The Revelation Man

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 08:02:00 +0000

The Beast and the False Prophet- Benedict & Francis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 10:25:00 +0000

Washington Post
DUBLIN — A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis — among other top Catholic Church officials — had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer.

The letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was recalled from his D.C. post in 2016 amid allegations that he’d become embroiled in the conservative American fight against same-sex marriage, was first reported by the National Catholic Register and LifeSite News, two conservative Catholic sites.

The accusations sent a shock wave across the reeling Roman Catholic Church, but the letter offered no proof of its claims, and Viganò on Sunday told The Washington Post that he wouldn’t comment further, beyond confirming that he was the letter’s author.

New York Times

EUROPE

Pope Francis’ Accuser Turns Up the Pressure With More Accusations

Image

“Faced with the Pope’s reported statement,” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò wrote in a new letter, “I feel obliged to recount the events as they really unfolded.”CreditPool photo by Charles Rex Arbogast

By Jason Horowitz

Sept. 1, 2018

ROME — The archbishop who accused Pope Francis of covering up a cardinal’s sexual misconduct has escalated his offensive with new, detailed accusations that put increasing pressure on a pontiff who the archbishop and his supporters say has misled the faithful and should resign.

The accuser, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, initially said he would turn off his phone and disappear into hiding for fear of his safety. But he then made a series of new accounts in conservative Roman Catholic news outlets.

In a new letter published late Friday by the conservative website LifeSiteNews, the archbishop gave his version of events leading up to the pope’s controversial September 2015 meeting with Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses. His description contradicted the Vatican’s own account of that private meeting, maintaining that Francis’ lieutenants lied to the public about the encounter, which threatened to eclipse the pope’s entire trip to the United States that month.

5A letter by Archbishop Viganò made public last weekend alleged that the Vatican hierarchy was complicit in covering up accusations that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused seminarians and that Pope Francis knew about the abuses years before they became public. It also said that rather than punishing the cardinal, Francis empowered him to help choose powerful American bishops.

Image

Pope Francis in Washington in 2015. When news of his meeting with Kim Davis leaked, the media storm threatened to eclipse his visit.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

Archbishop Viganò has aligned himself with a conservative group of powerful prelates, in both the Vatican and the United States, who have seized on the clerical sex abuse scandal to try to damage Francis and his agenda. They believe the pope is abandoning the church’s rules and traditions through his shift away from culture-war issues like abortion in favor of an emphasis on inclusion, including toward gays, whom Archbishop Viganò and his allies blame for pedophilia in the church.

The archbishop writes that he was spurred to weigh in again by a New York Times article this past week quoting a Chilean abuse survivor, Juan Carlos Cruz. Mr. Cruz said Francis had told him that Archbishop Viganò sneaked Ms. Davis into the Vatican Embassy in Washington for a private meeting in 2015 and that the pope did not know who she was or why she was controversial.

Mr. Cruz recalled the pope saying to him, “I was horrified and I fired that nuncio,” or papal ambassador — a reference to Archbishop Viganò, who was the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States.

Archbishop Viganò writes in the new letter: “One of them is lying: either Cruz or the pope? What is certain is that the pope knew very well who Davis was, and he and his close collaborators had approved the private audience.”

Archbishop Viganò did not return a request for comment on Saturday. But in the new letter, he lays out in detail his version of events in which he says he personally briefed the pope on Sept. 23, 2015, giving him a memo, which he also provided to LifeSiteNews, summarizing the case of Ms. Davis.

He claims that the pope “immediately appeared in favor” of a meeting but seemed wary of the political implications, asking the ambassador to clear it with his top adviser, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. That night, in a Washington hotel, Archbishop Viganò says, he was met instead by now-Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was then Francis’ chief of staff, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister Archbishop Viganò says that he then provided them with the letter, and after Archbishop Gallagher verified that the meeting presented no legal obstacles, he “gave an unconditionally favorable opinion that the pope should receive Davis.”

The Vatican’s press office declined to make Cardinals Parolin and Becciu and Archbishop Gallagher available for comment on Saturday morning. A message sent to a Lithuanian monsignor who Archbishop Viganò said witnessed the meeting in the Washington hotel lobby was not answered.

Archbishop Viganò says he informed the pope of that decision the next morning, and “the pope then gave his consent.” Archbishop Viganò says he then organized the secret meeting with Ms. Davis, who was in town to receive an award from the Family Research Council, a politically active conservative Christian group.

Early in the afternoon of Sept. 24, Archbishhop Viganò writes, the pope “entered as planned” into a sitting room to meet Ms. Davis, “embraced her affectionately, thanked her for her courage and invited her to persevere.”

When news of the meeting leaked, the media storm knocked Pope Francis off his message of inclusivity. The Vatican’s press office asserted that the pope had never received Ms. Davis in private audience and that the pope was probably not briefed. The Vatican instead highlighted Francis’ warm meeting at the Washington Embassy with a gay former student and his partner.

Francis then summoned Archbishop Viganò to Rome for what his top advisers assured Archbishop Viganò would be a chewing out, but the archbishop writes, “To my great surprise, during this long meeting, the pope did not mention even once the audience with Davis!”

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 17:36:00 +0000

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:55:00 +0000

2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. ( Resigns )
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
2Th 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lightning struck the Vatican just hours after Pope Benedict announced his resignation.

Vatican officials admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican

In a statement to Reuters, Vatican officials announced that Joseph Ratzinger will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation. Doing so will offer him legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said today

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless".

This startling admission of guilt by the church is also a direct obstruction of justice, and lends more weight to the charge by the ITCCS and others that the Vatican has arranged with the Italian government to shield Ratzinger from criminal prosecution, in violation of international laws ratified by Italy.

The Pope will remain a citizen of the Vatican City and therefore have immunity from prosecution within Italy, which upholds the Lateran Pacts from 1929 with the Holy See, and which established the Vatican City as a sovereign state. Pope Benedict XVI will become the first Pope to resign his Papacy since the 1414 resignation of Pope Gregory XII, and he will become the first to voluntarily quit his post as leader of the Catholic Church since Pope Celestine V in 1294.

Leaving the Vatican and Italy could result in the ex-Pope's arrest, since several countries have made plans to charge him with crimes, and possibly turn him over to an International court for prosecution. He will have no immunity if he leaves the Vatican City and Italy.

Source: The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS - located in Brussels, Belgium)

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:01:00 +0000

"I write this freely, without doctrines of churches, organizations, or influences of this world. What you are about to read is not for the offense to any heart, but written for encouragement and knowledge to draw the heart of man closer to our Lord of Lords, King of Kings of heaven and earth and Savior Jesus Christ; who died on the cross for our sins, and rose on the third day, that we might be considered worthy of the acceptance of His love and the promises of his Holy Word." ~ Rick

The original Words of - Sir Issac Newton

Having searched [ after knowledge in the prophetique scriptures, I have thought my self bound to communicate it for the benefit of others, remembring the judgment of him who hid his talent in a napkin. For I am perswaded that this will prove of great benefit to those who think it not enough for a sincere Christian to sit down contented with the principles of the doctrin of Christ such as the Apostel accounts the doctrin of Baptisms & of laying on of hands & of the resurrection of the dead & of eternall judgment, but leaving these & the like principles desire to go on unto perfection until they become of full age & by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good & evil. Hebr 5.12

I would not have any discouraged by the difficulty & ill success that men have hitherto met with in these attempts. This is nothing but what ought to have been. ffor it was revealed to Daniel that the prophesies concerning the last times should be closed up & sealed untill the time of the end: but then the wise should understand, & knowledg should be increased. Dan 12.4, 9, 10. And therefore the longer they have continued in obscurity, the more hopes there is that the time is at hand in which they are to be made manifest. If they are never to be understood, to what end did God reveale them? Certainly he did it for the edification of the church; & if so, then it is as certain that the church shall at length attain to the understanding thereof. I mean not all that call themselves Christians, but a remnant, a few scattered persons which God hath chosen, such as without being led by interest, education, or humane authorities, can set themselves sincerely & earnestly to search after truth. For as Daniel hath said that the wise shall understand, so he hath said also that none of the wicked shall understand.

Let me therefore beg of thee not to trust to the opinion of any man concerning these things, for so it is great odds but thou shalt be deceived. Much less oughtest thou to rely upon the judgment of the multitude, for so thou shalt certainly be deceived. But search the scriptures thy self & that by frequent reading & constant meditation upon what thou readest, & earnest prayer to God to enlighten thine understanding if thou desirest to find the truth. Which if thou shalt at length attain thou wilt value above all other treasures in the world by reason of the assurance and vigour it will add to thy faith, and steddy satisfaction to thy mind which he onely can know how to estimate who shall experience it.

-- Sir Issac Newton

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Identification of the first and second Beast of Revelation 13
and the number 666

Note: When considering prophecy God explains in the Old Testament
"One day for a year." Ezekiel 4:6
or, one day = one year
Isaiah 34:8. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

About Revelation 13
These are prophecies concerning "The rise of the Roman Catholic Church and its role in the English Reformation and its influence in the Church of England"
"Prophecies that unfolded during the English Reformation"
Revelation 13:2 explains the likeness of the first beast, which are animal symbols of European governmental powers:
Like unto a leopard (Greece)
Feet of a bear (Media Persia)
Mouth of a lion (Babylon)
The dragon (Rome)
Revelation 13:5 explains the duration of the beast until the deadly wound to be 42 months.
There are 30 days in a biblical month, so multiply 30 times 42.
The answer is 1260 days, or 1260 years. Ezekiel 4:6

Papal Rome - came to power in 538 A. D. and continued in power without interruption until 1798, when Napoleon took away their power exactly 1260 years later- ( The deadly wound ) another prophecy fulfilled.
Revelation 13:1-10 explains the Papal Roman government.
Revelation 13:11-18 explains England ( Anglican ) and its role with the Roman Catholic Church.
The "Dragon" is "THE ROMAN EMPIRE" and gave its power to the "Beast" - "PAPAL ROME".
It is a known historical fact that the symbol for the Roman Byzantine government was a dragon, as the bald eagle is to the USA.
Symbols of the dragon are still found all around Italy and the Vatican (statues, public fountains, etc.) And this governmental power, the Roman Empire, turns over its power to "Papal Rome," thus "The Holy Roman Empire."
The Pagan belief of the Romans was Babylonian worship whose high priests carried the title of Pontifix Maximus, but in appreciation of Caesar's acceptance of their worship, they awarded him the title of "Pontifix Maximus," and this title was passed down to Papal Rome. Papal Rome and the Pope are referred to at times in the Bible as The great whore, The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, The Dragon, man of sin, the head of the beast, the eighth king.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ( Pope Benedict XVI )
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, ( Pope Benedict XVI ) whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
( praying to Catholic Saints ) because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The beast with two horns "like a lamb" (the second beast)
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

England ( Anglican )
The two horns represented "Church and State" until Henry VIII, when it became "Church and King" (Act of Supremacy) ~ "Like a lamb" means "youth" of this (nation) beast compared to the old Holy Roman empire (the first beast) considered the secret Bible translators, readers of the newly translations of the Bible and practicing Jews to be heretics (traitors of the Roman Catholic) and were killed, mutilated, beheaded, and burned at the stake because they wouldn't conform and be water baptized into the Roman Catholic Church and/or for abandonment of its teachings.
This was a continuation of the Roman Catholic inquisitions a 600 year reign of terror against any unbelievers of the Roman Catholic Church. The rising up also stands for the English Reformation, or protesting - the protestant rising up against the beast of the church and state during the time and shortly before Henry VIII.
The "Lambeth Palace" rose up from the marshes (swamp land) to become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in England and later became the seat of the Church of England. The Roman Catholic Church didn't want anyone but themselves to have access to any of the "Bible Scriptures" for fear their Priest and Pope would loose their spiritual power over the people. Anyone caught trying to translate, teach, print any translation of the scriptures but the Roman Catholic Priest or authorities were considered "Heretics" which carried the penalty of death. This period of time was the beginning of spiritual conflict in the battle for the Bible. The first people to read the Bible translated by John Wycliffe were called "lollards." These people were the first Protestants and were imprisoned in the Lambeth Palace for reading its translation.
The word "protestant" means "protest" or "in protest" of the Roman Catholic Church. These people (lollards - secret readers of the Bible) grew in numbers later in the years that followed Henry VIII.
In the years that followed under the rule of Elizabeth I the Church of England conforms back to Catholicism only without the full authority of the Roman Catholic Pope only the governance
(overseeing) by Rome over the Church of England this continued from that time forward.
Even when Henry VIII became the supreme head of the Church of England, the war between Protestants and Catholics continued for decades until Elizabeth I brought both groups back together in a last ditch effort to unite England, but before this The Roman Catholic Church lead these people (lollards, protestants) into captivity, but were later lead into captivity themselves by the protestants and lollards. Protestants were killed by the sword and Roman Catholics were also killed by the sword. (Revelation 13:10.) This passage is not portraying the fall of Papal Rome of 1798, but rather the fall of Papal Rome in England during the reign of Henry VIII and in the time of Elizabeth I.
The Church of England or "The IMAGE," (also called the pretended church by Roman Catholics) was created out of anger by Henry VIII, who couldn't get a marriage annulment from the Pope, so he went on to build his own image of The Roman Catholic Church, which he alone would rule as the supreme head (Act of Supremacy). To help stop this ongoing battle, this church would be reformed to be comprised of half Catholic/half Protestant, and eventually revert back to mostly Catholicism, which most kings and queens were thereafter. They kept most of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church because at this time they knew of no other spiritual teachings because the Bible was still unknown and unread to most. For this reason the Church of England caused people to worship the first beast, "The Roman Catholic Church" through laws enacted by the crown and Parliament.
The "mark of the beast" (or mark of the Roman Catholic Church ) is the "mark of membership" (water baptism into the Church of England, Lutheran and/or the Roman Catholic Church with the "sign of the cross" marked on the forehead by a priest with holy water, and at prayer, performing the sign of the cross with the right hand from forehead to sternum and then from shoulder to shoulder drawing an imaginary cross on the upper body always using the right hand as prescribed by the Catholic teaching.
People who would not be water baptized and marked in the forehead with the "sign of the cross" into membership were killed. Penalty was death by fire. Jesus shall repay with the same, and avenge the blood of the saints: John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and etc.
for more information on this subject, please research the Spanish, Italian, English, & Irish Inquisitions (which were the investigations that lead to the trials and convictions of thousands for not practicing Roman Catholicism.) also research for the mark of the beast, "Sign of the cross," also "RCIA" or "rite of Christian initiation of adults."
Henry VIII was king during the English reformation and built Henrican church (later the Church of England), the "IMAGE" (Anglican -The Church of England -Westminster Abby) of the Roman Catholic Church, and gave it power to speak (legislate.)

King Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I enforced its membership by law (legislation of parliament which includes the "Crown" and "House of Commons") though reformed, still mostly Roman Catholic practices.
Elizabeth I invited the pope to oversee the practices of the Church of England after the dust settled. (Governance of the Church of England) but the Roman Catholic Church viewed the Church of England as a pretend church (pretending to be Roman Catholic), hence "the Image."

"No man might buy or sell"
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

At the "Council of Orleans" 321 A.D. (after John wrote Revelation,) the Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath Day from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday.) The Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath Day...not GOD.
"No man free or bond might buy or sell that keep the "original Sabbath" (the seventh day: Saturday) (Exodus 20) except those who change it and acknowledge it and believe the change. (the Catholic beast, ones with the mark of the beast, or the number of his name ( name, group, house of the king) - the Roman Catholic Church, members of the Roman Catholic Church and/or the Church of England, and the Crown, his wives, and his members of Parliament) these would disregard God's Sabbath or day of rest and honor the pope's Sabbath by keeping their markets and shops open and operating on the original Sabbath day. Christians and Jews that kept the original Sabbath continued to closed their market places and shops as always and refused to buy an, sell, and trade but rather to enter into God's rest day and not the pope's. These practices continue today as most Christian denominations believe that their rest day or Sabbath is on Sunday . This Papal influence on society has deceived most people into thinking Monday is the first work day of the week because of the closing of most work places on Sunday and that the beginning of the work week begins on Monday. Unfortunately trapped by the need for jobs for their livelihood, there are those who according to their work place must work on God's rest day and rest on the pope's rest day or shall we say the"Beast's" rest day or face losing their jobs. This is the powerful working of Satan throughout the world. This was God's gift to man and was made for man to have a day of peaceful rest in Him on the day He had chose, not the day chosen by the pope, a man, who sets in the temple of God showing the world that he thinks of himself as God, enough so that he, through the workings of Satan, has deceived the world into keeping his Sunday Sabbath instead of the original Sabbath given to Moses by Almighty God Himself. This is Blaspheming. And to partake in her sins is guilt by the same reasoning. To honor the pope's Sabbath is discount the Sabbath of God's Sabbath. How can anyone say they love Jesus and take away the gift that God gave man?
Judgment come for those who continue to deify Almighty God. He will pour out his wrath upon all that participate in the sins of the Roman Catholic Church whither directly or indirectly.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
2Peter 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Luke 20:46 Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;

Why should we keep the original Sabbath that God sanctified and made holy instead of the Catholic Sabbath day, the first day of the week, that the pope has declared to be best?

The book of James 2 reads that if you fail at one point of the Ten Commandments you are guilty of all.
Genesis 1:5 states "and the evening and the morning were the first day." A new day begins at sunset every evening, not at midnight, or morning. This change of time was also administered by the Catholic Church.
TIME: When a day begins. When the Catholic Church changed when the time of day began, they changed TIMES.
THE LAW: The Ten Commandments. When the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath day, they changed THE LAW.
Daniel 7:25 states, "they shall think to change times and laws."
Another prophecy fulfilled.
Here is understanding (of the Bible not the World.)
Identify a time and place through its king:
for it's the number of a king who represents a place and time.
(Numbers 1:1-16 A Renown Prince of Pedigree, at least 20 years of age able to go to war, head of his fathers "House" who builds a replica of the Roman Catholic "Church and State".
The Roman Catholic Church has referred to the Church of England as the "pretended" church as they have in most part pretended to worship as the Roman Catholic. They have mimicked the Roman Catholic church structure by creating similar church government and church design without actually being under the full authority of the Pope since the time of it's beginning during the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
The Church of England may have a different name but Roman Catholic belief is their practice of worship and the sign of the cross also mark them as Catholic.
Revelation 13:18.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. The number of a man in Biblical language refers to "a group of a man," "His Group," or his "Followers." This group of people is usually followers of that man (the head of group including him). A group count is "the number of names" or number of people (which is referring to a head count).
Numbers 1
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2. Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
3. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
4. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers.
Explained
In verse 16:16.
These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel. Notice in the 18th verse: And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. Clearly the phrase the "number of a man" refers to the "number of his names" which also helps us to identify the status of the man in question which makes him clearly a man of stature a prince who later becomes king or leader of that group. By calculating the number of his group, his location and time of reign, his actual name can be identified. Acts 1 13. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. 15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Again this reference in Acts 1:13-15 is clearly referring to the number of a group.

ID: Henry VIII is supreme over England (remember this: he builds the image)
"House of Commons" the number of his name ( Number of his group ) members total 659 (this number of members continues today)
1 king Henry VIII
6 wives
659 + 1 + 6 = Six hundred three score and six.

There is only one king that fits this description and give us a reference to a time period - Henry VIII of England - The late 14th early 15th century. The time of the "English Reformation"

These events of Revelation 13 have already happened and were to help us identify these series of events and which king would be in charge so as to reference time a location. This is why the location of this verse is located last in the chapter to allow the reader to understand where and when these prophecies took place.
These are not prophecies of futuristic theory for today's Christian, these prophecies of events have happened and have been fulfilled but was futuristic prophecy at the time the prophecy was given to John.

About Water Baptism (Roman Catholic teaching)
John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
John 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
John 3:10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
John 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

When as an infant at birth you were born of water from your mother's womb, of the flesh, with the mind of the flesh, but now receiving the knowledge of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ with the renewing of your mind, concerning Him whom you have come to believe on, you have been now been born of the spirit. The understanding you now have attained through Jesus Christ has now overcame the mind of the flesh, your former self. The wind blows where it prefers but some will not know where it came from because they haven't been born to the knowledge and teachings of Jesus Christ. Being born of water is earthly things but being born of the spirit is being born or awakened to heavenly things.
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
1Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Peter 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

John the Baptist said one would come after him who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.
John was preparing people for the Christ which was to come after him. The baptism was symbolized that the believer in what John was preaching of the one to come after him and would be resurrected and, they done this water baptism to honor the one that was to come.
Jesus did not baptize anyone in the Bible with water. He was baptized in water by John to confirm His coming and approval and because Jesus had not yet died on the cross, therefore the water had not yet become blood and since Jesus is the Holy Ghost, the comforter and the baptizer of such He couldn't baptize until the day of Pentecost. After the cross, water became blood, a familiar prophecy demonstrated by Jesus when he turned the water into wine. He did this to tell us that water baptism will become a baptism in the blood of Christ, hence the baptism John the Baptist referred to when he said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."
Acts 1:5.
"For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
After the cross is when the baptism of Jesus started - the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If water baptism is necessary for your salvation why didn't Jesus baptize people in water himself? There is no holy trinity to be baptized with. When Jesus gave His life on the cross for remission of sins.
Why did John the Baptist baptize people in water?
Joh 1:19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
Joh 1:20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
Joh 1:21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
Joh 1:22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
Joh 1:23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
Joh 1:24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
Joh 1:25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
Joh 1:26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;
Joh 1:27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
Joh 1:28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Joh 1:30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
Joh 1:31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
Joh 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
Joh 1:33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Answer: So that Jesus should be made manifest to Israel or be made known to Israel.
John the Baptist said one would come after him who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. Jesus did not baptize anyone in the Bible with water. Jesus was baptized in water by John because Jesus had not yet died on the cross, therefore the water had not yet become blood. After the cross, baptism of water became baptism of blood, a familiar prophecy demonstrated by Jesus when he turned the water into wine. He did this to tell us that water baptism will become a baptism in the blood of Christ, hence the baptism John the Baptist referred to when he said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Acts 1:5. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
After the cross is when the baptism of Jesus started - the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If water baptism is necessary for your salvation why didn't Jesus baptize people in water himself? There is no holy trinity to be baptized with just the baptism of Jesus Christ.
Act 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
Act 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
In Conclusion about water baptism
(Eph. 4:4-6) "There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father and God of all, who is above all, and in you all.
Water baptism isn't necessary for salvation but also is not forbidden.
The Baptism of Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation for if we can't call on the name of the lord for remission of sins we surely don't believe that He is our Lord and without believing there is not hope for eternal life.
Act 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Trinity - Scripture Fact or Theory
After Jesus gave His life on the cross, His earthly body became an eternal body but His spirit remained the same God the father and the Holy Ghost who were with the flesh from the beginning. The truth was given to the world through Jesus Christ, vocally from the mouth of Jesus the same fleshly body God had created for himself to dwell in and to speak to His own creatures from, even though they received him not.
Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

There is only one Almighty God who through this life was given a name and whoever that may call upon his name receives remission of sins. The Name Jesus is so honored, for God was made flesh and the flesh had an eternal name and, this flesh was made of the earth like Adam a man, as us but the mind was of the Father. The flesh became the ultimate sacrifice which conquered your death and mine so we might live forever if we so chose to believe on Him. Jesus the name of God Almighty who that before Abraham was and still is, Giving us a new contract a new covenant the New Testament, and through his life and words, new knowledge, a name having power over heaven and earth, that all in heaven and on earth will bow down in the presence of His holy name.
Now knowing that all in heaven and on earth should bow down to the Jesus Christ, does this mean that God and the Holy Ghost should also bow down to Him? No. They are one, not "as one" as the trinity theory suggests but only one God Almighty.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Joh 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Joh 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
Joh 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
Joh 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

This theory of trinity is the imaginary works of iniquity of Tertullian, one of the early founders of the Roman Catholic Church, who lived around the time of 190 A.D.
Again we read which also debunks the trinity theory - (Eph. 4:4-6) "There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father and God of all, who is above all, and in you all. John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? John 3:31 "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all."
Let's look back at the book of Genesis.
Gen. 17:1 "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the ALMIGHTY God; walk before me, and be thou perfect."
Gen 35:11 " And God said unto him, I am God ALMIGHTY: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Now let's look at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:8 says (in red letters, words of Jesus Christ), "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the ALMIGHTY."
According to these passages the trinity theory doesn't hold up to the truth because God's words state that he is the ALMIGHTY, and then Jesus Christ's words state that HE is the ALMIGHTY. This is not a contradiction in the Bible. It's a confirmation that God and Jesus Christ are the same one, in their very own words.
Here is three more examples of the unification of the Father, Son, & Holy Ghost.
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Joh 8:57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

John 14:17 " Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot, receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you".
John 14:18 " I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
Here Jesus tells how the Spirit of truth (also referred to here as "Holy Ghost" & "Comforter") dwells with you and will be in you. Then in the very next verse He says
"I will come to you."

True membership
Jesus died for your sins on the cross and by believing that Jesus died and rose again on the third day, you are His member. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and you are baptized with it into the membership of Jesus Christ when you accept him into your life. When you accept him into your life He accepts you into life eternal and your name is then written in His membership book: "The Lamb's Book of Life."
Act 22:14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.
Act 22:15 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.
Act 22:16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

( Revelation 1:8), the Son, the father are the same God. The phrase " at the right hand of the Father" is not a literal phrase but meaning "in the heart of" in this case Jesus is not literally setting on the right hand of the Father "He is in the heart of "or "the center figure of" the Father. The truth was given to the world through Jesus Christ, the New Testament, and of the new knowledge, having power over heaven and earth, that all in heaven and on earth will bow down in the presence of His holy name. And with knowing that all in heaven and on earth should bow down to Jesus, does this mean God and the Holy Ghost also bow down to Him? No. They are one, not "as one" as the trinity theory suggests. This theory of trinity is the imaginary works of iniquity of Tertullian, one of the early founders of the Roman Catholic Church, who lived around the time of 190 A.D. (Eph. 4:4-6) "There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father and God of all, who is above all, and in you all. John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? John 3:31 "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all."
Let's look back at the book of Genesis.
Gen. 17:1 "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the ALMIGHTY God; walk before me, and be thou perfect."
Gen 35:11 " And God said unto him, I am God ALMIGHTY: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
Now let's look at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:8 says (in red letters, words of Jesus Christ), "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the ALMIGHTY."
According to these passages the trinity theory doesn't hold up to the truth because God's words state that he is the ALMIGHTY, and then Jesus Christ's words state that HE is the ALMIGHTY. This is not a contradiction in the Bible. It's a confirmation that God and Christ become one, in their very own words.
Here is one more example of the unification of the Father, Son, & Holy Ghost.
John 14:17 " Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot, receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you".
John 14:18 " I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
Here Jesus tells how the Spirit of truth (also referred to here as "Holy Ghost" & "Comforter") dwells with you and will be in you. Then in the very next verse He says
"I will come to you."
True membership
Jesus died for your sins on the cross and by believing that Jesus died and rose again on the third day, you are His member. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and you are baptized with it into the membership of Jesus Christ when you accept him into your life. When you accept him into your life He accepts you into life eternal and your name is then written in His membership book: "The Lamb's Book of Life."

About Revelation 17
The Eighth King
Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

The angel takes us into two different times and places to explain the same name - The wilderness is - a place John had never been before, a time before the deadly wound was healed ("was and is not" before Pius XI ) between the years of 1914 - 1922. And another time during the reign of the sixth king Pope Paul 1963 and 1978 before a short reign of a papal name.( "yet is" ) We know this because of how the angels descriptions of this times of the beast.
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is.. (the sixth Papal name is in power since 1798 ) - Pope Paul 1963 - 1978
Revelation 17:8. The beast that thou sawest was (in power), and is not (in power); and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit ( Papal ascension from the beginning of the first century ), and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder ( follow), whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was (in power), and is not (in power), and yet is (and is once again, in power, or regained it's power).
In 1798 Napoleon seized the governmental powers and territories of Papal Rome with the help of his general Louis Alexander Berthier and imprisoned the Pope where he remained until his death. The deadly wound to the head of the Roman Catholic Church was healed when Mussolini gave back power to the Roman Catholic Church February 11, 1929 at the Lateran Pact Treaties. This restored full power to the Roman Catholic Church as a government power. Ironically the San Francisco Chronicle reported the next day on the front page "Wound healed of many years"
There are seven kings of the beast (papal names since the wound of 1798)
five are fallen;
one is;
and the other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a short space (total years of reign. 1978 - 2005 - no other time in history has this name been used)
This short space name is: John Paul - 1978 -2005
Seven papal names have been elected since 1798, when Napoleon seized control of papal Rome (the deadly wound)
and the deadly wound was healed on Feb. 11, 1929 with the Lateran Pact Treaties, when power was returned to the church by Mussolini.
The seven kings (or names) of the beast:
Pius
Leo
Gregory
Benedict- (is of the seven, after the short space)
John
Paul
John Paul = Short space - 27 years total reign.
And the beast that was (in power), and is not (in power, during the period of 1798-before the existing Pope of 1929 before the deadly wound )this would be ( Benedict XV 1914 - 1922 )(notice that the words "yet is" isn't mentioned here ), even he is the eighth (after the seventh name has appeared ), and is of the seven (names, Benedict, was before and after "yet is" the papal reign before the deadly wound and after the short space ) and goeth into perdition (damnation). (He is called the eighth only because his reign follows the seventh name) ( His name is of the seven names)
The 80 year old BENEDICT is the eighth king. Jesus will repay soon.

Perdition - 1. a. Loss of the soul; eternal damnation.

About 1Tim 4:1
Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils (Catholic teachings - water baptism, trinity, changing the Sabbath Day, and so on) speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, (number one in "member" water baptisms in the world - Roman Catholic Church - Greeks and Romans believe in common worship practices) and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving, of those who believe and know the truth. There are some churches acquiring "membership" through water baptisms who believe trinity also -doctrines of devils- persuading their members to practice vegetarianism or at the very least to abstain from unclean meats such as pork, shrimp & catfish as the Jews did under the ordinances of Moses. Colossians 2:20-22 states "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, touch not; taste not; handle not; which are all to perish with the using: after the commandments of men?" Col 3:2 says, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Romans 14:2 states "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs."
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
There are good people are without full understanding of scripture because pastors are taught to preach by other men and women,
not the Holy Ghost, and to preach the same message over and over which contains a lot of good history and good teachings of the Bible, but falls short of the truth and then substitutes the truth with theory and at times taking scripture out of context to support their theories.
1John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need NOT that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him."
Some churches take in part the teachings or doctrines of the Greek Orthodox Roman Catholic, or Jewish ordinances of Moses of Leviticus, which were nailed to the cross. Colossians 2:14 "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

The governing structure of most top denominations is fashioned primarily after the Roman Catholic Church from the local level churches (like local dioceses) to the General Conference (like the Vatican.) They also have ongoing ecumenical talks with The Roman Catholic Church whether directly or indirectly, through Roman Catholic sub-groups (world alliance of reformed churches) and other denominations who are in formal direct communion with The Roman Catholic Church. The leaders of these denominations teach pastors to preach against Catholicism and then shake hands in agreement concerning some teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Speaking lies in Hypocrisy"
Most members of most churches do not even know how much interaction is between their church leaders and the Roman Catholic Church. These are the same kind of comparative talks most denominations have with the Roman Catholic Church. It's all a part of a larger deception to unite all denominations under the authority of the Pope as the one true leader of the Christian world. Satan, in his deception, uses the name of Jesus Christ in vain in his quest to overcome the souls of man going throughout the world devouring who he may for he knows he only has a short time. Most wouldn't even think twice that a church would deceive them with their church doctrines. This is why they are taken as a thief. There are some Catholic doctrines in most denominations.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Warning: Come out of the whore completely and totally - don't partake and give heed to her, or her doctrines of devils.
The ordinances of Moses to the Levites were nailed to the cross, but not the Ten Commandments.
Therefore the 7th day Sabbath, which is Saturday, kept by the Seventh Day Adventist Church is truth, but vegetarianism is of weak faith: Romans 14:2 states "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs."
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom 14:17)
There is not a world church or world organization that is of Christ.

Christ is NOT of the world. He overcame the world.
1 John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:16"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness and offered him the world if He would just bow Himself down and worship Satan. So many churches today offer the wantonness of the world in their lavish establishments trimmed in gold, with promises of better jobs, financial relief, college educations, political favor, health care, etc. These are deceptions of Satan and the full truth is not in them. (2 Peter 1:4) Some Bible truth is in all churches. Jesus is the WHOLE truth, and not of this world. He isn't interested in who you are in the world, but who you are in your heart. Your loyalty should be with Christ only:
Not the Pope, The Dalai Lama, Billy Graham, Ellen G. White, Joseph Smith, the church
you attend, your boss at work, your pastor or anyone...with Jesus Christ only. John 3:33 "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."
These are the remnant of the world - the ones who follow whithersoever He goeth, not defiled with the Roman Catholic Church whether it be ecumenical talks or in agreement in any way (trinity, water baptism, rebellious Sunday Sabbath, or any teaching.)
(Revelation 18:4) "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" of this murdering Roman Catholic Church, and all whom are associated with her, and keep her company. People even today take the membership (mark of the beast) just as they have for centuries. Following the traditions of men and not following Christ.
Col 2:8 "Beware least any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (laws) of the world, and not after Christ." It's Jesus who died for you, who has power over heaven and earth. No one else can save you and give you eternal life. Your love and loyalty should be with Him only. Don't be looking way out into the future for things that have already come and gone. But rather look to the past to understand the present, and the short time before Christ returns.
Understand where you are with Jesus. Understand what truth (Jesus.) is Seek and ye shall find. The Holy Ghost will guide you, not a man.
1 John 2:20 "But ye have an unction (discerning) from the Holy One, and ye know all things."
1 John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
Don't be taken as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:4 "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."
The Coming of Christ is soon
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east, might be prepared.
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together, into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since, men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Water = People
Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
The sixth vile is now poured out on the river Euphrates and is at present drying up (Rev. 16:12.) People in Iraq are slowly dying like a river slowly evaporating, preparing a way for the kings of the east. Having unclean spirits like frogs (with long tongues as in speeches & peace talks.) The pope will go to the kings of the earth (United Nations) with a peace plan to help draw the world unto him. The Pope will get most all the credit for saving the world from the great troubles of war and terrorism. This will be his final attempt to unite the Christian denominations under his umbrella, but the pope can't save you and he won't even get the chance. The great day (year) of God Almighty is when Jesus returns during this time and foils the plan of the Satan. He gathers the kings of the earth into a place not a physical place an organizational place that sounds like a physical place. bringing all world religions subject to the Pope through a means of Peace building - From the suburban city outside of Rome (headquartered in Trastevere, Italy walking distance from Vatican city) "The Community of Sant Egidio" in the Hebrew tongue, Ar = City and, the Letter M in Hebrew = of or from - and, the name Ageddon in Ancient Greek is the name Agidion in Hebrew and translated into Italian the name "Egidio" and so Armageddon translates into the place = Community of Egidio or "Community of Sant'Egidio". The battle of Revelation 16 is the battle of the great day of God Almighty. There just isn't a battle of Armageddon. This is just a place that "he" (The False Prophet, The Pope) gather the kings of the earth into. This place according to 1 Thessalonians 5:3 is a gathering for peace and safety that's all. No not a nuclear holocaust just a gathering for peace talks before a voice from heaven saying "IT IS DONE" ( IT IS FINISHED )and the seventh vial is poured out. This is the start of the battle or last judgment of God Almighty. Catholic theologians would like you to think that John made a mistake when he wrote the word ARMAGEDDON but he didn't.
John didn't add or take away from the very book he warned people not to add or take away from. Even the influence of the Roman Catholic Church has distorted the most every dictionary and encyclopedia available today because of their so called authority over the Bible.
The Catholic St. Egidio was considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be a miracle worker and the Community of Sant'Egidio is considered the same.
Thus - Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, "working miracles", which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to "gather" them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
(1 Thessalonian 5:4)" But Ye, Brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."

Definition Armageddon = two words and one name, in the Hebrew Language through translations
AR = ( city of ) or ( Community of ):
the " M" = Hebrew word "OF"
= Ancient Greek to English is translated Ageddon = Ancient Greek to Hebrew to English - Agidion
= Italian - Egidio
= English - Giles
= Latin - Aegidius
"The Community Of Agidion" or
"The Community of Saint Giles" or
in Italian - "Sito della Comunit di Sant'Egidio"
Who are these people?
World peace talks are hosted by the Sant'Egidio Community
If any man have an ear, let him hear.
1 Thessalonians 5
1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

GILES

Gender: Masculine Usage: English Pronounced: JIE-ulz [key] From the Late Latin name Aegidius, which meant "young goat" from Greek (aigidion). Saint Giles was an 8th-century miracle worker from Greece who regarded as the patron saint of cripples.
Erected in 1924 after the plan of the architect Gino Copped, the "Fountain of the frogs" is one of the most recent in the city of Trastevere near the Community of Sant'Egidio just outside of Rome. Each of the four couples of figures that rise over a low circular basin, supports a shell where a frog sprouts water into the shell self.
At the center of the basin, among the eight shells, there is another circular basin decorated with eight frogs, tidily placed along its side, ready to jump towards toward the central jet of water.

For Frogs signify both spirits of Devils & societies of men
actuated by such spirits in preaching & working miracles
for seducing their worshippers of the Beast & his image.

~ Sir Isaac Newton
Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1)

Luke 21:32 "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till, all be fulfilled."
Luke 21:28 " And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh"

What is our service to the King?

Invite the good and, also those whom most would be called bad people
to follow Christ

Matthew 22
Mat 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
Mat 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.
Mat 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Mat 22:4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
Mat 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one, to his farm, another, to his merchandise:
Mat 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
Mat 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Mat 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Mat 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as, ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
Mat 22:10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Mat 22:11 and when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on, a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Ephesians 1:6-14
6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 3:2-19
2. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4. Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6. That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11. According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
13. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18. May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

I am not affiliated with any organization.
I don't want your money.
My Father in Heaven knows what I have need of, he is my provider.
Just trust in Jesus Christ and He will see you through all the hardships and troubles that you might facing but you must really believe and trust Him first
then all your needs will be added unto you.
Live forever - Follow Jesus Christ
I hope these words help you in your pursuit
for the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
I praise the Name of Jesus Christ forever. Amen
Written by Rick

Isaiah 28
23. Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25. When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

MORE PAGES On This Site...

Christmas - A PAGAN PAPAL "UNHOLY DAY"

Pagan Papal "Holy DAYS"

Distress Of nations - Economic panic

AR-M- AGEDDON = Community of Sant'Egidio- Peace and Safety Alert !

Amazing Blasphemed Catholic Statements Regarding the Pope

Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs -That gather The Kings of The Earth

The Revelation of Thomas

Hidden Symbolism In The Christian Cross

Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them

External Links

California's Earthquake News

In The Last Days Shall The Sun be Darkened

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:17:00 +0000

Mat 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Katla
LONDON - A second, much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs that it may be about to erupt, scientists have warned.
Since the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, which caused cancellations of thousands of flights in Europe because of a giant ash cloud, there has been much speculation about neighboring Katla.
An initial research paper by the University College of London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction said: "Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising ... intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano."
"Earlier seismic energy release at Katla is associated with the inflation of the volcano, which indicates it is close to failure, although this does not appear to be linked to seismicity around Eyjafjallajökull," it added.
"We conclude that given the high frequency of Katla activity, an eruption in the short term is a strong possibility," the report said. "It is likely to be preceded by new earthquake activity. Presently there is no unusual seismicity under Katla."
Icelandic President Ólafur Grímsson has warned governments around Europe that a significant eruption at the volcano is close. "We [Iceland] have prepared ... it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption," he said.
The UCL scientists, engineers and statisticians also criticized the response to the earlier eruption.
"The impact of the eruption on regional airspace could have been predicted and better prepared for as the growing problem of aircraft-ash cloud encounters has been recognized for decades," the report added.
"Similarly, the potential for ash clouds, specifically from Icelandic volcanoes, to interfere with air traffic in UK, European and North Atlantic air-space was appreciated by the aviation industry well before the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption," it said.
"The response to the ash cloud’s arrival in UK and adjacent airspace was entirely reactive and therefore less effective than it should have been."

Larger Iceland Volcano, Katla, Shows Signs of Potential Eruption

Volcanic activity at Katla, the big sister of Eyjafjallajokull which has historically erupted in sequence with the smaller volcano, has increased 200% in recent days, and experts are concerned it may soon blow:

"A report from the University College London (UCL) institute for risk and disaster reduction has outlined that "An eruption in the short term is a strong possibility'. In its initial research paper it said: 'Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising ... intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano.' Seismic readings of the volcano indicate the tremors around the area have increased substantially. Four earthquakes were detected near Katla during a 12-hour period on May 21st, more than at any other time since the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions first occurred in March. Three earthquakes at the Katla Volcano were reported by the Disaster and Emergency website Hisz.rsoe.hu on Sunday evening. The tremors may have been due to ice movements within Mýrdalsjökull glacier or magma movement under the volcano. The last earthquake to take place at the volcano was recorded yesterday morning."
Warning signs have been posted near the base of the glacier which caps the Katla volcano (top) Inset (above), the last major Katla eruption, in 1918.

Katla is the second largest volcano in the country of Iceland, and Iceland's president is issuing a warning saying that the eruption of Katla is close.
Icelandic president Ólafur Grímsson has warned other governments around Europe "that a significant eruption at the volcano is close."
"We [Iceland] have prepared ... it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption," he said.
Europe is still experiencing clouds of volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull that erupted in April.
Airlines all over the world have lost significant flight time and money due to flights being cancelled as a result of the ash clouds. An eruption of Katla, the second largest volcano is Iceland, could spell even more trouble. There has been speculation about Katla since the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. Katla is the larger of the two volcanos.
The planet appears to be in a perpetual state of unrest. From today's 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Vanuatu to the pending eruption of Katla in Iceland; it seems like Mother Nature is kicking up her well worn heels.

Katla volcano, located near the southern end of Iceland's eastern volcanic zone, is hidden beneath the Myrdalsjökull icecap. The subglacial basaltic-to-rhyolitic volcano is one of Iceland's most active and is a frequent producer of damaging jökulhlaups, or glacier-outburst floods. A large 10 x 14 km subglacial caldera with a long axis in a NW-SE direction is up to 750 m deep. Its high point reaches 1380 m, and three major outlet glaciers have breached its rim. Although most historical eruptions have taken place from fissures inside the caldera, the Eldgjá fissure system, which extends about 60 km to the NE from the current ice margin towards Grímsvötn volcano, has been the source of major Holocene eruptions. An eruption from the Eldgjá fissure system about 934 AD produced a voluminous lava flow of about 18 cu km, one of the world's largest known Holocene lava flows. Katla has been the source of frequent subglacial basaltic explosive eruptions that have been among the largest tephra-producers in Iceland during historical time and has also produced numerous dacitic explosive eruptions during the Holocene.

When Iceland’s Katla volcano erupts next, could it be 100 times as powerful as the recent Eyjafjallajokull eruption?

Maybe, yes. Hopefully not. Probably not, but, let me explain…

The current thinking and assumption is that Katla will possibly be as powerful as ten times that of the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, which is a reasonable expectation given the fact that the 1918 Katla eruption was indeed almost ten times as powerful as Eyjafjallajokull.

Volcano explosiveness is ranked on a scale from 0 to 8 (Volcanic Explosivity Index – VEI), and each increase in number represents a ten times increase in explosiveness (logarithmic scale). The total volume of ejected material also known as ‘tephra‘ (the fragmental material, regardless of size, produced by volcanic eruption), as well as plume height are the most important criteria factored in to VEI.

The recent Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland was ranked on the low end of VEI 4 and released about 140 Million cubic meters of material , of which about 80 Million cubic meters went into the atmosphere by way of the ash plume. It affected aviation in the region for weeks, translating to global transportation issues of both human and cargo, and had a measurable negative economic impact.

Imagining the impact of a Katla eruption on a scale of ten times worse than Eyjafjallajokull is bad enough, but when considering an impact of one hundred times worse, one begins to cringe…

VEI 4 (ejects .1 – 1 Billion cubic meters of tephra, plume height 10 – 25 km)

VEI 5 (ejects 1 – 10 Billion cubic meters of tephra, plume height >25 km)

VEI 6 (ejects 10 – 100 Billion cubic meters of tephra, plume height >25 km)

The 1918 Katla eruption has been ranked VEI 4+ and VEI 5, ejected 700 Million cubic meters of material, was about ten times the explosive power as Eyjafjallajokull, and nearly comparable with the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

The fact is, the magma chamber beneath Katla is large enough to produce a VEI 6 eruption. The chamber has a volume of about 10 Billion cubic meters and the caldera has an area of about 42 square miles (108 square kilometers). The total volume within the magma chamber, if completely filled and ejected, could touch the bottom range of a VEI 6.

When Katla erupted in 934 AD, it produced one of the world’s largest known lava flows which amounted to 18 Billion cubic meters while also ejecting 5 Billion cubic meters of tephra. This put it solidly within VEI 5 and would certainly have been VEI 6 if some of the enormous amount of lava had ejected as tephra instead.

History often repeats itself

Whether Katla goes off as a VEI 4+, 5, or 6, it will have a significant impact on today’s world. Regardless of the scale, air travel will be severely impacted, particularly in Europe, which will ripple down through the economies of the world. Localities in the path of the ash plume will likely endure regional crop and livestock failure from ash fallout, as well as the threat of poisoning from inhalation.

History favors a probable VEI 4+, maybe VEI 5 type of event, however a VEI 6 worst case scenario will bring significant devastation in that it will be much wider spread. It will surely have a global impact as temperatures could drop enough to cause wide spread crop failures while our weather is effected from such a large volume of ash ejected into the stratosphere. Having said that, even a VEI 5 could also cause a world wide temperature drop depending on which end of the VEI ‘5′ scale.

Katla historically erupts following the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull (which erupted 14-April and went on for 10 days). Katla’s volcanic eruptions have ranged in duration from 13 days to as long as 120 days, while the last three Katla eruptions have been between 20 and 28 days.

We will not know the answer to the question of 10x or 100x until it happens, but in the mean time, if I lived nearby, I would stock up with some extra food and water just in case the disruption is bad enough. We all know that it will happen, it could be tomorrow or months from now, but the clock is definitely ticking.

The ash plume from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which crippled international air travel in April, held a shocking secret: an unexpected electric charge.

Ash plumes directly over erupting volcanoes have been known to generate lightning, and electrically charged ash has been found in previous plumes up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) from their source volcanoes. (See pictures of lighting in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano's ash plume.)

But according to a new study, electric ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano was found a record 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) away from the eruption.

At that distance, it wasn't energy from the eruption itself that charged the ash, said study co-author Giles Harrison, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in the U.K. Based on the average size and shape of particles in the ash, "any initial charging that occurred would have decayed away many times over."

In fact, ash from deep in the volcanic plume was still charged 32 hours after being spewed from the Iceland peak, which suggests that the charge was self-renewing, the scientists say.

The discovery means that many volcanic ash plumes might be electrified, which could have implications for the air-travel industry.

(Related: "Iceland Volcano Ash Plume Prompts Health Worries.")

Electric Ash Deep in Volcanic Plume

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano started erupting in late March, and on April 14 the volcano began belching out a gigantic plume of ash.

The plume traveled to continental Europe, grounding flights around the world for days, due to fears of ash clogging plane engines. (Find out more about the risks volcanic ash poses to airplanes.)

As the plume drifted over Scotland, Harrison and colleagues rushed to the western port city of Stranraer (map), where the 1,970-foot-thick (600-meter-thick) layer of ash loomed about two and a half miles (four kilometers) above.

The team launched a custom weather balloon outfitted with instruments to gauge the size and characteristics of atmospheric ash particles.

Even in fair weather, a very small electric field is present in Earth's atmosphere. This field can charge airborne particles and the edges of clouds, Harrison said.

But the electric volcanic ash was found in the middle of the thick plume, not on its edges. That would seem to rule out atmospheric electricity and normal weather activity as sources of the charge.

"There has to be something related to the particles themselves, because the charge is in proportion to where the particles are and how many there are," Harrison said. "But we really can't say any more than that."

Prior research done with weather balloons had shown that desert dust storms can become electrified through a process of particle collision that is not yet completely understood. The same phenomenon may be at work with volcanic ash, the scientists suggest.

Electric Ash Found in Iceland Plume Miles From Volcano
Ash recharged itself as the plume moved over Europe, study says.

How Electric Ash Affects Flights

Electrified ash could theoretically pose a risk to air traffic, because charged particles might interfere with radio transmissions, the study authors say. Also, if charged ash penetrates an aircraft cabin, it could create an electrostatic hazard to passengers and internal systems.

But Harrison noted that aircraft are built to withstand lightning strikes, which carry comparatively massive charges, so the risks from electricity in ash seem small.

In fact, Harrison noted, the discovery of electric ash could be a boon to air travelers, because the charge can help scientists better predict a volcanic ash plume's movements.

Electric charges are fairly easy to observe with existing instruments, so a charged plume should be easier to track, even after the visible plume has largely dispersed.

Scientists also know how charges affect the way particles combine—which impacts their weight and thus their movements—and how easily particles are washed out of the sky by rainfall.

Measuring a plume's charges could therefore help scientists better estimate where the ash will go and how long it will stay aloft.

MORE PAGES On This Site...

Christmas - A PAGAN PAPAL "UNHOLY DAY"

Pagan Papal "Holy DAYS"

Distress Of nations - Economic panic

AR-M- GEDDON = Community of Sant'Egidio- Peace and Safety Alert !

Amazing Blasphemed Catholic Statements Regarding the Pope

Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs -That gather The Kings of The Earth

The Revelation of Thomas

Hidden Symbolism In The Christian Cross

Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them

External Links

California's Earthquake News

MAN OF SIN REVEALED

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:54:00 +0000

NEWS EVENTS IN PROPHECY

First Read
2 THESSALONIANS

2Th 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
2Th 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Pope Benedict XVI greets faithful at the end of a meeting in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to celebrate the end of the Church's year of the priest, Thursday, June 10, 2010. Thousands of priest from around the world gathered in St. Peter's square in a major show of support for Pope Benedict XVI amid the clerical abuse scandal.

Pope begs forgiveness, promises action on abuse
June 11, 2010 9:03 AM EDT
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI begged forgiveness Friday from clerical abuse victims for the sins of priests and promised to "do everything possible" to ensure prelates don't rape or molest children ever again.

Benedict's pledge was similar to comments he has made over time in the past. But they were uttered in the highly symbolic setting of a Mass concelebrated by 15,000 priests in St. Peter's Square marking the end of the Vatican's Year of the Priest. The yearlong celebration of the clergy has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse, cover-up and Vatican inaction to root out pedophiles.

In his homily, Benedict lamented that during what should have been a year of joy for the priesthood the "sins of priests came to light — particularly the abuse of the little ones."

"We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again," he said.

He said that in admitting men into the priesthood and in forming them as clergymen "we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life's dangers."

His comments were similar to those reported by the Vatican during his private meeting with abuse victims in Malta in April, during which the pontiff had tears in his eyes as he heard the stories of men who had been molested by priests as children.

And they echoed his comments last month en route to Portugal in which he acknowledged that the "sins from within the church" were responsible for the scandal, not some outside anti-Catholic lobby.

As such, Friday's comments were a public admission of the sins of priests, a request for forgiveness from their victims and God, and pledge to take action — all delivered before 15,000 priests from around the world who came to Rome for a show of support of the pontiff and the priesthood itself amid the scandal.

It is unclear if his comments, though, would satisfy demands from victims groups for a personal mea culpa followed up by a clear-cut plan of action to protect children.

Benedict's own legacy has been tarnished by the scandal, since he was archbishop of Munich in the 1980s when he approved therapy for a suspected pedophile who was allowed to resume pastoral duties while being treated. The priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, later was handed a suspended sentence for molesting a boy. In addition, Benedict's legacy at the Vatican office that dealt with sex abuse has come under scrutiny.

Benedict said the scandal had shown the need for a purification of the church, and a task which the church and its priests must carry on into the future.

"Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events," he said. "But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: We grew in gratitude for God's gift."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ex-priest in Vatican pedophile case had Truckee ties

April 13, 2010

A defrocked Catholic priest now at the center of a Vatican pedophilia scandal is a former Truckee resident who in 2002 was investigated for possible connections to the 1988 disappearance of Amber Swartz -- for whom Amber Alerts are named -- and to the 1991 abduction of South Lake Tahoe resident Jaycee Lee Dugard.
In March 2002, police with cadaver dogs, backhoes and ground-penetrating sonar twice searched the Truckee vacation property of Stephen Kiesle and found nothing to connect him to the two young girls.
Those two cases have been closed and aren't related to the former priest, but in 2004, Kiesle pleaded no contest to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Kiesle's name was in the news this week after the Associated Press published a 1985 letter bearing the signature of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI. The letter shows Ratzinger resisted defrocking Kiesle, who had a record of sexually molesting children, after his case was referred to the Vatican four years earlier.
A California diocese recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican office that shared responsibility for disciplining priests. In his letter, the cardinal noted the arguments for removing Kiesle were of "grave significance" but added that such actions required careful review and more time. He also urged Kiesle's bishop to provide him with "as much paternal care as possible"
The AP described the letter as "the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office."
Records show Kiesle continued to do volunteer work with children through the church until he was officially defrocked in 1987. He then married and became a computer consultant, records show.
Now retired, he lives in a gated community in Walnut Creek, Calif., and could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Property records show Kiesle was living part-time in a house on Sun Valley Road in Truckee from 1983 to 2002, when more child molestation allegations surfaced. In news reports, the house was described as a "Swiss-style chalet."
"We lived two doors away from him, and I remember when (police) dug up the yard," said James Hatch of Truckee. "I didn't know him. I don't think any (neighbors were) close to him."
Kiesle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay Area church rectory. When his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood, and the diocese submitted a request to Rome to defrock him.
When Kiesle lived in Truckee, neighbors were unaware of his criminal record. The 1978 files had been sealed, and even if they had been public, there were no universally available registries of sex offenders until the mid-1990s.
In 2002, Kiesle was arrested and charged with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s. All but two were thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a California law extending the statute of limitations in such cases.
Today, the California sex offender database shows Kiesle's Truckee-related conviction from 2004, but not the 1978 convictions while he was a priest.

April 12, 2010

Bishop Giacomo Babini blames Jews for attacks on Pope

(L'Osservatore Romano Vatican-Pool/Getty Images)

Pope Benedict XVI

Richard Owen in Rome

A retired Italian bishop has provoked fury by reportedly suggesting that “Zionists” are behind the current storm of accusations over clerical sex abuse shaking the Vatican and the Catholic Church.

Monsignor Giacomo Babini, the Bishop Emeritus of Grossetto, was quoted by the Italian Roman Catholic website Pontifex as saying he believed a “Zionist attack” was behind the criticism of the Pope, given that it was “powerful and refined” in nature.

Bishop Babini denied he had made any anti-Semitic remarks. He was backed by the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), which issued a declaration by Bishop Babini in which he said: “Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me.”

However, Bruno Volpe, who interviewed Monsignor Babini for Pontifex, confirmed that the bishop had made the statement, which was reported widely in the Italian press today. Pontifex threatened to release the audio tape of the interview as proof.

Monsignor Babini’s reported comments follow a series of statements from senior Vatican cardinals blaming a “concerted campaign” by “powerful lobbies” for accusations that Pope Benedict XVI was involved in covering up cases of clerical abuse both as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 and subsequently as head of doctrine at the Vatican.

None has explicitly blamed Jews or any other group. However Bishop Babini, 81, said Jews “do not want the Church, they are its natural enemies”. He added: “Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are deicides [God killers].”

He was quoted as saying that Hitler was “not just mad” but had exploited German anger over the excesses of German Jews who in the 1930s had throttled the German economy.

Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee said Monsignor Babini was using “slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to World War Two”.

Giovanni Maria Vian, the Editor of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said there was a media campaign against the Pope but suggestions that Jews were behind it were ridiculous.

Speaking to the foreign press corps in Rome, Mr Vian pointed out that L’Osservatore Romano had reprinted remarks made in the Jerusalem Post by Ed Koch, the Jewish former mayor of New York, in which he said that continuing attacks by the media on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI were “manifestations of anti-Catholicism”.

Mr Koch said that he disagreed with the Catholic Church on abortion, homosexuality, divorce and contraception. But the Church had a right to hold such beliefs, and “much of the attack on it today stems from opposition to those teachings”.

He added: “Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the Pope today clearly do it with delight and some with malice.

“I believe the Roman Catholic Church is a force for good in the world, not evil. Enough is enough.

“Yes, terrible acts were committed by members of the Catholic clergy. The Church has paid billions to victims in the US and will pay millions, perhaps billions, more to other such victims around the world. It is trying desperately to atone for its past by its admissions and changes in procedures for dealing with paedophile priests.”

There were Jewish protests at Easter when Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, compared attacks on the Pope to the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism” in his Good Friday reflections before Pope Benedict in the Vatican.

The Vatican later said the Pope had not been aware in advance of Father Cantalamessa’s remarks, which did not represent the Vatican’s views.

Today Mr Vian said Father Cantalamessa’s observations had been innocent in intention, though whether it had been prudent to make them in the current climate was another matter.

Pope Benedict, who visited the Rome synagogue in January, has sought to mend Catholic-Jewish relations since last year, when he offended Jewish groups by rehabilitating Bishop Richard Williamson, an excommunicated ultra-conservative prelate who denies that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

The Pope said he was unaware of Bishop Williamson’s views and demanded that he rescind them.

However, the pontiff has also angered Jewish leaders with his continuing support for the beatification of Pope Pius XII, the wartime Pope who is charged by critics with having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. Beatification is the step before sainthood.

On Friday Benedict watched a preview of a forthcoming programme to be shown by RAI, the state broadcaster, which praises Pius XII for his role in helping to save Jews behind the scenes in wartime Rome, and is said by aides to have expressed his approval.

April 10, 2010 10:04 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four years after a California priest and convicted child molester asked to be defrocked, his bishop pleaded with the future Pope Benedict XVI to remove the man from the priesthood. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger replied, urging caution.

"Consider the good of the Universal Church," Ratzinger wrote in a 1985 letter to Oakland Bishop John Cummins. "It is necessary for this Congregation to submit incidents of this sort to very careful consideration, which necessitates a longer period of time."

Two more years would pass before the Vatican acted on the Rev. Stephen Kiesle's request to leave.

A copy of the letter, typewritten in Latin and signed by Ratzinger, was obtained by The Associated Press. It constitutes the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office.

The letter is part of years of correspondence beginning in 1981 between the diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about Kiesle, who pleaded no contest to misdemeanors involving child molestation in 1978.

The Vatican confirmed Friday that the letter had Ratzinger's signature and said it was a typical form letter used in laicization cases. Attorney Jeffrey Lena said the matter proceeded "expeditiously, not by modern standards, but by those standards at the time," and that the bishop was to guard against further abuse.
A CALL FOR POPE BENEDICT TO STEP DOWN

An East Long-meadow priest called yesterday from his pulpit for Pope Benedict XVI to step down, demanding greater protection of children and greater accountability from the Catholic Church hierarchy.

The church’s top leader has not been truthful, said the Rev. James Scahill of St. Michael’s Parish, violating an important tenet of the faith. His strongly worded sermon echoed sentiments he shared with parishioners several weeks ago, but this time, he spent more time and spoke with greater conviction on the controversial subject.

“Any who deny the truth deny Christ, and we, as people, must reclaim our church,’’ Scahill said in a phone interview last night. “Those in authority must be willing to admit to the truth, admit their horrific crime of coverup, and beg for forgiveness, and until that happens, there will be no healing.’’

Benedict has been heavily criticized recently for the way he has dealt with some abuse cases, and Scahill said that because of all the information that has been brought to light, the pope should resign.

Scahill, who became pastor of the church in 2002, has long been outspoken on the need for accountability among church leaders.

Parishioners generally were supportive of Scahill’s sermon, said Parish Council president Thomas LaMondia.

“I thought he did a great job of conveying how he feels and how the church feels about the whole issue,’’ he said yesterday. “I thought he did a really nice job of explaining that it’s really about the protection of children. . . . The church really needs to look at what they need to do to hold people accountable.’’

Controversy within the church over priests’ and bishops’ roles in the abuse scandal has been going on for more than eight years since the scandal broke in Boston but recently it has escalated, with new allegations about the actions of the current pope when he was an archbishop.

“If we cannot get a pope that’s going to give us the truth, then our church is dead,’’ Scahill said.

Mark Dupont, a spokesman for the Diocese of Springfield, was quick to distance the diocesan leadership from the comments made by Scahill.

“It in no way represents the position of the bishop,’’ Dupont said. “We find his statements to be unfortunate.’’

Scahill, he said, has not properly recognized measures to ensure safety undertaken by the American Catholic leadership, which has “led the world in their efforts,’’ as well as steps the Diocese of Springfield took over the years to deal with the issue of sexual abuse.

Pope Benedict's birthplace vandalized

April 13, 10 Berlin, Germany

The house in the Bavarian town of Marktl am Inn where Pope Benedict XVI was born has been vandalized just three days before his 83rd birthday, local authorities reported on Tuesday.

A police spokesperson said the words daubed on the house were of “insulting content,” adding that they referred to the child abuse affair that has rocked the Church in Germany in recent months.

Police refused to reveal the exact words painted on the building in blue, which a passerby noticed on Tuesday morning. The words were quickly covered over.

Pope Benedict was born as Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927 in the small community in Upper Bavaria. Tuesday’s incident is the second time his place of birth has been vandalised. During a visit to Bavaria in September 2006 two balloons of blue paint were thrown at the house.

In July 2007 a bust of the pope outside the Traunstein parish church – where he conducted his first mass in 1951 – was covered in red paint.

Germany’s Catholic Church has been embroiled in a crisis over recent weeks as victims of widespread sexual and physical abuse continue to come forward. Most cases date back by several years, a fact that has politicians debating a possible extension to the statute of limitations on such crimes.

Similar accusations have also surfaced in the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, while Ireland has been rocked by revelations about cover-up efforts by the head of the Church there in the 1970s.

The Vatican has said it received 3,000 reports between 2001 and 2010 of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy committed over the past 50 years.

Meanwhile the pope himself has been drawn into the scandal. In late March the Vatican dismissed fresh allegations that he failed to bar the transfer of a known paedophile priest while he was the archbishop of Munich.

The case followed another accusation according to which Ratzinger failed to act over an American priest accused of molesting up to 200 deaf children between 1950 and 1974.

Vatican shows new transparency with online guide

By NICOLE WINFIELD (AP) – April 10, 10

VATICAN CITY — The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the office once known more chillingly as the Inquisition — has long epitomized the secrecy and mystery of the Vatican, with responsibility for banning books and meting out punishments as severe as excommunication and burning at the stake.

Now, as the office's handling of child-molesting priests comes increasingly under fire, the Vatican is starting to open up. On Monday, it will post on its Web site a concise guide for the layman on how the Congregation handles sex abuse allegations.

Also Friday, the Vatican said that Pope Benedict XVI would meet with more abuse victims and that transparency in dealing with abuse allegations is an "urgent requirement" for the church — a sharp turnabout in Rome's previously defensive response to the scandal.

The laymen's guide, a copy of which was obtained Friday by The Associated Press, doesn't contain any information that isn't available to the public through a trip to a specialized religious library or a Vatican bookstore.

But it puts various sources of complicated canonical procedures together in a concise, easy-to-read, one-page guide, without cumbersome canon law citations and Latin phrases.

The church's internal justice system for dealing with abuse allegations has come under attack because of claims by victims that their accusations were long ignored by bishops more concerned about protecting the church and by the Congregation, which was headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from 1981 until he was elected pope in 2005.

Jose Barba Martin of Mexico tried for years to have his accusations against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ heard by the Congregation. In the end, it took eight years for Rome to discipline the Rev. Marcial Maciel.

"They went through the motions of the law, but they didn't treat us with respect for the law," Barba told the AP from Mexico City.

In the end Barba's abuser was sentenced in 2006 to live a life of reserved prayer; Maciel died in 2008 before the Legionaries admitted that he had fathered at least one child and molested young seminarians.

According to Vatican norms, issued in 2001 and summarized in the new guide, a bishop must investigate every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric. If the accusation has a semblance of truth, the case is referred to the Congregation, which decides how to proceed.

The Congregation's disciplinary department, which weighs each case, is composed of 10 people: Monsignor Charles Scicluna, who is the promoter of justice, or chief prosecutor; the bureau chief; seven priests; and a lay lawyer, though other officials from other Vatican offices are brought in for specific cases.

They can decide to authorize the diocese to pursue either a judicial or an administrative trial, both of which can condemn a priest to a number of penalties, including defrocking, or what the church calls being reduced to the lay state. Victims can also seek damages. Or the Congregation can conduct a trial on its own, although that is rare.

If the evidence is overwhelming, the Congregation can refer the case directly to the pope, who can issue a decree dismissing the priest from the priesthood altogether.

Scicluna has said that since 2001, some 3,000 cases concerning accusations of abuse dating back 50 years have been referred to the Congregation. A full canonical trial has taken place in 20 percent of the cases; 60 percent of the time there has been no trial, primarily because the priest was old and was instead disciplined by other means, such as restricting where he could celebrate Mass and sending him to pray.

In 10 percent of the cases, the pope has dismissed the priest from the priesthood; in the remaining 10 percent of the cases, the priest himself has asked to be laicized.

The norms themselves are full of fascinating details particular to the church: Judges who mete out justice must be priests "of mature age," must hold doctorates in canon law, and must be "outstanding in good morals."

If the Congregation authorizes the diocese to conduct a canonical trial, three to five judges sit in judgment.

The trial is conducted according to the continental system, in which judges weigh the evidence but do the investigating too, as opposed to the American justice system, an adversarial process where facts are evaluated by a jury of peers.

The confidentiality provisions in canonical proceedings are offensive to some in the U.S. But their purpose is to ensure the integrity of the proceedings and not to hide information from civil authorities, said Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's U.S. attorney.

"The problem is that people from one legal culture misinterpret how another legal culture operates," he said. "These misunderstandings unfortunately infect much of the debate raging over the meaning of canonical provisions."

The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer who has been the main expert witness for victims in hundreds of lawsuits against priests and diocese in the U.S. and elsewhere, said canonical trials can be an effective way to mete out justice — if they are held.

The problem is that they have rarely been held, said Doyle, who in the course of testifying in lawsuits has reviewed documentation from 190 of the 195 Catholic dioceses in the United States and reviewed more than 1,500 priest personnel files.

"Almost all the cases — where bishops received allegations that a priest sexually abused, raped or molested a child — the bishops' procedure was simply to confront the priest, transfer him to another assignment, and in a few cases they send them to counseling centers," Doyle said.

Doyle said the secrecy surrounding the proceedings is excessive in requiring the victims to take an oath of secrecy once the trial begins.

"The justification for secrecy is usually given to protect the reputations of everyone involved — which is legitimate — and the need to conduct the trial as unencumbered by outside influences," Doyle said. "But the common law system is evidence you can have some transparency."

The Congregation traces its origins to the Congregation for the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, the commission created in 1542 that functioned as a tribunal to root out heresy, punish crimes against the faith and name Inquisitors for the church.

One of its more famous victims was Giordano Bruno, burned in Rome in 1600 after being tried for heresy.

The Congregation today is housed in a grand palazzo on St. Peter's Square, where two Swiss Guards stand at attention. The Vatican declined to let the AP inside for this article.

The Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer at Rome's Pontifical Holy Cross University, has participated in cases before the Congregation's tribunal and been awed by both the history of the institution and tragedy of the crimes that are decided there.

"The first thing anyone who deals with these cases feels is respect — respect for the victim and respect for the priest," he told the AP.

Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report from Mexico City.

The Pope is as guilty by association and has contributed to the actions of the priest that has committed these honorable, sinful crimes.
It could just be a matter of time until the Pope is found out, that he personally is a child molester also.
Pope Benedict XVI is the "MAN OF SIN" and the " falling away" is the defection of the Roman Catholic parishioners.

Papal arrest?

Is the Holy See above international law?

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There is only one king that fits this description and give us a reference to a time period - Henry VIII of England - The late 14th early 15th century. The time of the "English Reformation"

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Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Video: Who is St. Valentine? Why do we celebrate on February 14? Watch the HISTORY OF VALENTINE'S DAY.

Video: From the first mail-posted Valentine on record in 1806 to some of the precursors to today's Valentines, Watch VALENTINE'S CARDS on history.

Video: He's a 3,000 year-old baby with wings, he shoots love-tipped arrows into unsuspecting people, and his name is Cupid: The God of Love.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

Valentine's Day Features

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap".

Who Was St. Patrick?

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.

Taken Prisoner By Irish Raiders

It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. (There is some dispute over where this captivity took place. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala.) During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)

Guided By Visions

After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice-which he believed to be God's-spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.

To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than fifteen years. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission-to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. (Interestingly, this mission contradicts the widely held notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland.)

Bonfires and Crosses

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. (Although there were a small number of Christians on the island when Patrick arrived, most Irish practiced a nature-based pagan religion. The Irish culture centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick's life became exaggerated over the centuries-spinning exciting tales to remember history has always been a part of the Irish way of life.)

EASTER

The annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the principal feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on a Sunday on varying dates between March 22 and April 25 and is therefore called a movable feast. The dates of several other ecclesiastical festivals, extending over a period between Septuagesima Sunday (the ninth Sunday before Easter) and the first Sunday of Advent, are fixed in relation to the date of Easter.

Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday; Holy Week, commencing on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and terminating with Holy Saturday; and the Octave of Easter, extending from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday. During the Octave of Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white garments, white being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying light, purity, and joy.

Pre-Christian Tradition.

Easter, a Christian festival, embodies many pre-Christian traditions. The origin of its name is unknown. Scholars, however, accepting the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, believe it probably comes from Ēastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated a month corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox; traditions associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.

Such festivals, and the stories and legends that explain their origin, were common in ancient religions. A Greek legend tells of the return of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth, from the underworld to the light of day; her return symbolized to the ancient Greeks the resurrection of life in the spring after the desolation of winter. Many ancient peoples shared similar legends. The Phrygians believed that their omnipotent deity went to sleep at the time of the winter solstice, and they performed ceremonies with music and dancing at the spring equinox to awaken him. The Christian festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, a commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets.

The Dating of Easter.

According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection. In time, a serious difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the 14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year); by their reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the week.

Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method, Easter occurred on the same day of the week, but from year to year it fell on different dates.

An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the date of Easter was that the Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of Greco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday.

Rulings of the Council of Nicaea on the Date of Easter.

Constantine I, Roman emperor, convoked the Council of Nicaea in 325. The council unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox; and that if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following. Coincidence of the feasts of Easter and Passover was thus avoided.

The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the principal astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem involved was the discrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the Julian calendar then in use.

Later Dating Methods.

Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted a system of calculation proposed by the astronomer Victorinus (fl. 5th cent.), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius (r. 461–68) to reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method are still in use. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the 7th century.

Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year; since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West. Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865 and 1963.

Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In 1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no canonical objection to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a movable feast.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:47:00 +0000

What do a decorated tree, Santa, St. Nick, the birthday of Jesus Christ and the 25th of December have to do with each other?
And why is the 25th of December a holy day (holiday)?
The pagan Babylonian sun worshipers didn't just worship the sun, but also 35 other pagan gods ~ one of which was the tree of life, and today we know this as the Christmas tree.
The Holy Bible gives us instructions on what NOT to do concerning this pagan practice in Jeremiah 10:
10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
It "speaks not" because it is indoors and the wind is not whistling through it.
The Babylonian practice was to offer gifts unto their tree god by placing gifts of sacrifice under the tree.
There is a lighted Christmas tree at the Vatican in St. Peter's Square every midnight mass, or should I say Christ-Mass.
Catholic belief is that Jesus was born at midnight on the 25th of December but there is no basis for this belief in Christianity.
There simply is no history or Biblical scriptures to back this claim.
As for Santa and "St. Nick," this is a Catholic creation as well as the birth of Christ being the 25th of December. The 21st thru the 25th of December is the marked pagan worship days of Saturn, the winter solstice, praying to the sun god to return. Since the evergreen tree remained green throughout winter, it had power and therefore must have been a god, hence, the tree of life. The Roman Catholic church devised the deception of Christ being born on that day to emulate the pagan festival so the Pope blessed the 25th of December as a holy day (holiday). God only blessed and sanctified one day in the Bible, and this was the Sabbath Day (seventh day of the week.)
So why did the Pope allow such paganism as the tree to exist in the Roman Catholic church, when God Almighty instructed against it as demonstrated in Jeremiah 10?
This, my friend, is part of a bigger deception. Christmas (or "Christ-Mass) is using the name of Jesus in vain, or falsely, by saying it is His birthday so you will honor a pagan winter festival.
Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain (falsely); for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (falsely).
Jesus Christ stated in Revelation 1:8,
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending," saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
People lie to their children about Santa, they bring a tree that belongs outside into their homes, and are told by the media to buy everything in the store for someone because its the day Jesus was born.
The suicide rate is higher during this time of year, as well as robberies and numerous other crimes. Alcohol consumption, depression and anxiety abound. Families fight about what gifts they were expecting but didn't get. Divorces and spousal problems occur over money and the lack thereof, while some spend more for Christmas than they can afford, sinking them more and more in debt. This is the joy and peace that is all supposed to be in the name of Christ? Let's all wake up and smell the coffee.
Have you ever noticed that as soon as a "holiday" is over, all the stores start stocking up the shelves with the next holiday's junk?
Revelation 18:3 ... and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Friends, this is Satan at his best. These things are not of Christ.
1 James 2:15 Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.
As a matter of fact, all holidays, or should I say "Holy days," are a deception of the Roman Catholic Church. For example, St. Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, Halloween (the holy eve of all saints day.) Most do not know that Easter was a Babylonian fertility festival. Did you ever wonder what bunnies and eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Most Easter egg hunts take place on church grounds, Catholic or not. Candy is passed out to kids on Halloween at most churches, who claim to be anything but Catholic.
What will happen to the deceivers of the world, who boldly think of themselves as more powerful than almighty God and create their own holy days?
Let's look in the book of Revelation:
Revelation 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
So the next time that the 25th of December comes around, take a stand for Jesus Christ and separate yourselves from it. Stop following "man" instead of following Jesus. Jesus is the Master Teacher, all you have to do is listen to His Word.

1John 2:15 - Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

James 2:5 - Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

1John 3:1 - Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

John 15:19 - If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

________________________________________________________________

'Tis the Season of Deception

______________________________________________________________

“Santa” and “The Tammuz Tree”

Every year as the world honors the holidays (holy days), Christians continue to follow the ancient Babylonian ritual of placing an evergreen tree in their home and decorating it. Clearly, many believers are aware the Christmas tree is associated with Pagan religious idolatry, but they continue to rationalize their involvement because they claim that God has now "sanctified" the holiday and somehow redeemed it. This is, of course, apostasy of the worst kind for the practice of convincing oneself of the acceptability of anything they desire to do when the Bible clearly instructs them not to, places them in deadly spiritual peril.

The Lord says "my spirit will not always strive with a man," so we should be earnest in our efforts to submit everything to God lest we eventually cross some undesirable spiritual threshold. The Old Testament book of Jeremiah explicitly tells us "Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax; They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (Jeremiah 10:2-4)

In ancient Babylon, the goddess figure Semiramus was the mother of the Sumerian deity Tammuz. Other surrounding cultures have differing names for Tammuz. He is Attis to the Phoenicians, and Adonis to the Greeks, etc. In each legend, he dies young and his birth and death are honored on his birthday which coincided with the Winter Solstice. This was celebrated on December 25th. Part of the religious ritual involved cutting down a young green evergreen tree, which kills the tree, as a way of commemorating the premature death of Tammuz.

This tree is then decorated in the fashion Jeremiah described. A corollary to the "Tammuz tree," was the rite in which the women cried for the dead god. Shortly after Jeremiah's time, we find the idolatry has penetrated the Jewish temple where we see sun worship and "women weeping for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 16:14) The sun worship is closely related to the end of the Winter Solstice when the sun begins to stay in the sky longer.

The boughs of holly and related accouterments are descended from Celtic and Druidic rituals associated with the Wiccans or witchcraft.

Even the "yule" log that's placed on the fire is a Babylonian word. Obviously, the concept of a jolly immortal fellow dressed in red leaving gifts under the tree has a serious occultist flavor, but naming him a saint seems to make him acceptable with worldly Christians.

( Below )Babylonian, Wiccan Wheel of the year

WICCANS, Yule E-CARD

Disgusting!

Christmas is but one of the pagan holy days that have infiltrated the Christian calendar and replaced the only holy day that God ordained, the seventh day.

Easter, which is derived from the name Ishtar, is actually closely related to the Tammuz tree. Indeed, the common Christian practice of a sunrise service originates with an early morning worship service in which the penitents face East at the dawn. Precisely what was seen during Ezekiel's time when the women wept for Ishtar's son, Tammuz.

"Christians" routinely defend the sunrise Easter service as honoring the discovery of the resurrection of JESUS that occurred 3 days after Passover. With many of them not realizing they are honoring the ancient pagan holy day of Easter that predated Christianity by many centuries. In fact, the New Testament clearly shows the Apostles honored Passover, while the evil king Herod honored the Easter celebration. (Acts 12:2)

The day of Resurrection

The Bible states that the first day of the crucifixion is the day before the High Jewish Sabbath of the Seventh day.

State churches and World Christians refuse to repent of this pagan practice even as they assign the label of cultist to the various groups that seek to tell them the truth. "Satan" Claus continues to cast his spell as churches across the country produce pageants & programs like The Singing Christmas Tree. These extravaganzas are commercially marketed through seemingly respectable Christian organizations. Some churches, such as the Wesleyan Church, produce a variation. In San Diego, the Skyline Wesleyan has a pageant called The Living Christmas Tree. Tickets are available by calling 619-462-TREE.

Even without a formal choir program, literally thousands of Christian churches actually place Christmas trees right in their sanctuary every year. In some areas, there are folks who have the Festival of Trees wherein every charitable group in the county gets involved as a community effort. At the Festival of Trees, they follow the Druidic ceremonies and even name each tree.

Christmas Trees reign in so-called American "Christian" culture. Sacramentalist & scriptural renegade Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship sponsors the Angel Tree program. Top Christian musician & Prison Fellowship spokesman Steven Curtis Chapman represents the practice to Christian youth through his music. Even the Salvation Army has an Angel Tree program. Indeed, virtually every form of Christian media seems to get immersed in the Tammuz tree every year.

There are thousands of examples of Christian T-Shirts, greeting cards, and even sheet music of Gospel songs incorporating the evergreen paganism. Even examples of Christian musician's newsletters are decorated with boughs of holly. There have been expensive print ads running in national Christian magazines that feature Christmas trees behind the printed pitch. There are seasonal catalogs from Christian book publishers with holiday titles that show manger like scenes in groves of Christmas trees.

In a Christmas drama catalog put out by Lillenas (the Nazarene church media arm,) 3 of the 5 book covers shown features Christmas trees. Sandi Patty's Word book (released by Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publisher) "Merry Christmas, With Love," features a boy dragging a tree into his house on the cover. "Let's Keep Christmas" published by NavPress & written by revered pastor Peter Marshall has the whole family dragging the abomination to their house.

Children's ministry figure Rob Evans has a Christmas tree on the cover of his video from Integrity Press. Praise Banners has a 40" banner of a Christmas tree that is marketed specifically to churches.

Top Christian music artist Brian Duncan is pictured in front of his tree on his new Christmas CD. Even the print ads for the farewell version of the Young Messiah tour featured the evergreen motif in the form of boughs of holly while a drama produced by the Lamb's Players has the same Babylonian artifacts. There are literally hundreds of other examples, but the question is, what’s wrong with this picture?

The refusal of Christians to recognize the importance of relinquishing such demonic associations is a powerful indicator the church has gone astray. Following a pagan practice is sin, but the more dangerous sin is the steadfast refusal to recognize that the Bible tells us to present our bodies as "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is (our) reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

This conflict illustrates the very real problem of how we interpret works versus grace. Most "Christians" continue to buy the lie that they can routinely choose their own path & the Lord will honor these ungodly choices under grace. These have been mesmerized into believing that if they even try to keep any day holy they are somehow being legalistic. They continue to reject the leading of the Holy Spirit & accordingly they have quietly become "the children of disobedience" (Colossians 3:6). The Bible tells us for this cause God will send them a strong delusion because they love not the truth. That delusion has now inundated the "church" with the mystery of iniquity.

But the Word of God is pure and always true. God is not mocked, thus we would do well do take to heart the already cited passage concerning the Tammuz Tree and what will happen to those that refuse to hear His warning: "Learn not the way of the heathen...in the time of their visitation they shall perish." (Jeremiah 10:2, 15)

The "Beast" that Brought Paganism to
the Christian World and Called it Good -

- is none other than:

"The Roman Catholic Church"
or
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Santa's Clothes - Satan's Claus

Revelation

3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

8.And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.

2 Thessalonians 2

3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

History

Pre-Christian origins of holiday

Christmas has its origins in several pagan holidays.

The Roman celebration known as Saturnalia included the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia). This holiday was observed over a series of days beginning on December 17 (the birthday of Saturn) and ending on December 25 (the birthday of Sol Invictus, the "unconquered sun").

The combined festivals resulted in an extended winter holiday season. Business was postponed and even slaves feasted.

There was drinking, gambling, and singing, and nudity was relatively common.

It was the "best of days," according to the poet Catullus.

During the time in which Christianity was spreading throughout the Roman Empire,

another similar religion known as Mithraism was also gaining widespread acceptance.

The followers of Mithraism worshipped Mithras, a god of Persian origin, who was identified with Sol Invictus.

The followers of Mithraism, consequently, adopted the birthday of Sol Invictus as the birthday of

Mithras. In 274 AD, due to the popularity of Mithraism, Emperor Aurelian designated December 25 as the festival of Sol Invictus.

After the death of Emperor Constantine, three of his sons inherited the Roman Empire. One of them, Constantius, decreed that all non-Christian temples in the empire be immediately closed. He warned that anyone who still offered sacrifices of worship to the old gods and goddesses in these temples were to be put to death.

Those who were non-Christians or followers of Mithras were eventually forced to convert under these laws. In spite of their conversion they adapted many elements of their old religions into Christianity. Among these was the celebration of the birth of Mithras on December 25 which was now observed as the birthday of Jesus.

Christian origins of holiday

Around 220 AD, the theologian Tertullian declared that Jesus died on March 25, 29, but was resurrected three days later. Although this is not a plausible date for the crucifixion, it does suggest that March 25, nine months before December

25th, had significance for the church even before it was used as a basis to calculate Christmas. Modern scholars favor a crucifixion date of April 3, 33, which was also the date of a partial lunar eclipse (These are Julian calendar dates. Subtract two days for a Gregorian date.).

By 240 AD, a list of significant events was being assigned to March 25, partly because it was believed to be the date of the vernal equinox.

These events include creation, The Fall of Adam and Eve, and, most relevantly, the Incarnation.

The view that the Incarnation occurred on the same date as crucifixion is consistent with a Jewish belief that prophets died at an "integral age," either an anniversary of their birth or of their conception.

The idea that December 25 is Jesus' birthday was popularized by Sextus Julius Africanus in Chronographiai (221 AD), an early reference book for Christians.

This identification did not at first inspire feasting or celebration. In 245 AD, the theologian Origen denounced the idea of celebrating the birthday of Jesus "as if he were a king pharaoh." Only sinners, not saints, celebrate their birthdays, Origen contended.

As Constantine ended the Christian persecution and began the persecution of non-Christians, Christians began to debate the nature of Christ. The Alexandrian school argued that he was the divine word made flesh (see John 1:14), while the

Antioch school held that he was born human and infused with the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism (see Mark 1:9-11). A feast celebrating Christ's birth

gave the church an opportunity to promote the intermediate view that Christ was divine from the time of his incarnation. Mary, a minor figure for early

Christians, gained prominence as the theotokos, or god-bearer.

There were Christmas celebrations in Rome as early as 336 AD. December 25 was added to the calendar as a feast day in 350 AD.

Medieval Christmas and related winter festivals

Christmas soon outgrew the Christological controversy that created it and came to dominate the medieval calendar.

The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin," now Advent.

Former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the "twelve days of Christmas"

(i.e. Christmas to Epiphany).

The fortieth day after Christmas was Candlemas.

The Egyptian Christmas celebration on January 6 was adopted as Epiphany, one of the most prominent holidays of the year during the Early Middle Ages. Christmas Day itself was a relatively minor holiday, although its prominence gradually increased after

Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800 AD.

Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, and its pagan celebrations had a major influence on Christmas.

Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul (Yule), originally the name of a twelve-day pre-Christian winter festival. Logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder, hence the "Yule log." In Germany, the equivalent holiday is called Mitwinternacht (mid-winter night). There are also twelve Rauhnächte (harsh or wild nights).

By the High Middle Ages, Christmas had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates "celebrated Christmas." King Richard II

of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which twenty-eight oxen and three hundred sheep were eaten. The "Yule boar" was a common feature of medieval

Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular, and was originally a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as

lewd, largely due to overtones reminiscent of the traditions of Saturnalia and Yule). "Misrule” drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling — was also an important

aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale.

The Reformation and the 1800s

Santa Claus hands out gifts to Union soldiers during the US Civil War in Thomas Nast's first Santa Claus cartoon, Harper's Weekly, 1863.During the Reformation,

Protestants condemned Christmas celebration as "trappings of popery" and

the "rags of the Beast". The Catholic Church responded by promoting the festival in

a more religiously oriented form.

When a Puritan parliament triumphed over the King, Charles I of England (1644), Christmas was officially banned (1647).

Pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities.

For several weeks, Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted Royalist slogans.

The Restoration (1660) ended the ban, but Christmas celebration was still disapproved of by the Anglican clergy.

By the 1820s, sectarian tension had eased and British writers began to worry that Christmas was dying out. They imagined Tudor Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration, and efforts were made to revive the holiday.

The book A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens played a major role in reinventing Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion (as opposed to communal celebration and hedonistic excess).

Father Christmas persuades the jury of his innocence in The Examination and Trial of Father Christmas (1686) by Josiah King The Puritans of New England

disapproved of Christmas and celebration was outlawed in Boston (1659-81).

Meanwhile, Virginia and New York celebrated freely. Christmas fell out of favor in the U.S. after the American Revolution, when it was considered an”English custom".

Interest was revived by several short stories by Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819) and by "Old Christmas" (1850) which

depict harmonious warm-hearted holiday traditions Irving claimed to have observed

in England. Although some argue that Irving invented the traditions he

describes, they were imitated by his American readers.

German immigrants and the homecomings of the Civil War helped promote the holiday.

The following is the:

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VERSION

Christmas is one of the most popular festivities throughout the world. It has become so much part of our culture that we cannot imagine our “calendar” without it... But things have not always been the way they are now so it may be interesting to see how they developed.

Early celebrations of Christ's birth
First of all, the commemoration of Christ’s birth became an independent feast only in the fourth century when it was separated from the Epiphany (the Magi’s visit to Jesus, ie, the pagan recognition of Christ’s divinity). In the early Christian Church, in fact, the Birth of Christ, the Adoration of the Magi and the Theophany (the manifestation of Christ’s divinity at his baptism) were all celebrated together on 6 January.
The Cronografo of 354, containing, among other things, lists of Roman feasts, of consoles, city prefects, and burial dates of Roman bishops and martyrs, is the first written evidence that Christ’s Nativity was celebrated on 25 December and that it marked the beginning of the liturgical year in Rome from 336. Some scholars even believe that this celebration was first established around 300, possibly not in Rome, but in North Africa.

Influential pagan practices
It is certain that in Rome the institution and celebration of Christmas was strongly influenced by pre-existing pagan practices. Since 45 BC, Romans used to celebrate the winter solstice (from Latin sol stitium, ie, 'sun standstill') on 25 December, when the duration of daylight first begins to increase. All ancient religions were indeed very sensitive to the movement of the sun and the other celestial bodies, which were fundamental for all human activities (not only agriculture, but also war and peace, social organisation, etc.) since they determined the change of seasons and, thus, the whole cycle of life. This is shown in Greco-Roman art as well as in some ancient Jewish synagogues (eg, the zodiac of Beth Alpha synagogue). Representations of the sun-god Helios/Apollo, personifications of Seasons and seasonal activities (such as harvesting putti) were indeed quite widespread.

Helios/Sol Invictus
One of the most common theories is that the Christmas festivity originated from the pagan feast of Sol Invictus (the undefeated sun). This god counted among his many adepts the first Christian emperor, Constantine, whose syncretistic tendencies (ie, melding the traditions of various faiths) are well known. It is not surprising that the ceremony of dedication of Constantinople in 330 was half–pagan, half-Christian: the chariot of the sun-god was set in the market square with the Cross of Christ over its head, while the Kyrie Eleison (Greek for 'Lord have mercy' and a liturgical rite) was sung.
As a matter of fact, Romans had developed a local Sun cult much earlier (at least from the first century BC, according to written evidence), which was centred on the Quirinal hill but did not have any preferential day for its festivities. This local cult was replaced in the second century AD by Oriental sun cults, namely Mithraism and Sol Invictus Elagabal. Neither of them, however, had a public celebration day on the winter solstice. Apparently, it was only in 274 with the Emperor Aurelian that 25 December became the day dedicated to Sol Invictus, whose cult, in the meanwhile, had been reformed and “Romanised” as an attempt at religious “monotheism” unifying the various cults diffused throughout the empire.

“The Sun of justice”
However, the reason why Christians adopted a day which had such strong “solar” connotations for the Birth of Christ is not merely linked to the cult of Sol Invictus. There are biblical references that justify these developments. Early Christians attributed to Christ the words of the Old Testament’s prophet Malachi: “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of justice will rise with healing in his rays (Ml 3:20)”. In a Christian text of an unknown author (Pseudo-Cyprian) called De pascha computus of 243, drawing a parallel between the creation of the world and the events of Christ’s life, we read: “O how admirable and divine is the providence of the Lord, that on that day on which the sun was made on the same day was Christ born, the 5th of the Kalends of April, the fourth day of the week, and so rightly did the prophet Malachi say to the people: ”the sun of righteousness shall rise upon you, with healing in his wings”. Despite the fact that the date for Christ’s nativity was not considered to be 25 December, but 28 March (25 March, ie, the Spring equinox, was thought to indicate the first day of creation; the sun was created on the fourth day according to Genesis), the comparison between Christ and the sun was clearly stated. Christ was greeted as the Sun of righteousness, the beginning of a new era, and his resurrection was associated with the dawn. He was the Saviour and the Lord of the universe, the Light and Life of the whole creation. This dimension of Christian worship is shown, for example, in the third century mosaic of the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica, on the ceiling of the tomb of the Julii, where Christ is represented with a radiated crown as the sun-god Helios/Sol Invictus riding in his chariot (see photo).

Thus, Christmas is the celebration of Christ the Sun of the world, in a moment of the year when the sun starts “growing” again, and the darkness slowly makes room for the light... Nature and religion, astrology and liturgy are perfectly combined. Once again, early Christians anchored their faith in the “instinctive” and creative intelligence of the many generations and cultures that had preceded them.

Raffaela Fazio*
December 2006

*Author note: Raffaela Fazio holds degrees in Modern European Languages, Religious Sciences, and a Master of Arts in the Cultural Heritage of the Church from the Pontifical Gregorian University. She works for the Holy See's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.

	The English Puritans condemned a number of customs associated with Christmas, such as the use of the Yule log, holly, mistletoe, etc. Oliver Cromwell preached against "the heathen traditions" of Christmas carols, decorated trees and any joyful expression that desecrated "that sacred event." _2,4
	In America, the Pilgrim's second governor, William Bradford, a Puritan, tried hard to stamp out all "pagan mockery" at Christmas time. ₄Christmas trees were not used by Puritans in colonial times. However, if they were, they would certainly have been forbidden.
	In 1851, Pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland OH appears to have been the person responsible for decorating the first Christmas tree in an American church. His parishioners condemned the idea as a Pagan practice; some even threatened the pastor with harm. But objections soon dissipated. ₂

Distress of Nations with Perplexity - Economic Panic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:21:00 +0000

Luke 21
25. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
27. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Talking Business Shouldn’t We Rescue Housing?
New York Times, United States - 1 hour ago
It is also a continuing economic problem. In the year since the crisis began, the world’s financial institutions have written down around $500 billion worth ...
Spotlight on the House: Beyond the Bailout -- Solving the Crisis ... Huffington Post
all 12 news articles »

The Associated Press

Profitably Avoiding the Fed’s New “Inflation Tax” and Coping with ...
Gold Seek - 8 hours ago
As Engdahl and Roberts (above) point out, the evidence is increasing that the recent financial panic and economic distress is and has been planned as a part ...
(FED) Economic Outlook Forex Hound
Bernanke Remarks on Stabilization Wall Street Journal
So...what caused the financial crisis? Northwest Herald
all 1,180 news articles »

economy: Tough times ahead —Manu Bhaskaran
Daily Times, Pakistan - Oct 16, 2008
With market failures more apparent, such as the freezing up of inter-bank lending, the world economy cries out for effective government intervention to halt ...

Los Angeles Times

Obama, McCain repeat themes from debate
Los Angeles Times, CA - 18 hours ago
He visited the Philadelphia suburb of Blue Bell on Tuesday to unveil $52.5 billion in proposed tax incentives aimed at easing economic distress. ...

First M&F Corp. Reports Third Quarter Earnings Rebound From Second ...
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
The increased provision expense continues an effort begun in the second quarter to recognize the continuing distress in real estate markets, ...

New York Times

The Jump Rope Girls, 20 Years On
New York Times, United States - 53 minutes ago
... and are negotiating the world for their children, a task likely to be even more daunting, given the waves of economic distress hitting the city and the ...

Japan's cash wanted - at home and abroad
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong - Oct 15, 2008
Then came the 1990s, a bad decade for Japan, often referred to as "the lost decade" - which was marked by years of economic distress and bumbling political ...

IMF Cuts World Economic Projections Amid Financial Distress
istockAnalyst.com (press release), OR - Oct 8, 2008
(Source: Jiji Press English News Service)Washington, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)--The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday cut its world economic projections ...

Two crises and a historical turning point
Ha'aretz, Israel - Oct 15, 2008
The Bush administration, not the North Korean government, is trying to stabilize the market, not by channeling money to banks in distress, but by imposing ...

Switzerland Bails Out UBS; Credit Suisse Raises Funds (Update2)
Bloomberg - Oct 16, 2008
``UBS is and was by no means in financial distress,'' she said in an e-mailed statement. ``What has been agreed with the SNB and the government is a ...UBS - CS

Leaders scramble to calm economy
Toronto Star, Canada - Oct 13, 2008
The summit, chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, hammered out a detailed distress plan which, he said, achieved "concrete measures" as well as unity ...

Two cents on the latest and greatest from Cupertino
ZDNet - Oct 16, 2008
There is a nightmare scenario brewing with a mix of credit distress and retail plunge. The next shoe is about to drop in the world of banking catastrophes. ...

Critic's Notebook: Comedy and McCain
Los Angeles Times, CA - 10 hours ago
You don't have to agree with McCain's ideas to sympathize with his distress: He does seem at times to be running in two directions at once, ...

Surviving The Coming Economic Depression
Canada Free Press, Canada - 15 hours ago
It’s the current economic reality. The World is careening through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. ...

Blow Ups and Bombers
CounterPunch, CA - 9 hours ago
The last month has seen the sweeping away of all the shopworn economic coordinates by which conventional politicians set their course. ...

Boston Globe

The Three Major Memes of the Great Bailout Bonanza What to expect ...
Reason Online, CA - Oct 15, 2008
And no politician worth his or her salt is going to turn away from constituents in distress, especially if they can claim their dry cleaning chain of ...
Video: Stocks Fluctuate After Lackluster Housing Data AssociatedPressall 3,902 news articles »

Dramatic pause as we play wait and see on bank rescue package
Irish Independent, Ireland - Oct 16, 2008
The global economy is not out of the woods yet, not by any stretch of the imagination. Measures of financial distress remain at elevated levels and there is ...
Global Financial Meltdown and the Demise of Neoliberalism Center for Research on Globalization
Wall Street braces for Monday markets factor The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
Anatomy of the American Financial Crisis: How It is Turning into a ... Center for Research on Globalization
all 2,598 news articles »

Voice of America

World Bank Agrees To Protect Poor And Vulnerable Countries In The ...
World Bank Group, DC - Oct 13, 2008
We must modernize multilateralism and markets for a changing world economy. Today's globalization and markets reflect huge changes in information and ...
Zoellick stresses need to recapitalize banks in poor nations+ TMCnet
Kyodo news summary+ TMCnet
all 881 news articles »

Estonia’s Let-It-Be Economy Is Rattled by Worldwide Distress
New York Times, United States - Oct 9, 2008
In that, the Estonian response to economic distress contrasts sharply with the United States, where Washington is borrowing freely and desperately trying to ...
On the free market frontier in Estonia International Herald Tribune
all 4 news articles »

Voice of America

EU looking for international reforms
International Herald Tribune, France - Oct 15, 2008
We need an early warning system for the world economy." Founded in the aftermath of World War II, the 185-nation IMF became the international economy's fire ...
EU leaders back Brown initiative for global finance The Herald
all 962 news articles »

So it's... banks for the memory
The Age, Australia - Oct 16, 2008
The Asian banking sector's period of heady growth came with the Asian economic miracle. As huge foreign capital inflows fuelled an investment boom across ...

German Economic Institutes Slash 2009 Growth Forecast (Update1)
Bloomberg - Oct 14, 2008
The financial crisis may precipitate slower economic growth than forecast as foreign demand for German products wanes. Germany, the world's biggest exporter ...

Following the Last Presidential Debate, Carol Lombard Clark Shares ...
MarketWatch - Oct 16, 2008
During such a time of economic distress, her work has become more relevant than ever by giving people a sense of comfort and consolation in a hope for ...

Facing economic reality
The Nation Newspaper, Barbados - Oct 12, 2008
High energy prices were at the core of earlier financial distress, but the overall international economic situation has been made worse by collapse of the ...

EU Leaders Talk Finance, Climate
Wall Street Journal - Oct 15, 2008
But credit markets remain in distress, with fearful banks willing to lend to each other only at abnormally high rates, and that makes credit harder to get ...

Why I will vote for Barack Obama
The New Nation, Bangladesh - Oct 15, 2008
Obama embodies a new America, more diverse, more tolerant and more open to the world. As America's financial systems buckles, the economy is tottering, ...

Global International Trading's Economic Analyst, Simon Wilson's ...
PRLog.Org (press release), Romania - Oct 15, 2008
PRLog (Press Release) – Oct 15, 2008 – The credit crisis that looms over the world has created hardship for individuals and nations alike. ...

Los Angeles Times

Pakistanis worry they're at risk in global crisis
Los Angeles Times, CA - Oct 14, 2008
The Karachi stock market, until this year one of the world's most robustly profitable exchanges, has instead become a barometer of growing economic distress ...
Clutching at straws The News International
all 101 news articles »

Helping The Economy: Giving More Money to Politicians (NOT!)
Hawaii Reporter, HI - Oct 16, 2008
Forget the small businesses that are struggling, families in distress and workers who have lost jobs; take better care of elected officials. ...

'US lust for power set off econ tsunami'
PRESS TV, Iran - 12 hours ago
"The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s," the International ...
Special Dispatch Series - No. 2086 Middle East Media Research Institute
all 3 news articles »

Indian economy not shining quite so brightly
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Oct 13, 2008
Everybody loves distress stories And then the media goes overboard since it knows that and it feeds on the raging fire." Perhaps the secret is to ignore the ...

Road to Catastrophe
Pacific Free Press, Canada - Oct 15, 2008
But today, with the stock market collapse, the acute and widespread economic distress among all but the most wealthy Americans, and the consequent political ...

New Statesman

A year with Obama
New Statesman, UK - Oct 16, 2008
Just like that, he was suddenly in command, finally riding the current of economic distress, and positioned to close the deal with the far superior ground ...

RushLimbaugh.com (subscription)

Stack of Stuff Quick Hits Page
RushLimbaugh.com (subscription), CA - Oct 16, 2008
In Weimar Germany, where economic distress was deeper and longer lasting, voters rejected all of the mainstream parties, the Nazis seized power, ...

Reuters

The IMF and Tuberculosis
Foreign Policy In Focus - Oct 10, 2008
From the outset, the Fund's specific roles were to promote balanced growth of international trade, provide funding to countries in economic distress, ...
Statement By US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. At The ... Exchange News Direct
all 824 news articles »

Richard Kramer - Arete Research
Seeking Alpha, NY - Oct 16, 2008
In this time of economic uncertainty I like our relative position. Nokia is strong, we have scale. We have one of the best brands in the world. ...AMS:NOKA - NOK

Libor rate shows system distress
International Herald Tribune, France - Oct 10, 2008
AP LONDON: Lending between banks remained abnormally expensive on Friday despite emergency help from central banks, keeping the world financial system on ...

Delhi will be transformed, promises Sheila Dikshit (Interview)
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 19 hours ago
New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) The city is undergoing a transition and in two years Delhi will become a world class capital, promises Chief Minister Sheila ...

In bleak forecast, IMF sees major downturn
guardian.co.uk, UK - Oct 8, 2008
In its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF slashed its 2009 forecast for world growth to 3 percent, which would be the slowest pace in seven years, ...

America Will Remain the Superpower
Neftegaz.RU, Russia - Oct 15, 2008
On the other hand, global economic distress doesn't invariably work at cross-purposes with American interests. Hugo Chávez's nosedive toward bankruptcy ...

The downfall of the Scottish banks
Scotsman, United Kingdom - Oct 13, 2008
It arrived at a time of economic distress. Famines, called the "seven ill years" in Jacobite propaganda, had begun to afflict all of northern Europe as a ...

Wall Street Diary, October 2008
Blogger News Network - Oct 16, 2008
Just to protect American economy, the rest of the world is paying its price. Good that Europe and others are now talking about a new system. ...

Time to kick the habit of always wanting more
Irish Times, Ireland - Oct 8, 2008
And in a world of economic turmoil and overshadowed by a rapidly unfolding sustainability crisis that threatens our very ability to survive the 21st century ...

CQ Transcript: McCain Campaign Advisers’ Teleconference on ...
CQPolitics.com, DC - Oct 14, 2008
Homeowners who are in distress will find themselves able to meet their other needs. There’s probably no better short run stimulus than relieving the ...

Pakistan says can meet debts despite distress
Reuters India, India - Oct 13, 2008
Tarin said he came away from meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and bilateral talks over the past weekend confident his country ...

Pains of a slowing economy
Times of India, India - Oct 4, 2008
India’s growing integration with the world economy enabled it to share in the global economic boom of those years. Foreign institutional investors flooded ...

Hotline After Dark -- On A Good Note, "Game-Changer" Wasn't Used ...
National Journal, DC - Oct 16, 2008
So he has supported the Republican policies, which have contributed to the economic distress that our country is going through. ...

RP economy may slow down but not crash - NEDA
Philippine Star, Philippines - Oct 13, 2008
The IMF last week said it was ready to give financial aid to countries in distress. Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said while the Philippines would certainly ...

Stock Slump Imperils Putin’s Effort to Pump Up Russian Wealth, and ...
New York Times, United States - Oct 12, 2008
... shown on Russian television receiving a tiger cub for his 56th birthday. He also seemed to take satisfaction in the economic distress in the United States.

The Moscow Times

Largest Bubble Burst in History
The Moscow Times, Russia - Oct 15, 2008
Emerging markets were initially tied to this distress only when foreign investors began pulling out their money. Then panic spread to credit markets, ...

New role for EPF funds?
New Straits Times, Malaysia - Oct 15, 2008
Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that under the current economic meltdown, no bank in the world is exempt from being hit. ...

How Central Banks Destabilized the World's Economies
The Market Oracle, UK - Oct 13, 2008
Two economic fallacies govern the actions of central banks. The first one is that of the stable price level. According to this fallacy so long as prices ...

Sky falls on stockbrokers as bear reigns supreme
Standard, Kenya - Oct 13, 2008
Read More The world's economic powers came under pressure to act boldly to halt financial distress as panic selling clenched Asian markets late last week ...

IMF to make emergency loans available to developing world
Times Online, UK - Oct 9, 2008
An emergency funding scheme for countries plunged into economic and financial distress by the escalating global credit crisis has been activated by the ...

Rio's Skinner has no choice but talk to BHP's Argus
NEWS.com.au, Australia - Oct 16, 2008
Granted, Rio's latest production report was solid, so there is no tangible sign of a company in distress. But as January 15, the due date for the EC ...

The perils of knee-jerk over-regulation
National Post, Canada - Sep 26, 2008
In the wake of economic distress, politicians will push for new financial regulations and fiscal policies that could undermine long-term growth. in wake of ...

Sydney Morning Herald

America's century: is the sun setting on an epoch?
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Oct 3, 2008
Immediately after World War II the US accounted for fully half the world economy; today it's about a quarter. But that still makes it three times the size ...

Stocks rise sharply after vows of new bank capital
International Herald Tribune, France - Oct 13, 2008
"It's going to take actions more than words at this time, given the extreme distress that the money markets are in and the extreme distress that the equity ...

TOPWRAP 10-Stocks plummet, G7 to meet on world financial crisis
guardian.co.uk, UK - Oct 9, 2008
... to five-year lows on Thursday on the eve of a G7 meeting of economic powers to try to halt a global spiral of financial distress and slowing growth. ...

Daily Mail

It's Freefall Friday: Dow Jones plunges as FTSE suffers worst week ...
Daily Mail, UK - Oct 10, 2008
The world's economic powers are under huge pressure to act boldly together in a bid to try and stop the crisis from escalating further. ...

ASIA MARKETS: Tokyo Mixed As Nikkei Rebounds To End Up 1.1%
CNNMoney.com - Oct 15, 2008
The announcement follows a run on the bank last month in the wake of rumors that BEA was in financial distress. BEA had denied the speculation. ...BHP - BBL - SHA:601919

BusinessWeek

Central Bankers Man the Battle Stations
BusinessWeek - Oct 13, 2008
For example, Germany set aside €500 billion in bank guarantee funds for the recapitalization of banks in distress and potential losses from loans. ...

GM and Ford threaten merger
Independent, UK - Oct 12, 2008
In the past year, Toyota has overtaken GM as the world's best-selling car company. The distress has been compounded by soaring petrol prices causing a slump ...GM

Transcript of presidential debate
CNN - Oct 14, 2008
And not to mention that we are still spending $10 billion a month, when they have a $79 billion surplus, at a time when we are in great distress here at ...

Times Online

Depression of 2008
Times Online, UK - Oct 4, 2008
Britain may have been the workshop of the world but there was no world economy to sell to. Unemployment among shipyard workers reached 60% and among miners ...

China Daily

Why do they fret about China's rise?
China Daily, China - Oct 9, 2008
... by Al Qaeda terrorists, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, poverty and fratricidal war in the developing world and the deep economic distress at home"? ...

Pogrom Acre-style
Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt - Oct 16, 2008
... who pointed out that the Arab community was suffering from social and economic distress due to long-standing discrimination by the Israeli state. ...

Commentary by Kevin Hassett
Bloomberg - Oct 13, 2008
The problem is, if you keep telling people that our system is fundamentally broken, they will lose faith in it and run for the exits when real distress ...

Night Publishing – as the World Faces Economic Collapse, is This ...
PR-CANADA.net (press release), Montenegro - Oct 8, 2008
Two thousand years ago, the Mayan calendar predicted that the world as it has been known would cease to exist in 2012. As the current catastrophic economic ...

Drop in US retail sales brings distress to Canada’s doorstep
Journal of Commerce, Canada - Oct 13, 2008
As US economic problems accumulate, the prospect of Canadians maintaining sales south of the border recedes into a swirling fog of uncertainty. ...

Sports not immune to global economic downturn
Globe and Mail, Canada - Oct 9, 2008
Coupled with all of the debt floating around - several NHL franchises had already been forced to borrow from distress lenders even before the market crashed ...

TopNews

IMF Report: US Faces ‘Considerable’ Recession Risk
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - Oct 2, 2008
The IMF has been predicting that both the US and world economies will avoid recession, and it will be updating its global economic forecasts in the main ...
Deep recession likely in US, less so in eurozone: IMF AFP
all 108 news articles »

Rabble.ca

Election 2008: Saved by Quebec
Rabble.ca, Canada - Oct 14, 2008
If Harper does not want to do this, he will have to face a hostile House of Commons, then an electorate hurt by economic distress. Of course there is always ...

Global Stocks Climb, Euro Rises on Bailout Plan; Banks Advance
Bloomberg - Oct 13, 2008
Oil rose from a 13-month low on speculation the bailout may avert a collapse of the financial system that threatens economic growth. ...

Home > News > World Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings...
World Bank Group, DC - Oct 10, 2008
More Annual meetings are also a time for the update of the Country briefs on World Bank projects and countries development challenges (economy, education, ...

Focus on small, medium enterprises to spur growth even during ...
Business Mirror, Philippines - Oct 13, 2008
But, Legarda lamented that with still no sign of relief seen in the world financial distress, the government must also effect belt-tightening measures by ...

Wall Street Journal

A Short Banking History of the United States
Wall Street Journal - Oct 10, 2008
How could the richest and most productive economy the world has ever known have a financial system so prone to periodic and catastrophic break down? ...

ADOPT VARIED RESPONSES TO AVERT GLOBAL RECESSION, ADVISES DEPUTY ...
7thSpace Interactive (press release), NY - Oct 7, 2008
LIU ZHENMIN ( China) said the world was confronted with a “development crisis” whereby the traditional world economic engine had fallen into its own trap. ...

The Note: McCain Ayers it Out -- But Will He Connect?
ABC News - Oct 10, 2008
New from the McCain campaign Friday: An ad that casually drops the L-word and touches on both Ayers to the economic distress, with Democrats portrayed as ...

Bruce Anderson: Yes, the Tories should blame Brown
Independent, UK - Oct 12, 2008
The markets' distress has created a large amount of enticing carrion. This will not help to endear the capitalist system to an indignant populace, ...

Global crisis tempers Canada's swagger
Financial Post, Canada - Oct 11, 2008
Or cut spending to balance the budget and risk pushing the economy into deeper distress. The path chosen by the new government will set the tone not only ...

Dual Citizenship for NRN a Long Term Prospect of National Investments
American Chronicle, CA - Oct 13, 2008
How far and how long it will keep affecting the world economy is uncertain at this point. But it is for sure that the developing nations that need the most ...

Slowing Export Machine Is Starting to Sputter
Wall Street Journal - Oct 7, 2008
US export growth was already slowing before financial markets went into a tailspin, as a result of more-modest economic growth in many regions of the world ...

Economic Honor Roll
Huffington Post, NY - Oct 12, 2008
A 1987 style stock market crash could occur leading to further panic and severe financial and economic distress. severe crisis in the last quarter of a ...

New York Times

Upgrading the Stress Levels
New York Times, United States - Oct 14, 2008
Mark Lennihan/AP Security checks, delayed flights and a souring economic climate contribute to heightened stress for frequent fliers. ...

World on edge as US talks on Wall St bailout stall
The Australian, Australia - Sep 26, 2008
"This has substantial implications for the Australian economy, even though we're not in the direct firing line," he said. Mr Redican said a severe recession ...

TOPWRAP 14-Central banks cut rates, but markets stay fearful
guardian.co.uk, UK - Oct 8, 2008
ID:nN08161853 The International Monetary Fund issued its bleakest forecast in years, saying the world economy was set for a major downturn with the United ...

* Bunds push higher as stocks plummet
Reuters - Oct 10, 2008
Meanwhile, the world's economic powers came under pressure to act boldly to halt the distress as panic selling and anxiety spread. ...

The Quickening ~ Economic Crisis
OpEdNews, PA - Oct 8, 2008
Hence several families have profited from most wars over the last two hundred years, and from the distress caused by economic crisis like the Great ...

In all the woe and strife, here's something worth smiling about
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - Oct 13, 2008
EAST Timor, one of the world's poorest nations, has outsmarted the economic giants in the global financial meltdown. As investment banks collapsed and share ...

Manuel confident about SA’s banks
Business Day, South Africa - Oct 8, 2008
In its world economic outlook yesterday, the IMF warned that the global economy was set for a major downturn this year, with the US and Europe either in, ...

Canada.com

Freefalling stocks pile pressure on G7
Canada.com, Canada - Oct 11, 2008
LONDON - The world's economic powers faced huge pressure on Friday to devise drastic remedies to revive the banking system and end panic selling in ...

Daily Mail

FTSE plunges 440pts in just 10 minutes as markets around the world ...
Daily Mail, UK - Oct 10, 2008
The world's economic powers are under huge pressure to act boldly together in a bid to try and stop the crisis from escalating further. ...

Seoul shares dip on economy worry after bailout OK
Forbes, NY - Oct 1, 2008
POSCO, the world's No.4 steelmaker dropped 3.78 percent, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's No.1 shipbuilder fell 3.45 percent, on worries about ...
Seoul shares drop after bailout; banks fall Forbes
Seoul shares drop after bailout; banks fall Forbes
all 12 news articles »

Cabinet Communique
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (press release), Israel - Oct 13, 2008
If we continue to behave responsibly, the Israeli economy will be able to overcome the possible effects of the crisis occurring in the world economy." 2. ...TSE:ONE

Boondoggles held in reserve as leaders plan roads to recovery
Financial Times, UK - Oct 15, 2008
But nobody denies that the scheme lifted millions out of severe distress and made a real contribution to strengthening the country's economic backbone. ...

No way to start, or end, another week on the equity, commodity ...
Purchasing.com, MA - Oct 10, 2008
Ye gads, it’s all about global financial volatility; some would say “mayhem,” as concerns over world economic growth mount--thereby further depressing ...

Stephen Bennett considers the signs of the times
Cross Rhythms, UK - Oct 14, 2008
What we see happening in the global economy is one of the signs of the end of the world before Christ's return as written and prophesied in the Bible. ...

Author says Florida history full of fevers, bubbles, booms
MiamiHerald.com, FL - Oct 13, 2008
Economic excess and then distress have long been part of the state's history, says an emeritus professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University. ...

AME Info

What does the global financial crisis mean for Dubai real estate?
AME Info, United Arab Emirates - Oct 16, 2008
Given that their financial distress may be very immediate this is where a shakeout is most likely. However, the market for completed property in many ...

Ailing economy has impact on well-being

Physical and mental health can both suffer

Sunday, October 12 | 8:53 a.m.

By LAURA MCVICKER
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

On her end of the Clark County Crisis Line, Marlene Burrows hears the same story again and again: A spouse lost a job and the family can’t pay the rent. More callers are feeling stressed, anxious and depressed.

When she makes mental health referrals, she hears more of the same scenario from that end, too: Programs funded by state money or community donations are feeling the economic pinch and don’t have as many resources to help.

“It’s become more difficult for people to find jobs and there are fewer resources in the community in terms of people getting what they need,” said Burrows, the crisis service’s program manager. “They’re falling through a large crack.”

The sour economy is causing more stressors than people know how to handle, mental health experts say, and it’s bringing in a wider clientele than clinics and crisis centers can cover.

Some Clark County mental health clinics have some of the longest waiting lists they’ve seen in years, and are scrambling for more funding to keep up with the caseloads. But they are finding that there is no more money.

Not all people seeking help have anxiety or depressive disorders. Lots of people are going through rocky times and just need someone to talk to, local experts say.

The crisis line has felt the pinch over the last two years. The call volume has doubled from 700 to at least 1,400 a month since 2006, which Burrows mainly attributes to the ailing economy.

What once used to be a crisis call about one issue has turned into a call about a host of worries centered around finances, she said. Some callers have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder and have lost health care coverage after losing their job.

Not knowing where else to go, they call the crisis line.

“We’re getting calls from people who … just got laid off or can’t pay rent. (There’s) lots of calls about how to get medication,” Burrows said.

These frustrations aren’t isolated. Nearly half of the populace say they are worried about job stability and 66 percent are concerned about housing costs, according to a report released last week by the American Psychiatric Association.

Aggravating illness

These worries are manifested in different ways: Some people are becoming more prone to anxiety and depression because of the stress.

Others, who suffer from pre-existing anxiety and depression disorders, find them exacerbated by job stress.

Patients are reporting more insomnia problems than ever before, local experts say.

Worries over finances are disrupting sleep for many patients, which is increasing the number of sleep medications prescribed at these clinics.

Lauretta Young, chief of psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente Northwest, said the number of mental health intake calls at Kaiser clinics in Clark and Multnomah counties is 25 to 35 percent over this time last year.

“That does not seem to be a typical, seasonal variation,” Young said.

At the Wellness Project, a program that offers free mental health counseling to low-income clients, patients now have to wait nine months to see a counselor. This is a 50 percent increase over the wait in April 2007, said Antonia Mueller, clinical program manager for Community Services Northwest, an umbrella organization of the project.

The issue at hand: More people are seeking help for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts because they’ve lost the one thing that impacts their personal and financial stability the most: employment.

“People are trying to cope with not having money or unemployment. It’s basically shifting their identity,” Mueller said. “By losing your housing or your job, you have to shift how you live.”

“We’ve doubled our volunteers, but it’s not keeping up,” she added.

Kit Corey, a counselor at the Vancouver counseling and training firm Solutions Employee Assistance, said she’s never in her 20-year career heard as much talk about financial stress as she does now.

She refers some clients to outside low-income based clinics. The Wellness Project isn’t the only clinic with lengthy waiting lists, said Young, who cited long waits at Columbia River Mental Health among others.

“It’s a scary time,” Corey said. “There’s no place for them to go.”

AR-M- AGEDDON = Community of Sant'Egidio - Peace and Safety Alert !

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:34:00 +0000

1 Thessalonians 5
1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3. For when they(The Roman Catholic Church) shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child;( THE MOTHER Church and the HARLOT churches who follow her) and they shall not escape.
4. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Revelation 16 (with understanding)
12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; (War in Iraq) and the water (People) thereof was dried up ( slowly dying off like water evaporating), that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Made Ready for peace talks with "The Community of Sant'Egidio)
13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs (Devilish plans - With long tongues or speeches ) come out of the mouth of the dragon, (ROME) and out of the mouth of the beast, (Roman Catholic Church) and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (The Pope)
14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, (Wonders of World peace making -The Community of Sant'Egidio) which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world,(United Nations) to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(there will not be a battle of Armageddon but rather Peace and Safety before the great day of God Almighty)
15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. ( Pack your spiritual suitcase)
16. And he gathered them together into a place( an organization) called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Community of Sant 'Egidio)(Sant'Egidio or in English
St. Giles he was the Catholic miracle saint) (The Community of Sant'Egidio is considered miracle world peacemakers)

For Frogs signify both spirits of Devils & societies of men
actuated by such spirits in preaching & working miracles
for seducing their worshippers of the Beast & his image.

Sir Isaac Newton
Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1)

17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. (It is time for the End)
Read in this order:
Understanding Revelation 17
1. And there came one of the seven angels (The sixth) which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: ( The Roman Catholic Church )
15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Every Continent in the world, waters - Euphrates, Iraq, people slowly dying )
12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power (Vengeance) as kings one hour with the beast.
13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14. These shall make war ( Feud, Fight, Disagree ) with the Lamb, ( with the belief of Jesus ) and the Lamb shall overcome them: (them= they believe other than the teachings of Jesus) for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
16. And the ten horns (ten kings) which thou sawest upon the beast, (in ROME) these shall hate the whore, (Roman Catholic, Vatican) and shall make her desolate (made ruin) and naked, (Striped) and shall eat her flesh (externally) , and burn her with fire.
17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree,( Avenge) and give (Bestow) their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (THE HOLY SEE, VATICAN)
The Peace and Safety talks of
"The Community Of Sant'Egidio" in the USA
(Click Here)

________________________________________

Pope Meets With Sant'Egidio Leaders

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Representatives of the Community of Sant'Egidio presented to Benedict XVI the program for the 2008 Inter religious Prayer Meeting for Peace.

Andrea Riccardi, the community's founder, was present at Monday's meeting in which he personally informed the Pope of the event titled "The Civilization of Peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue." It will be held Nov. 16-18 in Cyprus.

Sant'Egidio organizes this meeting every year to keep alive the spirit of the World Day of Prayer called by John Paul II in Assisi 1986. Benedict XVI was present at the 2007 meeting in Naples.

Sant'Egidio is organizing the prayer meeting in conjunction with the Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostom II.

Marco Impagliazzo, the president of Sant'Egidio, and Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia, were also present at the meeting.

The 40-year-old community informed in a communique that in the meeting with Benedict XVI they also discussed "poverty in the world and the care of AIDS in Africa."

________________________

Tuesday August 5, 2oo8

News Europe

Italian army sent on to the streets

Troops have been deployed around the Duomo cathedral in Milan [EPA]

The Italian government has deployed 3,000 soldiers in cities across the country as part of a plan to fight street crime.

In the capital Rome, about 400 soldiers were stationed at underground stations and at an immigrant center on Monday.

"This morning we have deployed about 350-400 soldiers of the Italian army at institutional sites and sensitive sites," Lieutenant Colonel Claudio Caruso said.

The Italian opposition and police unions have criticized the use of troops, accusing the government of seeking to "militarize" city centers and using the measure to mask budget cuts in the security forces.

One opposition MP expressed fears that the move at the height of the tourist season could alarm visitors to the city.

But Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, said no soldier would patrol in the historic centre where most tourists are concentrated.

Roberto Maroni, the interior minister, told reporters in Rome last week that he wanted to "give the public a better perception of security".

Feeling safer

Paola Zabaglia, a commuter at Anangnina underground station, in a suburb of southeast Rome, welcomed the troop deployment.

"It is surely useful and people feel safer. It is important that they don't exceed in their duties but I am sure that it will be so," she said.

However, Ferruccio Paglia was not so sure saying: "I believe there are other ways to guarantee legality."

The measure, proposed by the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, was approved by parliament last month and will remain in effect for six months.

Maroni gave details of the operation at Tuesday's news conference.

"The forces deployed amount to 3,000 units from the army, the navy, the air force, and Carabinieri with military duties," Maroni said.

"Of these, 2,000 are destined to the surveillance of sensitive sites and targets. In particular, 1,000 are destined to exterior surveillance of the immigration centres or CIE (centers for identification and expulsion), formerly known as CPT (centers for temporary stay)."

In Milan, troops were patrolling the Duomo cathedral and other sensitive sites such as the United States consulate and the city's synagogue.

While on the island of Lampedusa, where thousands of migrants have arrived from Africa in recent months seeking to enter Europe, 70 air force troops will replace the police who normally patrol the perimeter of the reception center.

'Absolutely safe'

But Mario Marazziti, a spokesperson for the Sant'Egidio community which works with immigrant groups in Rome, told Al Jazeera that there was little need for the measures as Milan or Rome were much safer than other cities in Europe.

Marazziti rejects the government's claims that Italy's streets are not safe

"We have fewer robberies in apartments in Italy than the UK and we have fewer homicides than the rest of Europe. Italy is absolutely a safe country, a great country. So we are launching a terrible message abroad and people are confused,"he said.

Marazziti said there was a complete difference between "reality and the perception of citizens".

"This is the result of years of preaching from the Northern League [a right-wing populist party] or from electoral campaigning which has been focusing on security," he said.

"So every Italian is convinced he's safe and that where he lives is safe – but that Italy is not safe … it's a real paradox and the perception is that we need more security."

Source:

Al Jazeera and agencies

Religious leaders wrap up meeting,
urging enhanced dialogue between religions

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-19 13:36:25

MADRID, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of the world's religions Friday ended a three-day inter-faith conference in Madrid, with calls for enhanced dialogue among people from different religions, civilizations and cultures.

The World Conference on Dialogue brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders as well as politicians and other experts on inter-religious dialogue.

Dialogue is the most important channel through which people can understand each other and conduct exchanges and cooperation, participants said in their final declaration.

They rejected the notion that conflict is inevitable between different cultures and civilizations, and called for efforts to promote common human values and build a harmonious world.

Terrorism is one of the main obstacles to dialogue and co-existence, the declaration said. It called for an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and pooling efforts to combat it.

Participants expressed the hope that their conclusions and proposals would win support from the UN General Assembly.

The gathering showed that dialogue is the best way to promote peace and harmony, said Abdullah al-Turki, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, at a press conference after the meeting.

Around 300 people attended the conference, organized by the Muslim World League from an initiative by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

Saudi inter-faith conference urges
global anti-terrorism pact

July 18, 2008

MADRID (AFP) — Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders Friday called for an international agreement to combat terrorism, at the end of a landmark Saudi-organised conference.

The representatives of the world's great monotheistic religions also appealed for a special session of the UN General Assembly to promote dialogue and prevent "a clash of civilizations."

"Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way," participants at the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final communique.

"This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world."

They called for more "ways of enhancing understanding and cooperation among people despite differences in their origins, colors and languages," and a "rejection of extremism and terrorism."

Around 200 participants attended the gathering in Madrid, organized by the Mecca-based Muslim World League from an initiative by Saudi King Abdullah and aimed at bringing the world's great monotheistic faiths closer together.

Among the representatives were the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, Michael Schneider, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is in charge of the Vatican's relations with Muslims.

Tauran said Pope Benedict XVI had expressed "a great interest" in the conference.

"His Holiness is convinced that dialogue based on love and truth is the best way to contribute to harmony, happiness and peace for the people of the earth," he told the closing session.

The cardinal said the conference had "stressed the main convictions that we have in common."

The secretary general of the Muslim World League, Abdullah al-Turki, said more such conferences are planned, including possibly one in Japan.

The event took place against a backdrop of tensions between the Islamic world and the West since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

They range from restrictions on the use of the veil by Muslim women in some European countries to cartoons regarded as blasphemous by Muslims and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Organisers had billed the conference as a chance for the different religions to "get to know each other."

In that limited respect, observers said it had succeeded. It also demonstrated King Abdullah's desire to restore the tarnished image of Islam in the West since 9/11.

"I expect some important Jewish leaders will be taking back positive reports about the opportunity to engage with Muslims," said Walter Ruby, in charge of Muslim-Jewish relations at the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

He noted some prior resistance to the event among conservative Jewish elements in the US, "who are suspicious about Muslims and feel this is a PR thing... But I think it was a bold and important step. It was King Adbullah's 'Perestroika' moment," he told AFP.

One leading Muslim participant reported a "very good feeling" during the three days of talks.

"Nowadays, you have news about war everywhere, but there is no news about peace. At this conference, we sat down and had very good relations," the secretary general of the Kuwait-based World Organisation of Pan-Islamic Jurisprudence, Al Seyed AbolGhasem Al Dibaji, told AFP.

The conference however provoked some debate in Spain about the decision to stage it in Madrid rather than in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia remains the only Arab Muslim country to ban all non-Islamic religious practices on its soil, even though it has a large community of expatriates professing other faiths.

July 16,2008

Spain: Peace and security to dominate faith summit

Saudi officials chose Spain as the site for an inter-faith summit due to its symbolism as a place where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peacefully for over 500 years.

17 Jul 2008

The scale of the challenge and the glimmer of new possibilities in interreligious understnading is on display at the 16-18 July international interfaith conference convened in Madrid by the Muslim World League.

The meeting follows an initiative by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in bringing Muslims together.

One of the participants is ex-British Prime Minsiter Tony Blair, a hate figure for many Muslims because of his key role in the Iraq war.

Mr Balir, who has made interfaith work one of his priorities since leaving office, told reporters today that without co-existence among the religions, world peace would be very difficult to sustain.

His message echoes that of leading Catholic theologian Hans Kung, whose Global Ethics Foundation seeks to bring together people of goodwill from different backgrounds and beliefs.

The World Council of Churches is being represented at the event by one of its presidents, Patriarch Abune Paulos, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and by Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France, from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Also attending is Lebanese Minister of Culture Dr Tarek Mitri, a former WCC staff and a member of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East, and the WCC's Director of Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, the Rev Dr Shanta Premawardhana.

Organized by the Muslim World League at the initiative of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the three-day long "International Conference for Dialogue" is gathering some 200 participants representing Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.

Islam is the official state religion of Saudi Arabia, while non-Muslim religious services and symbols are banned within the kingdom's territory.

This has led to accusations of appeasement and hypocrisy by civil rights groups.

Tony Blair said this morning that there was a "glimmer" of change sigballed by King Abdullah's role at the event, however, and that the meeting was part of a long and difficult process of encouraging global religious freedom and dialogue.

He spoke of the possibility of a Catholic Church being allowed in the Saudi kingdom. For Protestants and other religious groups, prospects of recognition are thin, however.

MADRID: “I never expected anything like it” was the comment of one Pakistani Muslim attending the World Conference on Dialogue organized by the Muslim World League and hosted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

He could have been speaking for most of the participants at what is proving to be quite an extraordinary experience.

Almost all agree that the diversity of clerics and other delegates is nothing short of remarkable. In addition to those from every corner of the Muslim world and of every variety — Sunni muftis, Shiite imams, jurists, academics and more, there are innumerable bishops, priests, theologians and lay people from all Christian denominations and all parts of the world, plus a veritable phalanx of rabbis — European, American and Israeli — not to mention Hindu priests and Buddhist monks. Doubtless there are others as yet undiscovered.

The variety and color of clerical garb of many seen swirling in the conference hotel lobby and at the opening event at the El Prado Palace was in itself a remarkable statement about the event. This was dialogue in technicolor. Sunni muftis in white thobes, turbaned Shiite imams in brown cloaks, a cardinal in red and black, bishops in purple, bishops in black, bishops with remarkable headgear and jeweled crosses, rabbis with skullcaps and hats, Hindu priests in orange and vermilion, Buddhist monks in gray — it is a riot of color — and all not only mixing together with smiles on their faces and chatting together excitedly, but greeting and hugging each other like long-lost friends. The sight of one Hindu priest in orange cloths wandering along a path outside the royal palace just behind a Saudi imam in white thobe just after the opening event provided all the symbolism that was needed.

But, in fact, most people were in everyday wear, suits in general, and it was not easy to know who was what. At one point, I found myself sitting at a table with an Iraqi who turned out to be a Yazidi, a Japanese man who is Shinto priest — and an Indian Muslim who turned out to be a former correspondent for Arab News!

The symbolism of such a diverse presence at the conference was not lost on the delegates, several of whom are already involved in local interfaith dialogues in various parts of the world. It more than made up for the practical problems which were only to be expected in a conference that was organized at such short notice. It is a direct follow-on to the International Conference on Dialogue which took place in Makkah last month. Only those, it seems, who attended that remarkable event were in any way prepared for the no less extraordinary one in Madrid.

According to one Indian Muslim who was at the Makkah meeting, the Madrid summit is exactly what was envisaged.

The fact that the conference has taken place at all is one that many commented on yesterday. “Who would have imagined such an event as this after 9/11?” said one British participant. An Arab bishop expressed much the same astonishment, but it was astonishment laced with strong admiration: “I never imagined to see so many faiths here.”

Anglican and Roman Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis were equally surprised. For them, the importance of the conference was not what it may achieve in final statements, significant though they may be, but in itself — as proof that people of different faiths can come together without rancor and suspicion and instead with warmth and hope — and work for the common good.

That view was echoed by a senior Melkite Catholic cleric from Jordan; he was fulsome in his praise for King Abdullah and his initiative. “We always need wisdom in political leaders if there is to be peace,” he said. Dialogue and the conference were “of the greatest importance.” But there was realism in his attitude: “This was done by the Saudi leadership; now it is up to us, the participants, to take it to the people.”

For much-admired British rabbi David Rosen, it would, however, be foolish to imagine that religion alone can answer all the questions. “If politicians do not do what is needed, it (dialogue) will fail. Religion cannot succeed by itself.” But he added, politics will fail if it does not take religion into account. Religion needs to be brought into dealing with conflicts as “a source of reconciliation and peace.” Pointing specifically to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he believed that peace initiative after initiative had failed “because there was no religious input.”

But even he is an evident enthusiast about the conference. Enthusiasm is the prevailing mood — that and a sense that King Abdullah has performed a remarkable feat in causing such an event to happen. There is, however, one other sentiment among all here. It is the view that this has to be the first of many such conferences; that if there is no follow-up to Madrid, dialogue will falter.

However, having been given a lead, those here are unlikely to let that happen.

A Spanish bishop walks next to Saudi King
Abdullah during the World Conference on
Dialogue at Pardo Palace in Madrid yesterday

Call for religions to join forces

Published: Thursday, 17 July, 2008, 08:34 AM Doha Time

MADRID: The kings of Saudi Arabia and Spain yesterday
urged world religions to join forces in building a more peaceful
and harmonious world.
It was time to turn “a new page for humanity” in inter-religious
understanding, which could help the world recover lost values
and emerge from confusion, Saudi King Abdullah said on inaugurating
the World Conference on Dialogue, a major inter-faith event sponsored
by his country in Madrid.
Islam was a religion of moderation and tolerance, the monarch stressed.
Earlier initiatives may have failed because they sought to merge religions,
an attempt doomed to failure because all religions were convinced of their
own beliefs despite God being the same for all, King Abdullah said.
Human tragedies were not caused by religions, but by extremism,
the monarch explained.
Spain’s King Juan Carlos said inter-faith dialogue could help to solve
problems including terrorism, hunger, disease and poverty.
Muslim World League secretary general Abdullah al-Turki called on
delegates attending the three-day conference to produce concrete
projects with follow-up plans.
Other guests at the inauguration included Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair
and US civil rights figure the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Around 250 Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy and other experts
on inter-religious dialogue, including 15 women, were attending the meeting.
Experts and intellectuals including Lebanese Culture Minister Tariq Mitri
and Vatican inter-faith specialist Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran were to
analyse questions such as the civilisational foundations of inter-faith
dialogue, ways to promote it, and common human values.
The conference, which also includes representatives of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Taoism, is taking place against the backdrop of the
Middle East conflict and controversy over caricatures of Prophet
Muhammad, but it was expected to shun political questions.
The sessions are closed to the media, with a final communique
expected tomorrow.
Organised by the Muslim World League, the conference was partly
inspired by King Abdullah’s unprecedented meeting with
Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican in November 2007, and by
the International Islamic Conference for Dialogue in Makkah last month.
The initiative was praised by the World Jewish Congress as a
“significant and timely development”.
Cardinal Tauran said Saudi Arabia’s “act of great courage”
had come surprisingly quickly after King Abdullah’s meeting with the pope.
Inter-religious understanding should be promoted with “prejudice-free”
religion studies at universities and by training specialists on inter-faith dialogue,
the newsletter of Radio Vatican quoted Tauran as saying.
Al-Turki said Spain had been chosen as the host country because of
the religious tolerance that characterised it when it was partly under
Moorish rule for eight centuries until 1492.
Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in relative harmony in Moorish
Spain, known as Al Andalus. “The image of Al Andalus made us hold
this conference in Spain,” al-Turki told the daily El Mundo.
King Abdullah also praised Spain’s support to the Middle East peace
process and role in promoting the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. - DPA

Amazing Blasphemed Catholic Statements Regarding the Pope

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:09:00 +0000

2 Thessalonians 2

1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Pope is God On This Earth

"Take care that we lose not that salvation, that life and breath which thou hast given us,
for thou art our shepherd, thou art our physician, thou art our governor, thou art our husbandman,
thou art finally another God on earth." Christopher Marcellus in Oration addressing
Pope Julius II, in Fifth Lateran Council, Session IV (1512), Council Edition. Colm. Agrip.
1618, (Sacrorum Conciliorum, J.D. Mansi (ed.), Vol. 32, col. 761), (also quoted in History of
the Councils, vol. XIV, col 109, by Labbe and Cossart).

"To believe that our Lord God the Pope has not the power to decree as he is
decreed, is to be deemed heretical." The Gloss of Extravagantes of Pope John
XXII, Cum. Inter, title 14, chapter 4, "Ad Callem Sexti Decretalium",
Column 140, Paris, 1685. (In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes,
the words, "Dominum Deum Nostrum Papam" (“Our Lord God the Pope”) can be found in column 153).

"It is quite certain that Popes have never disapproved or rejected this title '
Lord God the Pope' for the passage in the gloss referred to appears in the
edition of the Canon Law published in Rome by Gregory XIII." Statement from Fr. A. Pereira.

"Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates
them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but
of the true God....dissolves, not by human but rather by divine authority...
.I am in all and above all, so that God Himself and I, the vicar of God, hath
both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do...wherefore,
if those things that I do be said not to be done of man, but of God, what do you
make of me but God? Again, if prelates of the Church be called of Constantine
for gods, I then being above all prelates, seem by this reason to be above all
gods." Decretales Domini Gregori ix Translatione Episcoporum, (on the Transference of Bishops)
, title 7, chapter 3; Corpus Juris Canonice (2nd Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612), tom. 2,
Decretales, col. 205 (while Innocent III was Pope).

"The Pope takes the place of Jesus Christ on earth...by divine right the Pope has
supreme and full power in faith, in morals over each and every pastor and his flock.
He is the true vicar, the head of the entire church, the father and teacher of all Christians.
He is the infallible ruler, the founder of dogmas, the author of and the judge of councils;
the universal ruler of truth, the arbiter of the world, the supreme judge of heaven and earth,
the judge of all, being judged by no one, God himself on earth." Quoted in the New York Catechism.

"The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God,
and the vicar of God...
"The Pope alone is called most holy...
"Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of hell.
"Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertains only to
heavenly things, but also earthly things, and to things under the earth, and even over the
angels, whom he his greater than.
"So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to
the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the Pope....
"...the Pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings,
having plenitude of power." Lucius Ferraris, in "Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica,
Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V, article on "Papa,
Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, aut
hority, or dominion and infallibility", #1, 5, 13-15, 18, published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition.

"[Pope] PIUS XI, Pontifex Maximus." Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
(The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical promulgated on January 6, 1928.
http://www.catholicism.org/pages/mortal.htm

"The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth
." Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, "Cities Petrus Bertanous".

“...We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty..." Pope Leo XIII, in
Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (The Reunion of Christendom), Encyclical
promulgated on June 20, 1894.
http://www.users.qwest.net/~slrorer/ReunionOfChristendom.htm

The Pope is Immortal

“...Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII...” Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas
(On the Feast of Christ the King), Encyclical promulgated on December 11, 1925, #18.

http://www.newadvent.org/docs/pi11qp.htm

The Pope is Infallible

“The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this
infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as Supreme Pastor and teacher
of all the faithful--who confirms his brethren in the faith--he proclaims by a
definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals....
The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the
body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor,
‘they exercise the supreme Magisterium,’ above all in an
Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme Magistrium
proposes a doctrine ‘for belief as being divinely revealed,’ and as the teaching
of Christ, the definitions ‘must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.’
This infallibility extends as far as the doposit of divine revelation itself.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, #891, 1994 edition.

"The Pope cannot make a mistake." Pope Gregory VII,
(quoted by The Benedictine Network in a listing of notable items by the various popes throughout history).
http://www.whiterobedmonks.org/netsor1a.html

The Pope's Crown Bears This Inscription

Question. "What are the letters supposed to be in the Pope's crown,
and what do they signify if anything?
Answer. "The letters inscribed in the Pope's mitre are these:
Vicarius Filii Dei, which is the Latin for Vicar of the Son of God.
Catholics hold that the Church which is a visible society must
have a visible head. Christ, before His ascension into heaven,
appointed St. Peter to act as His representative. Upon the
death of Peter the man who succeeded to the office of Peter as
Bishop of Rome, was recognized as the head of the Church. Hence
to the Bishop of Rome, as head of the Church, was given the title
'Vicar of Christ.'
"Enemies of the Papacy denounce this title as a malicious assumption.
But the Bible informs us that Christ did not only give His Church authority
to teach, but also to rule. Laying claim to the authority to rule in Christ's spiritual kingdom,
in Christ's stead, is not a whit more malicious than laying claim to the authority to teach
in Christ's name. And this every Christian minister does." Our Sunday Visitor,
(Catholic Weekly), April 18, 1915, thirteenth question under
"Bureau of Information," p. 3, (on page 2 appears "sanctions for
the editor" from Pope Pius X, dated May 17, 1914; from the
Apostolic Delegate, John Bonzano, dated April 27, 1913; and
from J. H. Alerding, Bishop of Fort Wayne, Ind., dated March 29, 1912).

"Ut sicut Beatus Petrus in terris vicarius Filii Dei fuit constitutus, ita et
Pontifices eius successores in terris principatus potestatem amplius,
quam terrenae imperialis nostrae seremitatis mansuetudo habere
videtur." Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica,
Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica, by Lucius Ferraris, Volume V,
article on "Papa, Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity,
authority, or dominion and infallibility", point #20, column 1828, published in
Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition. To see a copy of this
document, please click here.
(Translated into English it reads: "As the blessed Peter was constituted
Vicar of the Son of God on earth, so it is seen that the Pontiffs, his successors,
hold from us and our empire the power of a supremacy on the earth greater
than the clemency of our earthly imperial serenity.")

"Beatus Petrus in terris Vicarius filii Dei videtur esse constitutus
." Decretum Gratiani, prima pars, dist. xcvi, col. 472,
(first published at Bologna about 1148, and reprinted in 1555.
Translation by Christopher B. Coleman, Ph. D., in
"The Treatise of Lorenzo Vallo on the Donation of Constantine," p. 13.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922).
(Translated into the English this reads: "Blessed Peter is seen to
have been constituted vicar of the son of God on the earth.")

"Beatus Petrus in terris Vicarius filii Dei esse videtur constitutus
." Corpus Juris Canonici Emendatum et Notis Illustratum Gregorii XIII.
Pont. Max., Lvgdvn., MDCXXII, col. 295.

"Beatus Petrus in terris vicarius Filii Dei esse videtur constitutus.
" Corpus Juris Canonici, Gregorii XIII, Pontif. Max., Auctoritate, Distinctio 96,
Column 286, Canon Constantinus 14, Magdeburg, 1747.

The title given to the Pope is "Vicarius Filii Dei." Sacrosancta concilia ad
regitionem exacta, by Philippe Labbe, SJ., Vol. I, p 1534: Paris, 1671.

"The temporal power in the hands of St. Gregory I was a fatherly and
patriarchal rule over nations not as yet reduced to civil order. In the hands
of St. Leo III it became a power of creating empires. In the hands of St. Gregory VII
it was a scourge to chasten them. In the hands of Alexander III it was a dynasty,
ruling supremely, in the name of God, over the powers of the world
....So that I may say there never was a time when the temporal power
of the Vicar of the Son of God, though assailed as we see it, was more
firmly rooted throughout the whole unity of the Catholic Church.
"It was a dignified obedience to bow to the Vicar of the Son of God,
and to remit the arbitration of their griefs to one whom all wills consented to obey
." The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, by Henry Edward
Cardinal Manning, pp. 231-232, second edition, London: Burns and Lambert, 1862.

The Pope Has All Power in Heaven
and Earth and Can Change Divine Laws

"The Pope is of great authority and power, that he is able to modify,
declare, or interpret even divine laws. The Pope can modify divine
law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as
vicegerent of God upon earth..." Lucius Ferraris, in "Prompta
Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica,
Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V, article on "Papa, Article II", titled
"Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility", #30,
published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition.

“Christ entrusted His office to the chief pontiff;... but all power in heaven
and in earth has been given to Christ;... therefore the chief pontiff,
who is His vicar, will have this power.” Corpus Juris, chap. 1, column 29,
translated from a gloss on the words Porro Subesse Romano Pontiff.

“The Pope’s authority is unlimited, incalculable; it can strike, as Innocent III says,
wherever sin is; it can punish every one; it allows no appeal and is itself Sovereign Caprice;
for the Pope carries, according to the expression of Boniface VIII, all rights in the
Shrine of his breast. As he has now become infallible, he can by the use of the little word,
'orbi,' (which means that he turns himself round to the whole Church) make every rule,
every doctrine, every demand, into a certain and incontestable article of Faith.
No right can stand against him, no personal or corporate liberty; or as the Canonists put it --
'The tribunal of God and of the pope is one and the same.'” Ignaz von Dollinger, in
“A Letter Addressed to the Archbishop of Munich”, 1871
(quoted in The Acton Newman Relations (Fordham University Press), by MacDougall, p 119-120).

"We may according to the fullness of our power, dispose of the law and dispense above the law.
Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them but God.
For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God....dissolves,
not by human but rather by divine authority....I am in all and above all, so that God Himself
and I, the vicar of God, hath both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do
...Wherefore, no marvel, if it be in my power to dispense with all things, yea with the precepts of Christ.
" Decretales Domini Gregori ix Translatione Episcoporum,
(on the Transference of Bishops), title 7, chapter 3; Corpus Juris Canonice
(2nd Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612), tom. 2, Decretales, col. 205
(while Innocent III was Pope).

"Therefore the decision of the Pope and the decision of God constitute one decision
....Since, therefore, an appeal is always made from an inferior judge to a superior,
just as no one is greater than himself, so no appeal holds when made from the Pope to God,
because there is one consistory of the Pope himself and of God Himself
." Augustinus Triumphus, in Summa de Potestate Ecclesiastica, 1483, questio 6. Latin.

The Pope Can Change, Add to, or Take Away From,
and His Word is Greater than the Holy Scriptures

"We confess that the Pope has power of changing Scripture and of
adding to it, and taking from it, according to his will." Roman Catholic
Confessions for Protestants Oath, Article XI, (Confessio Romano-Catholica
in Hungaria Evangelicis publice praescripta te proposita, editi a Streitwolf),
as recorded in Congressional Record of the U.S.A., House Bill 1523,
Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, Feb. 15, 1913.
http://www.geocities.com/visplace/godsmith20.htm

"We confess that whatever new thing the Pope ordains, rather it be
in Scriptures or not in Scripture, and whatever he commands is true, divine
and salvific; and therefore ought to be held by Lay People in greater esteem
than the living God." Roman Catholic Confessions for Protestants Oath, Article IV,
(Confessio Romano-Catholica in Hungaria Evangelicis publice praescripta te proposita, editi a Streitwolf), as recorded in Congressional Record of the U.S.A., House Bill 1523, Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, Feb. 15, 1913.

http://www.geocities.com/visplace/godsmith20.htm

All People Must Be Subject to the Authority of the Pope
in Order to be in God's True Church

"It is absolutely necessary that the Christian community be subject
in all things to the Sovereign Pontiff if it wishes to be a part of the
divinely-established society founded by our Redeemer." Pope Pius XII, Orientalis Ecclesiae,
quoted in "Acta Apostolicae Sedis", 36:129, Rome: Vatican Press,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4:
"The Book of Christians", Chapter 4: "There is No Allegiance to Christ Without
Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/visplace/godsmith20.htm

"Where Peter (or his successor) is, there is the Church." St. Ambrose,
Commentary on Twelve of David's Psalms, XL:30; JUR, vol. 2:1261,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4:
"The Book of Christians", Chapter 4: "There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

"You above all, venerable brothers, have known how this dogma of
our religion has been unanimously and unceasingly declared,
defended and insisted upon in synods by the Fathers of the
Church. Indeed, they have never stopped teaching that 'God is one,
Christ is one, the Church established upon Peter by the voice of the
Lord is one;' 'the massive foundation of the great Christian state
has been divinely built upon, as it were, this rock, this very firm stone
;' 'this Chair, which is unique and the first of gifts, has always been designated
and considered as the Chair of Peter;' 'shining forth throughout the world it maintains
its primacy;' 'it is also the root and matrix whence sacerdotal unity has sprung;' it is not only
the head but also the mother and teacher of all the Churches...'the Roman Pontiff, who
holds Primacy in the entire world, is the Successor of Blessed Peter the Prince of the
Apostles and the true Vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and is the visible
Father and Teacher of all Christians.' There are other, almost countless, proofs drawn
from the most trustworthy witnesses which clearly and openly testify with great faith,
exactitude, respect and obedience that all who want to belong to the true and only
Church of Christ must honor and obey this Apostolic See and Roman Pontiff.
" Pope Pius IX, Amantissimus (On The Care Of The Churches),
Encyclical promulgated on April 8, 1862, # 3.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P9AMANT2.HTM

"No one is found in the one Church of Christ, and no one perseveres in it,
unless he acknowledges and accepts obediently the supreme authority of
St. Peter and his legitimate successors." Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, PTC:873,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians",
Chapter 4: "There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

"It is an error to believe that a man is in the Church if he abandons the See of Peter,
the foundation of the Church." St. Cyprian, UOC, CSL, vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 207 (1868),
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians",
Chapter 4: "There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

"If, therefore, the Greeks or others say that they are not committed to Peter
and to his successors, they necessarily say that they are not of the sheep of
Christ, since the Lord says that there is only one fold and one shepherd (Jn.10:16).
Whoever, therefore, resists this authority, resists the command of God Himself.
" Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, DNZ:468, (quoted in Apostolic Digest,
by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 4:
"There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

All Who Separate From the Control of the Pope are Without Christ

"Remember and understand well that where Peter is, there is the Church;
that those who refuse to associate in communion with the Chair of Peter
belong to Antichrist, not to Christ. He who would separate himself from the
Roman Pontiff has no further bond with Christ." Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum,
quoted in "Acts of Leo XIII: Supreme Pontiff", Rome: Vatican Press, 1896,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4:
"The Book of Christians", Chapter 4:
"There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

All People Must Be Subject to the
Authority of the Pope in Order to be Saved

"Christ Jesus left you this sweet key of obedience; for He left His Vicar,
whom you are all obliged to obey until death. And whoever is outside
his obedience is in a state of damnation." St. Catherine of Siena, MCH,
reference #374, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5:
"The Book of Obedience", Chapter 1:
"There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"Although the devil desired to sift all the disciples, the Lord testifies that
He Himself asked for Peter alone, and wished that the others be
confirmed by him (Lk. 22:32); and to Peter as well was committed
the care of "feeding the sheep" (Jn. 21:15); and also to him did the
Lord hand over the "keys to the kingdom of Heaven" (Mt. 16:19).
If, however, anyone believes contrary to this, let him know he is
condemned and anathematized. Consider, therefore,
that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the
Church cannot have the Lord. Those not willing to be
at agreement in the Church of God cannot abide with God.
For the Church of God is established among those known
to preside over the Apostolic Sees, and whoever separates himself
from these Sees is manifestly in schism." Pope Pelagius II, Quod Ad
Dilectionem," DNZ:246; "Dilectionis Vestrae," DNZ:247,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4:
"The Book of Christians", Chapter 4:
"There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

"...our Divine Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in
a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth....
After His glorious Ascension into heaven this Church
rested not on Him alone, but on Peter too, its visible
foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one
only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal
memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam;
and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.
"They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe
that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not
adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the
visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystica
l Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who
are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it....
"As the Divine Redeemer sent the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who in
His name should govern the Church in an invisible way, so, in the same manner,
He commissioned Peter and his successors to be His personal representatives on
earth and to assume the visible government of the Christian community
." Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ),
Encyclical promulgated on June 29, 1943, #41-42, 69.
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12MYSTI.HTM

"Those who are obstinate toward the authority of the Roman Pontiff
cannot obtain eternal salvation." Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore,
DNZ:1677, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5:
"The Book of Obedience", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"We teach,...We declare that the Roman Church by the Providence of
God holds the primacy of ordinary power over all others, and that this
power of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which is truly episcopal, is immediate.
Toward it, the pastors and the faithful of whatever rite and dignity, both individually
and collectively, are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true
obedience, not only in matters which pertain to faith and morals, but also in
those which concern the discipline and government of the Church spread
throughout the whole world, in such a way that once the unity of communion
and the profession of the same Faith has been preserved with the Roman
Pontiff, there is one flock of the Church of Christ under one supreme shepherd.
This is the teaching of the Catholic truth from which no one can depart without
loss of faith and salvation." Pope Pius XII, Ad Apostolorum Principis
(On Communism And The Church In China), Encyclical Promulgated
on June 29, 1958, #46.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061958_ad-apostolorum-principis_en.html

"He who does not enter by the door of the fold shall not have salvation.
The door of the fold is the Catholic Church and union with the Head
who represents Jesus Christ." St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, "Travels",
Chicago: 1944, p. 170, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael
Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 1
: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one,
holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with
simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins...
There had been at the time of the deluge only one ark of Noah, prefiguring the
one Church, which ark, having been finished to a single cubit, had only one pilot
and guide, i.e., Noah, and we read that, outside of this ark, all that subsisted on the
earth was destroyed....Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is
absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff
." Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, Bull promulgated on November 18, 1302.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/B7UNAM.HTM

"The Saviour Himself is the door of the sheepfold: 'I am the door of the sheep.'
Into this fold of Jesus Christ, no man may enter unless he be led by the Sovereign Pontiff;
and only if they be united to him can men be saved, for the Roman Pontiff is the Vicar of
Christ and His personal representative on earth." Pope John
XXIII, in To the Bishops and Faithful Assisting at His Coronation, Homily given on November 4, 1958.

"O glorious St. Peter, obtain for us a sincere loyalty to our Holy Mother the Church;
grant that we may ever remain most closely and sincerely united to the Roman
Pontiff who is the heir of thy faith and authority: the one, true, visible head of the
Catholic Church, that mystical Ark outside which there is no salvation.
" Pope Benedict XV, RAC:484, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone
, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1:
"There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic2chp1.html

"But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds,
therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete
submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff,
as to God Himself. This obedience should, however, be perfect...(and) must
consequently be accepted without wavering....
"Wherefore it belongs to the Pope to judge authoritatively what things the
sacred oracles contain, as well as what doctrines are in harmony, and what
in disagreement, with them; and also, for the same reason, to show forth what
things are to be accepted as right, and what to be rejected as worthless; what
it is necessary to do and what to avoid doing, in order to attain eternal salvation
." Pope Leo XIII, in Sapientiae Christianae (On Christians As Citizens),
Encyclical promulgated on January 10, 1890, #22-24.
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13sapie.htm

"To be subject to the Roman Pontiff is absolutely necessary for salvation.
" St. Thomas Aquinas, Against the Errors of the Greeks, Pt. 2, ch. 36; PTC:484,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience",
Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"This is our last lesson to you: receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you:
by God's commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church;
the strong and effective instrument of salvation is none other than the Roman Pontificate.
" Pope Leo XIII, in Allocution for the 25th Anniversary of His Election, given on
February 20, 1903 (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine
Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 653).

"It is necessary for salvation that all the faithful of Christ be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
Fifth Lateran Council, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4:
"The Book of Christians", Chapter 4: "There is No Allegiance to Christ Without Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic4chp4.html

"No man...outside the faith of the Church and obedience to the Roman Pontiff
can finally be saved." Pope Clement VI, Epistle of September 29, 1351,
(quoted in article "Is There Salvation Outside the Church?")
http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=964

Even if the Pope is in Error or Were Evil,
He Still Holds Power Over All Christ's Faithful!

"...whether it be possible for him (the Pope) to err or not,
is to be obeyed by all the faithful." St. Robert Bellarmine,
De Romano Pontifice, pt. 5, (quoted in Apostolic Digest,
by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience",
Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"It is error to believe that, if the Pope were a reprobate and an evil
man and consequently a member of the devil, he has no power over the faithful
" Council of Constance, Condemnation of Errors, against Wycliffe, Session VIII, and
Hus: Session XV; DNZ:621, 617, 588, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone,
Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 1:
"There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise
up our heads against him, but calmly lie down to rest on his bosom.
He who rebels against our Father is condemned to death, for that which
we do to him we do to Christ: we honor Christ if we honor the Pope; we
dishonor Christ if we dishonor the Pope. I know very well that many defend
themselves by boasting: "They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil!"
But God has commanded that, even if the priests, the pastors, and Christ-on-earth were
incarnate devils, we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of
God, and out of obedience to Him." St. Catherine of Siena, SCS, p. 201-202, p. 222,
(quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience",
Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

"It is error to believe that, if the Pope were wicked and reprobate, then he is of the
devil and is not head of the Church Militant..." Pope Martin V, Inter Cunctas et in
Eminentis, DNZ:646, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5:
"The Book of Obedience", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope").

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/catholics/apostolic5chp1.html

The Pope is Christ's Replacement
(Vicar or Vicegerent) on Earth

"The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land...
.He is the vicegerent of Christ, and is not only a priest forever,
but also King of kings and Lord of lords." La Civilta Cattolica,
March 18, 1871 (quoted in "An Inside View of the Vatican Counci
l" by Leonard Woosely Bacaon, p 229, American Tract Society edition).

"We the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, prostrate at the feet of your Holiness,
humbly offer you our warmest congratulations on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee
of your ordination to the priesthood...our thoughts go back to that great event fifty years
ago by which your Holiness was taken from amongst men and appointed for men in the
things that pertain to God, was made a minister of Christ and a dispenser of His mysteries,
received power over the real and mystical body of our Saviour and became a mediator between
God and man - another Christ." Address of Irish Archbishops and Bishops to Pope Pius Xll, in 1949.

"Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art Father of princes
and kings, Ruler of the world, Vicar of our Savior Jesus Christ." Papal Coronation Ceremony.

“All the names which are attributed to Christ in Scripture, implying His supremacy over
the church, are also attributed to the Pope.” Robert Bellarmine,
in Disputationes de Controversiis, "On the Authority of Councils", book 2, Chapter 17.

"...we promulgate anew the definition of the ecumenical council of Florence,
which must be believed by all faithful Christians, namely that the apostolic see
and the Roman pontiff hold a world-wide primacy, and that the Roman pontiff
is the successor of blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, true vicar of Christ, head
of the whole church and father and teacher of all christian people. To him, in blessed
Peter, full power has been given by our lord Jesus Christ to tend, rule and govern the universal church....
"So, then, if anyone says that the Roman pontiff...has only the principal part,
but not the absolute fullness, of this supreme power; or that this power of his is
not ordinary and immediate both over all and each of the churches and over
all and each of the pastors and faithful: let him be anathema." Pope Pius IX,
in First Vatican Council, Session 4, First Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church of Christ, Chapter 3, #1, 9, July 18, 1870.
http://www.piar.hu/councils/ecum20.htm

"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus
Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." Catholic National, July, 1895.

Supreme Papal Authority Comes
From the Law of the Caesars

"...superior papal authority and dominion is derived from the law of the
Caesars." Lucius Ferraris, in "Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica,
Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V,
article on "Papa, Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity,
authority, or dominion and infallibility", #19, published in Petit-Montrouge
(Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition.

"...the appellation of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the Pope,
who being God, cannot be judged by man." Pope Nicholas I,
quoted in History of the Councils, vol. IX, Dist.: 96, Can 7,
"Satis Evidentur Decret Gratian Primer Para", by Labbe and Cossart.

Understanding Bible Prophecy - The Book of Revelation - False Teachings - "The Mark" and 666

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:32:00 +0000

“I write this freely, without doctrines of churches, organizations, or influences of this world. What you are about to read is not for the offense to any heart, but written for encouragement and knowledge to draw the heart of man closer to our Lord of Lords, King of Kings of heaven and earth and Savior Jesus Christ; who died on the cross for our sins, and rose on the third day, that we might be considered worthy of the acceptance of His love and the promises of his Holy Word. ” ~ Rick

Note: When considering prophecy God explains in the Old Testament
"One day for a year." Ezekiel 4:6
Or, one day = one year
Isaiah 34
8. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

About Revelation 13

"The rise of the Roman Catholic Church and its role in the English Reformation and its influence in the Church of England"

"Prophecies that unfolded during the English Reformation"

Revelation 13:2 explains the likeness of the first beast, which are animal symbols of European governmental powers:
Like unto a leopard (Greece)
Feet of a bear (Media Persia)
Mouth of a lion (Babylon)
The dragon (Rome)

Revelation 13:5 explains the duration of the beast until the deadly wound to be 42 months.

There are 30 days in a biblical month, so multiply 30 times 42.
The answer is 1260 days, or 1260 years. Ezekiel 4:6
Papal Rome came to power in 538 A. D. and continued in power without interruption until 1798, exactly 1260 years later- another prophecy fulfilled.

Revelation 13:1-10 explains the Papal Roman government.

Revelation 13:11-18 explains England and its role with the Roman Catholic Church.

The "Dragon" is Rome.
It is a known historical fact that the symbol for the Roman Byzantine government was a dragon, as the bald eagle is to the USA.
Symbols of the dragon are still found all around Italy and the Vatican (statues, public fountains, etc.) And this governmental power, the Roman Empire, turns over its power to "Papal Rome," thus "The Holy Roman Empire."
The Pagan belief of the Romans was Babylonian worship whose high priests carried the title of Pontifix Maximus, but in appreciation of Caesar's acceptance of their worship, they awarded him the title of "Pontifix Maximus," and this title was passed down to Papal Rome. Papal Rome and the Pope are referred to at times in the Bible as The great whore, The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, The Dragon, man of sin, the head of the beast, the eighth king.

The beast with two horns "like a lamb" (the second beast)

The two horns represented "Church and State" until Henry VIII, when it became "Church and King" (Act of Supremacy) ~ "Like a lamb" means "youth" of this (nation) beast compared to the old Holy Roman empire (the first beast.)
Bible translators, readersof the newly translated Bible and practicing Jews were considered heretics (traitors of the Roman Catholic) and were burned at the stake because they wouldn't conform and be water baptized into the Roman Catholic Church and/or for abandonment of its teachings. The rising up also stands for the English Reformation, or protesting of the English - the protestant rising up against the beast of the church and state during the time and shortly before Henry VIII.
The "Lambeth Palace" rose up from the marshes (swamp land) to become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and later became the seat of the Church of England. The Roman Catholic Church didn't want anyone but themselves to have access to any of the "Bible Scriptures" for fear their Priest and Pope would loose their spiritual power over the people. Anyone caught trying to translate, teach, print any translation of the scriptures but the Roman Catholic Priest or authorities were considered "Heretics" which carried the penalty of death. This period of time was the beginning of spiritual conflict in the battle for the Bible. The first people to read the Bible translated by John Wycliffe were called "lollards." These people were the first Protestants and were imprisoned in the Lambeth Palace for reading its translation.
The word "protestant" means "protest" or "in protest" of the Roman Catholic Church. These people (lollards - secret readers of the Bible) grew in numbers later in the years that followed Henry VIII.
In the years that followed under the rule of Elizabeth I the Church of England conforms back to Catholicism only without the full authority of the Roman Catholic Pope only the governance
(overseeing) by Rome over the Church of England this continued from that time forward.
Even when Henry VIII became the supreme head of the Church of England, the war between Protestants and Catholics continued for decades until Elizabeth I brought both groups back together in a last ditch effort to unite England, but before this The Roman Catholic Church lead these people (lollards, protestants) into captivity, but were later lead into captivity themselves by the protestants and lollards. Protestants were killed by the sword and Roman Catholics were also killed by the sword. (Revelation 13:10.) This passage is not portraying the fall of Papal Rome of 1798, but rather the fall of Papal Rome in England during the reign of Henry VIII and in the time of Elizabeth I.
The Church of England or "The IMAGE," (also called the pretended church by Roman Catholics) was created out of anger by Henry VIII, who couldn't get a marriage annulment from the Pope, so he went on to build his own image of The Roman Catholic Church, which he alone would rule as the supreme head(Act of Supremacy). To help stop this ongoing battle, this church would be reformed to be comprised of half Catholic/half Protestant, and eventually revert back to mostly Catholicism, which most kings and queens were thereafter. They kept most of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church because at this time they knew of no other spiritual teachings because the Bible was still unknown and unread to most. For this reason the Church of England caused people to worship the first beast, "The Roman Catholic Church" through laws enacted by the crown and Parliament.
The "mark of the beast" (or mark of the Roman Catholic Church ) is the "mark of membership" (water baptism into the Church of England, Lutheran and/or the Roman Catholic Church with the "sign of the cross" marked on the forehead by a priest with holy water, and at prayer, performing the sign of the cross with the right hand from forehead to sternum and then from shoulder to shoulder drawing an imaginary cross on the upper body always using the right hand as prescribed by the Catholic teaching.
People who would not be water baptized and marked in the forehead with the "sign of the cross" into membership were killed. Penalty was death by fire. Jesus shall repay with the same, and avenge the blood of the saints: John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and etc.
For more information on this subject, please research the Spanish, Italian, English, & Irish Inquisitions (which were the investigations that lead to the trials and convictions of thousands for not practicing Roman Catholicism.) Also research for the mark of the beast, "Sign of the cross," also "RCIA" or "rite of Christian initiation of adults."
Henry VIII was king during the English reformation and built Henrican church (later the Church of England), the "IMAGE" (Westminster Abby) of the Roman Catholic Church, and gave it power to speak (legislate.) King Henry VIII's daughter,
Elizabeth I enforced its membership by law (legislation of parliament which includes the "Crown" and "House of Commons.") Though reformed, still mostly Roman Catholic practices.
Elizabeth I invited the pope to oversee the practices of the Church of England after the dust settled. (Governance of the Church of England) but the Roman Catholic Church viewed the Church of England as a pretend church (pretending to be Roman Catholic), hence "the Image."
The fire coming down from heaven is "alchemy" or "fireworks"

The first fireworks in England were for the wedding of Henry VII.
Elizabeth I declared herself "fire marshal of England." She was very impressed with the spectacular fireworks falling down from the sky (heaven) in the site of ordinary men and bishops. At that time only dignitaries and clerics were able to afford the displays. Fireworks are a Catholic practice involved in nearly every Catholic holiday. It's been a Catholic tradition since a Catholic monk in Italy first tried his hand at perfecting black powder. St. Valentine, St. Thomas, and others were alchemists, or pyrotechnics, and lured people into the Church with their miracles of fire.

"No man might buy or sell"

At the "Council of Orleans" 321 A.D. (after John wrote Revelation,) the Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath Day from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday.) The Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath Day...not GOD.
"No man free or bond might buy or sell that keep the "original Sabbath" (the seventh day: Saturday) (Exodus 20) except those who change it and acknowledge it and believe the change. (the beast, ones with the mark of the beast, or the number of the name - the Roman Catholic Church, members of the Roman Catholic Church and/or the Church of England, and the Crown, his wives, and his members of Parliament)
The book of James 2 reads that if you fail at one point of the Ten Commandments you are guilty of all.
Genesis 1:5 states "and the evening and the morning were the first day." A new day begins at sunset every evening, not at midnight, or morning. This change of time was also administered by the Catholic Church.
TIME: When a day begins. When the Catholic Church changed when the time of day began, they changed TIMES.
THE LAW: The Ten Commandments. When the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath day, they changed THE LAW.
Daniel 7:25 states, "they shall think to change times and laws."
Another prophecy fulfilled.

Here is understanding (of the Bible not the World.)
Identify a time and place through its king:
for it's the number of a king who represents a place and time.
(Numbers 1:1-16 A Renown Prince of Pedigree, at least 20 years of age able to go to war, head of his fathers "House" who builds a replica of the Roman Catholic "Church and State".
The Roman Catholic Church has referred to the Church of England as the "pretended" church as they have in most part pretended to worship as the Roman Catholic. They have mimicked the Roman Catholic church structure by creating similar church government and church design without actually being under the full authority of the Pope since the time of it's beginning during the reign of Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I.
The Church of England may have a different name but Roman Catholic belief is their practice of worship and the sign of the cross also mark them as Catholic.

Revelation 13

18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The number of a man in Biblical language refers to “a group of a man,” “His Group,”

or his “Followers.”

This group of people is usually followers of that man (the head of group including him).

A group count is “the number of names” or number of people (which is referring to a head count).

Notice the words in bold:

Numbers 1
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2. Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
3. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
4. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers.

Explained in verse 16:

16. These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.

Notice in the 18^th verse:

And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.

Clearly the phrase the “number of a man” refers to the “number of his names” which also helps us to identify the status of the man in question which makes him clearly a man of stature a prince who later becomes king or leader of that group.

By calculating the number of his group, his location and time of reign, his actual name can be identified.

Acts 1

13. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

Again this reference in Acts 1:13-15 is clearly referring to the number of a group.

ID: Henry VIII is supreme over England (remember this: he builds the image)
"House of Commons" members total 659 (this number of members continues today)
1 king Henry VIII
6 wives
659 + 1 + 6 = only one king Henry VIII of England
Six hundred three score and six.
These events have already happened.
Prophecies fulfilled.

About Water Baptism (Roman Catholic teaching)

John the Baptist said one would come after him who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. Jesus did not baptize anyone in the Bible with water. He was baptized in water by John because Jesus had not yet died on the cross, therefore the water had not yet become blood. After the cross, water became blood, a familiar prophecy demonstrated by Jesus when he turned the water into wine. He did this to tell us that water baptism will become a baptism in the blood of Christ, hence the baptism John the Baptist referred to when he said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Acts 1:5. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
After the cross is when the baptism of Jesus started - the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If water baptism is necessary for your salvation why didn't Jesus baptize people in water himself? There is no holy trinity to be baptized with. When Jesus gave His life on the cross for remission of sins, the purified flesh united the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost from that time on. The truth was given to the world through Jesus Christ, the New Testament, and of the new knowledge, having power over heaven and earth, that all in heaven and on earth will bow down in the presence of His holy name. And with knowing that all in heaven and on earth should bow down to Jesus, does this mean God and the Holy Ghost also bow down to Him? No. They are one, not "as one" as the trinity theory suggests. This theory of trinity is the imaginary works of iniquity of Tertullian, one of the early founders of the Roman Catholic Church, who lived around the time of 190 A.D. (Eph. 4:4-6) "There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father and God of all, who is above all, and in you all. John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? John 3:31 "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all."

Let's look back at the book of Genesis.
Gen. 17:1 "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the ALMIGHTY God; walk before me, and be thou perfect."
Gen 35:11 " And God said unto him, I am God ALMIGHTY: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Now let's look at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:8 says (in red letters, words of Jesus Christ), "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the ALMIGHTY."

According to these passages the trinity theory doesn't hold up to the truth because God's words state that he is the ALMIGHTY, and then Jesus Christ's words state that HE is the ALMIGHTY. This is not a contradiction in the Bible. It's a confirmation that God and Christ become one, in their very own words.

Here is one more example of the unification of the Father, Son, & Holy Ghost.

John 14:17 " Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot, receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you".
John 14:18 " I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Here Jesus tells how the Spirit of truth (also referred to here as "Holy Ghost" & "Comforter") dwells with you and will be in you. Then in the very next verse He says
"I will come to you."

True membership
Jesus died for your sins on the cross and by believing that Jesus died and rose again on the third day, you are His member. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and you are baptized with it into the membership of Jesus Christ when you accept him into your life. When you accept him into your life He accepts you into life eternal and your name is then written in His membership book: "The Lamb's Book of Life."

About Revelation 17

The angel takes us to a time and place before the deadly wound was healed between the years of 1798 and 1929.
In 1798 Napoleon seized the governmental powers and territories of Papal Rome and imprisoned the Pope where he remained until his death.
This blow to the head of the Roman Catholic Church (beast) was the deadly wound.
The beast (Roman Catholic Church) that was (in power) and is not (in power) yet is (in existence) Rev. 17:8
There are seven kings of the beast (papal names since the wound of 1798)
five are fallen;
one is;
and the other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a short space (total years of reign.)
This short space name is: John Paul
Seven papal names have been elected since 1798, when Napoleon seized control of papal Rome (the deadly wound)
and the deadly wound was healed on Feb. 11, 1929 with the Lateran Pact Treaties, when power was returned to the church by Mussolini.
The seven kings (or names) of the beast:
Pius
Leo
Gregory
Benedict- (is of the seven, after the short space)
John
Paul
John Paul = Short space - 27 years total reign.
And the beast that was (in power), and is not (in power during the period of 1798-1929), even he is the eighth, and is of the seven (names) and goeth into perdition.
The 80 year old BENEDICT is the eighth king. Jesus will repay soon.

per·di·tion (per-dish-on)

a. Loss of the soul; eternal damnation.

b. Hell: "Him the Almighty Power/Hurl'd headlong . . . /To bottomless perdition, there to dwell" John Milton.

2. Archaic Utter ruin.

About
1Tim 4:1

Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils (Catholic teachings - water baptism, trinity, changing the Sabbath Day, and so on) speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, (number one in "member" water baptisms in the world - Roman Catholic Church - Greeks and Romans believe in common worship practices) and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving, of those who believe and know the truth. There are some churches acquiring "membership" through water baptisms who believe trinity also -doctrines of devils- persuading their members to practice vegetarianism or at the very least to abstain from unclean meats such as pork, shrimp & catfish as the Jews did under the ordinances of Moses. Colossians 2:20-22 states "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, touch not; taste not; handle not; which are all to perish with the using: after the commandments of men?" Col 3:2 says, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Romans 14:2 states "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs."
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

There are good people are without full understanding of scripture
because pastors are taught to preach by other men and women,
not the Holy Ghost, and to preach the same message over and over which contains a lot of good history and good teachings of the Bible, but falls short of the truth and then substitutes the truth with theory and at times taking scripture out of context to support their theories.
1John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need NOT that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him."
Some churches take in part the teachings or doctrines of the Greek Orthodox Roman Catholic, or Jewish ordinances of Moses of Leviticus, which were nailed to the cross. Colossians 2:14 "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

The governing structure of most top denominations is fashioned primarily after the Roman Catholic Church from the local level churches (like local dioceses) to the General Conference (like the Vatican.) They also have ongoing ecumenical talks with The Roman Catholic Church whether directly or indirectly, through Roman Catholic sub-groups (world alliance of reformed churches) and other denominations who are in formal direct communion with The Roman Catholic Church. The leaders of these denominations teach pastors to preach against Catholicism and then shake hands in agreement concerning some teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Speaking lies in Hypocrisy"

Most members of most churches do not even know how much interaction is between their church leaders and the Roman Catholic Church. These are the same kind of comparative talks most denominations have with the Roman Catholic Church. It's all a part of a larger deception to unite all denominations under the authority of the Pope as the one true leader of the Christian world. Satan, in his deception, uses the name of Jesus Christ in vain in his quest to overcome the souls of man going throughout the world devouring who he may for he knows he only has a short time. Most wouldn't even think twice that a church would deceive them with their church doctrines. This is why they are taken as a thief. There are some Catholic doctrines in most denominations.
Warning: Come out of the whore completely and totally - don't partake and give heed to her, or her doctrines of devils.

The ordinances of Moses to the Levites were nailed to the cross, but not the Ten Commandments.
Therefore the 7th day Sabbath, which is Saturday, kept by the Seventh Day Adventist Church is truth, but vegetarianism is of weak faith: Romans 14:2 states "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs."
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom 14:17)

There is not a world church or world organization that is of Christ.
Christ is NOT of the world. He overcame the world.
1 John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:16"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness and offered him the world if He would just bow Himself down and worship Satan. So many churches today offer the wantoness of the world in their lavish establishments trimmed in gold, with promises of better jobs, financial relief, college educations, political favor, health care, etc. These are deceptions of Satan and the full truth is not in them. (2 Peter 1:4) Some Bible truth is in all churches. Jesus is the WHOLE truth, and not of this world. He isn't interested in who you are in the world, but who you are in your heart. Your loyalty should be with Christ only:
Not the Pope, the Dhali Lama, Billy Graham, Ellen G. White, Joseph Smith, the church
you attend, your boss at work,

your pastor or anyone...with Jesus Christ only. John 3:33 "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."
These are the remnant of the world - the ones who follow whithersoever He goeth, not defiled with the Roman Catholic Church whether it be ecumenical talks or in agreement in any way (trinity, water baptism, rebellious Sunday Sabbath, or any teaching.)

(Revelation 18:4) "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" of this murdering Roman Catholic Church, and all whom are associated with her, and keep her company. People even today take the membership (mark of the beast) just as they have for centuries. Following the traditions of men and not following Christ.
Col 2:8 "Beware least any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (laws) of the world, and not after Christ." It's Jesus who died for you, who has power over heaven and earth. No one else can save you and give you eternal life. Your love and loyalty should be with Him only. Don't be looking way out into the future for things that have already come and gone. But rather look to the past to understand the present, and the short time before Christ returns.
Understand where you are with Jesus. Understand what is truth (Jesus.) Seek and ye shall find. The Holy Ghost will guide you, not a man.

1 John 2:20 "But ye have an unction (discerning) from the Holy One, and ye know all things."
1 John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Don't be taken as a thief in the night.

1Th 5:4 "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."
The Coming of Christ is soon
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east, might be prepared.
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together, into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since, men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Water = People

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

The sixth vile is now poured out on the river Euphrates and is at present drying up (Rev. 16:12.) People in Iraq are slowly dying like a river slowly evaporating, preparing a way for the kings of the east. With unclean spirits like frogs (with long tongues as in speeches & peace talks.) The pope will go to the kings of the earth ( United Nations ) with a peace plan to help draw the world unto him. The Pope will get most all the credit for saving the world from the great troubles of war and terrorism. This will be his final attempt to unite the Christian denominations under his umbrella, but the pope can't save you and he won't even get the chance. The great day (year) of God Almighty is when Jesus returns during this time and foils the plan of the Satan. The location of the Peace building - Rome (headquarters location: Sant'Egidio Community, Trastevere, Italy) in the Hebrew tongue, Ar = City and, the Letter M in Hebrew = of or from - and, the name Ageddon in Greek is Agiddion in Hebrew and Egidio in Italian and this translates Armageddon to = Community of Egidio or "Community of Sant'Egidio". The battle of Revelation 16 is the battle of the great day of God Almighty. There just isn't a battle of Armageddon. This is just a place he gathers the kings of the earth that's all. Catholic theologians would like you to think that John made a mistake when he wrote the word ARMAGEDDON but he didn't he didn't add or take away from the very book he warned not to add or take away from. Even the influence of the Roman Catholic Church has distorted the most any dictionary and encyclopedia available today because of their so called authority over the Bible.
The Catholic St. Egidio was considered by the Roman Catholic church to be A miracle
worker and the Community of Sant'Egidio is considered the same.
(1 Thess 5:4)" But Ye, Brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."

(1 Thess 5:4)" But Ye, Brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."

DON'T BE DECEIVED!

Definition and meaning of ARMAGEDDON

Two words and a Name

not a place in Israel

but in ROME

AR = city of or Community of :
the " M" = Hebrew word "OF"
Ageddion = hebrew - Agidion
= Italian - Egidio
=English - Giles
= Greek - Aigidion

"The Community Of Agidion" or
"The Community of Saint Giles" or
in Italian - "Sito della Comunit di Sant'Egidio"
World peace talks hosted by the Community of Sant'Egidio

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

GILES
Gender: Masculine Usage: English Pronounced: JIE-ulz [key] From the Late Latin name Aegidius, which meant "young goat" from Greek (aigidion). Saint Giles was an 8th-century miracle worker from Greece who regarded as the patron saint of cripples.
The Community of Sant'Egidio was founded in Rome in 1968 by a group of Roman high school students led by Andrea Riccardi. It is named after the Roman Church of Sant'Egidio (Italian for Saint Giles) in Trastevere, its first permanent meeting place.
The charitable efforts of Sant'Egidio also led it to be a well-regarded mediator of peace negotiations. In the late 1980s, the Community came to the realization that their humanitarian efforts in Mozambique, then torn by the Mozambican Civil War, could not succeed without peace. In 1990, the Community was accepted by the ruling FRELIMO and rebel Mozambican National Resistance as a mediator, playing a key role in the Rome General Peace Accords signed in 1992. They continue peace initiatives in Algeria (notably the 1995 Sant'Egidio Platform), the Balkans, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other areas, in the belief that war is the "mother of every poverty”.
Learn more about
"THE two Words and a name that equals = Armageddon"
(Click here)

Revelation 16
13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Erected in 1924 after the plan of the architect Gino Copped, the "Fountain of the frogs" is one of the most recent in the city of Trastevere near the Community of Sant'Egidio just outside of Rome. Each of the four couples of figures that r[Photo]ise over a low circular basin, supports a shell where a frog sprouts water into the shell self.
At the center of the basin, among the eight shells, there is another circular basin decorated with eight frogs, tidily placed along its side, ready to jump towards toward the central jet of water.

1 Thessalonians 5

1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Luke 21:32 "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till, all be fulfilled."

Luke 21:28 " And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh"

Matthew 22
Mat 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
Mat 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.
Mat 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Mat 22:4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
Mat 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one, to his farm, another, to his merchandise:
Mat 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
Mat 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Mat 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Mat 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as, ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
Mat 22:10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Mat 22:11 and when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on, a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Ephesians 1:6-14

6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 3:2-19

2. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4. Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6. That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11. According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
13. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18. May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ezekiel 12
This Prophecy is also referring to the END OF TIME.

20. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
21. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
22. Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
23. Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord God; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.
24. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.
25. For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God.
26. Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
27. Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
28. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God.

I hope these words help you in your pursuit
for the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
I praise the Name of Jesus Christ forever. Amen
Written by Rick
Okplowboy1820@Hotmail.com
Feel free to Email me

Isaiah 28
23. Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25. When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 May 2008 07:24:00 +0000

Matthew 7

15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire.
20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy
name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works?
23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Assyro-Babylonian Mythology:
The Astronomy of Babylon

The astronomy of Babylon as it relates to the Babylonian Gods of worship.

With the exception of the Venus tables of Ammiza-duga,
which probably originated in the seventeenth century BC,
most of the surviving Mesopotamian astronomical texts
were written between 650 and 50 BC. These clay tablets
with cuneiform writing are called astronomical diaries, and they are the unmistakable observations of specialists: professional astronomer-scribes.

A typical diary entry begins with a statement on the length

of the previous month. It might have been 29 or 30 days. Then, the present month's first observation - the time between sunset and moon set on the

day of the first waxing crescent - is given, followed by similar

information on the times between moon sets and sunrises

and between moon rises and sunsets, at full moon. At the

end of the month, the interval between the rising of the

last waning crescent moon and sunrise is recorded.

When a lunar or solar eclipse took place, its date, time,

and durationwere noted along with the planets visible,

the star that was culminating,and the prevailing wind a

t the time of the eclipse. Significant points in the various

planetary cycles were all tabulated, and the dates of

thesolstices, equinoxes, and significant appearances of Sirius were provided.

The Babylonian astronomers used a set of 30 stars as

references forcelestial position, and their astronomical

diaries detailed the locations of the moon and planets

with respect to the stars. Reports of bad weather or unusual

atmospheric phenomena - like rainbows and halos - found

their way into the diaries, too. Finally, various events of local

importance(fires, thefts, and conquests), the amount of

rise or fall in the river at Babylon, and the quantity of various

commodities that could be purchased for one silver shekel filled

out the diligent astronomer's report.

By the sixth century BC, Neo-Babylonian astronomers

were computing in advance the expected time intervals

between moon rise or moon set and sunrise or sunset for various days in the months ahead. These calculations were based on systematic observations.

Later, when combined with numerical tabulations of the

monthly movement of the sun, the position of sun and

moon at new moon, the length of daylight, half the length of night,

an eclipse warning index, the rate of the moon's daily motion through the stars, and other related information, these computations enabled reasonably detailed and accurate predictions of what the moon would do and when it would do it.

Planets received similar attention, but because their

movements were not uniform, the Mesopotamian astronomers

had to devise mathematical techniques that would take variations

in motion into account. As Jupiter, for example,makes its way

through the zodiac in almost exactly 12 years, each year it more or

less moves into a different zone, or constellation. Each year it also

is seen in opposition to the sun - rising at sunset,

setting atsunrise - but because Jupiter's motion is not

uniform, it won't reach opposition on the same date each year.

The Babylonians expressed this a little differently than we do and preferred to specify the position of Jupiter at each opposition rather than the date.

The effect is the same, however, and their tables show that they compensated for Jupiter's nonuniform motion by increasing its shift in position by

the same amount for each opposition in one half of the 12-year

cycle and by decreasing the shift by the same amount each time during the other half. When the shift in position is plotted through the successive oppositions of the planet, a zigzag line results.

Of course, the Babylonians never developed completely

accurate representations of nonuniform motion, but

in the later dynasties of Mesopotamia, and especially in

the Seleucid period (301-164 BC) following the death of

Alexander the Great, Babylonian (during this period called Chaldean)

astronomers approximated the cyclical accelerations

and decelerations of the moon and planets with the "zigzag functions." They did this numerically, not graphically, but the technique worked well enough for their purposes.

Despite the extensive written record of Babylonian

astronomy, we have very little knowledge of the instruments

used in ancient Mesopotamia, and we know even less about the

observatories which must have existed. A clay"astrolabe" from

Assyria is on display in the British Museum in London.Actually,

a true astrolabe is used to measure the angular height of a celestialobject,

and the Assyrian devices look more like diagrams of the zones ofthe sky.

They seem to be tables of handy astronomical information, designedto

guide the astronomer in keeping time. Apart from a few limited

referencesto an instrument used for measuring transits, the gnomon

(or shadow stick),and the water clock, this is the complete

inventory of our knowledge of Babylonian astronomical instruments.

It should not surprise us, however, that the astronomical

instruments and observatories of ancient civilizations

are hard to find. It is unlikely there were many of them,

and the observatories that still exist may be hard to recognize

for what they are. The actual equipment probably disappeared long ago,

and the walls that housed the ancient astronomers may be allthat

remains today. If such o
observatories were incorporated into temples or palaces, they might be even harder to recognize. When we find a structure with astronomical alignments,

it is not always easy to tell if the structure was used ritually or for

actual observation or both.
The Gods We Worship
A perusal of nearly any ancient pantheon reveals the obvious:
At least some of the gods, often the most important ones, are
objects in the sky.The metaphoric reasons are not
difficult to understand. The regular motions of celestial
objects made them agents of order that helped give
meaning to the world below; endless repetition of their
appearances and disappearances suggested immortality;
their light commanded attention and connoted power.
And being in the sky, with such a perspective on earth below,
t was only natural to assume that the gods must know all
because they could see all:To see the world, one's eyes must be in heaven.

Although particular gods may differ in terms of the resources

they are believed to control, control is the attribute they share. What they control,and how they do it, determines exactly what sorts of gods they are.

Celestial gods control the passage of time by marking it and

measuring it. They control direction and space through the

locations of their comings and goings.As masters of time and

space, they move the world. They make it change.Day changes

into night. Winter melts into spring. Rivers flood and fall.

Grain sprouts, grows, and ripens. In these cycles of the

world and in our daily lives we see patterned change, and

it is driven by the sky.
Immortality and Divinity
If we are seeking immortality, the sky is a good
place to start. We see endless repetition there.
Although we know that we ourselves will die,we see the
sun, moon, and stars survive night after night, month
after month, year after year.
They may disappear, but their absences are only temporary.

The sky is one of the few things that provides concrete

images upon which our conception of immortality

might condense. The sky is itself eternal,and its occupants

are continuously resurrected. There, in the celestial passages

and returns, is the contrast between what is mortal and what is divine.

The power of the celestial gods was revealed by their light.

Anyone standing in sunlight senses its energy. Its warmth

is unmistakable. Though obviously weaker, the moon and

planets also command respect. They shinenot only in the

blackened vault of night but, on occasion, in the brighter twilight sky,

and some can even be seen in broad daylight. Again and again,gods

were associated with light.

For example, Any, or An, was the greatest of the Sumerian gods.
His name was the word for "sky" and "high," and the written
symbol for his name was shared with the word diugir: "shining".

Equal reverence for the softer, indirect light of the moon is
evident from a text from Ur, in the Mesopotamia of the third millennium BC:

Nanna, great lord
light shining in the clear skies,
wearing on his head a prince's headdress
right god for bringing forth day and night,
establishing the month
bringing the year to completion.

Another Sumerian prayer invokes the brilliance of
Inanna, the goddess Venus, in the evening twilight:

The pure torch that flares in the sky,
the heavenly light shining bright like the day,
the great queen of heaven, Inanna, I will hail ...
Of her majesty, of her greatness, of her exceeding dignity
of her brilliant coming forth in the evening sky
of her flaring in the sky - a pure torch -
of her standing in the sky like the sun and the moon,
known by all lands from south to north
of the greatness of the holy one of heaven
to the lady I will sing.
The Gods in Heaven: Sun and Moon
The particular appearance and behavior of certain celestial objects
have often led different peoples in different places at different times to
assign the same symbolic values to them.
The sun, for example, is both powerful and dependable,
as it pursues its orderly course through the seasons,
and these characteristics have inspired many peoples to see in
it the source of all authority, law, and social order.

In ancient Babylon, the sun was Shamash. His watchful eye noted

all things and judged everyone. Justice resided in him. Hammurabi,

the great codifier of Babylonian law, is shown standing before

Shamash on the stone column, or stela, inscribed with this

king's famous Code. Through law the sun's order was transferred to earth.

Compared to the sun, the moon's rapid changes make it seem

practically vagrant, but it is useful as a timekeeper, and many

people have accorded it divine status as such.

Babylonia's moon god was Sin, the "lord of knowledge."

He presided over the calendar and astrological

divination. In accord with the approximate number

of days in a month, 30 was his sacred number.
The Wandering Gods
In very earliest time the Greeks and the Romans do not
seem to have differentiated the planets. Writing in the
fourth century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato described
the five "wanderers" as gods and mentioned that the
practice of associating them with specific Olympian
gods was introduced by foreigners.The foreigners
probably came from either Egypt or Mesopotamia.
The latter is the more likely source since the attributes
and characteristics of Babylonian planetary gods
parallel those of the Greek gods, while the early Egyptian representations
of planets do not.

In ancient Babylon, Marduk was honored as king of the

gods and quite specifically associated with the planet Jupiter.

In Greece, Zeus was chief of the Olympians, with dominion

over the planet Jupiter. In that sense he was the counterpart

of Marduk. By contrast, the Egyptians portrayed Jupiter - and Mars

and Saturn as well - with the falcon head of the sky god Horus.

The role of Jupiter-Marduk was preeminent in Babylon,

for he was credited with the world's creation, bringing

order out of chaos. Texts of the Babylonian creation

myth are preserved on cuneiform tablets, some from

the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria in the

seventh century BC, but the tale itself is much older,

apparently deriving from the Old Babylonian empire,

about 1800 BC. In the myth, Marduk establishes order

by killing Tiamat,the dragon of primordial chaos.

From the monster's body he fashions the sky and the sea.

Then he prepares to take advantage of his victory.

His price for his service is the right to fashion an ordered cosmos.

First,he organizes the sky, apportioning it among the

other gods, symbolized in the constellations overhead.

The year is next. Marduk decides how long it will be and

subdivides it into months, their passage regulated by

the stars he chooses. More celestial references, contrived

by Marduk, put the world in order. He also marks the horizon,

the zenith, and the points where the sun might emerge and

depart. He puts up the moon and assigns it to light the night

and count the days of the month. Clearly Marduk was the ruler of the sky.

Jupiter's course through the sky, Marduk decides, will guide

the stars and planets. This may seem like an odd choice to make.

The constant sun,perhaps, would define things better.

But Jupiter's path through the sky follows the ecliptic, the annual

path of the sun, more closely than the other planets known to the ancients. Also,

Jupiter's configurations in the stars repeat themselves

almost exactly every 12 years. For example,Jupiter will come

into opposition (that is, be opposite the sun in the sky)

12 times in a span of time just five days longer than 12 years,

and the last opposition will occur among the same stars as the first.

These aspects of Jupiter's movement, combined with

its brilliance among the stars of the nighttime sky,

probably influenced early astronomers touse the

planet as a reference, a function reflected, it seems,

in the myth.There are uncertainties, however.

The actual name for the planet used in the text is Nebiru.

Although this did mean Jupiter, it meant other things as well,

and sometimes it meant pole,

or pivot. The north celestial pole is a key reference for

the sky's rotation, so either or both meanings may have

been intended in the creation epic.

The other planets also played important, often similar,

roles in the pantheons of ancient cultures. And so, the

Babylonians associated Ishtar,their goddess of love and

fertility, with the planet Venus, another parallel-

and perhaps direct antecedent - to Greek and, ultimately, Roman tradition.

Apart from its brightness, the most distinctive feature

of Venus is its cycle as a morning star and evening star.

Accordingly, the Egyptian symbolized Venus as the Ben nu,

a heron-like bird commonly equated with the phoenix.
The Bennu belonged to Osiris, probably because the Egyptians
associated death and resurrection with the planet's evening and

morning appearances, or perhaps with its conjunctions

behind the sun and its periods of visibility. Something

similar may be behind the Mesopotamian myth of Ishtar's

descent into the Underworld.

Among the Babylonians, Mercury was Nebo, the record keeper

and messenger of the gods. Its status as messenger may be

related to the quickness of the planet in its circuit from west

of the sun to east of the sun and back to the west again. Mercury's

swiftness also made him the gods' messenger in Greece and Rome,

as well as the escort of the souls to the realm of the dead.

It is easy to pick out Mars in the nighttime sky. Its red color

setsit apart from the other planets and from most of the stars.

The color -the same as blood - also explains its association

with gods of war: Nergal in Babylonia, Ares in Greece, and,

of course, the Roman Mars.

Finally, Saturn, the last of ancient "wandering stars,

" was known as Ninib to the Babylonians. After an initial

career as a sun god and patron of the ancient city of Nippur, Ninib

became affiliated with springtime and planting.
Time and Divination

By observing what transpired overhead, shamans and
astronomer-priests fashion ed calendars and scheduled
ceremonies. They had access to the domain of the gods and the source
of cosmic order; this allowed them access to "knowledge"of the
state of the cosmos. They could, then, communicate the
celestial signs of the gods' intent to earth. Calendric
divination made soothsayers,for example, out of the
ancient Mesopotamian moon watchers. In 1900,
Assyriology's R. Campbell Thompson compiled
hundreds of astronomical omens into a book with
the engaging title "The Reports of The Magicians
and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon." Many
of the reports involve the moon: "When the
Moon at its appearance stands in a fixed position,
the gods intend the counsel of the land for happiness."

This text refers to the first crescent ("appearance")

occurring on the expected date ("stands in a fixed position").

"When the Moon out of its calculated time tarries and is not seen,

there will be an invasion of almighty city ..." Unusual

or unexpected behavior was regarded as a message.

The views might be bad, but a proper word or spell

recited by a knowledge able priest could avert the threat.

"When at the Moon's appearance in the inter calary month

Adar its horns are pointed and dark, the prince will grow

strong and the land will have abundance."

These texts tell us that the Babylonian prognosticators

evaluated the match between what the calendar predicted and what the sky actually did.Departures from the expected order were viewed with concern.
Calendars, Corrections, and Kings
In Mesopotamia it was probably the Sumerian's,
the people who built the formative civilization of
the region, who put the first formal calendar into use.
The Sumerian calendar was lunar, but its months began
when the first crescent was sighted in the west. A passage i
n the Babylonian creation myth echoes, in Marduk's instructions
to the moon, a concern for the lunar cycle:

He bade the moon come forth; entrusted night (to him)
assigned to him adornment of the night to measure time;
and every month, unfailingly, he marked off by a crown.
"When the new moon is rising over the land
shine you with horns, six days to measure;
the seventh day, as half (your) crown (appear).
and (then) let periods of fifteen days be counterparts
two halves each month.
As, afterward, the sun gains on you on heaven's foundations,
wane step by step, reverse your growth!"

The "crown" is the moon's fully lit disk, and the horns refer,

of course,to the waxing crescent. On the seventh day a

"half crown" describes the half-lit first quarter moon,

and the rest of the text narrates the way in which the

moon should continue to measure out the months.

Some of the Sumerian month names have survived in

cuneiform texts and,like the Egyptian names, refer to

the months' principal feasts: "the Month

of the Feast of Shulgi" and "the Month of the Eating of

Barley of Ningursu."Feasts were scheduled by the moon's

phases, with regular celebrations at the first crescent,

first quarter (seventh day), full moon (fifteenth day),and last day.

The Sumerian's divided the year into summer, or emesh,

and winter, orenten. We know the New Year holiday was

consecrated by a symbolic "wedding"of the king with a high priestess.

This ritual reenacted the marriage of Dumuzi, a god associated

with the growth of grain and dates, and Inanna,a goddess

identified with fecundity and sex, and was scheduled, most likely,

in spring, when life seems to be rekindled in every blossom, seed, and fruit.

Of course, intercalation was the only way to keep the

Mesopotamian lunar calendar in step with the seasons,

and some inscriptions imply an extra month was added

before the month of autumnal equinox. Other texts refer to a

thirteenth month slipped in just prior to the vernal equinox. What ever

rule was followed in the early period, by 1000 BC or so Babylonian calendar

priests were intercalating months according to an eight-year cycle. During

this period three extra months were added. In Chaldean times,

a "me tonic",or 19-year cycle with 7 extra months, was probably in use.

This interval,which equates 19 tropical years with 235 lunar

months, is named after the Greek astronomer Meton, who

introduced its use in the Mediterranean world in the last

decades of the fifth century BC. Although it looks as though

a numerical rule, and no observed celestial event, determined

the years in which extra months were added, A. Sachs, a specialist

in cuneiform and Mesopotamian astronomy, believes intercalation

were designed to keep the annual helical rising of Sirius in a particular

month. If this be so,it again stresses the important role of the sky's

brightest star as a signal of the seasons and calibrator of the calendar

for ancient societies. Its astronomical attributes - its brightness

and the timing of its appearances- made it valuable wherever it could be seen.

No matter what method was used to keep the
Mesopotamian lunar calendar

coordinated with the seasons, only the king could
declare when an extra month was to be inserted.
Starting the Year
Time, measured out in celestial tallies by sky
watching shamans and calendar
priests, eventually rounds the last turn in the cycle of cosmic order and
begins the cycle anew. These technicians of the sacred punctuated that
joint in time with ceremonies that consecrated the moment and mirrored
the pattern of the sky. Such moments can occur, however, at various
times of the year. They are not necessarily restricted to the passage of
the year. Just when these moments are celebrated by any particular group
of people depends upon where they live, their way of life, and their particular
perception of cosmic order.

Babylonian priests performed a kind of ritual drama at the New Year

ceremony in ancient Mesopotamia. It, too, initiated the cycle of ceremonial

renewal and involved a recitation of the Enuma elish, the Babylonian creation

myth. The priests also reenacted some of the key events in the story

of Marduk's victory over chaos and Marduk's assembly of an

ordered cosmos.Unlike the other rituals of renewal we have

considered, however, the Babylonian New Year did not take place

in winter. It was called the akitu, and it was held at the

equinox, either in spring or in fall. Records of intercalated

months suggest that in Old Babylonian times the autumnal equinox

started the year. Later, the New Year was celebrated in spring.

Which date does not really matter. What counts is the choice of a

turning point in time that was significant to the Babylonians.

More than one reason must have suggested an equinox,

and only hints of those original reasons remained in the

ceremonies that continued to commemorate them.

In the first few days of the ceremony, Marduk was symbolically

confined in what texts called "the Mountain." For three days

Marduk remains in this under world, a realm of chaos and the dead.

The term "mountain" also refers to the tall, multilevel temple-towers (or ziggurats) the

Mesopotamians built of clay bricks on the flat flood plain of the

Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It is possible that this part of the

ceremony was connected in some way with the ziggurat.

On the fourth day of the akitu, the Enuma elish was repeated,

and this activity, accompanied perhaps by others, brought

Marduk back to life and allowed him to "emerge" from the

Mountain, or the under world. We have already seen how such metaphors

equate with sunrise and with the start of the New Year.

Marduk was not Shamash, the sun, but he assumed many

attributes of the sun as part of the elevation of his status in

Neo-Babylonian times. Marduk's emergence from the Mountain

at the equinox and New Year, in any case, represents the

creation of world order. We already know that is Marduk's

role in the creation epic. By staging this myth in ritual terms

at a turning point of the seasons and the year, the Babylonians

recognized the cyclic nature of the world. The end of each year

is a reentry into the time before creation of the world.

The previous world must break down before it is re fabricated,

and that is why Marduk is imprisoned and slain in the Mountain.

Some of the mythological scenes portrayed on cylinder seals may relate

to these ideas. When the Mesopotamians wanted to put an official

stamp on a clay document or protect the integrity of the

contents of a container,they impressed a design in the soft

clay by rolling a small stone cylinder in it. The cylinder was intricately

carved, and one of these seals, from the Akkadian period (2360-2180 BC)

and now in the British Museum, portrays the sun god, Shamash,

brandishing a saw and emitting undulating rays of light

as he emerges in a gap between two mountain peaks. The god at the right,

with streams of water and fish flowing about his shoulders, is Ea.

The goddess on the left, perhaps heralding the appearance

of the sun, is the goddess Ishtar, who was sometimes identified

as the planet Venus oras the morning star.

Ea's waters here may represent the spring floods.

We can't be certain, for no text accompanies the picture.

But if the spring time is meant, the scene may symbolize the

vernal equinox sunrise, and possibly the New Year.

More prayers and rituals continued the New Year ceremony,

which lasted for 11 days. A ritual called "fixing of the destinies"

and clearly involved with omen readings for the coming

year took place. Also, the Babylonian perpetuated the

"Sacred Marriage" ceremony of the Sumerian's. This time the king

represented Tammuz and a high priestess was Ishtar. But the message

was the same: fertility. The passage of cyclical time meant in

Babylon what it meant elsewhere: renewal - in the gods, in the

king, in the fertility of the land, in the calendar, and in the sky.
The Star of Ishtar

Because some astronomical objects move through the sky in
repeated and known intervals of time, the behavior of the
celestial gods associated with them can be symbolized
numerically. Ishtar, as the planet Venus, perhaps was handled t
his way in the eight-pointed star that usually stands for her on
Babylonian boundary stones.

References to Venus as early as 3000 BC are known from

evidence at Uruk,an important early Sumerian city in

southern Iraq. One clay tablet found at the site says

"star Inanna," and another contains symbols for the words

"star, setting sun, Inanna." Inanna is Venus, known later as

Ishtar, and the Uruk tablets specify her celestial identity with

the symbol for "star":an eight-pointed star. At this early stage

the symbol seems to carry no more meaning than that, though

it eventually evolves, in cuneiform writing,into a sign that means

"god" and is placed before the actual names of deities.

If the relationship between gods and the sky were not already explicit enough, this development in Mesopotamian writing would confirm it.

By the Kassite Dynasty, roughly 1600-1150 BC, the eight-pointed star

had acquired a more specific meaning. It belonged to Ishtar, as

Venus,and shows up on numerous kudurru, or boundary stones,

which were an innovation of the Kassite kings. Such stones were

set up to mark field boundaries.The earliest of them record and

confirm royal grants of land and therefore establish title to the

territory they represent. Most of them are 2 to3 feet high.

Elaborately carved with the emblems of sky gods and a

detailed text, they verify celestial approval of the transaction

and warn others to watch their step.

After an appropriate description of the land in question

and a list of those involved in effecting the transaction, the boundary stone of KingMarduk-ahe-erba forcefully counsels,

Whenever ... any one
shall arise and against
that field shall raise a claim
or cause a claim to be raised,
shall say the field
is not the gift of the king
and shall order
a thoughtless man, a fool, a deaf man
to approach that inscribed stone
and shall throw it into the water,
burn it with fire,
hide it in a field where it cannot be seen
May the great gods, as many as on this stone
by their names are mentioned
with an evil curse, that is without escape,
curse him.
May Anu, Enlil, and Ea
in anger look upon him and destroy
his life, [and] the children, his seed.
May Marduk, the lord of constructions (?),
stop up his rivers, and
Zarpanitum, the great mistress,
spoil his plans.
May Ninib and Gula, the lords of the boundary
and of this boundary stone,
cause a destructive sickness to be
in his body, so that, as long as he lives,
he may pass dark and bright red blood as water.
May Sin, the eye of heaven and earth, cause
leprosy to be in his body, so that
in the enclosure of his city he may not lie.
May the gods, all of them, as many as are mentioned
by their names, not grant him life for a single day.

It was not a good idea to overrule the gods of the sky.

Not all of the identities of the gods named and

symbolized on kudurruare known, but most

(and perhaps all) of them are celestial.

Three prominent symbols included on most

stones refer unambiguously to Shamash,

the sun;Sin, the moon; and Ishtar, the planet Venus.

The emblem of Shamash is a four-pointed disk with

undulating lines radiating inter cardinally, and this

is a standard Mesopotamian symbol for the sun.

The wavy lines could be radiating sunlight,

the "net" of Shamash. For Sin, the stones have

an obvious crescent moon, and the other large star

P almost always with eight points P is Venus.

Very direct symbolism in the signs for the sun and the

moon and in several other symbols whose meaning is

understood tempt a guess that the symbolism in the

Star of Ishtar is in some way equally direct.

Perhaps the number eight is itself symbolic, for Venus

experiences an eight-year cycle. During that time it

passes through its complete evening star/morning star/evening star

pattern five times. This means that a configuration of

Venus recursion the same calendar date after eight

years, which is how long five complete back-and-forth

passes to either side of the sun take.

To establish the importance of this cycle we must

verify that the Mesopotamians were familiar with

it and made something special of it. In fact, we

know they were well aware of it. Omen texts from

the First Babylonian Dynasty(ca. 1900-1660 BC)

confirm that the old Mesopotamian sky watchers

understood that Venus as the morning star and as

the evening star were the same thing.By the Seleucid

period (ca 301-164 BC), we have a number of late goal-year texts

in which the eight-year period was used to predict the

appearances of Venus. These goal-year texts are clay tablets

that list astronomical data for a given year and also for years

specified by adding an appropriate number to the starting year.

For Venus, the number to be added is eight.Accordingly, the

pattern in the table for Venus will work for every eighth year

from the year for which the table is prepared. For example,

Professor Otto Neugebauer, one of the foremost historians

of ancient science, described one of the Venus goal-year texts

and showed that it provides dates and positions for Venus

at last visibility as a morning star in steps of eight years.

Another lists the planet's reappearance as an evening

star over three eight-year intervals.

Although the eight-year, five-cycle Venus period

is close, it is not exact. After eight years, Venus is actually

a little ahead of schedule,about 2.4 days. One text from the

Neo-Babylonian period (626-539 BC), referring to Venus as

Dilbat, records "Dilbat 8 years behind thee come back ... 4days

thou shalt subtract." Here, the Mesopotamian planet watcher

is instructed to subtract four days to get the right date for Venus.

This may appear to be in error, but it isn't. The 2.4-day correction

applies to a solar calendar and the Mesopotamians kept their

calendar by the moon. Because the moon arrived 1.6 days

late, Venus configurations recurred four days early, and

the Neo-Babylonian astronomers adjusted their predictions.

Unfortunately, the goal-year texts are rather late and do not

confirm that the eight-year cycle of Venus was known in Kassite times.

We have,however, copies of a much earlier set of

astronomical texts, the so-called tablets of Ammizaduga.

Ammizaduga (or Ammi-saduqa) was the next to thelast

king of the First Babylonian Dynasty and probably ruled

between 1650and 1550 BC. The exact dates are somewhat uncertain.

Three decades after the end of his reign the Hittites deposed

his successor, and somewhere in that period the Kassite Dynasty began.

The original tablets of Ammizaduga probably were inscribed

around 1700-1600BC, but they are long gone. Copies survived,

however, in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC)

at Nineveh and are in the British Museum today. In them, 21 years of

Venus data are given - dates of the first and last appearances as a

morning star and as an evening star and durations of invisibility

- along with appropriate omens.

If on the 25th of Tammuz Venus disappeared in the west,

for 7 days remaining absent in the sky, and on the 2nd of

Ab Venus was seen in the east, there will be rains in the

land; desolation will be wrought. (year8)

Despite scribal errors, the texts clearly exhibit the

eight-year cycle and indicate Mesopotamians in the

middle of the second millennium BC were aware of it.

Apart from a few exceptions, an eight-pointed star is

used exclusively for Venus on the Kassite boundary stones.

Other stars are usually represented by dots, and Sebitti, a

group of stars, is illustrated as a cluster of seven dots and

appears on many of the kudurru with the Star of Ishtar.

In later times the Ishtar symbol may have fallen into more

general use,but during the time of

the celestial boundary stones, the eight-pointed star meant Venus.
The Sun Takes Wing
During the Assyrian period many of the same Old Babylonian
symbols for celestial objects persist on commemorative stelae,
on temple walls, in cylinder seal impressions, and in other formal contexts.
A tablet that marks the restoration and re foundation of the temple of Shamash
at Sippar displays the three main symbols - sun, moon,
and Venus - as a celestial stamp of approval upon the
enterprise. Shamash is seated inside on a throne,and a
large version of his wavy-lined, four-pointed sun disk rests
upon a table. In this period, however, the sun's emblem sometimes
took a different shape. A winged disk replaced the Shamash emblem,
and often the primary god of the Assyrians, Assur, was ensconced
in the flaming disk. When the Assyrians ruled Mesopotamia, their
national deity assumed most of the characteristics of Marduk and
occupied the same role as creator and sustainer of order.Similarly,
Assur was associated with the sun, and so his
appearance inthe flying disk of the sun was altogether natural.

The winged sun symbol was common in late Mesopotamian art.

After theAssyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, the Achaemenians, a Persian

dynasty(558-330 BC), ruled Babylonia and Assyria.

Identical winged disks "fly"upon the walls of the great

Achaemenid ceremonial center at Persepolis.Of course,

the winged sun disk also appears on temples throughout upper Egypt.

The form is slightly different, for the Mesopotamian

version often sports a feathered tail in addition to the outspread wings.

It looks like a bird - as was intended - to suggest the idea of flight through the sky.

Bibliography:

E. C. Krupp, Echoes of the Ancient Skies:

The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations

Revelation 17

3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:
and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Jeremiah 10

1. Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2. Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

	In its historical roots and traditions the Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical institutes in the world. For the first foreshadowing of the Observatory can be traced to the constitution by Pope Gregory XIII of a committee to study the scientific data and implications involved in the reform of the calendar which occurred in 1582. The committee included Father Christoph Clavius, a Jesuit mathematician from the Roman College, who expounded and explained the reform. From that time and with some degree of continuity the Papacy has manifested an interest in and support for astronomical research. In fact, three early observatories were founded by the Papacy:
the Observatory of the Roman College (1774-1878) (illustrated), the Observatory of the Capitol (1827-1870), and the Specula Vaticana (1789-1821) in the Tower of the Winds within the Vatican. These early traditions of the Observatory reached their climax in the mid-nineteenth century with the researches at the Roman College of the famous Jesuit, Father Angelo Secchi, the first to classify stars according to their spectra. With these rich traditions as a basis and in order to counteract the longstanding accusations of a hostility of the Church towards science, Pope Leo XIII in 1891 formally refounded the Specola Vaticana (Vatican Observatory) and located it on a hillside behind the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

Several religious orders contributed personnel and directors to the Observatory. These included Barnabites, Oratorians, Augustinians, and Jesuits.

(Father Angelo Secchi in the foreground is surrounded by (from leftbackground to right foreground) Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Leo XIII, and Pope Pius XI. Painting by Fantini.)

For a little more than four decades astronomical research, which included a prominent international program to map the whole sky, was carried out in the shadow of St. Peter's, but it eventually became obvious that the urban growth of the Eternal City was brightening the sky to such an extent that the fainter stars could no longer be studied.

Thus it was that Pope Pius XI provided a new location for the Observatory at the Papal Summer Residence at Castel Gandolfo [ illustrated ] in the Alban Hills some 25 kilometers southeast of Rome.

It is here that the modern observatory, entrusted to the Jesuits, was refounded in the 1930s with the construction of two new telescopes, the installation of an astrophysical laboratory for spectrochemical analysis, and the expansion of several important research programs on variable stars. With the installation of a Schmidt wide-angle telescope in 1957 research was extended to other topics such as new techniques for the classification of stars according to their spectra. This is still an active program at the observatory and recalls the pioneering work of Angelo Secchi.

Details of these historical telescopes can be found on the Instrumentation page of this web site.

With the continuously increasing population of Rome the skies above the Observatory again became too bright. For this reason in 1981, for the first time in its history, the Observatory founded a second research center, the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), in Tucson, Arizona in the United States, one of the world's largest and most modern centers for observational astronomy. The Observatory staff have offices at Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona (picture shows S.O. on the right and its Mirror Laboratory under the football stadium at the end of the road). From here they have access to all of the modern telescopes located in the Tucson area. In 1993 the Observatory, in collaboration with Steward Observatory, completed the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope ( VATT ) on Mt. Graham, Arizona, probably the best astronomical site in the Continental United States. This is the first optical-infrared telescope of the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO), a project which in the coming years will see the construction of some of the world's most sophisticated and largest telescopes.

The VATT has pioneered the new technology of creating large, lightweight, stable mirrors in a rotating furnace (see picture to right). With the VATT we are pursuing long-term research programs which, although they were the hallmark of research at Castel Gandolfo, we have never been able to carry out before in Tucson. Thus from its two centers, located at Castel Gandolfo and at Tucson, the Observatory is continuing various current studies and international collaborations.

As translated by Dr. Martin McCarthy, S.J., the dedication plaque of the VATT reads:
This new tower for studying the stars has been erected during the XV year of the reign of John Paul II on this peaceful site so fit for such studies, and it has been equipped with a new large mirror for detecting the faintest glimmers of light from distant objects. May whoever searches here night and day the far reaches of space use it joyfully with the help of God.

The library at Castel Gandolfo contains more than 22,000 volumes and possesses a valuable collection of rare antique books including works of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Brahe, Clavius, and Secchi. In addition there is a unique meteorite collection from which a knowledge of the early history of the solar system is being derived. Research results are published in international journals. The Annual Report is distributed to more than 400 institutes around the world.

The observatory also publishes the Studi Galileiani, a series
of current research on Galileo and the Copernican controversies.

At intervals of about every two years we host either at Castel Gandolfo or at Tucson a scientific meeting with some twenty invited scholars on one of the current studies of the Observatory, and a book is

published based on the results of the conference.

Summer Schools in Astronomy and Astrophysics are

now a biannual event in the Vatican Observatory's programs.

Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs -That gather The Kings of The Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:35:00 +0000

Catholic Peacemaking

The workshop on Catholic peacemaking consisted of three presentations and discussion. The centerpiece was a paper by Rev. Drew Christiansen, SJ, of Woodstock Theological Center and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled "Catholic Peacemaking: From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus." According to Father Christiansen, it is hard to identify the precise starting point of modern Catholic peacemaking. Official reckoning assigns credit to Pope Benedict XV for his efforts to end the First World War. To Benedict, we owe the phrase, "Never again war, war never again," made famous by Pope Paul VI's 1965 address before the United Nations, and repeated by Pope John Paul II on several occasions. But Benedict's overtures were dismissed by the great powers, partly because his proposals did not fit their interests, partly because they suspected his sympathies with Catholic Austria, and partly because the pope himself was still a prisoner in the Vatican with reduced political influence. Other observers would place the starting point with Pope Pius XII. As a former diplomat, Pius took exceptional interest in international affairs, promoted Catholic internationalism, and played a significant role in Cold War politics.

One could argue that the true starting point came with Pope John XXIII. Not only did he play an active and a positive role in perhaps the most dangerous of post-war confrontations, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, but Pope John also issued an encyclical letter on peace that for the first time elaborated Catholic teaching on the matter in a sustained way. Pacem in terris ("Peace on Earth," 1963) had significant influence on the approach of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) to engagement in the world. It also provided the motivation for the most sustained Catholic contribution to post-conciliar peacemaking, namely, the church's defense of human rights as the foundation of peace. In 1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was overthrown by a bloody military coup, John's teaching on human rights would become the conceptual basis for establishment of the first major Catholic human rights office, originally called the Committee for Peace, and later the Vicariat for Solidarity, under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. In addition, Pacem in terris, published only months before John XXIII's death, received an incredibly warm reception from the non-Catholic, secular world. The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, for example, celebrated the encyclical with quadrennial conferences by the same name for two decades.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy White House was looking for back channels to communicate with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. After a request from the White House, Pope John sent a signal to Premier Khrushchev--which given the circumstances today sounds vague and convoluted--but Khrushchev welcomed the message, and began his movement back from the brink. Some days later, reflecting with his physician on the state of the world, Pope John shared his dream of writing an encyclical on peace. It was to be the last major act of his pontificate. Less than a year later he was dead of stomach cancer detected during the physical exam that November day.

The remainder of Christiansen's presentation falls into two parts. The first is an exposition of the Catholic vision of peace. This quick tour d'horizon helps define what is distinctive about Catholic peacemaking and points up at least one major weakness as well as significant strengths. The second part deals with official Catholic peacemaking, understood as the peace work of the pope, the Vatican, episcopal conferences, and individual bishops. The subtitle for Father Christiansen's paper, "From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus," is shorthand to encompass the recent history of Catholic social teaching and praxis. Pacem in terris, of course, represents John XXIII's contribution to teaching on peace and the praxis of human rights; Centesimus annus ("The Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum novarum," 1991) represents Pope John Paul II's extraordinary role in Eastern Europe and his positive endorsement of non-violence in the encyclical of that name, one of the great "secrets" of contemporary Catholicism.

The Catholic Vision of Peace

Father Christiansen begins with Pope John XXIII and Pacem in terris because, as Catholic teaching insists, peace is not the mere absence of war, nor even the avoidance of war. Peace is the positive realization of the dignity of the whole human family. The Catholic vision of peace consists of several constructive components, the first of which is human rights. By contrast with some other religious traditions presented in the Institute's series of workshops, with their emphasis on conflict resolution and conflict transformation, the modern Catholic social tradition emphasizes the positive content of peace. While in the 35 years since the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, Catholic peacemaking has come to recognize the importance of non-violence, and indeed to formally adopt non-violence in significant ways, its own theory of conflict resolution remains relatively underdeveloped as compared to its positive teaching on peace. The paradoxical result of a strong positive doctrine of peace and a less articulated doctrine of conflict resolution is that even as church leaders are thrown into the role of national conciliators because of the credibility they have won on the basis of their work for peace in fields like human rights and development, they find themselves bereft of tools and support as they attempt to exercise their responsibilities in conflict resolution. We return to this paradox at the conclusion in the discussion of the role of bishops in conciliation and mediation.

The Catholic vision of peace consists of four elements: (1) human rights, (2) development, (3) solidarity, and (4) world order. Pacem in terris re-conceived the whole of Catholic political theology in terms of human rights. The common good was redefined as the "objective recognition, respect, safeguarding and promotion of the rights of the human person." The encyclical declared that upholding the common good so conceived was the goal of all public authority. In so doing, it prepared the way for notions of humanitarian intervention as part of what might be called Catholic cosmopolitanism, the view that in international affairs the rights of persons take priority over the rights of states. Above and beyond the good of individual political communities and international relations, Pacem in terris also identified "the universal common good" and called for transnational institutions to address global problems. Two years after the release of Pacem in terris the Vatican Council declared that the promotion of human rights was one of the three ways in which the church served the world.

A second element of the Catholic understanding of peace is the value of integral or authentic development. Set forth in the council's Gaudium et spes ("The Pastoral Constitution on the Church and Modern World," 1965), Pope Paul VI's Populorum progressio ("Development of Peoples," 1968), John Paul II's Sollicitudo rei socialis ("On Social Concern," 1988), and somewhat less extensively in Centesimus annus (note 52), the idea of authentic development consists of three points: (1) the right of all people to the means for their full development as human beings, (2) the proposition that authentic human development consists of more than economic progress, and (3) the affirmation that the affluent nations of the world have an obligation to share the benefits of development with the poor, not just through aid, but also through structural economic changes such as equity in trade reform. The notion that "development is the new name for peace" appears as a summary tagline in Pope Paul VI's Populorum progressio. It is re-articulated in Centesimus, where Pope John Paul II presents development as an alternative to war in two senses. First, development addresses some of the longstanding causes of war; and second, church leaders hope that "a concerted worldwide campaign for development" will provide what William James called "a moral alternative to war," a high cause that can be widely shared and for which people will make considerable sacrifices.

The third component of the Catholic idea of peace is solidarity. In Catholic social theology, solidarity is a very rich and complex concept. Basically, it consists of active commitment to the belief that under God we belong to one human family. It has many applications in various contexts and for various classes of agents: for the poor, for workers, for affluent countries, between classes, between nations, and so on. Within the church, solidarity has special reference to the ties that bind churches in one part of the world to churches and people in other regions and continents. Thus, the church in the United States exercises solidarity in the representations it makes to governments on behalf of the church in Congo, or Guatemala, or Lebanon with respect to conflict resolution, re-development, and other post-conflict policies. Solidarity is manifest in public life as well, undergirding, for example, citizens' pleas to governments for debt cancellation or for restructuring trade.

Furthermore, the Second Vatican Council declared that a second way in which the church served humanity was in fostering the unity of the human community, a task which is fundamental to the church's own identity. Because of this commitment to the unity of the human family, church documents were among the first to recognize the trends toward interdependence and globalization. The church, to the consternation of some politically active American Catholics, has tended to be internationalist in its outlook, to support the United Nations system, and to search for new mechanisms to meet global problems.

Father Christiansen notes that the fourth element in the Catholic vision of peace consists in its teaching on world order, which focuses on issues of the breakdown of order. Over the past 20 years, the church has condemned nuclear war-fighting and made the elimination of nuclear weapons a goal for an ethical military policy. In a dramatic shift, moreover, the church has moved from simply praising the practitioners of non-violence to espousing non-violence as the fundamental Christian response to conflict. Reflecting on the events of 1989 in Eastern Europe, Pope John Paul II wrote: "I pray the example [of active non-violent resisters in Eastern Europe] will prevail in other places and in other circumstances. May people learn to fight for justice without violence, renouncing class struggle in their international disputes, and war in international ones." The Holy Father is clear that non-violent activists who accept their sufferings in imitation of Christ are "able to accomplish the miracle of peace and [are] in a position to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives into evil and the violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse."

The espousal of non-violence has meant a downplaying of just-war analysis in Vatican pronouncements, though it still utilizes the just-war criteria in criticism of acts of war the Holy See regards as immoral. In principle, however, the church continues to admit of a limited just use of arms when non-violence fails. In practice, however, it appears to regard "humanitarian intervention" as the sole remaining "just cause," and even then is quite reserved about the means to be utilized in defense of the innocent. Finally, because of their harmful effects on large civilian populations, as in Iraq and Cuba, the church has been highly critical of the use of sanctions as a tool of coercive diplomacy and a supposed alternative to war.

To sum up, the Catholic vision of peace is primarily a positive one, focusing on the promotion and defense of human rights, collaboration in authentic development, building bonds of solidarity among people, and constructing the institutions of world peace. Its approach to the breakdown of peace is to foster non-violent practices and to permit the use of arms in humanitarian intervention only when whole populations are at risk.

The Catholic Practice of Peace after Vatican II

The Second Vatican Council brought about two structural changes in church organization that have shaped its ability to respond to questions of justice and peace for the past 35 years. The first was the establishment of bishops' conferences as forums for bishops to consult and coordinate on matters of pastoral and social strategy. When bishops work in harmony, their conferences can be a steady force for peace even in very violent societies. Their pastoral letters and public statements are often catalysts in opening public debate or in galvanizing public opinion, even outside the church. Their coordinated social initiatives mean that work for peace and justice, especially where there is a Catholic majority or a sizable Catholic population in a country, can spread wide and deep within society.

The second innovation was the institution of justice and peace commissions, beginning with the creation of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as part of the Vatican curia (the administrative organization of the Holy See). The council carries out research and organizes programs in areas like the control of trade in small arms, the abolition of anti-personnel land mines, trade reform, and debt relief for poor nations. Officials of the council also represent the Holy See in major international conferences. At lower levels, justice and peace commissions, or sometimes human rights commissions, are the church organs that deal up close with local, national, and regional problems. The networking of these commissions, moreover, provides international support for those working on the frontlines for justice, peace, and human rights.

Although not a structural change, a third contribution of the Catholic hierarchy to peacemaking should be noted--the role of individual bishops as conciliators and mediators.

1. The Papacy and the Holy See. Whole books have been written about Pope John Paul II. Father Christiansen notes that several of the pope's biographers and many political analysts regard him as the single most important figure in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Pope John Paul has greatly increased the role of the papacy in international affairs, especially through his travels. Wherever he has traveled, dictatorial regimes have fallen, most notably, the Jaruzelski government in his native Poland and the Duvalier regime in Haiti. His visit to Lebanon and his apostolic exhortation concluding the Synod for Lebanon were landmarks in the movement toward reconciliation in post-civil war Lebanon. The Holy Father's three-cornered conversation with Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, one biographer believes, may have prevented military confrontation between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites as communist governments fell in 1989.

Under John Paul II, Vatican diplomacy has changed its approach to world affairs. The Vatican undersecretary of state for relations with states, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, calls it "a diplomacy of conscience" because its primary concern is the good of the human family, in keeping the peace, in defending human rights, in protecting religious freedom. Even the church's agreements with states tend today to focus first on human rights, then on religious rights generally, and only last on the specific needs of the church. For example, both the 1993 Fundamental Agreement with Israel and the 2000 Basic Agreement with the Palestinian Liberation Organization follow this pattern.

2. Episcopal conferences. At a recent international Mennonite-Catholic dialogue near Karlsruhe, Germany, one of three papers addressing "What Is a Peace Church?" came from a Mennonite pastor from Guatemala. The church that he described as a peace church, however, was not the Mennonite Church in Guatemala, but the Catholic Church and especially its bishops' conference. The bishops of Guatemala have been a steady force for peace in their society, promoting negotiations, defending human rights, providing accompaniment for refugees. Unlike some conferences in neighboring countries during some points over the past 20 years, the Guatemalan bishops have been both moderate and united, and this has contributed to the weight of their peacemaking in their country. Sadly, the importance of their work was reinforced two years ago with the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi just after he had filed a report on human rights abuses during Guatemala's civil war.

The bishops' conference of the United States plays a unique role among episcopal conferences. After Brazil's, it is the largest conference in the world, with more than 300 active members. Because the policies of the United States impact so much on the world, other conferences and individual bishops, sometimes at the suggestion of the Holy See, look to the U.S. bishops' conference to help address their problems. Occasionally the U.S. government looks to the bishops to assist with its problems. President Clinton, reports one bishop, attributes his last-minute dispatching of President Carter and General Powell to Haiti to negotiate with the Cedras government on the eve of the "intravention" on that island to have been inspired in part by a joint letter of the presidents of the U.S., Canadian, and Latin American bishops' conferences. The U.S. bishops' conference's most notable accomplishment, of course, was the widely read and much studied 1983 pastoral letter on nuclear arms, "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response," which played a major role in forming public opinion in favor of halting the nuclear arms build-up.

The U.S. bishops address issues of peace in a number of ways: with pastoral letters and public statements, with visits of solidarity to churches in troubled areas of the world, with representations to U.S. and foreign governments, and with advocacy on executive and legislative policy proposals. The U.S. Catholic Conference's Department of Social Development and World Peace, which includes the Office of International Justice and Peace, also tries to build a constituency for issues in the Catholic community, providing training for diocesan and parish social ministry workers and educational programs for the Catholic faithful.

3. Bishop conciliators and mediators. This brief review of official Catholic peacemaking cannot be concluded without some note of the role individual bishops have played in the difficult task of peacemaking. Frequently, an individual bishop is thrust into a distinctive leadership role. Such was the case with El Salvador's martyred Archbishop Romero or Congo's Archbishop Monswengo, for many years the official conciliator in Congo (Zaire). Others include Don Samuel Ruiz from Chiapas, Mexico; the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah; and Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo (Bishop Belo as he is known in the United States), the Nobel laureate from East Timor. By the early 1990s, an estimated 35 bishops had served as national conciliators in their countries' civil conflicts.

Bishop Ruiz, now the retired bishop of San Bartolomeo de las Casas, represents an atypical success, in assembling a remarkable set of resources for defending human rights and advancing the cause of peace. A defender of indigenous rights in Chiapas state, he was later named mediator between the government and the Zapatista rebels. Ruiz had a high profile outside of Mexico, a great deal of international support, including volunteer personnel, and a highly organized human rights and peace organization, including the Centro Bartolomeo de las Casas, a human rights monitoring group. His human rights work led naturally to Ruiz's role as a peacemaker.

In Chiapas, where evangelical Protestants and Catholics are frequently in competition for membership and at odds over who provides local leadership, Ruiz was a father figure for all. His wide credibility by a reason of his defense of indigenous rights can be understood by recalling a simple incident. At one point, when his cathedral and residence were under siege by local landowners, evangelical Indians rushed down from the hills to protect him. "We have come," the evangelicals announced, "to protect our bishop."

Ruiz also had a natural talent for orchestrating his work. Once he dispatched a visiting U.S. delegation to celebrate Mass in a parish where a U.S. priest had just been expelled, without explaining that the Americans would be met by 6,000 peasants demonstrating for the return of their pastor, an apolitical man deported largely to put pressure on the church to back off its vigorous defense of indigenous peoples. After dinner, on the delegation's return, Ruiz announced to his American visitors, "Now we are having a press conference. You," he told the delegation, "can go first." No wonder the Mexican government feared and respected him.

More typical is Bishop Belo of East Timor, a largely isolated figure, with little immediate social support or infrastructure to sustain him, and with sympathetic but relatively weak support internationally. In the years' prior to East Timor's 1999 independence vote, he walked a narrow line, defending human rights, espousing the cause of independence, all the while pleading for non-violence. Without support from the Indonesian bishops' conference, under pressure from the papal nuncio and U.S. diplomats, criticized by Vatican curialists, he was supported only by Pope John Paul II. The destruction of his homeland following United Nations-run elections in 1999 by marauding Indonesian militias broke his spirit. Not even a Nobel Peace Prize could compensate for the pillaging of his island and the dispossession of its people.

In the middle range, in terms of resources for witnessing to peace, is Jerusalem's Latin or Roman Catholic patriarch Michel Sabbah. He is a Palestinian, born near Nazareth, and his appointment at the outbreak of the first intifada made him a natural leader for Christian Palestinians. He has overseen a diocesan synod, revitalizing and updating local church life. He has formed a justice and peace commission and a legal aid agency, the Society of Saint Yves. His most notable achievement has been overcoming centuries of rivalry among Jerusalem's historic Christian churches to form a common front with the two other patriarchs and ten other heads of churches on issues of justice, peace, and human rights. A 1998 peace catechism from the Latin Patriarchate, drafted under his supervision, laid out in some detail a Palestinian Catholic perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the relation of justice to peace, and the place of non-violence in the Palestinians' struggle for a homeland of their own. He has also developed notable ties of solidarity with U.S. Catholic bishops, the bishops of England and Wales, and episcopal conferences in Europe, not to mention the Vatican. Despite all this, his support systems are still fragile and Patriarch Sabbah must rely very much on himself and his faith in God.

The work of Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Bishop Belo, and Archbishop Monswengo illustrate the ways in which the church's teaching on human rights and human dignity has changed the role of bishops, thrusting them into conflict and conflict resolution, without a comparable change in training and church organization, especially in sharply divided underdeveloped societies. When bishops speak out on human rights issues and as a result are thrust into the role of spokesperson for their people, they lack a trained cadre of people or institutions to assist him.

The church's role in building peace has grown enormously in the last half-century. Father Christiansen argues that in the next decade, the larger church (the Vatican, the major episcopal conferences, the major Catholic donor agencies like Catholic Relief Services) will need to implement programs to provide the training, staffing, and infrastructure for bishops on the frontlines to contribute more substantially to peacemaking efforts. In 1994, the U.S. Catholic Conference in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services and Duquesne University sponsored a workshop for African bishops who had been peacemakers in their own countries. This and other conferences mark the beginning of a process that needs to grow. The Catholic vision of peace as a way of life worthy of human dignity has put bishops on the frontlines. They have shown generosity, great persistence, and sometimes inventiveness in meeting their challenges with very few resources. The time has come to share resources for peacemaking with them.

The work of justice and peace is essential to the life of the Catholic Church today. Bishops bear a special responsibility for teaching the gospel as it relates to justice, peace, and human rights. The work of transforming the world, however, belongs appropriately to lay people. Bishops, alone or together, are forced into leadership roles in divided societies for many reasons: the weakness of civil institutions, the autonomy and moral authority of the church, the credibility gained by the church's service to the oppressed, the freedom offered by a celibate life. While necessary, such leadership is the exception. Lay people should rightly take the lead. Hopefully as Catholic social teaching becomes more widely known and appropriated, there will be many more Catholic lay leaders involved in peacemaking.

Finally, Father Christiansen already noted that Catholic teaching and practice of peacemaking was strong on peacebuilding and weaker on conflict-related tasks. The latter is an area where Catholics can learn from others, such as the Mennonites. If life in God is an exchange of gifts, then it is appropriate that just as Miguel Higueras has learned from the peace witness of the bishops' conference in Guatemala, so the Catholic Church in many places can learn techniques of active non-violence and conflict resolution from trainers in the Mennonite tradition.

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international relief and development arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and undertakes international peace work on behalf of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. Father William Headley, CSSp, who is deputy executive director of CRS, made a presentation on its peace work.

While CRS has provided international relief and development aid since 1943, peacemaking did not become a high priority until recently. No single recent event has affected the direction of CRS so deeply as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. CRS had years of experience in Rwanda and was highly regarded, but was totally unprepared for the genocide and had not devoted resources and energy to forestalling this slaughter. The aftershock of the Rwanda genocide led CRS to apply a social analysis inspired by justice principles to every future activity of CRS. Every program is now assessed in terms of its potential impact on justice and peace.

CRS currently has 61 peacebuilding projects. These activities take place in many parts of the globe and emphasize South-South collaboration. Programs exist at all stages of a conflict's life cycle, from prevention through trauma healing.

In Morocco, CRS is engaged in preventing violent conflict by incorporating conflict resolution alongside its justice focus in all programming areas.
CRS/Philippines is supporting dialogue between religious leaders in the conflicted southern region of Mindanao. The Bishops-Ulama Dialogue Forum provides inter-religious bridge building and reinforces the more formal political process of negotiation sponsored by the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process.
CRS staff in Croatia works on post-conflict trauma healing. CRS developed basic and advanced curricula for trauma awareness and continues to provide training for medical personnel, social workers, doctors, teachers, and attorneys in trauma awareness and response.

Other projects promote capacity building in peacebuilding skills for sister churches in war-torn countries.

In East Timor, CRS works with two Peace and Justice Commissions of the Catholic Church on the East Timor Peace, Reconciliation and Dialogue initiative. Jointly, they strengthened the capacity of 12 local organizations to work on peacebuilding and reconciliation over this past year.
Working with Peace and Justice Commissions of four dioceses in Chad, CRS has helped support local efforts at peacebuilding and conflict resolution. One project supported local mediation efforts between herders and farmers in southern Chad. Another translated peacebuilding materials into French for local use.
CRS/Kosovo initiated a Justice and Peace program to develop local capacity for peacebuilding.

Many of CRS's peacebuilding initiatives are integrated into ongoing relief and development efforts.

The Myriamville community bakery project in Mindanao, Philippines exemplifies how peacebuilding can be integrated into micro-enterprise development projects. In June 1997, a bakery was established to strengthen community relations, provide opportunities for employment, and allow Muslims and Christians to work side-by-side. The bakery is a financial success and has fostered joint participation in religious celebrations.
Programs in Bosnia-Herzegovina also engage representatives from different religious communities in micro-enterprise projects, as well as in identifying development and reconstruction projects and potential recipients. This structure has fostered working relationships among Bosnian Serb, Muslim, and Croat leaders in numerous communities.

CRS is organizing an increasing number of training workshops. These are conducted both for CRS staff and for local leaders.

CRS has supported peacebuilding and conflict resolution workshops in Colombia, El Salvador, Kosovo, Peru, the Philippines, and Rwanda. The project in Rwanda focuses particularly on youth from four dioceses, bringing together 500 youth in solidarity camps and providing education on peace, justice, reconciliation, Rwandan history, and conflict resolution.
In the summer of 2000, CRS and the Conflict Transformation Program of Eastern Mennonite University co-sponsored a Mindanao Summer Peace Institute. CRS is planning to organize several similar regional peace institutes in the future in various parts of the world. Finally, CRS and Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute are planning a two-week summer course that combines CRS's development work with Catholic approaches to peace and peacebuilding.

In August 2000, an "Intercontinental Meeting: Africa/Latin America" was held in Maputo, Mozambique to enable a South-South dialogue on peacemaking. Two Catholic bodies with a global reach jointly shared sponsorship for this event: Caritas Internationalis and the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace. CRS's regional staff in Latin America was among the initial architects for this program.

Caritas Internationalis, a federation of 154 national Catholic Caritas organizations worldwide that promote development and social justice, made work on reconciliation a priority for its 1995-99 mandate. This led to the production of Working for Reconciliation: A Caritas Handbook. CRS provided staff and financial support for this important resource for Catholic peacebuilding throughout the world. CRS is helping popularize this text by preparing lesson plans and training manuals.

Sant'Egidio

The Community of Sant'Egidio is an international Catholic organization, recognized by the Holy See as a lay public association. It was founded in 1968 by an 18-year-old high school student in Rome. There are presently communities of Sant'Egidio in more than 40 countries; membership totals 30,000. Even though Sant'Egidio is recognized by the Holy See and has many elements of a religious organization, its members are lay people who do not take any vows and who hold normal secular jobs as their means of support. The community was instrumental in the peaceful resolution of the civil war in Mozambique and has facilitated peace dialogues in Albania, Algeria, Burundi, Guatemala, Kosovo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The community's work and philosophy were presented at the workshop by Dr. Andrea Bartoli, a vice president of the community and a faculty member at Columbia University in New York.

Bartoli explained that the philosophy and work of the community are best captured by four Latin words--communio, traditio, romanitas, and pietas. As a communio, Sant'Egidio recognizes itself as part of a large family that stretches around the world. In practical terms the skills most valued by the community are careful listening, prompt response, a commitment to relationships, a preparedness to stop and change pace, and hospitality. The reality of community grows out of the three disciplines of prayer (both personal and collective), service to the poor, and friendship. The peacemaking of the community is a direct expression of these three disciplines.

While the community sees itself as an integral component of Catholic tradition (traditio), it also views itself as one of the latest expressions of Catholic plasticity--a Catholic ability to adapt, respond, and incorporate change, which was so effectively reflected in the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II transformed the role not only of the laity but also of the bishops and the Holy See.

Although the community's membership and activities are spread throughout much of the world, it is headquartered in Rome (romanitas) and cherishes its location in the same sacred space where the Catholic Church is headquartered.

It is piety (pietas) and love of the poor that is central to the community's commitment to peacemaking. The poor are the ones who suffer most from war and to serve the poor therefore means to be a peacemaker. The members of the community have a strong sense of responsibility to those in pain and suffering. The caring attitude toward those in need around the world opens the community to seek out person-to-person contact, which is central to its peacemaking philosophy. Beyond this commitment to personal relationships lies its conviction that peace comes through dialogue and understanding. The community also has a deep appreciation of its own weakness, and is always ready to seek assistance from other organizations in its peacemaking efforts. It is also prepared to risk failure in pursuit of peace.

Conclusion

Even though this report only covers the peacemaking activities of a limited sample of Catholic organizations, some conclusions can nevertheless be drawn about Catholic peacemaking. It is evident from this report that Catholic organizations adopt diverse approaches to peacemaking, ranging from the efforts of Pope John Paul II to end communism in Eastern Europe to the program of CRS to promote Christian-Muslim dialogue in the Philippines. Despite this diversity, the emphasis of Catholic peacemaking is more likely to be on high-level mediation. This is true even of Sant'Egidio, which emphasizes modest, person-to-person aid to the poor but focuses its peacemaking on high-level official peace agreements. This approach contrasts sharply, for instance, with the Mennonite focus on peacebuilding at lower and middle levels of society.

In general, the central guiding authority of the Vatican and its theological framework for peacemaking provide greater coherence and consistency to Catholic peacemaking efforts than is true of other faiths with less theological consistency. The very close linkage forged between peace, on the one hand, and justice and human rights on the other, makes peace with justice a basic tenet of Catholic peacemaking. Peace for the sake of peace is not worthy of pursuit unless peace can be founded on principles of justice and adherence to basic norms of human rights. The priority accorded to non-violence is relatively recent and can be dated to the Second Vatican Council. While the peace with justice tradition has a long history within Catholicism, attention to conflict resolution and the skills required to promote the peaceful resolution of conflict have only gained importance recently. In many cases the training opportunities and the institutional support for these activities are only now being developed.

About the Report

The United States Institute of Peace launched its Religion and Peacemaking Initiative in July 2000, building on experience gained from an earlier Institute program entitled Religion, Ethics, and Human Rights. This new initiative endeavors to aid American religious organizations in being more active and more effective as international peacemakers.

One component of this initiative has been the organization of a series of workshops on the peacemaking activities of various American religious communities. A workshop on Mennonite peacemaking was held in November. In December a workshop explored the sources of conflict resolution in Judaism. On February 5 the initiative organized a workshop on Catholic peacemaking. The purpose was to explore the peacemaking activities of key Catholic organizations and to explicate the distinctively Catholic nature of peacemaking by these and other Catholic organizations. The discussion focused on the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, and the lay organization Sant'Egidio.

This Special Report summarizes the presentations at that workshop. It has been prepared by David Smock, director of the Religion and Peacemaking Initiative.

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Institute of Peace, which does not advocate specific policies.

Of Related Interest

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The Revelation of Thomas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:14:00 +0000

APOCALYPSE OF THOMAS

From "The Apocryphal New Testament"
M.R. James-Translation and Notes
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924

Introduction

The emergence of this book has been recent. The Gelasian Decree condemns the book 'called the Revelation of Thomas' as apocryphal, and that was all that was known of it. In 1908 a quotation in the Berlin MS. (eighth-ninth century) of Jerome's Chronicle was noticed by Dr. Frick. At the eighteenth year of Tiberius, the manuscript has this note:

In a certain apocryphal book, said to be of Thomas the apostle it is written that the Lord Jesus told him that from his ascension into heaven to his second advent the time comprised is nine jubilees.

This does not appear in any of the published texts. Already in 1907 F. Wilhelm had printed, in his Deutsche Legenden und Legendare, a text from a Munich MS. which attracted little attention, but was in fact the lost Apocalypse, or part of it.

In the same year E. Hauler showed that a leaf of a fifth-century palimpsest at Vienna -the same that contains a leaf of the Epistle of the Apostles- was a fragment of this book. Professor E. von Dobschutz had, before this, begun making preparation for an edition of the Apocalypse based on manuscripts at Munich and Rome which has not yet appeared. In the Journal of Theological Studies for 1910 I printed the beginning of the book from a Verona MS. (of eighth century). Maffei had noticed this, and in 1755 Dionisi had printed it in a forgotten volume. In 1911 Dom Bihlmeyer printed another 'uninterpolated' text from Munich in the Revue Benedictine. Yet more: in 1913 Max Forster (Studien z. engl. Phlilol.: Der Vercelli-Codex) showed that the fifteenth sermon in the famous Anglo-Saxon MS. at Vercelli is an Old English version of this Revelation; that a Hatton MS. and the Blickling Homilies also contain matter drawn from it: and that a shortened Latin form is to be found in a dialogue printed by Suchier (L'Enfant sage, 1910, p. 272). Lastly, there are quotations from it in some odd -I think Irish- homilies in a Reichenau MS. at Carlsruhe, printed by Domde Bruyneas 'Apocryphes Priscillianistes' in the Revue Bened., 1907.

There is, then, a quantity of material which we shall look to Professor Dohschutz to co-ordinate. Latin appears to have been the original language, and the data of the fuller text point to the days of Arcadius and Honorius. How much earlier the shorter text may be it is not easy to say: and I would not commit myself to the assertion that there is not a Greek document at the back of that.

APOCALYPSE OF THOMAS

A. Verona fragment (eighth century) and Wilhelm's text (Munich Clm. 4585, ninth century).

Here beginneth the epistle of the Lord unto Thomas.

Hear thou, Thomas, the things which must come to pass in the last times: there shall be famine and war and earthquakes in divers places, snow and ice and great drought shall there be and many dissensions among the peoples, blasphemy, iniquity, envy and villainy, indolence, pride and intemperance, so that every man shall speak that which pleaseth him. And my priests shall not have peace among themselves, but shall sacrifice unto me with deceitful mind: therefore will I not look upon them. Then shall the priests behold the people departing from the house of the Lord and turning unto the world (?) and setting up (or, transgressing) landmarks in the house of God. And they shall claim (vindicate) for themselves many [things and] places that were lost and that shall be subject unto Caesar (?) as also they were aforetime: giving poll-taxes of (for) the cities, even gold and silver and the chief men of the cities shall be condemned (here Verona ends: Munich continues) and their substance brought into the treasury of the kings, and they shall be filled.

For there shall be great disturbance throughout all the people, and death. The house of the Lord shall be desolate, and their altars shall be abhorred, so that spiders weave their webs therein. The place of holiness shall be corrupted, the priesthood polluted, distress (agony) shall increase, virtue shall be overcome, joy perish, and gladness depart. In those days evil shall abound: there shall be respecters of persons, hymns shall cease out of the house of the Lord, truth shall be no more, covetousness shall abound among the priests; an upright man (al. an upright priesthood) shall not be found.

On a sudden there shall arise near the last time a king, a lover of the law, who shall hold rule not for long: he shall leave two sons. The first is named of the first letter (A, Arcadius), the second of the eighth (H, Honorius). The first shall die before the second (Arcadius died in 408- Honorius in 423).

Thereafter shall arise two princes to oppress the nations under whose hands there shall be a very great famine in the right-hand part of the east, so that nation shall rise up against nation and be driven out from their own borders.

Again another king shall arise, a crafty man (?), and shall command a golden image of Caesar (?) to be made (al. to be worshipped in the house of God), wherefore (?) martyrdoms shall abound. Then shall faith return unto the servants of the Lord, and holiness shall be multiplied and distress (agony) increase. The mountains shall the comforted and shall drop down sweetness of fire from the facet, that the number of the saints may be accomplished.

After a little space there shall arise a king out of the east, a lover of the law, who shall cause all good things and necessary to abound in the house of the Lord: he shall show mercy unto the widows and to the needy, and command a royal gift to be given unto the priests: in his days shall be abundance of all things.

And after that again a king shall arise in the south part of the world, and shall hold rule a little space: in whose days the treasury shall fail because of the wages of the Roman soldiers so that the substance of all the aged shall be commanded (to be taken) and given to the king to distribute.

Thereafter shall be plenty of corn and wine and oil, but great dearness of money, so that the substance of gold and silver shall be given for corn, and there shall be great dearth.

At that time shall be very great rising (?) of the sea, so that no man shall tell news to any man. The kings of the earth and the princes and the captains shall be troubled, and no man shall speak freely (boldly). Grey hairs shall be seen upon boys, and the young (?) shall not give place unto the aged.

After that shall arise another king, a crafty man, who shall hold rule for a short space: in whose days there shall be all manner of evils, even the death of the race of men from the east even unto Babylon. And thereafter death and famine and sword in the land of Chanaan even unto (Rome?). Then shall all the fountains of waters and wells boil over (?) and be turned into blood (or, into dust and blood). The heaven shall be moved, the stars shall fall upon the earth, the sun shall be cut in half like the moon, and the moon shall not give her light. There shall be great signs and wonders in those days when Antichrist draweth near. These are the signs unto them that dwell in the earth. In those days the pains of great travail shall come upon them. (al. In those days, when Antichrist now draweth near, these are the signs. Woe unto them that dwell on the earth; in those days great pains of travail shall come upon them.) Woe unto them that build, for they shall not inhabit. Woe unto them that break up the fallow, for they shall labour without cause. Woe unto them that make marriages, for unto famine and need shall they beget sons. Woe unto them that join house to house or field to field, for all things shall be consumed with fire. Woe unto them that look not unto (?) themselves while time alloweth, for hereafter shall they be condemned for ever. Woe unto them that turn away from the poor when he asketh.

[Here is a break: the text goes on: For I am of the high and powerful: I am the Father of all. (al. And know ye: I am the Father most high: I am the Father of all spirits.) This, as we shall see, is the beginning of the older(?) and shorter text, and of the Vienna fragment: only, in the latter, some words now unintelligible precede it: not the words, however, which are in Wilhelm's text. I will continue with Wilhelm.]

These are the seven signs the ending of this world. There shall be in all the earth famine and great pestilences and much distress: then shall all men be led captive among all nations and shall fall by the edge of the sword.

On the first day of the judgement will be a great marvel (or, the beginning shall be). At the third hour of the day shall be a great and mighty voice in the firmament of the heaven, and a great cloud of blood coming down out of the north, and great thunderings and mighty lightnings shall follow that cloud, and there shall be a rain of blood upon all the earth. These are the signs of the first day (Monday in the Anglo-Saxon, and so for the other days).

And on the second day there shall be a great voice in the firmament of the heaven, and the earth shall be moved out of its place: and the gates of heaven shall be opened in the firmament of heaven toward the east, and a great power shall be sent belched) forth by the gates of heaven and shall cover all the heaven even until evening (al. and there shall be fears and tremblings in the world). These are the signs of the second day.

And on the third day, about the second hour, shall be a voice in heaven, and the abysses of the earth shall utter their voice from the four corners of the world. The first heaven shall be rolled up like a book and shall straightway vanish. And because of the smoke and stench of the brimstone of the abyss the days shall be darkened unto the tenth hour. Then shall all men say: I think that the end draweth near, that we shall perish. These are the signs of the third day.

And on the fourth day at the first hour, the earth of the east shall speak, the abyss shall roar: then shall all the earth be moved by the strength of an earthquake. In that day shall all the idols of the heathen fall, and all the buildings of the earth. These are the signs of the fourth day.

And on the fifth day, at the sixth hour, there shall be great thunderings suddenly in the heaven, and the powers of light and the wheel of the sun shall be caught away, and there shall be great darkness over the world until evening, and the stars shall be turned away from their ministry. In that day all nations shall hate the world and despise the life of this world. These are the signs of the fifth day.

And on the sixth day there shall be signs in heaven. At the fourth hour the firmament of heaven shall be cloven from the east unto the west. And the angels of the heavens shall be looking forth upon the earth the opening of the heavens. And all men shall see above the earth the host of the angels looking forth out of heaven. Then shall all men flee.

(Here Wilhelm's text ends abruptly.)

B. Bihlmeyer's text, from Munich Clm. 4563 (eleventh to twelfth century, from Benedictbeuren): and the Vienna fragment.

Hear thou, O Thomas, for I am the Son of God the Father and I am the father of all spirits. Hear thou of me the signs which shall come to pass at the end of this world, when the end of the world shall be fulfilled (Vienna: that it pass away) before mine elect depart out of the world. I will tell thee that which shall come to pass openly unto men (or, will tell thee openly, &c.): but when these things shall be the princes of the angels know not, seeing it is now hidden from before them (Vienna adds: at what day the end shall be fulfilled, and some defective clauses).

Then shall there be in the world sharings (participations) between king and king, and in all the earth shall be great famine great pestilences, and many distresses, and the sons of men shall be led captive among all nations and shall fall by the edge of the sword (and there shall be great commotion in the world: Vienna omits). Then after that when the hour of the end draweth nigh there shall be for seven days great signs in heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved.

Then shall there be on the first day the beginning: at the third hour of the day a great and mighty voice in the firmament of heaven and a bloody cloud coming up (down, Vienna) out of the north, and great thunderings and mighty lightnings shall follow it, and it shall cover the whole heaven, and there shall be a rain of blood upon all the earth. These are the signs of the first day.

And on the second day there shall be a great voice in the firmament of heaven, and the earth shall be moved out of its place, and the gates of heaven shall be opened in the firmament of heaven toward the east, and the (smoke of a great fire shall break forth through the gates of heaven and shall cover all the heaven until evening. In that day there shall be fears and great terrors in the world. These are the signs of the second day. Vienna is defective here).

But on the third day about the third hour shall be a great voice in heaven, and the abysses of the earth (Vienna ends) shall roar from the four corners of the world; the pinnacles (so) of the firmament of heaven shall be opened, and all the air shall be filled with pillars of smoke. There shall be a stench of brimstone, very evil, until the tenth hour, and men shall say: We think the time draweth nigh that we perish. These are the signs of the third day.

And on the fourth day at the first hour, from the land of the east the abyss shall melt (so) and roar. Then shall all the earth be shaken by the might of an earthquake. In that day shall the ornaments of the heathen fall, and all the buildings of the earth, before the might of the earthquake. These are the signs of the fourth day.

But on the fifth day at the sixth hour, suddenly there shall be a great thunder in heaven, and the powers of light and the wheel of the sun shall be caught away (MS. opened), and there shall be great darkness in the world until evening, and the air shall be gloomy (sad) without sun or moon, and the stars shall cease from their ministry. In that day shall all nations behold as in a mirror (?) (or, behold it as sackcloth) and shall despise the life of this world. These are the signs of the fifth day.

And on the sixth day at the fourth hour there shall be a great voice in heaven, and the firmament of the heaven shall be cloven from the east unto the west, and the angels of the heavens shall be looking forth upon the earth by the openings of the heavens, and all these that are on the earth shall behold the host of the angels looking forth out of heaven. Then shall all men flee unto the monuments (mountains ?) and hide themselves from the face of the righteous angels, and say: Would that the earth would open and swallow us up! And such things shall come to pass as never were since this world was created.

Then shall they behold me coming from above in the light of my Father with the power and honour of the holy angels. Then at my coming shall the fence of fire of paradise be done away -because paradise is girt round about with fire. And this shall be that perpetual fire that shall consume the earth and all the elements of the world.

Then shall the spirits and souls of all men come forth from paradise and shall come upon all the earth: and every one of them shall go unto his own body, where it is laid up, and every one of them shall say: Here lieth my body. And when the great voice of those spirits shall be heard, then shall there be a great earthquake over all the world, and by the might thereof the mountains shall be cloven from above and the rocks from beneath. Then shall every spirit return into his own vessel and the bodies of the saints which have fallen asleep shall arise.

Then shall their bodies be changed into the image and likeness and the honour of the holy angels, and into the power of the image of mine holy Father. Then shall they be clothed with the vesture of life eternal, out of the cloud of light which hath never been seen in this world; for that cloud cometh down out of the highest realm of the heaven from the power of my Father. And that cloud shall compass about with the beauty thereof all the spirits that have believed in me.

Then shall they be clothed, and shall be borne by the hand of the holy angels like as I have told you aforetime. Then also shall they be lifted up into the air upon a cloud of light, and shall go with me rejoicing unto heaven, and then shall they continue in the light and honour of my Father. Then shall there be unto them great gladness with my Father and before the holy angels These are the signs of the sixth day.

And on the seventh day at the eighth hour there shall be voices in the four corners of the heaven. And all the air shall be shaken, and filled with holy angels, and they shall make war among them all the day long. And in that day shall mine elect be sought out by the holy angels from the destruction of the world. Then shall all men see that the hour of their destruction draweth near. These are the signs of the seventh day.

And when the seven days are passed by, on the eighth day at the sixth hour there shall be a sweet and tender voice in heaven from the east. Then shall that angel be revealed which hath power over the holy angels: and all the angels shall go forth with him, sitting upon chariots of the clouds of mine holy Father (so) rejoicing and running upon the air beneath the heaven to deliver the elect that have believed in me. And they shall rejoice that the destruction of this world hath come.

The words of the Saviour unto Thomas are ended, concerning the end of this world.

None of the Latin texts seem to be complete. But we see that Wilhelm's text is a blend of two sorts of Apocalypse -that akin to Daniel which, under the form of prophecy, describes events contemporary with the author and continues them into the future: and that which is more akin to John and describes the signs of the end.

Bihlmeyer's text has only the latter element, and as it agrees pretty closely with our oldest authority, the Vienna fragment (though in that, as I have said, something did precede Bihlmeyer's opening) I judge it to be the older of the two forms. The first part of Wilhelm's text with its clumsy indication of Arcadius and Honorius by means of their initials is much in the manner of the later Sibyllines, in which this particular trick is pushed to an absurd length, and used for quite imaginary personages as well as historic ones. In the second part Wilhelm's text departs widely from the Vienna fragment, and here again shows itself as probably inferior.

The Apocalypse, we see, was known in England in the ninth century at least: and I think it must probably be regarded as the ultimate parent of a little piece which is found in innumerable manuscripts and has often been printed: I mean Jerome on the Fifteen Signs of the last days before the judgement. The beginning of this states that Jerome found it 'in the annals of the Hebrews'. Its popularity was very great. Illustrations of the Fifteen Signs are occasionally to be found in manuscripts, and I have seen them on the alabaster tablets carved at Nottingham in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but the best-known representation of them is in a window at All Saints', North Street, York, where they are accompanied by mottoes taken from the 'Prick of Conscience',which used to be attributed to Richard of Hampole.

The Anglo-Saxon version in the Vercelli Book (no. xv) begins thus:

We are told in this book how Saint Thomas the apostle of God asked our Lord when the time of Antichrist should be. Then the Lord spake unto him and said thus:

It behoveth that it be in the next days. Then shall be hunger and war, &c.:

The text conforms, generally speaking, to the longer recensions. The signs of the fifth day are omitted. The conclusion diverges from the Latin and tells how the Virgin, Michael, and Peter successively intercede with the Judge, and he forgives a third part of the sinners at the prayer of each. But not all are pardoned: for we then have the sentences: Venite benedicti and Discedite maledicti as in Matt. xxv.

Quite recently (in Proc. R.I.A.) the Rev. St. J. Seymour has pointed out the probable dependence of the Saltair na Rann (eleventh century) on our apocalypse in its description of the Signs of the End.

Scanned and Edited by
Joshua Williams
Northwest Nazarene College, 1995

Hidden Symbolism In The Christian Cross

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:18:00 +0000

The cross is one of the major and most famous of emblems in Christendom. According to Christian doctrine, the cross symbolizes the manner in which the Messiah was executed; Christians wear this as a sign of their worship of the Messiah. The cross was introduced into Christianity in the third century by Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor who ruled his empire from c.306-337 A.D., although it was condemned by one of the early Church fathers as a pagan practice. Prior to the third century, one cannot find anywhere after the death of the Messiah any of the apostles, disciples, or other followers of the Messiah wearing an image of the cross to show reverence to the Messiah. As a matter of fact, during the first and second centuries, believers in the Messiah wore no images or symbols of any manner because they adhered to the laws found in the Old Testament prohibiting the worship of graven images (Exodus 20:4-5). One might be led to believe that the cross, then, is a relatively new symbol, and does not predate the third century. This, though, would not be a true statement.

The cross is one of the oldest symbols found in antiquity, predating Christianity by thousands of years. It can be found in almost every culture worldwide: India, Syria, Persia and Egypt are all good examples of nations that have regarded the cross as a religious symbol. The use of this symbol during pre-Christian times and among non-Christian people was always connected to some form of nature worship. This worship centers around the worship of the sun-god, in which it was believed that the sun represented life. This worship of the sun also predates Christianity by thousands of years and has its origins in the oldest of civilizations, the Chaldean or Babylonian era. The first man to die and later regarded and worshiped as a sun-god was Tammuz, the son of Nimrod. The first letter in his name T', began to be worn by his followers, and can be found throughout history as a veneration of Tammuz. The Catholic Church, under the direction of Constantine, later adopted the use of this symbol into Christianity. The pagans who accepted Christianity did not have to give up any of their pagan practices, such as the wearing of the cross; instead, the cross was suddenly a symbol of the Messiah, representing his death.

Some may ask if the origins of the cross hold any significance or meaning. Some may believe that it is the intent that matters; that today, in the year 2008, one does not wear a cross to venerate the sun-god Tammuz. However, if one believes in the word of God, then one must believe what is written in the scriptures. In the book of Ezekiel, Chapter 8, we find a story in which the people are weeping for Tammuz, they are bowing to the East, and have put a "branch to their nose", the branch sticks being used to form the letter T'. This is sun worship, and God called it an abomination. It is not God who changes; we can read in Malachi 3:6 that states that he does not change. Indeed, it is man who changes.

As stated earlier, the symbol of the cross has been found in cultures all over the world. In Scandinavia, the cross represented the hammer of the god Thor, in Assyria it represented the four directions in which the sun shines, and in Europe a human effigy in the form of a scarecrow hung from the T-shaped cross. In all instances the cross represents that particular culture's pagan deity.

Exodus Chapter 20 outlines the Ten Commandments; it is the second Commandment that disallows one from making any graven image nor to bow down to worship any graven image. In Deuteronomy Chapter 4 we are again instructed not to make any graven images, including the likeness of any beast, winged creature, anything that creeps on the ground, or swims in the seas. We are also warned against worshiping the host of Heaven (which is the sky, the second Heaven, reference Genesis 1:20), particularly the sun, the moon, and the stars. This practice of worshiping the sun and the moon is a pagan practice. Tammuz, a pagan, worshiped the sun, and thousands of years later we have Constantine allowing the use of this symbol into Christianity. Constantine was also a sun-worshiper.

Nowhere in the Bible can the cross be found as an acceptable form of worshiping the Messiah, yet this practice is pervasive in Christendom. Christianity has taught, as a part of their doctrine that the Messiah was killed on a cross and that now, the symbol of the cross merely depicts the way in which the Messiah died as well as this religion's worship of him. In actuality, the Messiah did not die on a cross, but on a stake. The Greek word used for cross in all instances in which the word cross' is found in the New Testament is stauros', which by definition means a stake or post that is set upright'. Although it was typical during the time the Messiah lived to execute people on a crossbar (referred to as a Tau cross), a Roman cross, or on an upright pole or stake, all indications point to the fact that the Messiah was executed on a pole, not a cross. The stake that the Messiah died on in no manner resembles a Tau cross (crossbar) or a Roman cross; yet, it is this symbol (the Tau cross) that is used by Christendom to venerate the Messiah and his death. If one wishes to ignore the second Commandment in which we are forbidden to use graven images in any form, and want to venerate the Messiah, why not wear an image of an upright pole, post, or stake? Simple, because the cross was never used to revere the Messiah until after the third century but instead was used to exalt and give honor to the sun-god Tammuz, and all of the other sun gods throughout history that came after Tammuz. This symbol was created for Tammuz, it is the T' in his name that is being deified and revered, and it wasn't until almost 250 years after the Messiah died that the cross was introduced into the Christian religion. Further, we have the forbidding of the practice of worshiping graven images which can be found in the Old Testament, and can find nowhere in the New Testament that this law has been abolished. It is clearly an abomination to God, and we can find in the New Testament that "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the "abominable", and murderers, and whore-mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Revelation 21:8). Man cannot take something that God has called an abomination and change it into something that man calls good. By doing this, one is not serving the Most High God, but lowly man.
The Thought Of the Holy Lamb that was slain for the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all mankind so that we that believe in the only one Saviour Jesus Christ we might have eternal life, has lead people to treasure the emblem of the cross.
Jesus was nailed to a cross by the Romans because it was a pagan emblem, a curse, an example of fear to other Jewish people of that time. The Romans crucified the Jewish man that was condemned to death on a Pagan cross because of the humiliation of dying in this manner.
Don't worship the cross but the One who died on the cross: Jesus.
There is no greater love than He has for us all.
Belief in the cross or the love of it isn't the light of this world, it is Jesus Christ.
He is the only One and the only object of love to hold in our heart and spirit.

He is the only One to lead us to that eternal life through His Holy Words that He gave to us before the cross then after through His elected Apostles.
Some may praise the cross itself, but I praise the name of Jesus Christ forever.
We have some churches of different types some who's teaching seem to thrive on symbolic indulgences as such turn away and give no heed to their teachings and practices for they are of this world.
Jesus didn't wear anything around His neck nor did His disciples sculpt faces from clay and call them holy.
2 Thessalonians 2
3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14. Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 21
7. And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
8. And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

The Eighth King of Peace and Safety

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:42:00 +0000

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict waves to crowds in Washington from the popemobile.
Catholic News Service photo

WASHINGTON — Celebrating Mass in a Washington baseball stadium, Pope Benedict urged U.S. Catholics to renew their missionary energy at a time when American society is at a moral crossroads.

The pope warned of "signs of a disturbing breakdown in the very foundations of society" and said people need the church's message of hope and fidelity to the demands of the Gospel.

He also confronted the question of clerical sexual abuse of minors, acknowledging the damage done to the church and asking all Catholics to help assist those who have been hurt.

The Mass April 17 at a packed Nationals Park was the pope's first major encounter with the Catholic faithful on his six-day visit to Washington and New York.

The liturgy, celebrated on an altar platform in deep center field, was a Mass of the Holy Spirit and featured multiethnic choirs singing in four languages.

The prayer of the faithful was read in English, Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese, Igbo and Spanish. It included petitions for Pope Benedict and all bishops, for peace in the world, for the safety of those who seek to achieve peace, for children everywhere, for those who suffer, for those who are ill, and for all who have died. The assembly responded to each Mass intention with a trilingual response sung in English, Latin and Spanish.

During the offertory procession, four groups of gift-bearers approached the altar with bread and cruets. One group, from Medley's Neck, Md., included four generations from one family. Students from college campus ministries and area high schools, men and women religious, and four people with disabilities and their companions also carried gifts.

The spirit was evident among the enthusiastic crowd of about 45,000 people, who cheered the 81-year-old pope as he rode through the stadium in his popemobile.

The pope smiled, waved and looked delighted at the panorama of faces and fluttering yellow flags, as the choirs sang English and German versions of "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name."

Anne Murphy, a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Alexandria, Va., remarked on the "spirit of togetherness" the pope's presence had brought.

"I think it's a very exciting opportunity for people throughout the country to witness the kind of spiritual power that (Pope) Benedict brings to the world," she said.

"It's the kind of thing that makes you proud to be a member of the Catholic community and to be here today," she said.

After the pope processed to the altar, he was welcomed by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, who told him U.S. Catholics looked to him for "renewed inspiration to continue the challenge to make all things new in Christ our hope."

The pope, dressed in red vestments, opened his arms wide in appreciation.

In his homily, the pope said he had come to encourage the church in America to build on its accomplishments and respond to new challenges through an "unceasing missionary outreach."

He invoked a new chapter of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, saying U.S. Catholics need to give their contemporaries "a convincing account of the hope which inspires them."

"The world needs this witness. Who can deny that the present moment is a crossroads, not only for the church in America but also for society as a whole?" he said.

The pope said that it was a positive thing that global connections were drawing people together today.

"Yet at the same time we see clear signs of a disturbing breakdown in the very foundations of society: signs of alienation, anger and polarization on the part of many of our contemporaries; increased violence; a weakening of the moral sense; a coarsening of social relations; and a growing forgetfulness of God," he said.

This crossroads is also reflected inside the church, he said. He cited the vitality of movements and parish life and increased interest in prayer and Catholic education.

Yet the church faces the "troubling realization" that many of its members, "rather than acting as a spiritual leaven in the world, are inclined to embrace attitudes contrary to the truth of the Gospel."

Today's challenges require sound instruction in the faith, especially among the young, he said. But they also call for "cultivating a mindset, an intellectual culture, which is genuinely Catholic" and can bring the Gospel to bear on the urgent issues American society faces, he said.

The pope spoke about sexual abuse by priests for the third time in three days. The evening before, he addressed the bishops; this time, he aimed his comments at the entire U.S. Catholic community. He also spoke about it to journalists on the papal plane from Rome April 15.

"No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention," he said.

He lauded the efforts to deal "honestly and fairly with this tragic situation, and to ensure that children -- whom Our Lord loves so deeply and who are our greatest treasure -- can grow up in a safe environment."

"I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation and to assist those who have been hurt. Also, I ask you to love your priests and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do," he said.

The pope said the church's ability to heal wounds and overcome divisions depends in part on the rediscovery of the "liberating power" of the sacrament of penance.

That will help the church in the United States become a "leaven of hope" in society, and take its place in the long story of the church's expansion, he said.

The pope spoke about the past injustices endured by native Americans and by Africans brought forcibly to the country as slaves. But essentially, he said, Americans have always been a people of hope and open to the Christian message.

At the end of his homily, the pope spoke in Spanish, thanking the increasing number of Hispanic Catholics for adding vitality to the church in the United States.

As he was leaving the Mass, Pope Benedict stood on the steps of the first-base dugout for one last wave before proceeding into the tunnel under the stands.

— Catholic News Service

The Washington Times

Site Map

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:26:00 +0000

Christmas - A PAGAN PAPAL "UNHOLY DAY"

Pagan Papal "Holy DAYS"

Distress Of nations - Economic panic

AR-M- GEDDON = Community of Sant'Egidio- Peace and Safety Alert !

Amazing Blasphemed Catholic Statements Regarding the Pope

Three Unclean Spirits Like Frogs -That gather The Kings of The Earth

The Revelation of Thomas

Hidden Symbolism In The Christian Cross

Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them

External Links

California's Earthquake News

The Church House Grape Juice Communion - another Catholic Deception

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:56:00 +0000

Jesus the Bread of Life

The true Communion of Jesus Christ

He is the bread of life - His words, His Life - (eat of these not crackers.)

Come and drink of his spirit - (not grape juice.)

1 Corinthians 11

17. Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.

18. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

19. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

20. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.

21. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

22. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. 1 Corinthians 11

23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

24. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

25. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

26. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

28. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

30. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

33. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.

34. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

Matthew 16

1. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

2. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

3. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

4. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

5. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

6. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

7. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

8. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

9. Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

10. Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

11. How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

12. Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Matthew 26

26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

27. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

28. For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

29. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

John 6

1. After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

2. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

3. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

4. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

5. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

6. And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

7. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

8. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him,

9. There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

10. And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

11. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

12. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

13. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

14. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

15. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

16. And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,

17. And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.

18. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.

19. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.

20. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.

21. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.

22. The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;

23. (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)

24. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

25. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

28. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

30. They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?

31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

34. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

36. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

38. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

41. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

45. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

46. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

48. I am that bread of life.

49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

58. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:46:00 +0000

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ROMA, February 2008 – Within one month, on March 4 and 5, there will be held in Rome the first meetings in preparation for the scheduled visit to the Vatican of a representative group of the 138 Muslim scholars who in October of 2007 addressed to the pope and to the heads of the other Christian confessions a letter with an offer of dialogue entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You."

The meetings will be held at the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue, presided by cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran. The schedule arranges for the Muslim representatives to meet with Benedict XVI and other Church authorities beginning next spring. And they will hold study sessions in institutes like the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the PISAI, headed by Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot.

The Muslim delegation will be composed of five Muslims scholars from as many nations:

– Ibrahim Kalin, from Turkey, director of the SETA foundation in Ankara and a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.;

– Abd al-Hakim Murad Winter, from England, a professor of Islamic studies at the Shaykh Zayed Divinity School of the University of Cambridge, and director of the Muslim Academic Trust of the United Kingdom;

– Sohail Nakhooda, from Jordan, director of "Islamica Magazine," an international magazine edited in the United States;

– Aref Ali Nayed, from Libya, a member of the Interfaith Program of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, a former teacher at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization in Malaysia, and at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome;

– Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, from Italy, imam of the al-Wahid mosque in Milan, president of the ISESCO council for education and culture in the West, and vice-president of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy, the COREIS.

All of these are part of the group of experts coordinated from Amman by Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, president of the al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, the leading promoter of the letter of the 138 and the protagonist behind the exchange of events that took place in November and December with Benedict XVI, through cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone, in preparation for the future meetings.

Of the five, the best known among the Vatican authorities and experts are Aref Ali Nayed and Yahya Pallavicini.

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:39:00 +0000

The Beast, The Image, And The English Reformation -Time Line 1517 - 1564

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:29:00 +0000

1517-1564: The Reformation.

The Reformation. The church is in terrible shape, and everyone agrees change is necessary. Lutherans rediscover justification by faith and personal relationship with Christ. They popularize the Bible, and retain most of the traditions of the church (though not scholasticism, allegory, or the historic episcopate). Calvinists (Presbyterians, Puritans, Reformed, Congregationalists, etc., also Zwinglians) reject everything not expressly commanded in the Bible. Anabaptists (Baptists, charismatics, etc.) deny there has been any continuity in the historic Church. Humanists (liberals, Unitarians) introduce scientific study of old documents and traditions and emphasize the ethical teachings of Jesus. Roman Catholics rediscover scripture, tradition, reason, and mystical experience in their own counter-reformation. Ultimately, we Anglicans are influenced about equally by all five movements. The history of the English reformation, however, is not very edifying....

1521 Lutheran books appear in England. Cambridge students form a study-group at the White Horse Tavern; Thomas Cranmer is perhaps among them. Henry VIII writes a book on the sacraments against Luther. The bishop of Rome gives him a golden rose and names him "defender of the faith".

1525 Henry VIII, who long ago got special permission from the bishop of Rome to marry his brother's virgin widow Catherine, has been upset because she cannot bear him a son. This is the year Henry meets pretty Anne Boleyn. This begins the "King's affair." The bishop of Rome will not annul Henry's marriage to Catherine, because Catherine's nephew is holding him prisoner....

1526 Cardinal Wolsey presides at a massive burning of Lutheran books.

1527 Thomas Bilney, respected Cambridge preacher and Lutheran sympathizer, is dragged from his pulpit. (He is burned in 1531.)

1528 Simon Fish, a London attorney and amateur actor who has fled to AntwerpRome. (Henry VIII really likes this book.) after spoofing the clergy, writes "A Supplication for Beggars", which urges an end to taxes for

1529 Henry VIII decides he does not need to get permission from the bishop of Rome to have his marriage annulled. (The idea is probably Thomas Cromwell's.) He declares himself head of the English church (whatever that means), forcibly cuts the Anglican bishops off from communion with Rome, calls the Reformation Parliament, and marries Anne Boleyn. Services at the churches, however, remain essentially the same. (The mass is in Latin, there is no sermon or systematic Bible reading, and the people are passive and receive communion only at Easter, getting only the consecrated bread.)

1532 Cranmer made archbishop of Canterbury. (This effectly ends clerical celibacy among Anglicans, as Cranmer is twice-married). The "Act in Restraint of Appeals" prohibits appeals to the bishop of Rome.

1534 "Act of Succession." Everyone must swear allegiance to Henry VIII as head of the English church. Thomas More, his Prime Minister and author of "Utopia", and John Fisher, saintly bishop of Rochester, refuse to swear.

1535 Henry VIII beheads Fisher and More after the bishop of Rome makes Fisher a cardinal. Henry is sorry to have to do this, and his court wears mourning for two weeks. Henry had intended to execute Mary, his daughter by Catherine, who also refused to swear. He was dissuaded from doing this by Cranmer.

1536 Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn and marries Jane Seymour. He continues to oppose the introduction of an English-language Bible for his people.

1536 (Brussels) William Tyndale, a priest and Lutheran sympathizer who is responsible for an illegal English translation of the Bible, is strangled at the stake. Tyndale's last words are "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

1536 Henry VIII ensures the permanent popularity of the English reformation by abolishing the monasteries and sharing the loot with almost everyone.

1538 John Rogers (alias Thomas Matthew) prints the Tyndale Bible translation (finished by Miles Coverdale) in Paris. It is approved by the Henry VIII as the "Great Bible" to be read by all his people.

1538 Jane Seymour dies following the birth of Henry VIII's only legitimate son, Edward. 1539 The Six Articles, against Lutheranism. Hugh Latimer, bishop of Winchester, resigns in protest. Henry VIII is still occasionally burning Lutherans and hanging Roman Catholics.

1540 Henry VIII marries and divorces Anne of Cleves, executes the now-unpopular Thomas Cromwell, and marries Katherine Howard.

1543 Katherine Howard beheaded. Henry VIII marries Katherine Parr.

1544 Cranmer instructed to write prayers and a litany (for the army) in English. He does this so well that he is asked to make a prayer book in English, based on the service at Salisbury Cathedral.

1545 Henry VIII's last speech to Parliament. He says Papist, Lutheran, Anabaptist are names devised by the devil to sunder one man's heart from another.

1546 (Germany) Council of Trent. Bishops in communion with the bishop of RomeTridentine Church (today's Roman Catholic church). England is becoming a haven for Protestants from the continent. decide that the church "venerates equally" the Bible and the written and unwritten traditions (whatever that means). This is the beginning of the

1547 Henry VIII dies. He has executed around 60 people for "religious" reasons, among a total of about 130 political executions. He is succeeded by his sickly teenaged son, Edward VI. Chantries suppressed.

1548 Prayer of Humble Access, for the people to say in English, introduced into Latin mass.

1548 "Images" ordered removed from all churches by the council of regents. This also means no vestments, ashes, palms, holy water, or crucifixes. This causes so much resentment that an order suppressing all preaching follows.

1549 First Book of Common Prayer (Cranmer's work), introduced on Day of Pentecost. It is written in English, emphasizes the people's participation in the eucharist, and requires the Bible to be read from cover to cover. Fast days are retained (supposedly to help fishermen), but saints' days are not. Roman Catholic rebels in Cornwall claim they cannot understand English.

1550 New ordinal requires that a Bible be given to newly-ordained bishops (not a staff) and priests (not eucharistic vessels).

1550 "Hooper's visitation". A bishop surveys the parish priests and finds them concerned about their work but poorly educated.

1552 Book of Common Prayer revised to suit Protestants. No more "real presence" at the eucharist (the "black rubric" permits kneeling, however). No vestments, no signing of the cross at confirmation, no holy oil, no reserved sacrament, no prayers for the departed. 1553 Forty-two articles drafted. The Calvinist influence is obvious.

1553 (Geneva) Calvin burns Michael Servetus, a Unitarian who has fled to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Liberals lose their illusions about Calvinism.

1553 Edward VI dies. People are tired of Protestant looting of churches. Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), a militant Roman Catholic, becomes queen. Popular at first, she soon marries the hated Philip II of Spain. Persecution of Protestants begins; Mary appoints new bishops and fires all married priests. During her reign, about 300 Protestans are burned, including 5 bishops, 100 priests, 60 women. An attempt by Cardinal Pole (Mary's archbishop of Canterbury) to restore monasticism fizzles when, among 1500 surviving monks, nuns, and friars, fewer than 100 are willing to return to celibacy. All this ensures Roman Catholics will remain unpopular in England.

1555 Mary burns bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley at the stake (Oct. 16).

1556 Mary succeeds in brainwashing Thomas Cranmer, who signs a retraction which he later repudiates. Mary burns him at the stake (March 21).

1558 Mary dies. (Cardinal Pole dies minutes later.) Elizabeth I, a Protestant, becomes queen. Despite many problems (including frequent assassination plots from Roman Catholics), she supports the enterprising middle class and England prospers.

1559 Ordination of the moderate Matthew Parker as archbishop of Canterbury.

1559 Book of Common Prayer revised. Elizabeth I reintroduces the surplice, explaining that it is a clergyman's uniform. The Black Rubric is gone. A special license is required to preach. There is no church music except metrical psalms sung to ballad tunes.

1560 Saints' days are reintroduced.

1560 John Jewel writes "An Apology for the Church of England". Rome, not England, is schismatic.

1563 Thirty-Nine Articles drafted as a doctrinal statement by a convocation of the Church of England.

1563 "Foxe's Book of Martyrs." The bishop of Rome is portrayed as the Antichrist; Foxe writes speeches as needed for such "Protestant martyrs" as Thomas Cromwell.

1568 Archbishop Parker produces the "Bishop's Bible".

Revelation 13
1.And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell
on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
Exodus 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

House of Commons Members = 649
King + 1
Wives + 6
Total = 666

Uniting The World Under The Beast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Archbishop Myers praises growth of Anglican Use liturgy

San Antonio, TX, Jul 17, 2008 / 10:51 pm (CNA).- John J. Myers, the Archbishop of Newark and Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision, addressed the Anglican Use Conference in San Antonio on July 11. Describing his “awestruck” reaction to his first Anglican Use liturgy, he spoke of the efforts underway to expand the Anglican Use and the Pastoral Provision to “continuing Anglican communities.”

Controversies within the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have encouraged Episcopalian bishops, clergy, and laity to seek reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church. Last September Jeffrey Steenson, the Episcopal Bishop of Rio Grande, New Mexico, resigned his office to become a Catholic.

Archbishop Myers in his lecture noted that modern ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans had been inaugurated during the historic meeting of Pope Paul VI and Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury on March 23, 1966. Dialogue since that event has been “quite promising at times” and he said that it continues “because the Catholic Church believes that the Anglican Communion holds a special place in relationship to her.”

“Even though the relationship and dialogue seem strained at times we are obliged to continue to pray and work for unity, to ‘press toward the mark,’ so that the prayer of our Blessed Lord may be realized that all who profess faith in Him may be one,” he continued.

Until that unity is achieved, he said, the Pastoral Provision “serves somehow to close the gap.”

The Pastoral Provision, Archbishop Myers explained, is a means by which individuals from the Episcopal Church can be reconciled with the Catholic Church. It provides to Episcopalians who reconcile with Rome the option to worship in a manner familiar to them, “which many practiced from childhood and which has nourished their faith in Jesus Christ.”

For non-Episcopalians, he said, the Anglican Use provides the worship-enabling beauty of Anglican liturgical action, music, architecture and art. It has even helped Catholics whose practice of the faith lapsed because of liturgical abuses in the implementation of the Novus Ordo reform of the Mass after the Second Vatican Council.

Describing his own experience of the Anglican Use, Archbishop Myers said: “I was awestruck when I first experienced the Anglican Use liturgy at the English College in Rome during a pilgrimage last September. Its beauty was incarnated in the devotion manifested in the exquisite celebration of the Eucharist. I was humbled by the devotion of the faithful and I am encouraged by the fervor of the chapel and parishes that employ the Anglican Use liturgy here in the United States.”

“The Holy See, through the work of the Pastoral Provision, recognizes that there is a legitimate historical patrimony of the Anglican Communion,” he said, citing a sixth-century letter that Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury which encouraged the pioneering evangelist of England to use the best customs of all the Churches in teaching the Catholic Church in England.

Archbishop Myers suggested that those who have benefited from the Pastoral Provision over its 28 years of existence should remember that it was granted “for an indefinite period of time” and presumes obedience to the Holy See.

“Catholic faithful who worship according to the Anglican Use must never see themselves as different from other Catholics or somehow privileged among other Christian Communions,” the bishop exhorted. “We are Catholics together, obedient to the Holy Father, to those bishops in communion with him and ever faithful to Magisterial teaching.”

Concerning the growth of the Anglican Use and the Pastoral Provision, Archbishop Myers said:

“We are working on expanding the mandate of the Pastoral Provision to include those clergy and faithful of ‘continuing Anglican communities.’ We are striving to increase awareness of our apostolate to Anglican Christians who desire to be reconciled with the Holy See. We have experienced the wonder of several Episcopal bishops entering into full communion with the Catholic Church and we continue to receive requests from priests and laity about the Pastoral Provision.”

Addressing those who have entered the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion, Myers acknowledged the difficulties they have faced:

“I know that some of you experienced difficulty and anxiety at the time you made the decision to leave what was so dear to you when you felt the Lord calling you to come to the Catholic Church. In some regard your journey has been heroic. The Church is enriched by your struggles for our Lord.”

He noted that John Henry Cardinal Newman, a prominent nineteenth-century convert from Anglicanism who is being considered for beatification, also underwent such struggles. Bishop Myers then recited the entirety of Newman’s poem “Lead, Kindly Light,” whose first line reads “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,/Lead Thou me on!”

Archbishop Myers closed his address with a prayer for Christian unity, saying “I ask your prayers as I continue to serve you and together may we assist in some small way, those from the Anglican Communion who seek reconciliation with the See of Peter. May the Light, which is Christ, enable those who are lost in the dark to see through the struggles and challenges of our time. May they know that only Christ can bring them ‘holy rest and peace at last’.”

Italy
POPE: GOAL OF CHRISTIAN UNITY CLOSER

(AGI) - Vatican City, 25th January - When "Christians pray together", it is then that "the goal of unity seems closer" said Pope Benedict 16th, commenting on the contribution to ecumenism brought about by the Week of Prayer for Unity among Christians, which the Pope himself is to round off this afternoon when he presides at the solemn Vespers in the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls. Speaking to the Mixed Working Group formed by members of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the Church Ecumenical Council, he said that from common prayer is born "a deep harmony between hearts and minds making us able to see events in a new way and to strengthen our determination and to overcome that which keeps us apart". In his address, the Pope expressed his gratitude for the 100 years of spiritual ecumenism which had radically changed the countenance - improving it - of dialogue between the different Christian creeds. "Gratitude towards those many persons - he continued - who over these 100 years have sought to spread the practice of spiritual ecumenism through common prayer, the conversion of hearts, and growth in communion".
Thanks for the "ecumenical movement", fed also by the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but also open appreciation for a collaboration which has linked the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches for over 40 years, and which "has offered - the Pope recognised - a stark expression of the communion which already exists between Christians". The Mixed Group, said Benedict 16th, "has been working assiduously to strengthen the "dialogue of life" which my predecessor, Pope John Paul II, used to call the dialogue of charity"

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