts, and made lanterns… Halloween previously posed a huge (albeit rather superstitious) matchmaking opportunity for young women in the 19th century.”

The following was stated by Express on October 31, 2018:

“Halloween is the most important day of the year for Devil worshippers, according to the founder of the Church of Satan, and everyone else has been urged to avoid celebrating this ‘dark’ day… the holiday has its roots in evil…

“Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in the US in 1966. He was the country’s most prominent Satanist up until his death in 1997 and authored several books… In the Satanic Bible, Mr LaVey wrote: ‘… the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween.’

“Walpurgisnacht, or Saint Walpurgis Night, is a German annual event which is known in German Folklore as Witches Night… the Church of Satan recognises Halloween as an extremely important day for evil… As a result, some Christians are warning people to steer clear of Halloween celebrations. Christian website Charisma News writes: ‘There will be many people who will read this article and will continue to celebrate Halloween just as they normally do. If that is you, then you need to understand that engaging in dark practices can open up doors to spiritual darkness for yourself and your entire family.’”

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.

When Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God on this earth, will everyone experience immediately all the millennial blessings as described in the Bible?

Surprising as it may sound, the answer is no. Part of the reason for this answer is that those who have survived the terrible times of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord and who will still be alive, as human beings, when the Millennium begins, will have to be taught God’s Way of Life and they will have to accept it.

Some, if not many, will not follow God’s Way of Life right away, and in refusing to do so, they will have to suffer the consequences.

In addition, the world will be in a devastating condition, with destroyed cities and polluted landscapes, which will have to be restored and purified. All of this will take some time. It has been proposed that it may take up to two or three generations until mankind will experience the full effect of Christ’s rule on earth.

We read in the Bible that wars will cease, and that man will not want to learn war anymore. He will exchange his weapons of war with useful instruments and tools for agriculture and other peaceful purposes. But some will not accept the Way of Peace right away.

We state the following in chapter 7 of our free booklet, “Biblical Prophecy… From Now Until Forever”:

“An invasion of Asiatic hordes is described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. It will occur after Christ’s return, at the very beginning of His rule over mankind… Jesus Christ will have to complete the remaining three-and-one-half years of His public ministry [compare Daniel 9:27] to the lost sheep of the house of Israel before His rule over all nations in the Millennium can really begin to flourish…

“Christ will free the modern descendants of the houses of Israel and Judah from captivity and ultimately bring them into the Promised Land. They will build the waste cities and inhabit them, live in peace and safety [compare Isaiah 61:4; Ezekiel 36:33]…

“To live God’s way of life is a process of learning and doing it. For instance, we read in the book of Isaiah that Gentile nations will hear about the law of God which will be taught by Christ in Jerusalem, and they will flock there to learn God’s laws as well (Isaiah 2:1-3). They will reach the point where they will not want to learn war anymore (verse 4). We also read that some nations will at first refuse to live by God’s law to observe His annual holy days…

“Ezekiel 39 emphasizes in numerous places that God will destroy the invading army, and that because of God’s intervention, the nations, and especially the nation of Israel, will know that He is the Lord…”

When people refuse to obey God, as some will do at the beginning of the Millennium, God will answer with a language that they will understand. This will include withholding some blessings. For instance, we read in Zechariah 14 that God will withhold rain in due season which is necessary for a prosperous harvest when they refuse to obey Him (compare verses 16-19).

We also read in Ezekiel 38 and 39 that God will strike the attacking armies from the East with a huge earthquake (Ezekiel 38:19-20) and with pestilence, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone (verse 22). Those who die will be buried for more than seven months (Ezekiel 39:13-15). At the same time, all weapons will be burned and to be used for firewood for up to seven years (Ezekiel 39:9-10).

Even though God will plague those who disobey Him with a storm, pouring rain and burning heat, He will offer and provide protection to those who accept His Way of Life. Isaiah 4:3-6 tells us:

“And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy–everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the LORD has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.”

We see from this passage that there will be heat, storm and rain at the beginning of the Millennium for those who do not want to submit to God.

We also read that in the Millennium, the nature of animals will change, so that they become truly peaceful and unwilling and unable to harm people (Isaiah 11:6-9). But this does not mean that there will not be any ravenous beast in the Millennium and that the nature of all animals will be changed right away. While no ravenous beast will be close to people to attack them (compare Isaiah 35:8-10), wild beasts and “unclean and hated birds” will still exist for a while (Revelation 18:2). It appears that even the change of the nature of some animals might take a while.

We also read that in the Millennium, man will be healed from his or her sicknesses and diseases. We read in Isaiah 35:5-6: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.”

We also read in Isaiah 33:24: “And the inhabitant will not say, ‘I am sick’; The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.”

But forgiveness of iniquity takes some time. People who have survived the devastation on earth will obtain forgiveness upon repentance. And so, those who are sick might not be healed right away either, but only upon a deep understanding that God’s healing must be based on our acceptance of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Such recognition and acceptance might not occur right away. This might be one reason why there will be, at first, animal sacrifices in the Millennium. We state the following in chapter 8 of our above-mentioned booklet:

“The Bible shows that at the beginning of the Millennium, after Gog’s armies are destroyed (compare Ezekiel 38 and 39), God will reinstitute animal sacrifices at a newly built temple in Jerusalem… It is very possible that the sacrifices will only be given during the remaining three-and-one-half years of Christ’s public ministry…

“It is important to understand that the millennial sacrifices will NOT be brought for the purpose of forgiveness of sin! Only Christ’s shed blood accomplished this—once and for all! But God introduced the sacrificial system to ancient Israel because Israel had sinned and the sacrifices served as a reminder of their sins. Apparently, for the same reason in the Millennium, sacrifices will be brought so that carnal, unconverted people can begin to appreciate the awesome purpose and meaning of Christ’s Sacrifice and how God looks at sin…”

Once unconverted people come to understand the all-encompassing significance of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, animal sacrifices will apparently cease. But while animal sacrifices are being given, complete physical healing might be delayed. On the other hand, we read in Ezekiel 47:12 that God will provide trees to be used for food and their leaves for medicine or healing. The existence of such “healing” leaves suggests that at first, not everyone living in the Millennium will be healed right away.

This conclusion is confirmed in Zechariah 8:3-4, where we read: “Thus says the LORD: ‘I will return to Zion, And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the LORD of hosts, The Holy Mountain.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Old men and old women shall again sit In the streets of Jerusalem, Each one with his staff in his hand Because of great age.”

This picture alludes to those old people who will have survived the Great Tribulation; they are worn out “with old age, and therefore obliged to use a staff when they walk the streets for their support” (so Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible). There is no reason to believe that they will not be healed even of such feebleness in due time, but they will live with it for a while, even though they will live happily and peacefully.

Having said all of this, the Millennium will be a unique joyous experience for all humans. One might ask why God will not use “a magic wand” and change everything immediately for the better. The reason should be clear. Man has to learn to follow Him. They are free moral agents with a free will. God wants them to develop character by making right decisions from the heart. It is their choice, not God’s. But God will withhold blessings when we refuse to obey Him. This is true now and it will be true in the Millennium.

As we are being trained today to become immortal Spirit beings and members of the God Family in His Kingdom, so those human beings living into the Millennium and being born during the 1,000 year-reign of Christ will have the same potential. But we do not believe that anyone who will be born as a human being in the Millennium [or, for that matter, who will be raised in the Great White Throne Judgment period] will be born [or resurrected] with any birth defect or with any sickness. What we have addressed in this Q&A applies strictly to those humans who will survive the terrible times to come prior to Christ’s return and who will then be able to experience Christ’s establishment of His government here on earth.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“Do You Keep Satan’s Feast of Halloween?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

Do you know that Halloween is evil and demonic to the core, and a most important day for Devil worshippers and Satanists? If you participate in it in any way and induce others to do so, you stand condemned by God who is not mocked. The biblical warning is clear and unambiguous.

“Halloween–Halten SIE Satans Fest?” is the title of the a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link and covering the same topic as described above.

“Wann beginnen für alle Menschen die Segnungen des Millenniums?” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “When Will the Millennial Blessings Begin for All People?”

PLEASE NOTE: Sermons and sermonettes given during the Day of Atonement; Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day in both the US and Germany are now being posted and are available at our respective websites.

“The Plausibility of the Impossible,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Robb Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

On his own, man seeks to answer basic questions of life through the foundation of science. The observable universe is a standard by which all carnal theories base themselves. We know the vanity of these pursuits and that truly important answers are found only with God.

“Unity—but How,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Maintaining a harmonious relationship with God and among brethren is absolutely necessary, but this seems to be the area in which so many fail. However, the Bible does show us how to find and keep unity—will we agree?

On, October 5, 2019, Mike Link will present the sermonette, titled, “Suffering From PFT,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “Our Unrighteous World—Our Religions.”

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.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019, is a Holy Day—the Day of Atonement. Services will be broadcast live at 12:30 pm Pacific Time. The Offertory will be presented by Robb Harris, and the sermon will be presented by Dave Harris, titled, “Why Fasting?”

This will be the last Update published until the week of November 1, 2019, due to our observance of the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.

Most of us live very busy lives with many activities taking up our time. And of course most of these activities are required as a part of living life. We strive after a great number of objectives. Early on it may be education. Later, employment to earn a living. Then we may seek a marriage and to start a family. Somewhere amongst all this we need a place to live, to either rent or buy. Later on we may look for a retirement accommodation.

All of these are usually necessary parts of life, but God gives us a direction in Matthew 6:31-33. “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ Or, ‘What shall we drink?’ Or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Verse 31 in other translations is rendered “Do not be anxious” or even “Do not be over-anxious”. Verse 32 reminds us that God is fully aware that we have certain needs. But the overall emphasis on this section of Scripture in Matthew 6 is on putting our first priority on God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. It is right to plan and prepare for our needs but these plans and preparations must come second to desiring the Kingdom of God.

This same emphasis and order is also stated in Matthew 6:10. After hallowing God’s name, we are told to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and His Will to be done on earth. And after this we are we to pray for our daily needs. We know that God’s Will is summed up in His commandments, statutes and judgements. If we want to know what righteousness is, we read in Psalm 119:172 that all of God’s commandments are righteousness.

Looking at the world today, none of its ways are in accordance with God’s Will. Considering the political system, some leaders are despots, others make promises to be elected that they do not intend, or that they are unable, to keep. Many cannot be trusted. Our education system does not like to acknowledge God’s revealed Truth. They mainly teach evolution without a Creator and that morality is relative, depending on the circumstances.

What about the medical system? In some highly developed countries, medicine can be extremely expensive and with poor outcomes. Many bankruptcies are the result of medical expenses. In the legal system, to receive some form of justice may depend on the wealth of the plaintiff or the accused. We could also look at business or agriculture. The pursuit of money is usually the most important factor. We often hear in the news of dubious business practices where some have been fined or jailed for their illegal actions.

Yes, at times, we can read of some good examples in all of these systems, but the fact that they are written about indicates they are not the usual cases, but rather rarities, otherwise they would not be reported.

But when the Kingdom of God is established and ruling over the earth, all of this will change. The leaders will not have to make promises in order to be voted into office. Neither will they lead coups or military takeovers. God will establish righteous government, so when an official says in that day, “I am from the government, I am here to help you,” this will be a true statement.

The education system will be based on God’s Word and obedience to Him. In Proverbs 1:7 we read, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Also Psalm 111:10 tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.” Education will emphasise godly wisdom and understanding as well as knowledge.

Again, under the ruling Kingdom of God, there will be divine healing. Interestingly, we read in Ezekiel 47:12 that some medicines will grow on trees provided by God—the trees being watered by water flowing from the sanctuary of God.

In the legal system, God has instructed the judges to judge righteously and not to show partiality (Deuteronomy 1:16-17). Even in business and agriculture, God has given instructions not to cheat in measurements and to consider the land and the animals, to look after them. All of these instructions will be enforced in the Kingdom of God. It will be a time when people can trust and be trusted, a time of peace and security.

So it will be a whole new world, something to look forward to with our full being. And for us in the Church of God, if we endure to the end, there is the promise of joy and pleasures with God forevermore (Psalms 16:11).

The Good News Version sums up Matthew 6:33 very effectively, “Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.”

At this time of the year, the Feast of Tabernacles, which pictures the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth, is just over a week away. We should especially seek first and think about the Kingdom of God during this time. Doing so will make the Feast so much more meaningful for us all.

by Norbert Link

We begin with the explosive news about the re-emergence of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz; and we talk about Hungary’s and Britain’s future, as well as the future of the Euro.

We are reporting on the death and funeral of France’s former President, Jacques Chirac; the end of the German-American affair; and we show some frightening parallels between the time just before World War 2 and our current situation. We also speak on China and its brutal dictatorial rule for the past 70 years.

We publish an absolutely astonishing article about Israel which the main stream media completely missed. (Please see our new StandingWatch program, “Bombshell News—Coming…The Third Temple and Animal Sacrifices in Israel.”)

We speak on the ongoing impeachment circus against Donald Trump and his expected reaction; and we point out that most Americans are woefully unprepared for the coming recession.

We conclude with Pope Francis’ highly controversial conduct regarding an anti-American article attacking American Evangelicals; and the disturbing fact that more than half of unique European trees and other rare plants are facing extinction.  

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

Austria’s Sebastian Kurz Back in Power

NPR wrote on September 29:

“Austria’s youngest-ever chancellor, 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz, is poised to reclaim his job after his party received its biggest victory in years… His conservative Austrian People’s Party received more than [38] percent of the vote, five percentage points higher than its showing in 2017, when it teamed up with the far-right Freedom Party to form a government…

“Kurz’s first government came crashing down in May after his coalition partner, the Freedom Party, became embroiled in a cash-for-contracts scandal… Strache resigned, the Freedom Party left the government, and Kurz lost a no-confidence vote in parliament…

“While Austria has warm ties with Russia, the Freedom Party openly admires the Kremlin… Like other radical right parties, they also oppose immigration and are unabashedly nationalist — which means something in Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. Many in the Freedom Party see the defeat of Nazi Germany ‘not as a victory for democracy but as a defeat for their cause’…

News analysts are divided as to whether Kurz will try again to form a coalition with the Freedom Party under Norbert Hofer, which encountered a debacle by receiving only [17] percent—[9] percentage points lower in 2017–or whether he may try to form a coalition with other parties, such as the Greens, who won 12% of the votes or perhaps even the Social Democrats who received 21.5 percent of the vote—a debacle for them and their worst-ever result.

Kurz’ victory turned out much more decisive than many had expected. Even Kurz himself declared that he was pleasantly surprised about the many votes he got. Der Stern commented: “Messiah and Macron of the Alps… the comet-like rise of Sebastian Kurz continues…” Der Spiegel wrote: “Back into the 18^th century… the dream of [Kurz’s party] is totally controlled subjects…” Die Welt wrote: “Germany’s media celebrates King Kurz.” Previously, practicing Catholic Sebastian Kurz had been referred to in the Austrian press as “holy Sebastian.” Bild Online commented that Kurz is being celebrated in Austria like a pop-star and that he could become a political example or role model for Europe.

What’s Austria’s Future?

Deutsche Welle commented on September 29:

“The victory of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz represents a broad conservative consensus: ‘We’ Austrians are doing well, without refugees, with a modest (and above all lower) number of foreigners, with a strong sense of national pride and identity…

“If the people want a move to the right, politicians from all parties have to follow suit. The Greens had their opposition to the right’s tough refugee policies to thank for their weak performance in 2017. This time around, they avoided the topic — and it paid off. Their renewed focus on climate change has been successful, as long as they don’t threaten to impose painful measures to limit CO2 emissions….

“The center-left Social Democrats, on the other hand, suffered on Sunday… the Social Democrats chose a weak and insecure candidate in Pamela Rendi-Wagner… But strong men and tough attitudes are what the voters want right now, and the Social Democrats weren’t prepared…

“The FPÖ could decide to refuse a coalition and move to the opposition — a scenario that would be most unappealing for Kurz…”

Kurz Needs a Coaltion… but with Whom?

Deutsche Welle added on September 30:

“‘I fear coalition talks will be a little more challenging this time,’ Kurz said on Monday, referencing the relatively smooth talks with the FPÖ which followed the 2017 election. [He] indicated that he will take his time determining which party or parties with which the ÖVP would be prepared to enter coalition talks.

“‘Of course we will seek talks with all parties and try to determine which parties there’s overlap with, which parties a stable government can be formed with,’ the ÖVP leader said. He also denounced calls from German commentators that he should avoid a fresh pact with the far right. ‘I don’t think we need advice from abroad, including from Germany,’ he said.”

The EUObserver wrote on September 30:

“The FPO’s new leader Norbert Hofer told Austria media he believed his party would not take part in coalition talks, after they lost 10 percent of votes in Sunday’s election. ‘A party needs to learn from the mistakes of the past and rebuild itself,’ he said.

“The Greens leader, Werner Kogler, said his party would only consider a coalition with Kurz if there was a ‘radical change’ in the political direction of the party compared to his previous coalition with the far-right. ‘We might end up having no government,’ Kogler said. The Social Democrats, who have led many of Austria’s previous coalitions, remain a possible partner.”

Whatever the constellation, it is clear that Austria will stay in the EU as an influential member state.

Strache Withdrawing from Politics… for Now

Deutsche Welle wrote on October 1:

“Heinz-Christian Strache is withdrawing from politics and suspending his membership with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), he said on Tuesday morning… Strache, who led the FPÖ for 14 years, also served as vice-chancellor from 2017 to 2019 before he was forced out of the government in May…

“Until Tuesday, Strache had left open the possibility of seeking public office again in the future. The former vice chancellor is also under investigation for the alleged misuse of party funds. In Tuesday’s press conference, he repeated his claim that he was the victim of a conspiracy against his party.”

Still, we might not have heard the last word from Strache.

Hungary to Stay in EU

The EUObserver wrote on September 30:

“Hungary has no plans to leave the EU, but western and eastern Europe are ‘different’, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban told a party congress on Sunday…

“‘We are a member of the Union and will remain a member,’ he said. But ‘the western and eastern halves of the Union clearly follow different paths … and respect different values,’ he added, amid EU clashes on judicial independence and refugees.”

We would expect that Hungary stays in the EU. They might even be part of the final core European nations. We also read that those ten core nations or groups of nations will be partly strong and partly fragile, and that they won’t really adhere to one another.

Making the Euro Stronger

CNBC wrote on September 30:

“In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, ECB President Mario Draghi said ‘what matters is to make the (euro) union stronger’ and ‘in some areas, further integration achieves that goal.’

“The euro zone is made up of 19 European nations that share the same currency — the euro. Their monetary policy is decided by the ECB, which is based in Frankfurt. However, their fiscal policies are decided at the national level – which often creates discrepancies and makes the region more exposed to financial shocks.

“While some countries argue that they need to share more when it comes to fiscal policy, other capitals are reluctant to delegate more power to European institutions, fearing to lose control over their economies or having to finance high-indebted nations. ‘To have a stronger EMU (economic and monetary union), we need a common euro zone budget. Clearly the political debate on that still has a long way to go. But I am optimistic,’ Draghi said, supporting a plan that the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has tried to implement.

“Led by the French delegation, European finance ministers agreed to create a common euro zone budget earlier this year. However, details of how it will be financed and how big it will be have yet to be agreed upon…

“Draghi ends his eight-year mandate at the ECB on October 31. Christine Lagarde will take over from Draghi on November 1.”

The euro is the glue which will keep the ten core nations or groups of nations together.

British Chancellor: Ready to Leave EU

The Sun wrote on September 30:

“SAJID Javid has pledged that Brexit will take place in DAYS – deal or no deal. The Chancellor told Tory party delegates that Britain was ready to leave the EU now. Mr Javid said: ‘t’s not a matter of if – it’s a matter of days…

“The Chancellor also blasted Labour for its muddled Brexit position – while taking a swipe at leader Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.”

Ultimately, Britain will leave the EU.

A No-Deal Brexit’s Ramifications for British Overseas Territories

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 27:

“In the lead up to Brexit, some five weeks away, the likelihood of the UK crashing out of the bloc without a deal is increasing. Come end of October, a disorderly exit will also have dramatic consequences for the 20 or so British Overseas Territories and exclaves.

“Despite the vast distance, the Caribbean island [of Anguilla] would be greatly impacted by a no-deal Brexit… The EU is the island’s biggest financial donor to its aid development program and has helped support reconstruction costs. With the uncertainty of Brexit, the voices of those calling for independence from the United Kingdom are growing louder.

“The Falkland Islands lie in the southern Atlantic Ocean some 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) from the UK, but the archipelago is almost entirely dependent on the UK. Its currency, the Falkland pound, is tied one-to-one to the pound sterling… The Falklands’ economy relies not only on the sales from its livestock, wool and tallow, but also on its fishing industry. Nearly all fish is exported to Spain and then from there makes its way to other EU countries, while a third of all the calamari bought in Spain comes from the Falkland Islands. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, buyers would suddenly have to pay customs duty between 6%-18%, making seafood much more costly. Whether Spain, or other EU states, would still be interested in the goods is questionable.

“Gibraltar [is] British territory at the southern tip of Spain. [It] voted almost unanimously — with 96% — to remain in the EU… Every day some 15,000 people commute to Spain and, conversely, about 10,000 Spaniards work in Gibraltar… For the last 300 years, Gibraltar’s sovereignty has been an issue of contention between Spain and the UK…

“Channel Islands and Isle of Man … [are] geographically located in the southwest of the English Channel… The islands of Guernsey and Jersey, as well as the Isle of Man in the British Isles further north, are the three Crown Dependencies… the primary GDP is… from being a tax haven… many foreign companies can pay zero tax. Moreover, there are no capital gains tax nor inheritance tax. But Brexit may cause a serious headache for those seeking the tax havens, as Great Britain may not be able to protect the territories from the EU…”

If these predictions come true, we might see an exodus of some of the British colonies from the UK, to be embraced by the “loving” arms of the EU.  

Leaders Gather for Jacques Chirac Funeral

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 30:

“Foreign dignitaries gathered in the French capital on Monday for the funeral of Jacques Chirac, who died last week at the age of 86. The former statesman served as president of France from 1995 to 2007, during a political career that spanned four decades…

“Russian President Vladimir Putin, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and outgoing head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker [attended]. Germany’s ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder was also expected to travel to Paris. However, his office said that Schröder has not been formally invited by French officials, and a chair marked with his name was left empty during a church service honoring Chirac, according to an AFP reporter. The reasons for the missing invitation were not immediately clear…

“Chirac was celebrated by many in France for asserting the country’s role as a global player, with his opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 considered one of his most significant actions. Chirac is also being remembered for being the first French president to acknowledge France’s role in the deportation of Jews during World War II. He remained a popular figure after leaving office, despite a conviction for misusing public funds.”

“The End of the German-American Affair”

Politico wrote on October 1:

“Nearly 75 years after the end of World War II, the U.S.-German relationship isn’t just moribund, it’s on life support… About 85 percent of Germans consider their country’s relationship with the U.S. to be ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’… while a clear majority want Germany to distance itself from the U.S…

“The fraying of ties — which began long before Trump came to power but has accelerated since — carries implications that stretch far beyond the two countries’ bilateral relationship…

“Germans’ attitude to Trump is… straightforward: They universally dislike him… most Americans continue to have a positive view of Germany… the U.S.-German alliance has never been a partnership of equals… If Konrad Adenauer and John F. Kennedy shared a mutual dislike, Helmut Schmidt and Jimmy Carter absolutely despised one another. From the 1960s until the end of the Cold War, Germans took to the streets in droves to voice their opposition to both the U.S. war in Vietnam and the arms race with the Soviets.

“Even so, this time, things really are different…

“The German distrust began to take hold in the aftermath of 9/11. Though Germany joined the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan against the Taliban, Berlin refused to participate in the Iraq War, arguing there wasn’t enough evidence to support claims that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. While Germany’s decision under then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder proved to be prescient, it also left a wound that has never fully healed. In recent years, Germany’s view of the U.S. has been framed by Guantanamo, NSA spying and Trump’s attacks…”

As we have explained many times before, the relationship between the USA and Germany will completely deteriorate.

Further Problems between USA and Europe

The EUObserver wrote on October 3:

“The US will impose tariffs worth €6.8bn annually on European imports of whiskies, French wine, Italian cheese, and planes and plane parts in retaliation for illegal EU subsidies to airplane maker Airbus.

“The new tariffs will come into force as early as 18 October, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled on Wednesday (2 October) in a 15-year-long case that the US could retaliate for the EU subsidies…

“The EU has said it would retaliate against the Airbus-linked tariffs, when next year the WTO is expected to rule on US subsidies to aircraft-maker Boeing.”

2019 like 1929?

The Hill wrote on September 29:

“I am increasingly worried that 2019 feels ever more like 1929. Back then, inequality was at an all-time high. Authoritarian nationalism was on the rise. World War I had exploded the old global order without creating a new one. Then the stock market crash of October 1929 ignited the horrendous cascade of depression, fascism and World War II —arguably the worst 15 years in history.

“Fast forward to today. Three intersecting geo-economic and geo-political trends feel a lot like an update of the 1920s:

“China and the United States seem increasingly determined to decouple their economies from each other — making a second Cold War a reality and superpower war more likely.

“Robotics and AI threaten to destroy many more jobs  than it creates —undermining the foundations of a good life based on a good job.

“Populism seems here to stay — eroding the foundations of democracy and increasing the chances of international conflict…”

World War 3 might be closer than many realize, even though there are many more reasons—and different ones—than listed in the article.

China a Nuclear Superpower… But Still No Match for USA or Russia

National Interest wrote on October 1:

“Paramount leader Xi Jinping just presided over the largest, most impressive military parade in the history of the world. The occasion: to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which just exceeded the Soviet Union’s lifespan by one year. The parade indeed showcased numerous military technological accomplishments far exceeding previous Soviet efforts…”

The Associated Press added on October 1: “A parade Tuesday by China’s secretive military will be a rare look at its rapidly developing arsenal, including possibly a nuclear-capable missile that could reach the United States in 30 minutes, as Beijing gets closer to matching Washington and other powers in weapons technology…

“China has about 280 nuclear warheads, compared with 6,450 for the United States and 6,850 for Russia, according to SIPRI. Beijing says it wants a ‘minimum credible nuclear deterrent’ but won’t be the first to use atomic weapons in a conflict.”

Sadly, in the next world war, atomic weapons will be used.

Congratulating China?

National Review wrote on October 1:

“Seventy years ago today, Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China after his Communist forces had conquered most of the mainland. A decade later, Mao’s Great Leap Forward killed perhaps 45 million people. The Communist regime still denies its people freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and has imposed a policy of forced abortion. At the present moment, China has detained something like 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in re-education camps. Its crackdown on Hong Kong escalated this week, when a protester was shot in the chest.

“President Donald Trump marked the 70th anniversary of the ‘People’s Republic’ with the following congratulatory tweet: ‘Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China!’

“But Senate Republicans have marked the anniversary with condemnation of the regime.

“Missouri senator Josh Hawley: “Seventy years ago, the Chinese Community Party seized power from the Chinese people. Since then, its ruthless rule has resulted in the deaths of millions of its own citizens.’

“Arkansas senator Tom Cotton: ‘… From the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution to the camps in Xinjiang today, it has been a ghoulish 70 years of Chinese Communist Party control.’

“Nebraska senator Ben Sasse: ‘Today Chinese tyrants celebrated 70 years of communist oppression with their typically brutal symbolism: by sending a police officer to shoot a pro-democracy protester at point-blank range. The freedom-seekers in Hong Kong mourn this anniversary, and the American people stand with them against those who deny their God-given dignity.’

“Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey: ‘The 70th anniversary of communist rule in China is not a day for celebration. It’s a day to remind ourselves of the horrors inflicted on the Chinese people over this time…’”

What the Main Stream Media Missed about Israel

Breaking Israel News wrote on September 29:

“While covering his address to the 74th session of the UN General Assembly last Thursday, most of the media focused on the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affair’s harsh words concerning Iran and its renewed nuclear program. But the mainstream media missed a far more shocking aspect of his speech in which Yisrael Katz quoted the Prophet Isaiah in calling all of the gathered nations to come to the House of Prayer for All Nations.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (a Levite), canceled his appearance in front of the UN General Assembly, ostensibly due to high-pressure coalition negotiations but it could be that he was deferring to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yisrael Katz, who is a Kohen (a descendant of Aaron the priest)…

“‘I want to thank the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for his historic and brave decision to recognize Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish People for three thousand years, as the capital of Israel, and to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem,’ Katz said. ‘I call on all countries to follow the United States and to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. No-one can separate the Jewish People from our historical homeland, and no-one can separate us from Jerusalem, our eternal capital.’

“Katz’s speech contained [a] Biblically mandated rebuke, calling on the Palestinian Authority to stop inciting violence and return to negotiations for peaceful coexistence with the Jews. He also rebuked Turkish President Erdogan for oppressing the Turkish people, slaughtering the Kurdish people, and supporting Hamas. The Israeli minister also sided with the U.S. in calling for Iran, which he referred to as ‘the biggest terror state,’ to cease its support of the Yemenite Houthis’ attacks on Saudi Arabia.

“His speech was short and to the point but concluded with an absolute bombshell. Katz cited the prophet [Isaiah] in Hebrew and English… ‘I will bring them to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called ‘a house of prayer for all people’ (Isaiah 56:7).

“Katz then performed his Biblically mandated duty as one of the descendants of Aaron the priest by blessing the gathered people. ‘As we are about to celebrate the Jewish New Year (the Feast of Trumpets), I would like to close with the traditional Jewish blessing—for all of you, for the people of Israel, and the Jewish communities around the world:… A happy and sweet New Year.’”

“Katz is considered strong on security and supports annexing Judea and Samaria.”

As the article suggests, Katz might have very well intended to advocate the building of the Third Temple and the commencements of animal sacrifices.

Impeachment Procedures against Trump… but what was Hunter Biden Being Paid for?

Breitbart wrote on September 29:

“Breitbart News senior contributor… Peter Schweizer… told host Mark Levin:

“‘The key question here that nobody seems to want to ask in the media is: What was [Hunter Biden] being paid for? He wasn’t being paid for his expertise. What was he being paid for? And what were the Ukrainians expecting to get in return?…

“‘I think when you overlay the financial payments with the fact that Joe Biden as point person on Obama administration policy to Ukraine was steering billions of dollars of Western money to Ukraine it becomes crystal clear exactly why they were paying him money. They wanted access and they wanted to influence Joe Biden. And Joe Biden has been around a long time here, and he had to know exactly why his son was being paid.’”

Newsmax published this article by Bloomberg News on September 30:

“Interviews with voters across the country in recent days found few have changed their minds about the president as a result of the Trump-Ukraine scandal… It was Biden who may suffer the most, as even some who support the impeachment inquiry said they now had questions about what Biden’s son, Hunter, did in Ukraine…

“The perception that politicians are corrupt plays a big role in that. A 2018 survey by the Wall Street Journal found that 77% of registered voters ranked reducing the influence of special interests and corruption as a top issue. For many voters, the Trump-Ukraine scandal was just the latest example.”

The Week commented on October 1 that Biden will not survive the “Trump Impeachment” procedure, stating:

“Trump doesn’t need to accuse Biden of a crime or even prove he did anything… blatantly corrupt… He just needs to use the impeachment hearings to damage Biden’s favorability… ‘I used to like Biden, but now he doesn’t seem that much different than Trump,’ voters might say. And once they start muttering things like that, Biden will be finished, his aura of electability shattered…”

In playing to his base and others, Trump’s comments and tweets have become more and more aggressive, likening the whistleblower and White House officials who gave information to the whistleblower to spies and suggested they committed treason, alluding to what happened to spies in the past; charging Representative Adam Schiff with treason and suggesting his arrest; calling the impeachment inquiry “the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country” and a “coup” that intends to “take away the power of the people”; saying to reporters that China should launch an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden, though he noted that he hasn’t yet asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to do so; and retweeting a comment by a pastor, stating that there would be civil war if Trump were to be impeached, while adding on his own that this will not happen—that is, that he will not be forced out of office.

It is certain that Trump will stay in power and be reelected.

Also, the Democrats become more aggressive in their desperate approach, including subpoenaing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani. Pompeo who admitted that he listened in to the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, responded by accusing the Democratic committee heads of attempting to “intimidate, bully and treat improperly the distinguished professionals of the Department of State.” Please view our StandingWatch program, “Impeaching Donald Trump? No Way—and here Is WHY!”

Most Americans Unprepared for Next Recession… Socialism and Big Government Not the Answer

Zero Hedge wrote on September 27:

“Just like in 2008, most Americans are living right on the edge financially, and so any sort of an economic downturn is going to be extremely painful for tens of millions of American families… During the last recession, millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs, and… couldn’t pay their mortgages.  In the end, millions of Americans lost their homes… and today the housing bubble is even larger than it was back then.

“… the top financial priority for 38 percent of all Americans is just trying to pay the bills, and for 19 percent of all Americans it is dealing with credit card debt… a very large percentage of Americans are not following any sort of a financial budget…

“The big financial institutions want to get Americans into as much debt as possible, because the deeper we are in debt the more money they make… In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau is telling us that the gap between the rich and the poor is now ‘greater than it has ever been’… wealth inequality in the U.S. is far greater than it is in any country in Europe… the vast majority of Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

“The way that our entire system is structured greatly favors Wall Street, the big banks, the largest corporations and those with enormous amounts of money.  And they are able to maintain control of the system by literally buying elections and controlling public opinion through their control of the mainstream media…  Unfortunately, more Americans than ever are convinced that socialism is the answer to the problems…, and this is fueling the rise of politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But socialist experiments have failed all throughout human history, and socialism would fail here too.

“Big government is never the answer. Sadly, we already have the biggest government in the history of the world, and many Americans seem absolutely determined to make it even bigger.”

A recession or even depression is coming, and denials will not prevent it. When this terrible disaster strikes, many Americans who have naively believed the promises of politicians to further their personal agenda, will be woefully unprepared.

MGM Resorts to Pay Las Vegas Shooting Victims up to $800 Million

The Week wrote on October 3:

“MGM Resorts International is set to pay up to $800 million to victims of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting… Stephen Paddock in 2017 killed 58 people and left hundreds more injured when he shot at concertgoers from one of MGM Resorts’ locations, the Mandalay Bay resort. Victims of the shooting have accused MGM of negligence for not monitoring Paddock while he brought to his suite the weapons used in the shooting.

“MGM said Thursday its settlement is not an admission of liability. This comes two days after the anniversary of the massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.”

Pope Endorses Attack on Conservative US Christians

Breitbart wrote on September 27:

“On Thursday, La Civiltà Cattolica journal released the transcript of a meeting between Pope Francis and a group of 24 Jesuits on September 5, 2019, during his recent trip to Mozambique in which the pope suggested that certain Evangelical Protestants in the United States ‘cannot really be defined as Christian.’…  ‘It has nothing to do with the preaching of a Lutheran or any other serious evangelical Christianity.’ ‘Two important articles in Civiltà Cattolica have been published in this regard. I recommend them to you. They were written by Father Spadaro and the Argentinean Presbyterian pastor, Marcelo Figueroa. The first article spoke of the “ecumenism of hatred.” The second was on the “theology of prosperity,”’ the pontiff said…

“In the first essay recommended by the pope, the authors who are both friends of Francis, slammed conservative Christians in the U.S. as ignorant, theocratic, Manichean, war-mongering fanatics. For the ‘Evangelical right,’ the authors proposed, the panorama of threats to the American way of life ‘have included modernist spirits, the black civil rights movement, the hippy movement, communism, feminist movements and so on. And now in our day there are the migrants and the Muslims.’

“The authors did not hesitate to suggest that many Evangelicals are southern racists who reject climate change… Throughout the essay, the authors criticize a string of exclusively Republican presidents as being tainted by the teachings of Evangelical Protestantism. The list of those mentioned includes Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and, of course, Donald Trump.

“One of the most serious evils of American Evangelical Christians, the article stated, is ‘the defense of religious liberty’… The authors went on to denounce the ecumenical alliance between conservative Catholics and Evangelical Christians… This poisonous alliance over shared objectives ‘happens around such themes as abortion, same-sex marriage, religious education in schools and other matters generally considered moral or tied to values,’ the essay claimed, which unite Catholics and Evangelicals in ‘the nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state.’

“At the time of its publication, the article triggered an avalanche of critical responses denouncing the ignorance and political ill-will underlying the essay… In his critique of the article, Dr. Samuel Gregg called the article ‘disturbing,’ while lamenting the tacit anti-Americanism and ‘distinctly amateur grasp of American religious history.’

“As Dr. Gregg noted, to describe ‘Marxism-Leninism, Islamist jihadism, or National Socialism’ as evil is not evidence of a Manichaean worldview. ‘It is simply recognition that some ideas are indeed wicked and lead to many people, even nations, engaging in gravely evil acts.’

“It is not a theocratic nostalgia that leads Evangelical and Catholic Christians in America to make the argument that ‘unborn human beings are entitled to the same protections from the unjust use of lethal force as any other human being, or that religious liberty is more than just freedom of worship, or that parents are entitled to insist that their children not be subjected to the nonsense of “gender theory’”at school,’ Gregg added.

“The published criticisms of the original article by serious scholars, both Christian and secular, ended up being so numerous they could fill a book. The article was eventually dismissed as simply an embarrassing attempt at political propaganda by overly zealous Italian and Argentinian clerics who were completely out of their depth. Which could lead one to wonder what Pope Francis could possibly be thinking when he dredges up this ill-begotten essay out of the swamp of oblivion to recommend it as a useful aid for understanding America’s complex religious landscape.”

One must also wonder WHAT Pope Francis really believes! To recommend the opinions expressed in the articles is truly alarming, deeply unsettling and disturbing.

More than Half of Europe’s Trees in Danger of Extinction

CNN wrote on September 27:

“More than half of Europe’s endemic trees — species that are only found in the region — are at risk of extinction because of diseases, pests and human activities, a conservation organization based in Geneva has said… While the European Red List had already assessed 15,000 species, including vertebrates, freshwater molluscs and trees, the latest study focused on the dangers to lesser-known species.

“In total, 58% of Europe’s endemic trees are at risk of dying out — as well as more than two-fifths of the continent’s 454 native species. The horse chestnut — native to Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia but widespread elsewhere in Europe — is among those in danger…

“In the UK, three types of whitebeam that were only discovered 10 years ago are now critically endangered. They belong to the ‘Sorbus’ genus, which is particularly affected — three-quarters of its 170 species are at threat…

“The latest assessments show that it is not only trees that are endangered — almost half of Europe’s shrubs and more than a fifth of land molluscs are at risk of extinction.”

The Bible predicts that more and more trees will be destroyed in Europe in many different ways.

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.

The prophet Jeremiah was told by God, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). We are told here that God the Father and Jesus Christ knew Jeremiah BEFORE he was formed in his mother’s womb, though we are not told how long before his birth God knew him. Several questions need to be answered: HOW LONG before his birth did God know and sanctify Jeremiah, and what is meant with the phrase that God “formed” him in his mother’s womb?

To answer the first question, we say the following in our free booklet, “Are You Predestined to Be Saved?”, when we explain Revelation 17:8, stating, “[Those] who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are NOT written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world”:

“The Revised Standard Version says: ‘… every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.’ The New American Bible translates: ‘… all whose names were not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.’ The New Jerusalem Bible states: ‘… whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lamb’s book of life.’… The Zuercher Bibel states: ‘… whose name is not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life…’… [The modern German rendition, Hoffnung fuer alle, conveys the same thought, as does the German Gute Nachricht.]

“All of those translations, quoted above, convey their understanding that the names of those who will worship the false prophet [and who will be amazed about the beast] will not have been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life, or ever since, while the names of those who belong to God were already, from the foundation of the world, recorded in the Book of Life…”

We explained in our booklet that God has preordained human beings from or even before the foundation of the world to be called for salvation in this day and age, prior to Christ’s Second Coming, and that He even wrote their names in the Book of Life from or before the foundation of this world. We focused on Romans 9:23, stating: “…that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called’ (verses 23-24). We continued:

“Consider this statement by Paul in Romans 8:28-30: ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined, to be conformed to the image of His Son… Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.’…

“Long before God calls His people to salvation, He has already foreknown and predestined them… In Ephesians 1:4-5, 11-12, Paul elaborates on this issue: ‘…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons [better: sonship] by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will… In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ [i.e., the firstfruits; compare James 1:18; Revelation 14:4] should be to the praise of His glory.’…

“Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:8-9: ‘Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.’…

“Rienecker, a German commentary, writes about ‘Election’: ‘Predestination is an action of God through which he assigns certain people to the Church before their birth, in order to become equal with Christ and attain to His glory (Romans 8:28; John 17:24; Gal. 1:15).’…

“Note the following quote from Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet, ‘Predestination… Does the Bible teach it?’, copyrighted 1957, pages 14 and 15: ‘… predestination has… only to do with the TIME of your calling—whether you are called NOW, in this age, or later! Notice it in the passage in Romans 8:28-30: ‘For whom He did foreknow.’ How GREAT is God! If you are now called, God ‘foreknew’ you—Knew you thousands of years before you were born!… Predestination has to do with BEING CALLED. Not with being saved or lost. Those now being called, in this age, were foreknown, and PRE-destined to be called now—to be the FIRST to put their hope in Christ. All others have their call later! God… DID decide far in advance which ones He would call in this FIRST calling, to be a priest or a king in His Kingdom—to have part in the saving of OTHERS!’…”

God knew us individually from and even before the foundation of the world; He knew us before time began. This means that God knew Jeremiah “from and before the foundation of the word”, “before time began.”

To answer the second question raised at the beginning of this Q&A, how are we to understand God’s statement in Jeremiah 1:5 that He “formed” Jeremiah in his mother’s womb? Is this just a reference to the “normal” and “usual” act of procreation which is common to all men? Is God referring here to Jeremiah’s begettal as the more or less “accidental” act of a woman’s impregnation by the man, causing a human being’s development in the mother’s womb, or is more involved? To ask it differently, did God tell Jeremiah that he was “formed” in his mother’s womb without God’s personal intervention and guidance, or did God direct all the aspects of Jeremiah’s procreation—from his begettal to his birth? Did He, quite literally, intervene, influence and direct Jeremiah’s parents to bring Jeremiah into existence? Please remember that Paul said in Romans 9:23 that God prepared us “beforehand” for our glory.

The Hebrew word for “formed” in Jeremiah 1:5 is “yatsar” and can also be translated as “fashioned”, “framed” or “made.” Note how the word is used in other passages.

In Genesis 2:7-8, we read: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.”

We know, of course, that God “formed” the first man and the first woman by supernaturally creating Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from Adam’s rib. He actively brought about the creation of man. This thought is repeated in the New Testament, where we read in 1 Timothy 2:13: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” Here, the Greek word for “formed” is plasso and can also mean “shaped” or “molded.”

In Genesis 2:19, we read: “Out of the ground the LORD God formed (Hebrew: “yatsar”) every beast of the field and every bird of the air…” Again, a supernatural involvement of God is described; He individually created animals from the dust of the ground; these first animals after the recreation of the surface of the earth did not just come into existence by an accidental act of procreation. Of course, we do not find that subsequently, animals were individually created, formed or made by God—except for a few examples, just as the sea monster, which devoured Jonah (compare Jonah 1:17), and lice at the time of the Egyptian plagues (compare Exodus 8:16-17)—and we do not find that after Adam and Eve, God intervened individually and was directly involved in the procreation of each human being—except, as we will see, in a few examples.

For instance, speaking about Jacob and Israel, God says this in Isaiah 43:1-2: “But now, thus says the LORD who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.”

This is speaking of spiritual Israelites; that is, of true Christians. God is saying here that He formed them as He formed Jeremiah. The Hebrew word is “yatsar” in both cases. Continuing in verse 7: “Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” The same concept is expressed in Isaiah 44:1-2: “Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.”

The contrast is vividly expressed in verse 10: “Who would form a god or mold an image That profits him nothing?” An idol would not come into existence through an accidental act, but it would be purposefully created, formed and molded by an idolater. God says in that sense that He formed, created, made and molded His foreknown and preordained servants from their mother’s womb.

Again, reading in verses 21 and 24: “Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!… Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: ‘I am the LORD, who makes all things…’”

It becomes abundantly clear that the concept of God’s creating or forming certain preordained individuals is not based on time and chance or an accidental begettal when considering the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. In referring to Christ’s coming into the world as a human being, we read in Isaiah 49:5-6:

“And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength), Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'”

Jesus Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be revealed or manifested as a human being in His due time (1 Peter 1:20; Galatians 4:2,4). From everything that we know, we conclude that God the Father changed Christ, the immortal God being, into a human sperm to initiate the impregnation of Mary and that He carefully supervised and intervened, if need be, in Christ’s development in Mary’s womb. In that sense, God the Father formed Jesus Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. God did not leave ANYTHING to time and chance; every aspect of Jesus’ begettal was carefully planned and carried out. As we will see, this was unique which did not, does not and will not mirror any other human procreation.

Still, an interesting concept is conveyed in Zechariah 12:1, explaining that every human being has a spirit in man, distinguishing him from the animals, and that the spirit is “formed” by God and given to man at the time of conception. We do not know exactly how that is being done; but it shows that God must be actively involved somehow in the creation of that particular individual spirit which is conveyed to each human being: “The burden of the word of the LORD against Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him…”

Another interesting concept is conveyed in Psalm 33:14-15, where the Hebrew word, “yatsar,” translated there as “fashioned,” is the same word translated as “formed” in other places: “From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.” God can change the hearts of man as He originally created Adam and Eve’s hearts. In the same way, He can help man to use his mouth in the right way, as He originally created Adam and Eve’s mouths (compare Exodus 4:11).

We even read that in some cases, God “forms” a human being for a purpose other than being called to salvation in this day and age; rather, that purpose might include an important role in the fulfillment of prophecy. We read in Romans 9:17-21: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” Again, the Greek word for “formed” is “plasso,” which is also used in 1 Timothy 2:13 (quoted above), stating that God “formed” Adam and Eve.

This statement in Romans 9 mirrors what we read in Isaiah 45:9: “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?” Many additional passages show us that God might be involved in “forming” a person for a particular purpose. We might think of the prophesied beast and the false prophet. We read that God makes all things for Himself, even the wicked for the day of judgment (compare Proverbs 16:4).

In Exodus 4:11 (mentioned above), we also read, “So the LORD said to [Moses], ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?” This does not mean that God was actively involved in causing a person to be born blind or deaf. God just says here that if someone is blind, He can give him eyes to see, and vice versa; and if someone is deaf, He can give him ears to hear. Christ said in John 9:39 that He came so that those who see become blind (spiritually). On the other hand, there might be some occasions when someone is born with an illness pursuant to God’s purpose, so that later, for instance, God’s mighty and miraculous intervention can be manifested for His glory (compare John 9:2-3).

Having said this, we must be careful not to carry this concept too far. We may read certain passages which convey that God “formed” entire nations and conclude that God is directly and individually involved with the conception of every human being. That is not so, and it is important to note important distinctions. We read in Deuteronomy 32:18, in the Authorized Version, talking about the ancient people of Israel: “Of the Rock that beget thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.”

However, the Hebrew word for “formed” here is a different word (“chil”) and means, bringing forth in pain. It describes the establishment of the nation of Israel; not necessarily the individual act of bringing forth or forming each member of that nation. Something similar is expressed in Deuteronomy 32:6 where it is stated that God “bought,” “made” and “established” the nation.

But reviewing Psalm 139:13-16, we read that David is talking about himself, stating: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed…”

David expressed his conviction that God formed and made him in his mother’s womb; that is, God was actively involved in and initiated David’s begettal, and He supervised and directed his development and growth in his mother’s womb. It did not occur in the way which brought forth Jesus, in that God changed His divinity into a human sperm—as no other human being had existed previously in any way; nor did He repeat what He did in the case of Adam and Eve when He actually created Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from Adam’s rib. But since David was foreknown and predestined to be called to salvation, God made sure that David would come into existence in due time, and He actively “formed” David by initiating and supervising and intervening, whenever necessary, the impregnation of David’s mother through David’s father, causing fertilization of the mother’s ovum by the father’s sperm; as well as David’s development and growth in his mother’s womb during pregnancy. The same was true for Jeremiah; and it is also true for everyone who was predetermined by God before time began to be called for salvation in this day and age.

It would make no sense otherwise. If God foreknew us long before our conception and birth, He most certainly would have made sure that our actual conception and birth would occur according to His preordained purpose and plan. We are distinctly NOT the product of time and chance or the result of an accidental act of procreation, but we are God’s predetermined and designed “products.” Whatever we are today, God had prepared us individually beforehand, forming us in our mother’s womb, as described, to be born and to grow into adulthood; and to become God’s firstfruits in this day and age, with the potential of being born, as immortal sons and daughters, into His very Family at the time of Christ’s Return.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

The 2019 U.S. Festival Brochure, prepared by graphic artist Shelly Bruno, is now posted.

Here are the dates for the Fall Holy Days:

• Feast of Trumpets—September 30, 2019
• Day of Atonement—October 9, 2019
• Feast of Tabernacles—October 14-20, 2019
• Last Great Day—October 21, 2019

“Bombshell News—Coming…The Third Temple and Animal Sacrifices in Israel” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

The mainstream media missed a shocking aspect of Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yisrael Katz’s speech in front of the 74^th session of the UN General Assembly, which has been described as an “absolute bombshell.” Was Katz, a direct descendant of Aaron the priest, advocating and announcing the prophesied building of the Third Temple and the commencement of animal sacrifices?

“Hat Gott SIE vor Ihrer Geburt gekannt?” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Did God Know You Before Your Birth?”

The German sermonette from last Sabbath by Robert Kintzi has also been posted.

“The Only Thing to Fear,” the sermonette present last Sabbath by Frank Bruno, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Obviously the world has become a much more dangerous place in recent years, and the blessings that we’ve enjoyed from God here in the United States and elsewhere will not endure in the face of outright disobedience of God’s Commands. As we move forward we are admonished to be watchful of the signs, and be spiritually prepared for the return of our savior, Jesus Christ. We are also told clearly not to fear as prophecy unfolds, but to focus on our relationship with God for clarity and comfort. In this Sermonette we will cover some of the scriptural foundation of this guidance so as to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for God’s plan.

“Sustaining our Light in Darkness,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Robb Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Christianity, as Jesus exemplified, is a path full of adversity.  A world of hatred surrounds and tries to suffocate any light of God’s Truth.  We must be resolute in our onward march in becoming perfect, especially when Satanic deceit is so encompassing in all aspects of life.  In that light, it is critical that we look to God’s Sabbath and Holy Days for the rest and recharge we are afforded by them.

“A Great Sound!” the sermonette presented during the Morning Services on the Feast of Trumpets by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

What does sound have to do with the return of Jesus Christ, and what meaning is there for Christians?

“Special,” the sermon presented during the Morning Services on the Feast of Trumpets by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The Israelites, including the spiritual Israelites, are a special people to God called by Him for a special purpose. By following God’s commandments, we maintain this special relationship and guarantee for ourselves a fantastic future.

“Goals in This Life,” the Offertory presented during Afternoon Services on the Feast of Trumpets by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted.

“The Warning of the Watchmen,” the sermon presented during Afternoon Services on the Feast of Trumpets by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The Feast of Trumpets reminds us of the Second Coming of Christ at the sound of the last trumpet and our resurrection, change and gathering with Him. But we also think of the terrible events which will occur prior to Christ’s Return. These events are announced symbolically many times in the Bible through the blowing of trumpets.

It is the responsibility of the Church of God to proclaim the coming Kingdom of God and God’s rule over the Earth. This includes warning mankind of imminent trouble. The prophet Ezekiel received from God a warning message for the House of Israel, but it was not meant for the Ezekiel of old and the ancient House of Israel. Rather, it is a warning for the modern House of Israel and for all peoples, as well as for God’s Church, which must proclaim this message today.

On, September 28, 2019, Frank Bruno will present the sermonette, titled, “The Only Thing to Fear,” and Robb Harris will present the sermon, title, “Sustaining Our Light in Darkness.”

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.

Monday, September 30, 2019, is a Holy Day—the Feast of Trumpets. Services will be broadcast live in the morning and afternoon. Morning services will begin at 10:00 am Pacific Time, and afternoon services will begin at 3:00 pm Pacific Time. Morning: The sermonette will be presented by Dave Harris, titled, “A Great Sound!” and the sermon will be presented by Eric Rank, titled, “Special.” Afternoon: The Offertory will be presented by Kalon Mitchell, and the sermon will be presented by Norbert Link, titled, “The Warning of the Watchmen.”

Recently, we had hail damage to an automobile totaling several thousand dollars.  Our insurer covered the cost of repairs.  Several years ago we filed an insurance claim for damage to our roof, also from hail, which insurance covered as well.  These kinds of unexpected natural occurrences are usually covered by insurance, to a point.  We know of someone who was dropped from their insurance company for filing too many claims for roof damage.

While it seems counterintuitive to lose insurance for using it, insurance companies are built on calculating risks.  One consumer advocate states, “Filing more than one claim per year could cause your insurance company to drop you. So, say your vehicle is vandalized a few times, or stolen, or your vehicle is carried away by a flood, you’ll make a claim with your insurer, and rightfully so, but making too many claims (of any type) can make you too expensive of a customer to keep around” (clark.com).

Most of the industrialized world relies on the insurance industry for protection of property and health issues.  But we know that reliance on these institutions is not lasting, nor will they stand for long with the nearing judgement upon mankind.  The prophet Daniel stated, “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Everyone who is found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).  Reliance on anything that is of man will not deliver or protect oneself in the Day of the Lord. Any assurances we give ourselves, that aren’t focused on God, will be worthless.  As Ezekiel stated of this time, “…Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them In the day of the wrath of the LORD…” (Ezekiel 7:19).

God has based the growth of His family on risk as well.  But He stands by the choice to call each of us as long as we commit to relying upon Him for true salvation.  “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7 ESV).

Judgement for sin is an inevitable truth that the world ignores.  Our escape from this judgement is being built daily as each of us strives to overcome the sins that ensnare this world.  The meaningful acts of God are “…faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

God’s Holy and infallible Word is our best assurance for the future events that will unfold upon this earth.  It was decreed to His angels to conduct themselves soon in this way: “‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed…” (Revelation 7:3-4). Let’s be sure that each of us invests in our insurance plan with God—today—before calamities are at our door.

by Norbert Link

We begin with renewed attempts to impeach Donald Trump and we explain as to why they will fail, no matter what. Please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Impeaching Donald Trump? No Way—and here Is WHY!”

We also report on the UK Supreme Court’s decision finding that Boris Johnson’s conduct to suspend Parliament was unlawful. We report on Russia’s ongoing persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses and on a ridiculous, but quite alarming, unbinding resolution of California’s state legislature.

We speak on Italy’s and Germany’s popular far-right parties; and address the dangerous escalation involving the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as well as, potentially, other countries such as Israel, China and Russia.   

We report on Netanyahu’s fight for political survival and his desperate attempt to form a coalition government; Egypt’s dictatorship; and the collapse of the Thomas Cook airline and its devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of customers and employees.

We conclude with the “blackface” and the “gender fight” nonsense.

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

Trump in Hot Water… Again!

The Associated Press wrote on September 20:

“President Donald Trump urged the new leader of Ukraine this summer [during a phone conversation] to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden… It was the latest revelation in an escalating controversy that has created a showdown between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration…

“During a rambling interview Thursday on CNN, Giuliani was asked whether he had asked Ukraine to look into Biden. He initially said, ‘No, actually I didn’t,’ but seconds later he said, ‘Of course I did.’”

The Wall Street Journal reported that over the course of the call, Trump encouraged Ukraine’s new leader, Zelenskiy, eight times to work with Giuliani on an investigation into the Bidens. A rough five-page transcript of a reportedly almost 30-minutes-long phone conversation, which was subsequently released by the White House, does not support this allegation. In fact, “Biden” is only expressly mentioned twice in the entire transcribed conversation, and “Biden’s son” is only mentioned once.

… But So May Be Biden…

The Daily Mail wrote on September 23:

“In 2014… Biden’s son Hunter was hired to sit on the board of a Ukrainian gas company…

“Trump has urged reporters to ‘look into’ Biden’s comments in early 2016 when the then-VP said the Obama administration would freeze $1 billion in American loan guarantees unless Kiev fired its top prosecutor, who was looking into the gas company…

“On Saturday, the former vice president said he never speaks to his son about his overseas business dealings. Hunter Biden said the opposite in an interview for a July article in The New Yorker…”

Vice President Pence stated in an interview with Fox on September 23 that while there was no evidence for a quid pro quo regarding the dealings between Trump and Zelenskiy, there was allegedly much evidence of a quid pro quo regarding the dealings between Biden and the Ukrainian government. In fact, there is suspicion of a quid pro quo on both sides; that is, regarding Biden and his son (for instance, Sen. Rand Paul said, “Biden is the one who threatened Ukraine’s aid, not Trump, and that has to be investigated”)  as well as other Democratic senators who allegedly threatened to withhold aid, unless Ukraine were to act in a particular way, as well as regarding Trump. Prior to his phone conversation with Zelenskiy, Trump had withheld money approved by Congress to be given to Ukraine, and in the released transcript of the phone conversation, statements are made which could be construed as an attempt of a quid pro quo arrangement. Democrats are now raising again the ghost of impeachment (see articles below). Whatever they may want to do, Trump will stay in office and he will be reelected in 2020.

And Now… the “Whistleblower” Complaint

Axios wrote on September 25:

“House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday after reviewing the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower complaint behind closed doors that the materials he viewed ‘exposed serious wrongdoing’… The Democratic members who were willing to speak to reporters… expressed alarm at the contents of the complaint…

“Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas)…  said he didn’t think the report was that damaging, and that the information in it doesn’t justify impeachment. He did say the report provided information that went beyond the transcript. Ratcliffe also said lawmakers don’t know who the whistleblower is…

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi… told reporters that… the whistleblower complaint… had been ‘retroactively classified’ by the Trump administration.”

The complaint shows that the whistleblower was not even a witness to the phone conversation, but only heard about it second- or third hand. In a court of law, such “testimony” would be totally inadmissible. However, impeachment procedures have nothing to do with the law, but they simply constitute a political circus.

Fox News’ Judge Andrew Napolitano Charges Trump with a Crime

Fox News reported on September 24:

“Judge Andrew Napolitano told Fox News host Shepard Smith on Tuesday that the president effectively confessed to a crime when he admitted he asked Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Napolitano, a Fox News senior judicial analyst, had framed President Trump’s earlier statement as an admission that he tried to ‘solicit aid for his campaign from a foreign government.’

“‘So that to which the president has admitted is in and of itself a crime,’ Smith followed. Napolitano responded, ‘yes’… Napolitano indicated that the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, could have committed a crime if he urged Ukraine to investigate Biden in a bid to help the president’s reelection efforts…”

Napolitano was impolitely accused of being a “fool,” but in a Fox News interview with Shepard Smith the next day (September 25), he stood by his prior comments. What an incredible mess. Chaos rules Washington. But if the Democrats’ attempt to actually impeach Trump fails—which is expected—then this will undoubtedly help Trump for his reelection in 2020. Note the next articles.

Pelosi’s Incredible Blunder

The Week commented on September 24:

“On Tuesday evening Nancy Pelosi made one of the most colossal blunders in the modern history of American electoral politics… she set aside her own instincts and announced the beginning of formal impeachment proceedings against President Trump on the basis of a third-hand rumor about a phone call with the president of a Eurasian republic.

“Pelosi knows this will not be popular. She knows more than that. She knows that it will be a disaster for the Democratic Party, that it will inflame the president’s base and inspire even his most lukewarm supporters with a sense of outrage. She knows that in states like Michigan, upon which her party’s chances in 2020 will depend, the question of impeachment does not poll well. She knows, further, that Joe Biden will not be able to spend the next 14 or so months refusing to answer questions about the activities of his son, Hunter, in Ukraine, and that increased scrutiny of the vice president’s record in office will not redound to his credit.”

Why Trump Won’t Be Impeached

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 24:

“The founders of the United States gave Congress powers [to] remove from office ‘the president, vice president, and all civil officers of the United States’ if the accused is convicted of ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.’

“Simply put, to impeach means to bring charges similar to an indictment in court… The House has the ‘sole power of impeachment.’… The House debates and votes on whether to bring charges by a simple majority of the House’s 435 members…

“The Senate has the ‘sole power to try all impeachments; meaning that it has the power to convict. When the president is tried, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over proceedings. Only two presidents in US history have been impeached: Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. However, neither was removed from office by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned to avoid a House impeachment vote.

“The House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times. However, only a third of cases resulted in full impeachment. Just 8 officials — all federal judges have been convicted and removed from office… For the president to be removed from office, a two-thirds majority in the 100-seat Senate must vote to convict. If they do, the president must step down. In the case of Donald Trump, his Republican party currently controls the Senate, making it highly unlikely he will be forced out.”

That’s why “The Week” felt that Pelosi, in trying to appease left-wing radicals in the Democratic Party, made a colossal blunder.

Trump Accused Germany and France

Deutsche Welle reported on September 25 that in the released transcript of the phone conversation between Trump and Zelenskiy, the following was stated:

“In his conversation with Zelenskiy, Trump also lauded US support for Ukraine, adding that European countries, especially Germany, ‘should be doing much more.’ ‘Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it’s something that you should really ask them about,’ Trump said according to the transcript. ‘When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn’t do anything.’ Zelenskiy agreed with Trump, and said the US president’s criticism was ‘1000% absolutely right.’

“Zelenskiy said he had asked both Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to do more on enforcing sanctions against Russia. ‘They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for Ukraine,’ Zelenskiy said in the transcript, adding that although the EU should ‘logically’ be Ukraine’s strongest partner, in fact, the US ‘is a much bigger partner’ than the EU.’

According to the Bible, the relationship between Europe and Ukraine will drastically deteriorate, and so will of course the relationship between the USA and Germany.

Boris Johnson’s Suspension of Parliament Unlawful

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 24:

“The UK Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful. The ruling [of the 11 judges] was unanimous. No further appeal by the government is possible. ‘This was not a normal prorogation in the run-up to a Queen’s Speech,’ said Brenda Hale, the president of the Supreme Court. ‘The court is bound to conclude, therefore, that the decision to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful.’ It means that ‘the prorogation was void and of no effect.’ Parliament can therefore reconvene ‘as soon as possible,’ she concluded.

“Responding to the decision, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would abide by the court ruling. Speaking from a UN General Assembly in New York, Johnson also said he ‘strongly’ disagreed with the Supreme Court…

“The leader of the Brexit party and the founder of UKIP, Nigel Farage, took [shots] at prime minister’s trusted adviser, Dominic Cummings, who allegedly spearheaded the idea of suspending Parliament. ‘The calling of a Queen’s Speech and prorogation is the worst political decision ever,’ Farage said on Twitter. ‘Dominic Cummings must go.’”

The Sun wrote on September 24:

“The ruling represents a catastrophic blow for Boris with the loss now allowing Remainer MPs more time to block us leaving the EU – with just 37 days until the Halloween deadline… [It] will have far-reaching consequences for Britain for years to come – and could make it harder for future PM’s to shut down Parliament… Despite the drama – Boris Johnson can’t be forced out by today’s ruling.

“MPs could try and table a vote of no confidence in him when Parliament does come back. If he loses, he would have 14 days to command control of the House, or a general election is automatically called. With Boris now in a minority government he would be unlikely to win such a vote – meaning an election is sure to happen within weeks. However, Remainer MPs and Labour would be incredibly wary of this because it could cause Britain to crash out without a deal on October 31…

“Brexit is still set to take place at the end of October as planned. But Remainers passed a new law earlier this month which would force the PM to seek a third Brexit extension if he hasn’t got a deal in place. Boris has repeatedly saying he won’t ask for another delay, but hasn’t said what he will do instead.”

What an incredible mess. Chaos rules in Britain.

Queen in Middle of Political Storm

BBC News wrote on September 24:

“This is precisely where the Queen does not want to be – right in the middle of a political and constitutional hurricane, with the Supreme Court redefining the relationship between judiciary, legislature, government and monarch… what happened today was painful for the Palace…

“It wasn’t just Mr Johnson’s request for a prorogation that was found by the Supreme Court to be unlawful, void and of no effect. It was also the Order in Council, the legal mechanism that the Queen personally approves, that was found to be unlawful, void and of no effect… More importantly, the Queen has been dragged by the PM’s unlawful prorogation into the place where for decades politicians have agreed she should never be – right into a domestic political argument…

“Elizabeth… has been a conservative monarch, content to play little more than a symbolic and ceremonial role. She understands that her position is dependent on her staying deep in the shadows of government. But now daylight has flooded in. No wonder the Palace has decided to stay silent.”

None of that sounds good as the Queen is deemed more or less as being “untouchable” in Britain.

Ongoing Russia’s Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 20:

“A Russian court has sentenced six Jehovah’s Witnesses to jail [of two up to three-and-half years] for belonging to an ‘extremist organization’ in the western city of Satatov. Since 2017 the movement founded in the USA has been outlawed in Russia… which reportedly has 170,000 followers in Russia and 8 million worldwide.

“Russia’s Orthodox Church which is allied with President Vladimir Putin, had cast Jehovah’s Witnesses — who reject military service and blood transfusions — as belonging to a foreign sect that erodes state institutions… Thursday’s jailings followed the conviction and jailing for six years of a Danish individual in Russia for his association with Jehovah’s Witnesses last May…

“Over 250 in Russia are facing criminal charges, with 41 in detention and 23 under house arrest, according to the movement… Those convicted, all men, had been jailed for nothing, said Rachel Denber of the US-based Human Rights Watch.”

Shameful… and no one in a governmental position raises their voices in opposition to Russia’s abominable conduct.

California Resolution Blames ‘Religious Groups’ for LGBT Suicides

Life Site News wrote on September 17:

“The California legislature has voted in a resolution that blames ‘religious groups’ who hold to biblical understandings of sex and gender as responsible for ‘disproportionately high rates’ of suicide among homosexuals and transgenders.

“Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99 declares that homosexuality and transgenderism are ‘part of natural variations that occur in sexual orientation and gender identity’ and condemns counseling services that help people resolve unwanted gender confusion or same-sex attraction… The resolution… has no legal force but formalizes the official position of the state legislature…

“Despite the common pro-LGBT narrative that outside ‘stigma’ is the primary driver of LGBT suicides, a wealth of data suggests otherwise. Research out of LGBT-friendly Sweden has found that homosexual and transgender residents remain more likely to attempt or commit suicide, despite having achieved the type of culture advocated by ACR 99.

“The University of Cambridge’s Stonewall report found that 96% of trans students in Scotland attempted self-harm through actions such as cutting themselves, and 40% attempted suicide. 40% in the United States have attempted suicide, as well, according to a 2016 survey from the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). According to a 2011 study from Sweden, trans people remain 19 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population, even after ‘sex-change’ surgery.”

That should make us think. But the carnal human mind, which is ruled by Satan, is hostile towards the Law of God condemning homosexuality, transgender and other sexual abnormalities. It is incapable of understanding or keeping God’s true values.

Absolutely SICK!

The Daily Mail wrote on September 21:

“Dr. Ulrich Klopfer died on September 3, prompting his family to search his home in Illinois. His widow found 2,246 preserved aborted fetuses that he had been keeping since 2000 in their garage. They were being kept in sealed bags filled with formalin, a preservative. The Chicago Tribune reports that they had dates on them but police will not verify that detail. They say however he carried out the abortions between 2000 and 2002…

“Klopfer… was once known as Indiana’s ‘most prolific abortion doctor’ but was hit with a spate of malpractice allegations towards the end of his career. In 2016, he had his license suspended for a number of violations including failing to report abortions on two 13-year-old girls.”

These are the evil fruits of the ungodly practices of abortion.

Italy’s Salvini—His Comeback Certain?

The EUObserver wrote on September 20:

“Italian politics is never short of drama, and the past few weeks have been no exception… [As Salvini] now retreats to lick his wounds, there will be one thing only on his mind: a glorious comeback. A 21st century March on Rome… And in all likelihood, all he would have to do is sit back and await his turn… The alliance between the two longstanding foes has looked dysfunctional from the start… Their loose 26-point joint programme will almost certainly be unable to [endure]…

“All the while, Salvini will be on a war footing, whipping up a blizzard across the land in preparation for the inescapable general election. And that’s where Salvini will flourish… Over the past year in government, he has monopolised the public debate with his anti-migrant rhetoric, belligerent attitude towards Brussels, and extensive social media following… His zero-tolerance approach to irregular migration, including a ban on migrant-rescuing NGO vessels docking in Italian ports, has won him many supporters…

“And as the new government begins to unpick his hard-line policies and move towards a more conciliatory relationship with the EU, expect public anger to grow and for Salvini to duly capitalise on it… if there’s one certainty in Italian politics, it’s that stable governments are not the order of the day. Much less when they’re composed of two sworn enemies. On that basis, Salvini will be making a return sooner rather than later. And this time it could well be as prime minister, at the head of a hard-right coalition with the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party.

“October local elections will give an early indication of the impact the saga has had on the Lega vote, with opinion polls currently giving them as much as a 13 point lead at 33 percent. That’s only likely to increase as the government fumbles. Salvini’s recent gambit may have failed but dismiss him at your peril – in his own words ‘From today you will find me even more…. [omitted] and determined. I will go from town to town and we will take this country back.’”

Italy to Join the EU Military Coalition

The Defense Post wrote on September 19:

“Italy’s government said… that it is ready to join a European military coalition to react to crises near the continent’s borders, as the country’s new government rekindled ties with the E.U.… Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have signed up [already]…”

With Italy, the military coalition would consist of ten nations, but the United Kingdom will not remain a member for long.

Germany’s AfD –as Powerful as Ever

NPR wrote on September 20:

“The center-left coalition governments in both Brandenburg and Saxony managed to hold onto power by just single percentage points. The two state elections confirmed what political analysts have been warning for years: that the [extreme right-wing party] AfD is rapidly gaining popularity among German voters. In 2013, when the party was founded, it didn’t have enough votes to sit in Germany’s Bundestag or parliament. Six years later, the AfD is now the third-largest party in Germany, winning 94 of the Bundestag’s 704 seats in the last federal elections…

“Polling data released this week shows that… the AfD… is rapidly gaining in national popularity. A monthly survey by the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach shows the AfD achieving its highest popularity score all year among voters throughout Germany… Political analysts will be closely watching the upcoming state elections in the eastern state of Thuringia on Oct. 27, where the AfD is polling neck-and-neck with centrist and leftist parties.”

The incredible success of extreme right-wing parties in Europe such as the AFD in Germany will force the “established” main-stream parties to turn more and more to the right.

Trump Sends Troops to Saudi Arabia

The Sun wrote on September 21:

“DONALD Trump will send troops [as well as military hardware] to Saudi Arabia after a drone attack on the world’s biggest oil plant. The US President confirmed the deployment of US forces as tensions ramp up in the Middle East amid fears of a vicious new war… Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today the attack was a ‘dramatic escalation of Iranian aggression’… Esper said ‘all indications are that Iran was responsible for’ the drone attack on the world’s biggest oil plant that could cut the world’s supply in half…”

Germany, Britain and France said on Monday that Iran was behind the attack on Saudi oil facilities.

US-Iranian Tensions Escalate

The Telegraph wrote on September 22:

“Iran’s president has warned American and other foreign forces to ‘stay away’ from the region, as Tehran paraded long-range missiles capable of reaching American bases… and arch-foe Israel…”

Trump’s Misconceived Middle East Policy

The Guardian wrote on September 21:

“The president’s immediate reaction to the attacks was to declare the US ‘locked and loaded’ for retaliatory strikes. Then… Trump switched tack, saying the attacks were no big deal, even as global oil prices rocketed, because the US no longer needed Middle East energy. That’s not strictly true. Official figures show the US imported 48 million barrels of oil and petroleum products a month from the Gulf in 2018…

“Trump ended the week still trying to have it both ways. He imposed additional sanctions on Iran and ordered a limited number of troops to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for defensive purposes… It had become painfully clear Trump simply had no idea what to do… he… has no strategy, no back-up plan – and no clue…

“Trump could start firing off missiles at any moment. His unpredictability is part of the problem. The Iranians, emboldened, could overplay their hand… Military analysts say missile strikes, or a naval blockade of Iranian ports, would invite devastating retaliation. After the Iraq experience, ground troops are out of the question…

“European governments… blame aggressive US policy for the current escalation. Britain does not say so in public, but Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, is not so timid…

“All told, Trump’s misconceived Iran policy has suffered a comprehensive, very public drubbing… The harshest reality laid bare… is that the age-old fight between Iran and Saudi Arabia is not necessarily America’s fight – and few Americans believe that murderous Saudi royal despots are worth dying for.”

This article is quoted to show Europe’s perspective without taking ourselves a position on the issue.

China’s Giant $400 Billion Iran Investment Complicates U.S. Options

Forbes wrote on September 19:

“Amidst historic U.S. – Iran tensions, Beijing is doubling-down on its strategic partnership with Tehran, ignoring U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic from global markets…  the two countries agreed to update a 25-year program signed in 2016, to include an unprecedented $400 billion of investment in the Iranian economy…

“[Iran] has little choice but to forge a closer relationship with China… Russia, too, is a major Iranian partner, weapons and nuclear, rocket, and military technology supplier.”

The Bible indicates that a collaboration will indeed exist between China, Russia and Iran.

Netanyahu Fights for His Political Survival

Reuters wrote on September 20:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced Israeli media headlines on Friday suggesting power is slipping from his grasp…

“Netanyahu and Gantz will now seek potential coalition allies, prominent among whom is the far-right former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman. He secured eight seats for his Yisrael Beitenu party, making him a potential kingmaker.

“Increased turnout by Israel’s 21-percent Arab minority saw the Arab-dominated Joint List coalition grouping win 13 seats, making it the third largest grouping…”

Both Netanyahu und Gantz insist that they should be the next Prime Minister. They are now also toying with the idea to create a rotating office of Prime Minister to prevent the prospect of a third election — the mandatory last resort if nobody can form a coalition. However, they could not agree as to who should be the first Prime Minister.

The Jerusalem Post reported on September 25 that “President Reuven Rivlin formally gave Netanyahu four weeks to form the government” “for the sixth time, after succeeding in his five terms in office,” after “a meeting at the President’s Residence with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz failed to bring about a breakthrough. The deadline will be October 24.”

Everyone agrees that Netanyahu’s task won’t be an easy one.

The Week reported on September 25 that “Netanyahu earned one more seat than Gantz in the country’s parliamentary elections earlier this month, but neither were able to secure a majority government, leaving Rivlin to decide who would get the first opportunity to do so. Netanyahu currently holds 55 seats in parliament, but needs at least six more to form a government… If Netanyahu is unable to form a government after 28 days, which could be extended by another 14, the task will then pass to Gantz.”

Egypt’s Dictatorship

The Wall Street Journal wrote on September 21:

“Egyptian authorities made dozens of arrests after hundreds of people took to the streets of Cairo and other cities overnight in the first significant antigovernment protests in years, raising a new challenge to the rule of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi… The protests were significant because they defied a vast government effort overseen by Mr. Sisi to stamp out political dissent since he took power after a military coup in 2013…

“According to Twitter, more than a million tweets [were] calling for the removal of Mr. Sisi and supporting the call for protests…

“Living standards have dropped for most Egyptians in recent years as Mr. Sisi’s government devalued Egypt’s currency and raised the price of basic goods and services like fuel, electricity, and subway tickets… with 32.5% of Egyptians now living in what the government describes as extreme poverty…”

Dictatorships seldom provide for the people.

Thomas Cook Airline Collapses

The Associated Press wrote on September 23:

“Brought down by a variety of factors, including crushing debts and online competition, the 178-year-old travel agency… ceased operating in the middle of the night. Its four airlines stopped carrying customers, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries lost their jobs. The company’s failure rippled across the tourism industry, particularly around the Mediterranean, with travelers uncertain how they would get home, hotels worried they wouldn’t get paid, guests afraid they wouldn’t be allowed to check out without settling their bills, and resorts hit with cancellations.

“Overall, about 600,000 people were traveling with Thomas Cook as of Sunday… British government swung into action, lining up flights to bring an estimated 150,000 Britain-based customers back home from vacation spots around the globe in what was called the biggest peacetime repatriation effort in the country’s history.

“Some 50,000 Thomas Cook travelers were reported stranded in Greece, up to 30,000 in Spain’s Canary Islands, 21,000 in Turkey and 15,000 in Cyprus. Travelers lined up at airports, looking for other ways to get home… An estimated 1 million customers also found their bookings for upcoming trips canceled…”

The Sun added on September 23:

“Travel firms have been accused of hiking the price of their holidays and flights following the collapse of Thomas Cook. Social media users have slammed operators such as Jet2 and Virgin for being ‘greedy’ with some flights costing double the amount overnight.”

A Virgin spokesperson denied, of course, that prices were increased because of the Thomas Cook collapse, but admitted at the same time: “… we operate a dynamic pricing system that is based on availability and demand.” A similar “disclaimer” and admission was made by a Jet2 spokesman: “Our pricing, as is common practice in the travel industry, is based on the principle of supply and demand.”

Deutsche Welle reported on September 23:

“Thomas Cook may have been born and headquartered in Britain, but it is a familiar name in dozens of countries and its bankruptcy is causing a ripple effect, particularly in Germany. More than 140,000 German holidaymakers have been impacted and tens of thousands of future travel bookings may not be honored…

“The travel firm [includes] one of its main German subsidiaries, Neckermann Reisen… The German subsidiary has applied for a €200 million bridging loan from the government for its airline, Condor, which is being assessed. The airline made a €43 million profit last year and is on course to beat expectations in 2019… In May, Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa made a non-binding offer for the airline, which was thwarted after China’s Fosun took a stake in Thomas Cook group. Condor said on Monday that its operations were continuing ‘on schedule’ but that it could not fly Thomas Cook customers to their destinations…”

Bild Online reported on September 23 that Germany’s federal government and the state government of Hesse agreed to provide Condor with a €380 Million bridging loan for six months. However, the European Commission must still approve the loan. In August of 2017, Air Berlin received a loan in the amount of €150 Million to avoid bankruptcy. In the meantime, the airline has paid back the loan in its entirety.

It is remarkable to observe the different ways of dealing with the crisis, as Boris Johnson refused to bail out Thomas Cook. While Britain is suffering even in this regard, Germany is not. On the other hand, according to Deutsche Welle, dated September 25, “Germany’s Thomas Cook GmbH, a daughter company of the UK’s Thomas Cook, filed for insolvency in Germany, and several subsidiaries across the EU were also left scrambling after the parent company’s demise. Thomas Cook’s Polish arm has also announced it was insolvent… On Monday, the German company halted all of its trips. Some 140,000 people were currently traveling abroad with the subsidiary or its brands Neckermann, Öger Tours, Air Marin and Bucher Reisen.”

The Blackface Nonsense

AFP wrote on September 21:

“Three separate images of the Canadian leader in blackface makeup decades ago were published a month before Canadians go to the polls on October 21 … Trudeau… apologized publicly for the blunders from his teens and 20s. ‘Darkening your face, regardless of the context or the circumstances, is always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface,’ Trudeau said. ‘I should have understood that then and I never should have done it.’

“The blackface photographs and video footage were taken of Trudeau at a high school talent contest belting out a Harry Belafonte hit, at a party with fellow rafting guides in the early 1990s and at an ‘Arabian Nights’-themed event at a school where he taught 18 years ago…”

Former Fox and NBC Moderator Megyn Kelly lost her job with NBC when she defended whites wearing blackface costumes, saying, “When I was a kid, it was ok.” It sure was then and it still should be today. This exaggerated hype is just ridiculous. Is anyone equally upset when a black person pretends to be white at a costume party? Neither should they be, but it goes both ways.

Further Confusion

Daily Mail wrote on September 23:

“Piers Morgan has slammed Sam Smith for ‘causing a Brit Awards shake-up’ after it was revealed the ‘best male’ and ‘best female’ categories could be abolished. The change could affect next year’s Brit Awards and comes just a week after the singer, 27, who was nominated in the best male category at this year’s ceremony, pleaded ‘after a lifetime of being at war with my gender’ to be referred to as ‘they’ rather than ‘he‘.

“On Good Morning Britain on Monday, Piers said: ‘I think it’s just great that time honoured traditions should be scrapped because one guy can’t decide if he is male or female.”

Morgan also said that this a bunch of nonsense. We agree.

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.

Most people have encountered disappointments in their lives at one time or another; quite a few become discouraged; others begin to suffer from a mild or even deep depression; and then there are those who entertain the thoughts of suicide and might even go through with it. Great biblical heroes were not immune from falling into depression and even from entertaining suicidal ideas.

In our recent Q&A, we stated the following:

“What circumstances would give rise to such a thought? Perhaps someone has an incurable disease (by man’s reckoning) and is in such severe pain that it seems to be the only way out of a terrible situation? Or someone doesn’t think him- or herself worthy of God’s calling and cannot reconcile the fact that he or she is a sinner who doesn’t seem to be making any progress in his or her life, perhaps even going backwards? What about someone who experiences demonic activity in his or her life which presses that individual to take such action as a way out of this misery? Drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness, depression, family issues, bullying and marital and financial problems can also be reasons why suicide might seem to be the answer, but it never is…

“Suicidal thoughts can happen to the best of people. Towards the end of his life, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:17: ‘Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind…’

“Both Elijah [1 Kings 19:4] and Jonah [Jonah 4:1-3] at one point wanted to die; Jeremiah encountered serious moments of despair (note Jeremiah 15:10, 17-18; 20:14-18); and the apostle Paul and his friends were under significant pressure at times. We read in 2 Corinthians 1:8: ‘For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.’”

In addition, Moses argued with God at a time when he felt that his task, responsibility, or job was too difficult for him and so he was willing to give up (Numbers 11:11-15). Moses thought that death was a relief from his trials. When Job was being tested, he experienced momentary feelings of depression, wishing he was dead. He even stated during this time of frustration and hopelessness, that it would have been better if he had never been born (Job 3:11, 13, 20-22; 7:11-15; 10:18-21).

We said in our comments to an article about suicide in the Current Events section:

“Factors might be involved which may lead a desperate person to perform that terrible step [of committing suicide], including the horrors of wars and their evil consequences [regarding veterans who return from war and experience terrible nightmares], as well as the inability to find work or adequate health insurance.”

We also pointed out in our StandingWatch program on suicide, titled, “Suicide—Why…and How to Prevent It?,”  that one leading cause is depression.

We must be sure that we do not allow disappointment, discouragement or even depression to bring us to the point of entertaining, let alone committing, suicide. We should try to conquer and fight disappointment and discouragement right away and not allow those emotions to fester in our minds and lives.

In our free booklet, “Human Suffering, Why… and How Much Longer?”, we state the following in chapter 7, “Discouragement and How to Conquer It”:

“All of us have become discouraged at times, especially during severe trials and suffering. We may even question why we are here, what we are doing, and what is the purpose of it all. We all have experienced, to some degree, those nagging feelings of despair, helplessness, or even hopelessness. Life may not seem to make any sense, and what difference does it make, anyway? We may be tempted to just give up, throw in the towel, walk away from whatever we are struggling with. We may ask ourselves, What’s the use? Why go on like this?…

“But in moments of despair, frustration, hopelessness and depression, GOD IS STILL THERE! God has not left us… God is watching over His people, and He is there to help us, giving us strength and encouragement to go on and reach our ultimate goal—entrance into His Kingdom…

“Many times, the conditions in which we find ourselves seem to be hopeless… Rather than looking at our physical circumstances, which can and will make us depressed, we must look at the living Christ…, leading us out of our trials and suffering—the physical realm—to a spiritual understanding, which goes far beyond what the human brain may grasp. When we are depressed in this life, we need to focus on our future. God is always there to encourage us. And the greatest encouragement He could possibly give us, is to reassure us and to remind us of our future… Once we have entered our ultimate human potential, we will be free from pain, suffering, disease, sickness and disappointment. All sufferings will be a thing of the past. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and crying and pain won’t exist anymore for us (compare Revelation 21:4).”

But “just” having hope in our ultimate painless future, when having become a God being, may not be enough to deal with the pain and suffering which we might be experiencing right now.  We would love to be strengthened, encouraged and freed from depression right now, rather than having to wait a long time for such deliverance.

And so, we are addressing the “here and now” in our free booklet, “Sickness and Healing – What the Bible Tells Us”. First, we explain how we CANNOT and WILL NOT find comfort and freedom from discouragement and depression:

“Today’s ‘science of psychology’ is operating from a fundamentally wrong foundation, and as such, very few, if any, will receive lasting help from such treatment… Clinical depression may well be, amongst other things, the end result of a development beginning with feelings of temporary frustration and self-pity. Rather than fighting and overcoming those feelings, affected people are often told by medical ‘experts’ to concentrate on their own selves and to bolster and inflate their ego—their inner self—thus developing a better ‘self-esteem.’ At the same time, they are told to place the blame for their condition on others, including parents, friends, relatives, or society as a whole. THAT, however, is the surest way NOT to overcome depression!

“The feeling of self-pity, the ‘woe-is-me syndrome,’ may even lead to suicide if not overcome in time. Judas committed suicide when he realized what he had done. Rather than truly repent in a godly way and rather than seek help from GOD to go on, he succumbed to his own grief and took his own life (see Matthew 27:3-5).”

What, then, IS the way out of disappointment, discouragement and depression? Continuing with the above-quoted booklet, we state:

“… we must look to God for help and we must develop a love for others, the same kind of love God has for humanity… When we focus on others and how we can help them, we are less concerned about and occupied with ourselves—what WE are and what WE can get from others. It is in giving to others that we are ‘more blessed’ and happier persons… It may seem to be a contradiction, but if we concentrate on others and how we can help them, we WILL become happier persons ourselves. This is the godly way of overcoming depression. It includes forgiving others of what they might have done to us, recognizing that we have done wrong things to others as well (compare Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13). It includes an understanding that true love ‘covers all sins’ (Proverbs 10:12)…

“Depression originates from Satan. We are told to resist Satan, and he—with his destructive feelings—will flee from us (James 4:7). We must submit to God and He will lift us up (James 4:7-10), which is to say that He will give us comfort, consolation [and] happiness… Christ never allowed Satan’s feelings of frustration, hopelessness and depression to find a place in His mind… He came to share His love with us so that we could overcome depression and become happier persons…”

There can be no doubt that Satan’s evil influence and his thoughts of frustration, disappointment and depression with which he bombards us on a daily basis are much responsible for a desperate state of mind. That is especially true when we approach God’s annual Holy Days which picture God’s plan for mankind. Satan hates God’s plan and His Holy Days as he knows that they reveal his fate—that he will ultimately be replaced as the ruler over this world—and his anger becomes more and more unleashed as he sees that the Day of Christ’s Return is very near.

Christ came to do the Work and the Will of God (John 17:4; John 4:34). He was totally filled with this desire so that He simply did not ALLOW thoughts of disappointment, frustration, discouragement or depression to enter His mind and to overpower Him. A sure way out of frustration and depression is to be heavily involved in God’s Work. God is having His Work done today in an effort to proclaim the good news of His Kingdom; to warn mankind of impending disaster; and to help those in despair to find rest and peace for their souls (Matthew 11:28; Philippians 4:7). Ask yourself what you can do to assist in God’s most important Work. And if you have questions in this regard, just ask us for further input.

But there is another additional and most powerful godly tool of which we should avail ourselves to conquer frustration, discouragement and depression.

We continue to state in our above-mentioned booklet:

“One possible cause of depression is worry—worry about the future, worry about the present, worry about the past. Such worry is unwise and can make us physically [as well as spiritually and mentally] ill. Proverbs 12:25 warns: ‘Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.’ So we must be careful not to worry needlessly about things we can’t change. Most of our worries never even come to pass…

“The effect of a ‘heavy’ or ‘broken’ or ‘depressed’ spirit on the body is also emphasized in Proverbs 17:22: ‘A merry heart does good like medicine… But a broken spirit dries the bones.’ Proverbs 18:14 elaborates: ‘The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?’ This shows that a strong spirit can contribute to the healing process of a sick person, whereas a broken or depressed spirit might delay and even prevent healing…

“Today, when we look, in spirit, with deep and genuine repentance at Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, we can obtain forgiveness and healing. We don’t have to continue in sickness and fear of death, physically and, more importantly, spiritually. The spiritual aspect of ‘healing’ must not be overlooked. Christ suffered and died for us, so that we can have both physical and spiritual healing…”

In fact, Christ gave His life so that we can be healed spiritually—which includes receiving healing from spiritual and mental sickness including depression. What then ought a spiritually “sick” person do to be freed from depression and destructive, frustrating thoughts—in addition to replacing them with constructive, positive, uplifting and encouraging thoughts (compare Philippians 4:8)?

Continuing with our booklet:

“When we are in need of spiritual healing, we must understand that… God can provide such healing, but He does do so, many times, through His trusted and faithful ministers (James 5:14). We are not to place our faith in God’s faithful ministry, however, but we must place our faith in God. Still, God has established certain procedures… that need to be applied and that involve His ministry, when it comes to physical, as well as spiritual healing…

“We find that when Christ’s disciples anointed a sick person with oil, the sick person was healed (compare Mark 6:12–13). In order to receive the benefit of God’s healing today, God’s ministers are instructed by God to anoint sick persons with oil (James 5:14) [and to lay hands on them (Mark 16:18)]…

“Some may wonder whether God has promised to heal only converted members of His church… The answer is ‘No’… The Bible is very clear that God heals sick people who try to obey God and who have faith that He will heal them. He tells us in Exodus 15:26, ‘If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.’…

“Many times, a ministerial visit may not be possible, as the sick person might live in a remote area. If this is the case, then elders are permitted to pray over a cloth, anointing it with a drop of oil as the symbol of the Holy Spirit [laying hands on the cloth] and asking God to heal the sick person who will receive this cloth. This is based on numerous passages in the Bible, showing us that people were healed when they touched the garments of Christ (Mark 6:56) or the aprons or handkerchiefs from Paul’s body (Acts 19:12)…

“It is necessary… that the sick person has faith in the sacrifice of Christ, believing that he or she will be healed by God because of what Christ did for us. We find that Christ healed many people who were not converted… If a sick person asks one of our ministers for anointing or an anointed cloth, believing that God will heal them, they will receive what they request. God commanded His servants to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and to ‘heal the sick’ (Matthew 10:8; Luke 9:2; 10:9).

“If a sick person has the faith in God to be healed, they should take advantage of the tremendous benefit that God bestows on us to heal us from our sicknesses and diseases. Our sicknesses are important in God’s eyes. If we are suffering with a sickness, let us ask God for His intervention. After all, He is the God Who heals us!”

This most certainly applies to physical as well as spiritual and mental sickness and impairments, such as depression. If you are in such a situation, don’t delay, but turn to God in faith, with heart-rending prayer and fasting, and avail yourself of His free beneficial offer to heal you from lingering thoughts of disappointment, frustration and depression. And He tells you that HE WILL heal you. Don’t doubt, but just believe (Matthew 21:21-22; James 1:6).

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

The 2019 U.S. Festival Brochure, prepared by graphic artist Shelly Bruno, is now posted. Here are the dates for the Fall Holy Days:

• Feast of Trumpets—September 30, 2019
• Day of Atonement—October 9, 2019
• Feast of Tabernacles—October 14-20, 2019
• Last Great Day—October 21, 2019

“Impeaching Donald Trump? No Way—and here Is WHY!” is the title of a StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

During a phone conversation in July of 2019, President Donald Trump spoke with the new leader of Ukraine, Mr. Zelenskiy, about investigating the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. As a consequence, many congressional Democrats are determined to impeach President Trump, alleging a quid pro quo deal, as Trump had withheld money approved by Congress to be given to Ukraine. At the same time, others allege that a quit pro quo existed regarding the dealings between Biden and other Democratic senators and the Ukrainian government, allegedly threatening to withhold aid, unless Ukraine were to act in a particular way. This program discusses the underlying circumstances, as well as the released transcript of the phone conversation and the whistleblower complaint, and shows you why Trump will stay in office and be reelected in 2020.

“Entmutigung, Depression und Selbstmordgedanken… Was kann man tun?” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “Discouragement, Depression and Thoughts of Suicide… What Should One Do?”

“Probleme bei LVF” is the title of this Sabbath’s new German sermonette, presented by Michael Link. Title in English: “Problems with PFT.”

“Comments on News and Prophecy ( September 21, 2019),” the message presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival; while the USA is wavering in its response to Iran’s perceived attack on Saudi Arabia. Europe blames President Trump for the current escalation. We also discuss China’s and Russia’s influence in Iran; Europe’s revival of the Roman Empire and its coming destruction in a nuclear war; Russia’s ongoing persecution of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; the future of Italy’s ultra-right politician Matteo Salvini and the growing popularity of Germany’s ultra-right AfD party; America’s mistrust in the press; the blackface nonsense; and Trump’s attempts to instigate an Ukrainian investigation of Joe’s Biden’s son Hunter.

“A Time for Everything,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Michael Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Everything has its time as Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 talks about. How can we apply each of these verses in our physical and spiritual lives?