The Seventh Vial

Trinity - Scripture Fact or Theory?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:28:00 +0000

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 a name, 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 so you might live forever if you 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.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:27:00 +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

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.
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 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) 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" 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 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 witch was to come after him. The baptism was symbolized that the believer in what John was preaching of the one to come after him would be resurrected and they done this 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 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. 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.
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"

Invite the good and bad 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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:39:00 +0000

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 so you might live forever if you 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 Jesus as the Father.
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." there is not a separation of Jesus and the Holy Ghost but a reference of the same. Jesus being the Holy Ghost.

True membership
Jesus died for your sins on the cross and by believing that Jesus died and rose again on the third day, you become His member the first time that you believed. 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.

'Tis the Season of Deception

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:17:00 +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.

Distress of Nations with Perplexity - Economic Panic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:54:00 +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.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:52:00 +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)
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 07:11:00 +0000

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.

The Revelation of Thomas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:50:00 +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

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:59:00 +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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Uniting The World Under The Beast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:32:00 +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"

The Beast, The Image, And The English Reformation -Time Line 1517 - 1564

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:51:00 +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

"Thou shalt not Kill"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:54:00 +0000

Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre by François Dubois

From the Musée Cantonal Des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Switzerland

August 24, 1572, was the date of the infamous
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France.

On that day, over 400 years ago, began one of the most horrifying holocausts in history. The glorious Reformation, begun in Germany on October 31, 1517, had spread to France—and was joyfully received. A great change had come over the people as industry and learning began to flourish, and so rapidly did the Truth spread that over a thirdof the population embraced the Reformed Christian Faith.
However, alarm bells began to ring at the Vatican! France was her eldest daughter and main pillar— the chief source of money and power. . . .
King Pepin of the Franks (the father of Charlemagne) had given the Papal States to the Pope almost 1000 years earlier.
Almost half the real estate in the country was owned by the clergy.
Meanwhile, back in Paris, the King of France and his Court spent their time drinking, reveling and carousing.
The Court spiritual adviser—a Jesuit priest— urged them to massacre the Protestants—as penance for their many sins! To catch the Christians off-guard every token of peace,
friendship, and ecumenical good will was offered.
Suddenly—and without warning—the devilish work commenced.
Beginning at Paris, the French soldiers and the Roman Catholic clergy fell upon the
unarmed people, and blood flowed like a river throughout the entire country.
Men, women, and children fell in heaps before the mobs and the bloodthirsty troops.
In one week, almost 100,100 Protestants perished.
The rivers of France were so filled with corpses that for many months no fish were eaten.
In the valley of the Loire, wolves came down from the hills to feel upon the decaying bodies of Frenchmen.
The list of massacres was as endless as the list of the dead!
Many were imprisoned—many sent as slaves to row the King's ships—and some
were able to escape to other countries. . . .
The massacres continued for centuries.
The best and brightest people fled to Germany, Switzerland, England, Ireland and eventually America and brought their incomparable manufacturing skills with them. . . .
France was ruined. . . . Wars, famine, disease and poverty finally led to the French Revolution—the Guillotine—the Reign of Terror—the fall of the Roman Catholic Monarchy—atheism—communism etc., etc.
When news of the Massacre reached the Vatican there was jubilation!
Cannons roared—bells rung—and a special commemorative medal was struck—to honor the occasion!
The Pope commissioned Italian artist Vasari to paint a mural of the Massacre—which still hangs in the Vatican!
Medal struck by Emperor Gregory XIII (1572-85) to commemorate the slaughter of over 100,000 French Christians!!

Emperor Gregory had the great red dragon of Satan as his heraldic symbol!
The Gregorian Calendar is named after him.

The Huguenots won a short period of relief from persecution with the ascension of Henry IV to the throne.
The Edict of Nantes gave full freedom to his Protestants subjects.
The signing of this Edict inaugurated an eraof peace and great prosperity for France.
However, for granting his subjects liberty of conscience, the king was stabbed to death by a Jesuit named Ravaillac. This Edict of Toleration was revoked in 1685, and a new storm of persecution ensued.
The exodus began again with over a million Huguenots fleeing France to avoid certain torture and death.

The descendants of the survivors that reached America were determined that
this tragedy should not occur there.

Many of them were prominent in the founding of the country.
They knew that an armed citizenry in France wouldhave prevented this tragedy from ever happening—and as a result—they gave us the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution. They knew that freedom of religion and an armed citizenry go hand in hand:

Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 2
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thatto secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . .

The French Protestants were called Huguenots:

President George Washington had a Huguenot ancestor, as did at least 5 other Presidents: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, James Garfield, and Theodore Roosevelt.
A Huguenot refugee named Apollos de Revoire settled in Boston, and had a son
who signed his name Paul Revere! Remember his famous midnight ride?
Three members of the Continental Congress - Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Elias Boudinot were Huguenots.
Other great names include Francis Marrion, General George Patton, Clair Chennault, Admiral Dewey, Du Ponts, Henry Thoreau, Longfellow etc., etc. A Huguenot colony was founded in Florida in 1562 (years before the English landed), but was later destroyed by Spanish
raiders.

According to the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX, it is an ERROR to say that the "church" has not the right to use force.

"24. The Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect.
-- Apostolic Letter "Ad Apostolicae," Aug. 22, 1851."

Below you will read about more Catholic Love, World Peace, and Safety

The Oath of a Knight of Columbus

"I, ___ ___, now in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the Blessed St. John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles, St. Peter and
St. Paul, and all the Saints, Sacred Hosts of Heaven and to you, my
Ghostly Father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus founded by
St. Ignatius Loyola, in the Pontification of Paul III, and continued to
the present, do by the Womb of the Virgin, the Matrix of God, and the Rod
of Jesus Christ, declare and swear that his Holiness, the Pope, is
Christ’s Viceregent and is the true and only Head of the Catholic of
Universal Church throughout the earth; and that by virtue of the keys of
binding and loosing given his Holiness by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he hath
power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths and
governments and they may be safely destroyed. Therefore to the utmost of
my power I will defend this doctrine and his Holiness’ right and custom
against all usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever,
especially the Lutheran Church of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway and the now pretended authority of the Churches of England and
Scotland, of the Calvinists, of same now established in Ireland and on the
continent of America and elsewhere, and all adherents in regard that they
may be usurped and heretical, opposing the sacred Mother Church of Rome.
"I do now denounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical
king, prince, or state, named Protestant, or Liberals, or obedient to any
of their laws, magistrates or officers.
"I do further declare that the doctrines of the Churches of England
and Scotland, of the Calvinists, Huegenots, and others of the name of
Protestants or Masons to be damnable, and they themselves to be damned who
will not forsake the same.
"I do further declare that I will help, assist and advise all or any
of his Holiness’ agents, in any place where I should be, in Switzerland,
Germany, Holland, Ireland, or America or in any other kingdom or territory
I shall come to and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or
Masonic doctrines and to destroy all their pretended powers, legal or
otherwise.
"I do further promise and declare that, notwithstanding I am
dispensed with to assume any religion heretical for the propagation of the
Mother Church’s interests, to keep secret and private all her agent’s
counsels from time to time, as they entrust me, and not divulge, directly
or indirectly, by word, writing, or circumstances whatever, but to execute
all that should be proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto me by
you, my Ghostly Father, or any of the Sacred Order.
"I do further promise and declare that I will have no opinion or will
of my own or any mental reservation whatsoever, even as a corpse or
cadaver (Perinde ac Cadaver), but will unhesitatingly obey each and every
command that I may receive from my Superiors in the Militia of the Pope
and of Jesus Christ.
"That I will go to any part of the world withersoever I may be sent,
to the frozen regions North, jungles of India, to the centers of
civilization of Europe, or to the wild haunts of the barbarous savages of
America without murmuring or repining, and will be submissive in all
things whatsoever communicated to me.
"I do further promise and declare that I will, when opportunity
presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly and openly, against all
heretics, Protestants and Masons, as I am directed to do to extirpate them
from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex,
or condition, and that I will hang, burn, waste, boil, flay, strangle and
bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their
women and crush their infant’s heads against the walls in order to
annihilate their execrably race. That when the same cannot be done
openly, I will secretly use the poisonous cup, the strangulation cord, the
steel poniard, or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank,
dignity, or authority of the persons whatever may be their condition in
life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do
by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Father
of the Society of Jesus.
"In confirmation of which I hereby dedicate my life, soul, and all
corporal powers, and with the dagger which I now receive I will subscribe
my name written in my blood in testimony thereof; and should I prove false
or weaken in my determination, may my brethren and fellow soldiers of the
Militia of the Pope cut off my hands and feet and my throat from ear to
ear, by belly opened and sulfur burned therein with all the punishment
that can be inflicted upon me on earth and my soul shall be tortured by
demons in eternal hell forever.
"That I will in voting always vote for a K. of C. in preference to a
Protestant, especially a Mason, and that I will leave my party to do so;
that if two Catholics are on the ticket I will satisfy myself which is the
better supporter of the Mother Church and vote accordingly.
"That I will not deal with or employ a Protestant if in my power to
deal with and employ a Catholic. That I will place Catholic girls in
Protestant families that a weekly report may be made of the heretics.
"That I will provide myself with arms and ammunition that I may be in
readiness when the word is passed, or I am commanded to defend the Church
either as an individual or with the Militia of the Pope.
"All of which I, ____ ____, do swear by the Blessed Trinity and
Blessed Sacrament which I am now to receive to perform and on my part to
keep my oath.
"In testimony hereof, I take this Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament of
the Eucharist and witness the same further with my name written with the
point of this dagger dipped in my own blood and seal in the face of this
Holy Sacrament."
Oath Taken by a Perspective Member of the Knights of
Columbus, 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.

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.

Major international conference on Catholic peacemaking announced

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:07:00 +0000

11 Jan 2008

A major international conference on Catholic peacemaking is to take place later this year, bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and peacebuilding practitioners from countries around the world that have been torn by conflict, it was announced yesterday.

The Catholic Peacebuilding Network (CPN), along with 17 co-sponsors, will convene the conference on the future of Catholic peacebuilding in April, at the University of Notre Dame.

This event will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and peacebuilding practitioners from countries torn by conflict to reflect on the theological, ethical and practical dimensions of the Church's work on conflict prevention, conflict mediation, and post-conflict reconciliation.

Topics will include: peacebuilding as vocation; peacebuilding in official Catholic social teaching; development, human rights, and peace; the Church and peace processes; ethics of political reconciliation; and inter-religious peacebuilding.

The conference is a capstone to CPN conferences in the Philippines, Burundi and Colombia over the past three years. It is the final part of a multi-year research project on the theology, ethics and praxis of Catholic peacebuilding, said Gerard F. Powers, CPN coordinator and director of policy studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

"Twenty-five years after the US Catholic bishops issued their seminal pastoral letter on war and peace seems a fitting time to reflect on the future of Catholic peacebuilding," Powers said. "This conference will deepen our understanding of the theoretical and practical dimensions of this mostly unheralded work of the Church around the world."

The CPN is a coalition of peacebuilding academics and practitioners, clergy and laity, which seeks to enhance the study and practice of Catholic peacebuilding.

In addition to the CPN, conference co-sponsors include the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Graduate School, and Program on Catholic Social Traditions; Boston College's Department of Theology and Center for Human Rights and International Justice; Catholic Relief Services; Catholic Theological Union's Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry; The Catholic University of America's Office of the President and Life Cycle Institute; Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute; the University of San Diego's School of Peace Studies; Washington Theological Union; the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Pax Christi International; the Sant' Egidio Community in the United States, and Woodstock Theological Center.

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.

The Return of Jesus is Nigh

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:45:00 +0000

The Last Days

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.

Revelation 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.

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.

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.

16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

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.

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.

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.

20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

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.

2 Timothy 3

1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

9. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

10. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,

11. Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

13. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 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;

2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

3. Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

4. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

5. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

7. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

8. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

1 John 2

3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

2 Peter 3

3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

7. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Daniel 12

1. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

5. Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.

6. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

7. And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

8. And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

10. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

12. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

13. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

1 Thessalonians 4

13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Luke 21

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.

9. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.

10. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

11. And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

12. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

13. And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

14. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

15. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

16. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

17. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

18. But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

19. In your patience possess ye your souls.

20. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

21. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

23. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

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.

29. And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

30. When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

31. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

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

33. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

34. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

35. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

36. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

What day was it when Jesus was crucified?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:35:00 +0000

The Bible does not specifically state which day of the week Jesus was crucified. The two most widely held views are Friday and Wednesday. Some, however, using a synthesis of both the Friday and Wednesday arguments, accept Thursday as the day.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Those who argue for a Friday crucifixion say that there is still a valid way in which He could have been considered in the grave for three days. In the Jewish mind of the First Century, a part of day was considered as a full day. Since Jesus was in the grave for part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday—He could be considered to have been in the grave for three days. One of the principal arguments for Friday is found in Mark 15:42 that notes that Jesus was crucified "the day before the Sabbath." If that was the weekly Sabbath, i.e. Saturday, then that fact leads to a Friday crucifixion. Another argument for Friday says that verses such as Matthew 16:21 and Luke 9:22 teach that Jesus would rise on the third day; therefore, He wouldn't need to be in the grave a full three days and nights. But while some translations use "on the third day" for these verses, not all do and not everyone agrees that that is the best way to translate these verses. Furthermore, Mark 8:31 says that Jesus will be raised "after" three days.

The Thursday argument expands on the Friday view and argues mainly that there are too many events (some count as many as twenty) happening between Christ's burial and Sunday morning to occur from Friday evening to Sunday morning. They point out that this is especially a problem when the only full day between Friday and Sunday was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. An extra day or two eliminates that problem. The Thursday advocates could reason: Suppose you haven't seen a friend since Monday evening. The next time you see him it is Thursday morning and you say, “I haven’t seen you in three days” even though it had technically only been 60 hours (2.5 days). If Jesus was crucified on Thursday, this example shows how it could be considered three days.

The Wednesday opinion states that there were two Sabbaths that week. After the first one (the one that occurred on the evening of the crucifixion, Mark 15:42; Luke 23:52-54), the women purchased spices--note that they made their purchase after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1). The Wednesday view holds that this "Sabbath" was the Passover (see Lev 16:29-31; 23:24-32, 39 where high holy days that are not necessarily the seventh day of the week are referred to as the Sabbath). The second Sabbath that week was the normal weekly Saturday. Note that in Luke 23:56, the women who had purchased spices after the first Sabbath, returned and prepared the spices then "rested on the Sabbath" (Luke 23:56). The argument states that they could not purchase the spices after the Sabbath, yet prepare those spices before the Sabbath—unless there were two Sabbaths. With the two-Sabbath view, if Christ was crucified on Thursday, then the high holy Sabbath (the Passover) would have begun Thursday at sundown and ended at Friday sundown—at the beginning of the weekly Sabbath or Saturday. Purchasing the spices after the first Sabbath (Passover) would have meant they purchased them on Saturday and were breaking the Sabbath.

Therefore, this view states, the only explanation that does not violate the biblical account of the women and the spices and holds to a literal understanding of Matthew 12:40, is that Christ was crucified on Wednesday. The Sabbath that was a high holy day (Passover) occurred on Thursday, the women purchased spices (after that) on Friday and returned and prepared the spices on the same day, they rested on Saturday which was the weekly Sabbath, then brought the spices to the tomb early Sunday. He was buried near sundown on Wednesday, which began Thursday in the Jewish calendar. Using a Jewish calendar, you have Thursday night (night one), Thursday day (day one), Friday night (night two), Friday day (day two), Saturday night (night three), Saturday day (day three). We don't know exactly when He rose, but we do know that it was before sunrise on Sunday (John 20:1, Mary Magdalene came "while it was still dark" and the stone was rolled away and she found Peter and told him that "they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb"), so He could have risen as early as just after sunset Saturday evening, which began the first day of the week to the Jews.

A possible problem with the Wednesday view is that the disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus did so on "the same day" of His resurrection (Luke 24:13). The disciples, who do not recognize Jesus, tell Him of Jesus' crucifixion (24:21) and say that "today is the third day since these things happened" (24:22). Wednesday to Sunday is four days. A possible explanation is that they may have been counting since Wednesday evening at Christ's burial, which begins the Jewish Thursday, and Thursday to Sunday could be counted as three days.

In the grand scheme of things, it is not all that important to know what day of the week Christ was crucified. If it were very important, then God's Word would have clearly communicated the day. What is important is that He did die, and that He physically, bodily rose from the dead. What is equally important is the reason He died—to take the punishment that all sinners deserve. John 3:16 and 3:36 both proclaim that believing, or putting your trust, in Him results in eternal life!

Recommended Resource: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas.

That Great City

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:24:00 +0000

And the great city was divided into three parts...

Revelation 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.
Revelation 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.

Revelation 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Revelation 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

Revelation 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Revelation 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 earthare waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Revelation 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.

Revelation 18:18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, Whatcity is like unto this great city!

Isaiah 34
8. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
12. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
17. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

Vatican City
outside Rome, Italy

Fault lines - Italy

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MT. Etna

The Un-Holi-Day Season

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:43:00 +0000

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.

“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.

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 our area, we 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)

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.

Satan's Clothes - Santa's Claus

Revelation 13

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.

Rome, the Nativity and the Sun God

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.

___________________________________________________________

News of The End Times

'Tis the Season of Deception

World Alliance of Reformed Churches News Updates

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The Mark of the Beast is.....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:24:00 +0000

The Mark of the Beast is...
"The Roman Catholic Sign of the Cross"

The Catholic Encyclopedia says: Under "sign of the cross"
"We have positive evidence in the early Fathers that such a practice was familiar to Christians in the second century. "In all our travels and movements", says Tertullian [200AD] (De cor. Mil., iii), "in all our coming in and going out, in putting of our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross"."

"On the whole it seems probable that the ultimate prevalence of the larger cross is due to an instruction of Leo IV in the middle of the ninth century."

"Most commonly and properly the words "sign of the cross" are used of the large cross traced from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder, such as Catholics are taught to make upon themselves when they begin their prayers, and such also as the priest makes at the foot of the altar when he commences Mass with the words: "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti". (At the beginning of Mass the celebrant makes the sign of the cross by placing his left hand extended under his breast; then raising his right to his forehead, which he touches with the extremities of his fingers, he says: In nomine Patris; then, touching his breast with the same hand, he says: et Filii; touching his left and right shoulders, he says; et Spiritus Sancti; and as he joins his hands again adds: Amen.) The same sign recurs frequently during Mass, e.g. at the words "Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini", at the "Indulgentiam" after the Confiteor, etc., as also in the Divine Office, for example at the invocation "Deus in adjutorium nostrum intende", at the beginning of the "Magnificat", the "Benedictus", the "Nunc Dimittis", and on many other occasions." … "On the whole it seems probable that the ultimate prevalence of the larger cross is due to an instruction of Leo IV in the middle of the ninth century. "Sign the chalice and the host", he wrote, "with a right cross and not with circles or with a varying of the fingers, but with two fingers stretched out and the thumb hidden within them, by which the Trinity is symbolized. Take heed to make this sign rightly, for otherwise you can bless nothing" (see Georgi, "Liturg. Rom. Pont.", III, 37)." (Sign of the cross, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, Copyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton Company)

The sign of the cross - of the Roman Catholic Church - Prophecy

Rev 13:16 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:

Below is another example of Catholic teaching of
"the sign of the cross"

The Sign of the Cross is made thus: First choose your style:

* Option A. With your right hand, touch the thumb and ring finger together, and hold your index finger and middle finger together to signify the two natures of Christ. This is the most typical Western Catholic practice.

* Option B. Hold your thumb and index finger of your right hand together to signify the two natures of Christ

* Option C. Hold your thumb, index finger, middle finger of your right hand together (signifying the Trinity) while tucking the ring finger and pinky finger (signifying the two natures of Christ) toward your palm. This is the typically Eastern Catholic practice.

* Option D: Hold your right hand open with all 5 fingers -- representing the 5 Wounds of Christ -- together and very slightly curved, and thumb slightly tucked into palm

Then:

* touch the forehead as you say (or pray mentally) "In nomine Patris" ("In the name of the Father")

* touch the breastbone or top of the belly as you say "et Filii" ("and of the Son")

*

touch the left shoulder, then right shoulder, as you say "et Spiritus Sancti" ("and of the Holy Ghost"). Note that some people end the Sign by crossing the thumb over the index finger to make a cross, and then kissing the thumb as a way of "kissing the Cross."

An optional prayer to pray after signing yourself in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is this one, said to be favored by St. Benedict:

By the Sign of the Cross, deliver me from my enemies, O Lord.

Note that Eastern Catholics (and Orthodox) go from right shoulder to left and end sometimes by touching their right side, above the hip, to symbolize Christ's being pierced by the sword. The Bridgettine nuns in their Myroure of our Ladye write of the mystical reasons for the Latin practice, and how it summarizes the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Ascension:

And then ye bless you with the sygne of the holy crosse, to chase away the fiend with all his deceytes. For, as Chrysostome sayth, wherever the fiends see the signe of the crosse, they flye away, dreading it as a staffe that they are beaten withall. And in thys blessinge ye beginne with youre hande at the hedde downwarde, and then to the lefte side and byleve that our Lord Jesu Christe came down from the head, that is from the Father into erthe by his holy Incarnation, and from the erthe into the left syde, that is hell, by his bitter Passion, and from thence into his Father's righte syde by his glorious Ascension. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

With the Sign, we send a visible sign to the world and follow the advice of St. Ephrem of Syria (died A.D. 373):

Mark all your actions with the sign of the lifegiving Cross. Do not go out from the door of your house till you have signed yourself with the Cross. Do not neglect that sign whether in eating or drinking or going to sleep, or in the home or going on a journey. There is no habit to be compared with it. Let it be a protecting wall round all your conduct, and teach it to your children that they may earnestly learn the custom.

When the Sign is Made

A partial indulgence is gained, under the usual conditions, when piously making the Sign of the Cross

Catholics should begin and end their prayers with the Sign of the Cross and should cross themselves when passing a church to honor Jesus in the Tabernacle, upon entering a church, and after receving Communion. The sign is made, too, in times of trouble or fear (e.g., when receiving bad news, in times of temptation, when hearing an ambulance or fire truck go by), when passing a cemetery or otherwise recalling the dead, when seeing a Crucifix -- any time one wishes to honor and invoke God, or ward away evil, fear, and temptation.

Just for information's sake, the "Distaff Gospels," a collection of old wives tales collected ca. 1470, relate the following in its fifteenth chapter.

If in the morning, when getting up, a person crosses themselves and washes their hands before leaving the house, the devil will not have the power of harming him or her. Otherwise, whatever the work is done on that day will not be profitable.

...About that, Geffrine Tost Preste said that the devil sits on the table of whoever does not say grace before eating, then eats and drinks there.

Other Signs of the Cross

There are other signs of the Cross that Catholics make, too. One is made by tracing a small Cross with the thumb of the right hand on people and things. This sign is especially used by parents when blessing children by tracing the sign on the children's foreheads..1 Sometimes the sign is traced by the thumb on a book of Sacred Scripture and then kissed before reading. The sign is also carved onto loaves of bread before cutting, etc.

Another sign is the large sign made in the air by bishops and priests when blessing persons or material objects.

Yet another is the series of three small Crosses traced by the thumb of the right hand -- one small Cross on the forehead, one small Cross on the lips, and one small Cross on the breast -- just before the Gospel reading at Mass. The sign on the forehead is to show that we believe the Gospel, the sign on the lips is to show that we respect the Gospel and desire to spread the Good News, and the sign on our breast is to show that we love the Gospel and want it kept in our hearts. 2

Make the Sign of the Cross and make it often! Teach it to your children -- even the tiniest of children. If they're infants, take their hands and make the movements for them! Making the Sign should feel as natural as breathing...

Footnotes:
1 The use of "bless" here refers to a parental blessing -- i.e., a prayer for God's grace for a child. Priests alone have the power to bless in the name of the Church and with the power of the Church, to bless liturgically, to bless objects rendering them sacramentals, etc.

2 When passing by or upon entering a church, many Mexicans make this form of the sign (with the thumb laid over the index finger to form a cross) -- on the forehead, lips, and mouth -- while praying the words, "Por la senal de la Santa Cruz, de nuestros enemigos libranos Señor Dios Nuestro" -- "By the sign of the Holy Cross deliver us, Lord, from our enemies." This is followed by the regular sign of the Cross outlined above (whose words in Spanish are, "En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espiritu Santo, amen") and the kissing of the Cross made by the thumb laid over the index finger. They refer to the first sign as "signing oneself" ("signarse") and the second action as "blessing oneself" ("santiguarse").

He (The Pope) is gathering the kings of the earth into a place (for talks for Peace and Safety) in the Hebrew Tounge "Community of Sant'egidio"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:56:00 +0000

Slovenian leader meets with Pope

Vatican, Nov. 29, 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) met Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa in a private audience on November 29.

Jansa invited the Holy Father to visit Slovenia in 2009, for the closing of the National Eucharist Congress. During his visit he discussed plans for Slovenia's term at the presidency of the European Union during the first 6 months of 2008. He also spoke about the government's plans for the restoration of church properties that were confiscated by the country's Communist regime.

After his meeting with the Pope, Prime Minister Jansa spoke separately with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone .

Christians must respond to challenges with 'united voice,' pope says

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI told Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople that Christians must "respond with a united voice and with conviction" to the challenges modern men and women are facing.

"Our work toward unity is according to the will of Christ Our Lord," the pope said in the letter, released at the Vatican Nov. 30, the feast of St. Andrew, the Constantinople patriarchate's patron.

The letter was delivered to the patriarch and read during the feast day celebration by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Pope Benedict said his visit to Turkey last year to participate in the feast day celebration and the tradition of the pope and patriarchate sending delegations to each other's celebrations "represent authentic signs of the commitment of our churches to an ever-deeper communion, strengthened through cordial personal relations, prayer and the dialogue of charity and truth."

The pope also thanked God for the work of the Catholic-Orthodox theological commission, which met in Ravenna, Italy, in October and published a document on the exercise of authority in the church.

"The meeting in Ravenna was not without its difficulties," Pope Benedict said, and "I pray earnestly that these may soon be clarified and resolved, so that there may be full participation" in future meetings and initiatives "aimed at continuing the theological dialogue in mutual charity and understanding."

The Russian Orthodox delegation walked out of the Ravenna meeting to protest the presence of a delegation from the Estonian Orthodox Church, recognized as autonomous by the ecumenical patriarchate but not by the Russian church.

Marking the Orthodox feast and the anniversary of Pope Benedict's visit to the patriarchate in Turkey, the Vatican newspaper published an interview with Patriarch Bartholomew in its Nov. 30 edition.

The patriarch said Pope Benedict's visit was "a gift of God for all Christians; an extraordinary day, an event of hope, a historic sign."

"With much sadness we confess that we still cannot celebrate the sacred mysteries together and we pray that the day will come in which sacramental unity can be fully accomplished," he told the newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

The patriarch said the search for unity is a responsibility of all believers.

"Without hesitation we will continue our common journey in the spirit of love and fidelity toward the truth of the Gospel and of the common tradition of the holy fathers in order to restore the full communion of our churches," he said.

The patriarch, who like the pope praised the work of the international Catholic-Orthodox theological commission, said it is obvious that Catholics and Orthodox are still divided by serious differences.

While the commission members recognized the fact that the bishop of Rome, the pope, held a position of primacy in the early church, they also said it was not clear that his primacy included concrete authority over other patriarchs and bishops. The next phase of the dialogue is to focus on the authority of the pope in the first millennium, when Christians of the East and West were still in communion with each other.

Patriarch Bartholomew told the Vatican newspaper that each church must preserve its own traditions and, at the same time, find ways to draw closer to the other.

"I do not know what the future holds for us. There must be good will, sincerity and courage on the part of all to go forward," he said.

Personal encounters between popes and patriarchs, he said, are opportunities "to cultivate our relationship more in depth and to draw closer to (sharing) a common chalice. And this desire can be transformed into reality through our efforts, our prayers and our insistence."

Patriarch Bartholomew, who said the pope's 2006 visit to Turkey also marked an important step forward in relations with Muslims, said the key idea behind dialogue is that differences should not prevent people from talking to each other.

"The deepest meaning of dialogue lies in the fact that the other is not a stranger, but God's creation, so he is not a threat to me, but a joy, because in him we see the image of God," the patriarch said.

Also in the News -

Vatican delegation joins Annapolis peace talks

Annapolis, Nov. 27, 2007 - Msgr. Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's undersecretary of state, heads a delegation from the Holy See participating in the Middle East peace conference that opens today in Annapolis, Maryland.

Msgr. Parolin-- who is deputy to Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Secretary for Relations with States-- will be accompanied by Msgr. Francesco Coppola to the peace conference. During his Angelus audience on Sunday, November 25, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) endorsed a plea from the US bishops for a day of prayer for the success of the Annapolis conference. The Pope noted that "Israelis and Palestinians, with the help of the international community, aim to relaunch the negotiating process in order to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict which, for the last 60 years, has bloodied the Holy Land and brought so many tears and so much suffering to the two peoples."

International News

Mon 26 Nov 2007

Hopes high as Abbas arrives in US

BEN LYNFIELD IN JERUSALEM

THE Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, arrived in the US yesterday for a Middle East peace conference with high hopes of making progress towards an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli leaders also arrived in Washington yesterday ahead of tomorrow's peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which the Palestinian president termed a "launching pad" for talks on a final Palestinian peace deal with Israel.

"I am going to Annapolis in an effort to realise the dream of the Palestinian people for an independent state," Mr Abbas said.

But in the West Bank and Gaza Strip there is widespread scepticism about Mr Abbas's ability to achieve any gains for Palestinians.

Israel's rejection of a freeze on its settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is seen as an indication that there is no real pressure from the White House on the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert.

And the Palestinians' bargaining position has been weakened by division of the self-rule areas between Mr Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.

"Abbas is kidding himself when he says Annapolis will fulfil the dream of a state, but to maintain his role he believes he has no choice but to proceed," said Hani Masri, a columnist for al-Ayyam newspaper, describing the peace conference a "charade".

Israeli officials said yesterday it was still possible the two sides would reach agreement on a declaration aimed at "launching" negotiations, but added that such a declaration would not resolve the key issues in dispute including settlements, Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.

Mr Abbas, 70, a co-founder of Fatah along with the late Yasser Arafat, pioneered PLO contacts with Israeli doves during the 1980s and oversaw the secret negotiations with Israel that led to the failed 1993 Oslo Agreement on self-rule.

He criticized the second intifada uprising on the grounds that its bombing campaigns harmed the Palestinian cause.

"Abbas believes there is no other choice besides negotiations. He believes that if negotiations fail, you should engage in more negotiations," Mr Masri said.

"Israel will be the beneficiary of Annapolis. To the world it will appear that it wants peace and is searching for peace. For Abbas, however, Annapolis will gradually bring about his end politically."

• Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged in prayers that the participants at the summit find the "wisdom and courage" necessary to bring peace. He said the meeting, to which the Vatican is sending a delegation, hoped to relaunch negotiations "to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict which for 60 years has bloodied the Holy Land".

• SYRIA will attend the Annapolis conference, it said yesterday, boosting US efforts to enlist widespread Arab support for a new Middle East peace drive.

Ending weeks of uncertainty, the official Syrian news agency said the official delegation would be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Fayssal Mekdad, left. Syria had insisted the meeting also deal with the future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel and Syria last held peace negotiations in 2000, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, but could not reach a deal on the Golan Heights.

Below are Links to news from:

Related topic

Middle East conflict

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The Two Words and a name that equals = Armageddon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:15:00 +0000

AR is not equal = to HAR as some may suggest.

AR= City

HAR = Mountain

These have two words have two different meanings altogether.

The KEY:

Translate from Ancient Greek to Hebrew to Italian

then if you prefer - to your native tongue.

The book of Revelation makes no mistakes!

The KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon
Strong's Number: 717

Original Word Word Origin
Armagedwvn of Hebrew origin
Transliterated Word
Armageddon
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
ar-mag-ed-dohn'

Wrong Definition 1
Armageddon = "the hill of Megiddo"
Notice: 1. In Rev. 16:16 The RSV translates the name as Har-Magedon, i.e. hill (as Ar is the city) of Megiddo or M-Egiddo.

Wrong Definition 2
Armageddon
For other uses, see Armageddon (disambiguation).
Armageddon (Greek αρμαγεδδων; also spelled Har-Magedon in some modern English translations) mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament, or more generally, an apocalyptic catastrophe.
The word Armageddon in Scripture is known only from a single verse in the Greek New Testament, where it is said to be Hebrew, but it is thought to represent the Hebrew words
Har Megido (הר מגידו), meaning "Hill of, Megiddo".

The KJV Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's Hebrew Greek Dictionary
Number: 02022

Original Word Word Origin
rh a shortened form of (02042)

Transliterated Word

Har
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
har
Noun Masculine

Right Definition 1 of Har
1. hill, mountain, hill country, mount
<>
King James Word Usage - Total: 546
mountain 261, mount 224, hill 59, hill country 1, promotion 1

The KJV Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's Number: 02042
Original Word Word Origin
rrh from an unused root meaning to loom up
Transliterated Word

Harar
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
haw-rawr'
Noun Masculine

Definition of haw-rawr'
1. mountain, hill, hill country, mount
<>
King James Word Usage - Total: 13
mountain 10, hill 2, mount 1

Ar- M- AGIDDION - AIGIDION - EGIDIO
Greek Letter μ = English Letter M= Hebrew letter מִ =Hebrew Word "From" or "of "

Hebrew word "Ar" ="City" or "Community"

Ar - Community
M - of

IN HEBREW
"M" = OF or FROM

"MM" refers to time as
μμ -p.m.
"M"Also refers to:
π.μ.- a.m.

Hebrew(הר מגידו)
Book of Revelation Greek
αρμαγεδδων
English Transliterated from Greek Bible
Armageddon
Ar- M- = Community of

Ar-m- aigidion

Aigidio = 'Egidio

Written 'Egidio in Italian
Egidio-Spanish

World peace talks hosted by the Sant’Egidio Community

Sant’Egidio – Italian – English – Sant Giles

Egigio - Italian

GILES - English

Gender: Masculine

Usage: English

Pronounced: JIE-ulz [key]

From the Late Latin name Aegidius, which meant "young goat" from Greek αιγιδιον (aigidion). Saint Giles was an 8th-century miracle worker from Greece who was regarded as the patron saint of cripples.

Ar-m-aigidion = "Community of 'Egidio" or "Community of Sant'Egidio"

'Egidio = Giles in English

is the Medieval English form of the Old French saints' name Gide, an altered form of Latin Aegidius.

Some explain this as from Greek αιγιδιον (aigidion) meaning "kid, young goat".

Others believe that the Latin Aegidius was from aegis, a goatskin shield, and that the name refers to the youth who would carry the shield for a warrior.

Giles masc. French, Kiðlingur (Giles derives from the Late Latin name "Aegidius", which meant "young goat" from Greek "aigidion".)

Pronounced: JIE-ulz From the Late Latin name Aegidius, which meant "young goat" from Greek αιγιδιον (aigidion). Saint Giles was an 8th-century miracle worker from Greece who regarded as the patron saint of cripples.

SEE: PEACE AND SAFETY
Sant'Egidio = Trastevere, Italy -Part of - Rome, Italy
near Vatican City
That Great City that rules over the kings of the earth.
The Place - Community of Sant'Egidio
Read - The Book of Revelation
Chapter 16 - Chapter 17

1Thessolonians 5:3
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.

The inter-religious International Meetings started in the mid-80’s, as an initiative of the Community of Sant’Egidio, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding and dialogue among religions, in a horizon of peace.

The Community of Sant’Egidio has continued living the spirit of the Assisi World Day of Prayer, proposed by John Paul II in 1986, by accepting the Pope’s final invitation of that historical meeting: “Let’s keep spreading the message of Peace and living the spirit of Assisi”. Since that moment, through a network of friendship between representatives of different faiths and cultures from more than 60 countries, the Community has promoted a pilgrimage of peace, that has had several stages in various European and Mediterranean cities year after year.

The two first meetings in Rome in 1987 and 1988, were followed by Warsaw in September 1989 (“War never again”) - on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of WWII -, Bari in 1990, Malta in 1991, Brussels in 1992 (“Europe, Religions, Peace”, about the unity of Europe and its relation with the South of the world). In 1993 the pilgrimage stopped in Milan and in the following years, in Assisi and Florence.

The 1995 meeting was a special one: it took place in Jerusalem, in the heart of the Holy City. The title was “Together in Jerusalem: Jews, Christians and Muslims”. After the Rome and Padua-Venice meetings, came the extraordinary meeting in Bucharest in 1988, “Peace is the name of God: God, Mankind, Peoples”. For the first time, the meeting was organized by the Community and the Orthodox Church of Romania.
The presence of several Orthodox patriarchs and cardinals, and mainly the new atmosphere of dialogue opened the way for the first visit of the Pope to an Orthodox country, which took place some months later.
John Paul II, in the message he sent last year to the XIV Meeting for Peace, Community of Sant’Egidio in Lisbon, said: “I would like to thank especially the Community of Sant’Egidio for the enthusiasm and the spiritual courage shown in accepting the message of Assisi and bringing it to so many places in the world through the meeting of men of different religions.”

This year, the first year of the new century, the International Meeting for Peace takes place on the banks of the Mediterranean. Barcelona, deeply rooted in the history of co-existence among the great Abrahamic religions, but at the same time pointing to the new century, with its capacity of renewal, is for three days the capital of peace and the symbol of the new European reality.

Pope John Paul II writes in “Novo Millenio ineunte”: “... we face the challenge of inter-religious dialogue, to which we will be committed in the new century (...) Dialogue must go on”. To reaffirm in different languages and religious traditions the pacific power of dialogue, from 2nd to 4th of September in Barcelona, on the fifteenth anniversary of the first Meeting in Assisi, pilgrims of peace are going to live together “On the Frontiers of Dialogue: Religions and Civilization in the New Century”.

World religious leaders kick off peace summit

Posted: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:33:00 +0000

NAPLES, Italy (AFP) — Leaders of the world's main religions kicked off an annual inter-faith peace summit here Sunday with calls for a global organization uniting their faiths.

Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Israel's chief rabbi Yona Metzger and the imam of the United Arab Emirates, Ibrahim Ezzedin, were among those attending the gathering.

"Civilizations don't dialogue directly, but through those who carry their traditions and cultural values. So we should not speak of a dialogue of civilizations, but a culture of dialogues," Bartholomew told the opening.

In a similar vein, Metzger proposed a "United Nations of Religions" that would "embrace the heads of religious communities that have a profound influence on their congregations."

"If we sit down together around one table... surely we could arrive at effective solutions," he said.

Ezzedin, too, advocated a formal structure linking world religions, saying: "This important grouping of God-fearing people cannot and should not limit itself to processions, conferences and seminars."

"We need to form a permanent and authorised executive machinery for ... executing any decisions we may make," he added.

The Muslim leader however spoke harshly of "unjustified provocations in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan and ... unfair dealings in Palestine" that have prompted "some Muslim individuals and groups (to go) astray and wrong themselves by violent actions."

He added: "We are dismayed by the behavior of some great powers who continue to act aggressively against other countries, by means of military occupation under fabricated pretexts... forced regime changes and blunt interference in other countries' affairs."

The Sant'Egidio summits are meant to carry on the "spirit of Assisi" and were launched 21 years ago by John Paul II in the birthplace of Saint Francis.

The first summit, dubbed a World Day of Prayer for Peace, was attended by the Dali Lama, Mother Teresa and other religious leaders.

The pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, stayed away, reportedly out of concern that it put all religions on an equal footing.

Thus the timing of his pastoral visit to Naples has been billed as a "happy coincidence" by Sant'Egidio, a lay Catholic organization that has mediated in several world conflicts.

The theme of this year's peace summit is "A World Without Violence”: Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue," with topics to include AIDS, immigration, the plight of Africa and the quest for peace in the Middle East.

The Sant'Egidio community is the "bridge in this search for common points and continues to work for dialogue in all parts of the world to build peace," said the Reverend Gijun Sugitani, the supreme adviser of Tendai Buddhism in Japan.

Earlier Sunday, Benedict celebrated an open-air mass as rain fell on pilgrims huddled under umbrellas in Naples' main square.

Lamenting "the sad phenomenon of violence" in the impoverished city, the pontiff said: "It's not only a matter of the deplorable number of crimes of the Camorra (mafia), but also the fact that violence tends unfortunately to become a widespread mentality, insinuating itself into the fabric of society."

Peace Appeal From Encounter of Peoples and Religions

NAPLES, Italy, OCT. 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the message made public Tuesday by the Community of Sant'Egidio, after the 21st International Encounter of Peoples and Religions. The Sant'Egidio Community and the Archdiocese of Naples co-sponsored the event. The appeal was presented by a group of children to representatives of nations of the world at the concluding ceremony of the meeting.

* * *

Naples, Oct. 23, 2007

Men and women of different religions, from many parts of the world, we have gathered here in Naples to forge bonds of brotherhood, and call to God for the great gift of peace. The name of God is peace.

In the heart of the Mediterranean Sea and in this extraordinary city, which is well acquainted with poverty and greatness of heart, we stooped down upon the wounds of the world. There is an illness that pollutes every thing and its name is violence. Violence is the grim daily companion of too many men and women on our planet.

Violence becomes war, terrorism, poverty and despair, exploitation of our planet. It is fueled by contempt; it stuns people with hatred; it kills hope and sows fear; it strikes down the innocent, and debases humanity. Violence seduces the hearts of human beings and tells them, “nothing can change." This pessimism makes people believe that living together is impossible.

From Naples we can say, stronger than before, that anyone who uses the name of God to hate the other, to practice violence, or to wage war, is cursing the name of God.

As Benedict XVI told us, “Never can evil and violence be justified by invoking the name of God."

We focused on our diverse religious traditions, we heard the sorrow of the South of the world, and we felt the burden of pessimism rising from the 20th century with its weight of war and shattered illusions. We need the strength that comes from the spirit of love, which helps rebuild and mend the unity of humankind. The power of the spirit changes the hearts of men and women and transforms history.

In the depths of our religious traditions, we have discovered that a world without dialogue is a world without hope, where people are fated to fear each other. Dialogue does not cancel differences. Dialogue enriches life and dispels pessimism that makes one see the other as a threat. Dialogue is not the illusion of the weak, it is the wisdom of the strong, who rely on the power of prayer. And prayer changes the world and the destiny of humankind. Dialogue weakens no-one’s identity, and it encourages everyone to see the best in the other. Nothing is lost with dialogue; everything is possible through dialogue.

To those who still kill, to those who still sow terrorism and wage war in the name of God, we say: “Stop! Do not kill! Violence is always a defeat."

We commit ourselves to learn the art of living together and to offer it to our fellow believers. There is no alternative to the unity of the human family. We need brave builders, in all cultures, and in all religious traditions. We need the globalization of the spirit, which reveals to us what we no longer see: the beauty of life and of the other, in all circumstances, even the hardest.

Our religious traditions teach us that prayer is an active power in history, and it moves peoples and nations. Humbly, we offer this ancient wisdom to the service of all peoples, of every man and every woman, to open a new era of freedom from fear and contempt for the other. It is the spirit of Assisi, and here, from Naples, full of courage and strength, it challenges violence and any abuse of religion as a pretext for violence.

Following in this path, confident that peace can be a gift to the whole world, we commit ourselves to the Most High.

Religion Can Bring Peace, Says Cardinal

Encourages Hindus in Path of Dialogue With Christians

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Far from being a cause of conflict, religions can promise the peace for which the world longs, affirmed a Vatican official.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue, said this in a message sent to Hindus for their Nov. 9 celebration of Diwali, the festival of lights. The message is titled "Christians and Hindus: Determined to Walk the Path of Dialogue."

"Sensitive to your religious feelings and respectful of your ancient religious tradition," the cardinal wrote, "I sincerely hope that your search for the Divine, symbolized through the celebration of Diwali, will help you to overcome darkness with light, untruth with truth, and evil with goodness."

He continued: "The world around us is yearning for peace. Religions promise peace because they trace their origin to God who, according to Christian belief, is our peace. Can we, as believers of different religious traditions, not work together to receive God's gift of peace and to spread it around us so that the world becomes for all people a better place to live?

"Our respective communities must pay urgent attention to the education of believers, who can so easily be misled by deceitful and false propaganda.

"Belief and freedom always go together. There can be no coercion in religion: No one can be forced to believe; neither can anyone who wishes to believe be prevented from doing so."

Overcoming ignorance

Cardinal Tauran encouraged believers to educate themselves about their own faiths, and to learn about the beliefs of other religions.

"Let us not forget that ignorance is the first and, perhaps, the principal enemy in the life of believers," he said.

"Like all human relationships, those between people of different religions need to be nourished by regular meetings, patient listening, collaborative action, and above all, by an attitude of mutual respect," the cardinal continued. "Accordingly, we must work to build bonds of friendship.

"In situations of misunderstanding, people need to come together and communicate with one another, in order to clarify, in a fraternal and friendly spirit, their respective beliefs, aspirations and convictions.

"Only through dialogue, avoiding all forms of prejudice and stereotyped ideas about others and by faithful witness to our religious precepts and teaching, can we truly overcome conflicts. Dialogue between followers of different religions is the necessary path today, indeed it is the only appropriate path for us as believers."

Interreligious Dialogue Is Working, Says Scholar [2007-11-14]
Affirms It Needs to Continue in Daily Relationships

Religion Can Bring Peace, Says Cardinal [2007-11-05]
Encourages Hindus in Path of Dialogue With Christians

"New Attitude" Noted in Muslim-Christian Relations [2007-10-29]
Pontifical Institute for Islamic Studies Responds to Open Letter

Violence in God's Name a "Curse" [2007-10-24]
Naples Meeting Concludes With Commitment to Dialogue

Peace Appeal From Encounter of Peoples and Religions [2007-10-24]

Jewish Leaders Briefed on Youth Day Event [2007-10-24]

Cardinal Proposes Road Map for Peace [2007-10-23]
Calls Religiously-Motivated Violence a Profanation

Naples Event Seen as Aid in Warding Off Civilization Clash [2007-10-22]
Says Coexistence Is Only Solution for Globalized World

Pope's Address to Religious Leaders in Naples [2007-10-21]
"Religion Can Never Be a Vehicle of Hate"

Benedict XVI: Religion Is Not a Vehicle of Hate [2007-10-21]
Urges Promotion of the "Spirit of Assisi"

Foundation Advises Israel on Religious Etiquette [2007-06-15]

Vatican Message to Buddhists [2007-04-25]
"May We Continue to Contribute Toward Peace and Harmony"

Pope's Address to Interreligious Foundation [2007-02-11]
"A Vital Need for Our Time"

Interreligious Dialogue a Must, Pope Says [2007-02-01]
Receives Group of Muslim, Jewish, Christian Leaders

"Nostra Aetate" Initiated New Era, Says Foundation [2006-10-27]
Marks 41st Anniversary of Interreligious Document

Book Culls Interreligious Documents [2006-10-20]
Covers Papal and Vatican Texts of 1963-2005

Pope Notes Conditions for Interreligious Prayer Meetings [2006-09-04]
A Testimony of Fraternity, Which Must Avoid Syncretism, He Says

Holy See's Statement at Conference on Tolerance [2006-06-13]
"The Frequent Belittling of Religion and Culture"

Jews and Catholics on Respect for Human Life [2006-03-02]
Final Statement of the Bilateral Commission

Interreligious Dialogue Aids Religious Liberty, Says Pope [2006-02-20]

Europarliament Condemns Persecution of Christians [2007-11-21]
Vows to Make Aid Dependent on Respect for Freedom

Benedict XVI Urges Peace in Somalia [2007-11-21]

On the Teachings of Aphraates [2007-11-21]
"Prayer Is Strong When It Is Full of God’s Strength"

Letter from Caritas Somalia [2007-11-21]
"We Cannot Simply Dismiss Somalia as a Hopeless Case"

Putting Social Doctrine in the Limelight [2007-11-21]
Justice and Peace Council Consider Key Task

Holy See Urges U.N. to Coordinate Disaster Response [2007-11-20]
Says International Community Needs to Offer Long-Term Aid

Holy See on a Humanitarian Response to Disasters [2007-11-20]
"A Steady Commitment Is Necessary"

Cardinal: Paul VI Knew Terrorism Could Become Widespread [2007-11-20]
Vatican Council to Study "Populorum Progressio"

The Life-Sapping Human Virus [2007-11-19]
Losing Equilibrium in the Ecology Debate

Democracy in Danger in Venezuela [2007-11-19]
Interview With Archbishop Baltazar Porras

Papal Address to Missionaries [2007-11-16]
"The Baptized Are Called to the Spreading of the Gospel"

Pope Says Missionary Work Has Only Just Begun [2007-11-16]
Notes Cooperation of Laypeople Adds Needed Spark

Cardinal Hails U.N. Vote on Death Penalty [2007-11-16]
Recommendation for Moratorium a

Vatican: World Still Needs "Populorum Progressio" [2007-11-16]
Justice and Peace Council to Study 40-Year-Old Document

Holy Land Likened to a "Family Home" [2007-11-15]
Cardinal-Designate Laments Christians' Emigration From Region

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"Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority"

Pope Recalls Italians Who Died in Iraq [2007-11-14]

Papal Message on the Common Good [2007-11-14]
"Only Together Is It Possible to Attain It and Safeguard Its Effectiveness"

St. Jerome on the Bible [2007-11-14]
"Love Sacred Scripture and Wisdom Shall Love You"

Interreligious Dialogue Is Working, Says Scholar [2007-11-14]
Affirms It Needs to Continue in Daily Relationships

Vatican: World Still Needs "Populorum Progressio"

Justice and Peace Council to Study 40-Year-Old Document

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 16, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Pope Paul VI's encyclical "Populorum Progressio" turned 40 this year, and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace thinks it is as valid today as it was four decades ago.

Scholars and experts will gather Nov. 20-24 in Rome to consider the problems and prospects of human development 40 years after "Populorum Progressio," a dicastery communiqué reported. The theme will be considered at the pontifical council's plenary assembly Nov. 20-21 and at the second world congress of ecclesial organizations active in the sector of justice and peace from Nov. 22-24.

According to the communiqué, pontifical council members and consultors "will reflect on the current validity of the historic papal document, with particular emphasis on the moral aspects of development, on new forms of poverty and globalization, on conflicts and disarmament, and on safeguarding and protecting human rights."

Cardinal Renato Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will lead the plenary assembly.

More than 300 delegates from more than 80 countries are expected to participate in the second world congress of ecclesial organizations active in the sector of justice and peace. The specific theme of their meeting will be "The 40th Anniversary of 'Populorum Progressio': The Development of All of Man, the Development of All Mankind."

The congress "will study the new situations that have come into being in the world since the publication of the historic document, and the current challenges of development in the light of the Church's social doctrine, in particular the questions of human ecology, pluralism and intercultural dialogue, and new forms of government in the context of globalization," the communiqué reported. "Particular attention will also be given to the Church's pastoral commitment to integral and solidary development in the world today."

Leaders of Christianity's diverse traditions meet in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:20:00 +0000

Nairobi, 6 November --A global gathering aimed at bringing together representatives of all the world's main Christian traditions has opened in Kenya with leaders saying they want to find new ways of working together.

"I don't think it is going to be easy, but I hope we will find a meeting space," the Rev. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches told Ecumenical News International on the opening day of the 6-9 November meeting, called the Global Christian Forum, at Limuru, near Nairobi.

The forum was originally proposed in the mid-1990s by the Rev. Konrad Raiser, a German theologian who was then general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

He said it could reach out to Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches that do not belong to the WCC, whose 347 member churches are drawn predominantly from Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox traditions.

"Our differences are not bigger than what binds us together," said Nyomi. "We have more in common, but how we express it is different."

The WCC described the Kenya gathering as bringing together "the broadest range of Christian traditions ever represented at a global meeting".

About half of the 250 participants come from Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, which are growing rapidly in many regions of the world, particularly in the Southern hemisphere.

"It is a wonderful opportunity for the broad spectrum of Christian churches and communities to encounter one another and to be in conversation with one another, not with the view of creating complicated structures, but rather with the view of maintaining the fellowship of conversation and of Christian hope," the Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America, told ENI.

The WCC said the meeting is intended to allow representatives of all the main Christian traditions and of their global organizations to explore and address together common challenges.

Addressing the forum's opening session, the Rev. Peter Karanja, an Anglican priest and general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, said churches are increasingly reluctant to make moral, ethical or spiritual demands on their members for fear of being labelled legalistic, fundamentalist or fanatical.

"The individuals are left to choose what being a Christian means for them and as long as they are happy, then everything goes," said Karanja. "There is something inauthentic about our faith, if it just remains in our heads or liturgy, but does not translate into changed lives and conduct."

The Global Christian Forum states on its Web site that its intention to bring together Christians and churches from very different traditions who have little or no contact with each other. "It is about building bridges where there are none, overcoming prejudices, creating and nurturing new relationships," it says.

Regional meeting have been held under the auspices of the forum in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

"I expect we shall come into an agreement regarding the future of the Global Christian Forum, and I hope we agree to have a very small staff to keep the contacts going," said the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.

He said, "These things [issues] should be delegated to the regions and national levels in the spirit of the global forum."

:: The Christian traditions represented at the Global Christian Forum are: African Instituted, Anglican, Baptist, Evangelical, Disciples (Churches of Christ), Friends, Holiness, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Old Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Pentecostal, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventist, United and Uniting Churches.

The Uniting of the World under the Beast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:39:00 +0000

Vatican official says world forum for Christianity is vital
Nairobi (ENI). A senior Vatican official has said the Roman Catholic Church welcomes a new Global Christian Forum intended to bring together the diverse strands of Christianity as never before. "When Christians are divided, the preaching of the gospel suffers and this is a pain we all have to feel," said Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, addressing a meeting of the forum near Nairobi.

More news.......

'Historic' world Christian forum issues call for dialogue
Nairobi (ENI). Leaders meeting in Kenya belonging to all main Christian traditions, and from countries ranging from Armenia to Zimbabwe, have pledged to convene international, local and regional meetings to deepen reconciliation and understanding.

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.

The political advocacy of the American Catholic Bishops at the state level is one of the Church's best-kept secrets.

WASHINGTON (November 9, 2007)-The prospect of permitting Iran to develop nuclear weapons is unacceptable, according to U.S. Catholic Bishops, but absent an immediate threat, the U.S. and other nations must be fully committed to pursuing a diplomatic solution to the present confrontation. This was the message delivered by letter last week to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice from Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The bishops were reacting to escalating rhetoric and news accounts speculating about a potential preemptive use of force against Iran to deter further possible nuclear weapons ambitions. “From a moral perspective,” Bishop Wenski wrote, “in the absence of an immediate threat…military action would constitute an act of preventative war.” The Catholic Church, he noted, teaches that “engaging in a preventative war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions.” The bishops make clear their assessment that the Iranian situation does not presently constitute an immediate threat. Before military action could be considered, according to the bishops, all non-military alternatives must be exhausted. Options, they suggest, range from diplomatic and economic incentives, increased international involvement and cooperation, to economic sanctions. The bishops also called on the nation’s leaders to change the United States’ current nuclear posture to ensure that nuclear weapons are not used against non-nuclear threats and appealed for greater, more sustained progress toward nuclear disarmament in the spirit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The full text of the letter is available by logging on to: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/2007-11%20Iran%20Letter.pdf.

Also in the News....

Five million sign petition to UN calling for end to capital punishment
Five million signatures against the death penalty were presented to Srgian Kerim, president of the 62nd general assembly of the United Nations Organisation on Friday, in New York by a delegation of the Sant'Egidio community and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
The petition, signed by people from around the world, demands a universal moratorium for capital punishment.

The text of the Sant'Egidio appeal was adopted by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty on 10 October.
The delegation led by Sant'Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti, included Sr Helen Prejean, American anti death penalty activist, and representatives of other organisations which promote the abolition of the death penalty.
The presentation of the signatures was followed by a video press conference, at which speakers included Archbishop Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner from Buenos Aires; Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; and Siti Musdah Mulia, Muslim theologian of Djakharta University.
For more information

download the Fides Dossier on the death penalty:

Microsoft Word file - 'love your enemies'

by copying and pasting the following url into your browser:

http://www.fides.org/eng/documents/dossier_pena_morte_130807.doc

VATICAN CITY - November 7, 2007 -
Pope receives King of Saudi Arabia The Holy See Press Office released the following communique yesterday: "Today in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, the Holy Father Benedict XVI met with King Abdallah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. The sovereign subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone SDB who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States. "The meetings took place in a cordial atmosphere and provided an opportunity to consider questions close to the heart of both sides. In particular, the commitment to inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue aimed at peaceful and fruitful coexistence between individuals and peoples was reiterated, as was the importance of collaboration between Christians, Muslims and Jews for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially in support of the family. "The Vatican authorities expressed their hope for the prosperity of all the inhabitants of the country, and mention was made of the positive and industrious presence of Christians. "Finally, views were exchanged on the situation in the Middle East and on the need to find a just solution to the conflicts affecting the region, especially that between Israelis and Palestinians."

News

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:06:00 +0000

» 11/02/2007 09:58

CHINA – VATICAN – TIBET
Beijing: “serious repercussions” if the Dalai Lama meets the Pope
The Buddhist leader is due in Rome on December 13th next. Despite having no diplomatic relations with the Holy See, the Chinese Foreign Minister warns that bilateral relations will be seriously damaged should the meeting between Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama go ahead.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Chinese government yesterday warned the Vatican of “serious repercussions” to bilateral relations if the Pope meets with the Dalai Lama, who is due in Rome on December 13th. Currently there are no diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Beijing.

Liu Jianchao, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Minister, said: “We hope the Vatican will not do anything to hurt the Chinese people’s feelings and will show sincerity to improve relations with China by taking concrete actions”.

Beijing has always maintained that the Dalia Lama is not a religious leader, but a dangerous separatist who is seeking independence for Tibet, invaded by Chinese troops in 1950. In this light, the Chinese government has condemned recent meetings between the Tibetan leader and political leaders from the United States, Canada and Germany within the last 12 months.

Moreover the American government has recently conferred the Dalai Lama the Congress Gold Medal award, the nation’s highest honour. In response, Liu said that “those countries, who decide to deal with the Tibetan separatists, tarnished their own image”.

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