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Do You Know the Truth About the Trinity?

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-18T17:00:00+01:00

Simply turn to and read in your Bible each verse given in answer to the questions. You will be amazed at the new understanding gained from this short study!Who is God? Who is it that hundreds of millions of Christians worship? For the great majority, at their heart of their answer lies a mystery: the idea that God is one deity divided into distinct-yet-merged hypostases: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Notice the candid admission of one world-famous evangelist who teaches this doctrine: “When I first began to study the Bible years ago, the doctrine of the trinity was one of the most complex problems I had to encounter. I have never fully resolved it, for it contains an aspect of mystery .… To explain and illustrate the trinity is one of the most difficult assignments .…”

When even religionists admit they don’t comprehend who they worship, is there any hope you can understand God’s identity? Yes! It starts not with researching trinitarian orthodoxy, but with examining some illuminating verses right in your own Bible.

Let’s start with Revelation 12:9, which is not about the nature of God, but rather the nature of our world. This shocking verse reveals that the whole world has been deceived! And 2 Corinthians 4:4 corroborates this. Satan is not only very real, he is also incredibly successful: He has deceived not only atheists and non-Christians, but almost all Christians as well!

Satan did not accomplish this feat by denying Christ outright. He did it by creating a great false church—one that still bears Christ’s name today.

Counterfeit Christianity

The origin of that counterfeit Christianity is recorded in Acts 8. Two years after Jesus founded the Church of God, the deacon Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ’s gospel. Samaria was dominated by the influence of Simon, a sorcerer who had bewitched the inhabitants (Acts 8:9-11). Along with the crowd, Simon himself came to hear what Philip had to say.

1. When Simon’s followers believed Philip, who was preaching Christ and the Kingdom of God, what did they do? Acts 8:12. Did Simon join them? Verse 13.

2. When the apostles Peter and John came to Samaria to lay hands on the newly baptized so they could receive the Holy Spirit, what did Simon try to do? Verses 18-19. How did Peter respond? Verses 20-23.

Though he had been baptized, Simon was not converted to true Christianity—he attempted to buy what he thought was the power to impart God’s Spirit. Peter knew this man’s attitude was totally wrong; he only wanted more power to further exalt himself!

3. How did Simon react? Verse 24.

This request was insincere—far from repentance from such an evil mindset. The account ends there. But Simon’s work did not.

The sorcerer went on to proclaim himself an apostle. He proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ. He accepted the doctrine of “grace” for forgiveness of sin, something the pagan religions never had. He even called his religion “Christianity.” But he mixed these “Christian” ideas with his own pagan Babylonian mystery religion! Using the power of Christ’s name, he taught un-Christian doctrines. He turned the doctrine of grace into a license to sin (Jude 4) and aspired to turn his counterfeit religion into a universal faith that would gain political rule over the world!

Simon—the “Pater,” or father, of this counterfeit religion—did not accomplish his goal in his lifetime. But succeeding leaders, with the church’s headquarters moved to Rome, did later gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval successor, the “Holy Roman Empire.” (This empire is again being resurrected in Europe now!)

Even in that first century, Simon’s religion grew rapidly. The Apostle Paul indicated that by the 60s a.d., much of the Middle East had turned from the true gospel to a clever counterfeit! (Galatians 1:6-7).

This “Christian” counterfeit is actually the source of the trinity doctrine!

The Trinity

In a.d. 325, the Roman emperor Constantine called the Nicene Council to settle several religious controversies, which included arguments about belief in a trinity. Constantine was not a “Christian” then, but as political ruler, he assumed control of the church. The religious council approved the trinity doctrine, and Constantine made it law throughout the empire. But he was not able to make it the truth!

The word “trinity” is not used in the Bible. That is because God is not a trinity! A key to understanding God’s true nature is understanding the Holy Spirit.

1. Does 1 John 5:7-8 prove that God is composed of three divine persons?

Notice this! Verses 7 and 8 should actually read: “For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” The 1611 King James Version includes additional words, but these are omitted from most modern Bible translations—for good reason: They are spurious—fraudulent! They did not appear in any respectable Greek manuscript. They appear in a fourth-century Latin text, probably as a marginal note by a copyist who believed in the trinity doctrine. These extra words entered the text of the Latin Vulgate by the eighth century after Christ. Editors of Bible commentaries both liberal and conservative, both old and new, agree that the origin of the King James text in 1 John 5:7-8 is fraudulent.

2. What is the Spirit of God? Jeremiah 32:17; Genesis 1:1-3; Psalm 104:30.

The Bible says the Spirit of God is the power by which God creates. John 1:1 reveals that in the beginning, there was God and the Word (who became Christ). The Word created the universe using the Spirit of God. Spirit energy was literally transformed into the material creation (Hebrews 11:3). It was by this same power that God renewed the surface of the Earth.

3. How did the Word use His Spirit of power to create? Psalm 148:1-5. Notice the word commanded in verse 5. Also read Psalm 33:8-9 and Genesis 1:2-3.

The Word “spake, and it was done.” He willed that spirit energy emanating from Himself to transform into physical energy and matter. That is how the creation of the universe was accomplished.

4. Is God’s Spirit omnipresent? Psalm 139:7-8; Jeremiah 23:24. What does God use to sustain His vast creation? Hebrews 1:2-3; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 66:7.

God’s Spirit is everywhere, like the atmosphere on Earth. It is the power God uses to rule everything. It is what the Word used to do the work of creating. God uses this power much as man uses electrical energy. That is how Christ is “upholding all things by the word of his power.” Under the Father, He uses His authority as God and the power of the God Family to keep everything in the universe in its place.

Though the Father is supreme in the God Family (John 14:28), Jesus is the administrator of the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). The Spirit is not a personality, but rather the very power of God—the power by which God does His will. It is not another person!

5. How does the Bible reference the Holy Spirit? John 1:32; Romans 8:16, 26; 1 Peter 1:11; John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-8, 13.

Normally, the Holy Spirit is referred to as “it” in the King James. In the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John, it is personified as one who brings help; therefore, the word comforter is used, along with the English pronouns he and him. Grammatically, all Greek pronouns must agree in gender with the nouns to which they refer. The Greek parakletos (comforter) is masculine in gender, so translators used the personal pronouns he and him for the Greek masculine pronouns. In many languages, a word’s gender has nothing to do with whether the thing itself is literally male or female. For example, the Spanish word mesa (table) is feminine. Gender in language is a mere grammatical tool.

In Greek, as in English, the word spirit is neuter—neither masculine nor feminine in gender. Pneuma is the Greek word meaning “spirit.” It is always grammatically neuter, properly represented by the English pronoun “it” (John 1:32; Romans 8:16).

The Family of God

Few realize why the truth about the trinity doctrine is so important. By making the Holy Spirit into a person, it implies that God is forever limited to three individuals. It denies the very purpose for which God created mankind!

There is a definite reason why Satan, the arch-deceiver, wanted this false doctrine introduced into false Christianity. The trinity doctrine is his attempt to do away with the heart of the gospel Jesus Christ preached. It limits God to only three—with no possibility of expansion! But the truth—the gospel that Jesus Christ brought from God the Father—is that God is not a trinity, but a Family! That is truth Satan wants to hide from mankind!

1. Does Genesis 1:1 speak of one God?

The English word “God” is translated from the Hebrew word Elohim. This is a collective noun (like family, church, group—one noun consisting of two or more members).

God is not a trinity. God is a Family composed of, so far, the two Personages mentioned in John 1:1. However, the God Family will not always be composed of only two divine beings. God is in the process of expanding His divine Family! Many thousands have already been begotten by God’s Spirit and will soon be born into His Family at the return of Jesus Christ—either by a resurrection from the dead or an instantaneous change. In the future, billions will eventually be born into the Family of God!

Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, was born a divine Son of God (Romans 1:4). But He is only the firstborn of many brethren who will also be born into the God Family (Romans 8:29). God the Father is the divine Father of the God Family, and when we who are now the Spirit-begotten sons of God are born into His divine Family at Christ’s return, we shall be like God (1 John 3:2), for we shall then be the Spirit-born sons of God! God is not a trinity. God is so much more—a Family!

Was Jesus a Prophet?

Gerald Flurry — 2013-06-18T05:00:00+01:00

How can we answer such a question? There is only one way.

Jesus Christ said we are to live by “every word of God” (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4). He was actually quoting the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 8:3), so His statement obviously includes the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Christ also said, “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

Was Christ a prophet? There’s been a recent religious controversy about that, because the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics says no. But we need to prove from God’s Word, the Bible, the answer to that question. People can prove it for themselves very easily.

Jesus’s Testimony

Look at 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.” This verse says that repentant Christians “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” What is that? Considering that it is what Christ spoke—His testimony—we need to know what it is!

God says that no scripture is of any private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). We should always let the Bible interpret the Bible. That is the only way we will understand it. In this case, there is another scripture that defines exactly what “the testimony of Jesus” is!

That definition is found in Revelation 19:10: “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” In other words, what Jesus Christ spoke is in the spirit of prophecy!

That is a strong statement! If you know anything about the Bible, you know Jesus Christ came preaching the gospel, or “good news,” of the Kingdom of God (e.g. Mark 1:14-15). He said that Kingdom was “at hand,” but not here yet.

What is the gospel? It’s the good news of the coming Kingdom, or Family, of God! Christ’s message about it was a prophecy direct from His mouth! It is a wonderful prophecy of the beautiful World Tomorrow that is about to come to this Earth when Jesus Christ rules and brings peace and abundance and joy! The gospel is the context of all the Bible’s prophecy!

What happened right before Christ began to proclaim that gospel? In verses 12-13 of Mark 1, you read that Jesus had to fight a titanic struggle with Satan the devil (see also Matthew 4; Luke 4). Do you know why? It was because He had to qualify to replace Satan on his throne, from which the devil rules this Earth! Yes, Satan has a throne, and he does bear rule. 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that he is “the god of this world”—the world worships him!

Nevertheless, Christ won that struggle and overcame Satan, and He qualified to kick him off his throne and to govern the Earth. He will assume that rule at His Second Coming.

That is why it was right after that struggle that Christ came declaring the gospel of the Kingdom of God!

God is offering positions of rulership today, as well, to those who conquer the devil as Christ did (e.g. Revelation 3:21). Though it is not on the same level as what Christ did, the firstfruits also qualify to rule with Jesus Christ by overcoming the devil today. That truth is very much a part of Christ’s glorious gospel!

Really, all the truth in the Bible should be viewed in the context of that gospel.

Christ’s Most Important Prophecy

In his November 18 Angelus to the faithful, Pope Benedict xvi declared, “Jesus does not describe the end of the world, and when He uses apocalyptic images, He does not act as a ‘seer’ [or prophet]. On the contrary, He wishes to ensure that His disciples in every age remain unmoved by dates and predictions.”

That is a startling statement. What does the Bible say about it?

Jesus Christ issued many prophecies while He was on Earth. The most important of these was the Olivet prophecy, recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. All prophecy revolves around it. I believe it is the most pivotal prophecy in the Bible.

And what is it about? In it, Christ describes the end of this age.

Matthew 24:3 sets the stage: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” The Greek word translated “world,” aion, should read “age.” It’s referring to the present age of Satan’s rule on Earth; when Christ returns, there is actually a new world coming!

So this chapter shows Jesus Christ prophesying what’s going to happen at the end of this age! How could anyone say He’s not a prophet?

Some commentaries call this prophecy “the little apocalypse,” and for good reason. An account of it appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke—but not the Gospel of John. Why is John the only Gospel writer who did not record the Olivet prophecy? Actually he does, but not in his Gospel. He records it in the book of Revelation, chapter 6.

There John discusses seven seals, the first four of which are known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The word apocalypse is an untranslated Greek word that means revelation. The seven seals in the book of Revelation are interpreted in the Olivet prophecy! You can read about this in my article last month, “The Seven Seals of Revelation Have Been Opened!” So actually, all four Gospel writers had a version of the Olivet prophecy!

Revelation 5 shows that Christ is the only Prophet qualified to unloose the seven seals of Revelation. Christ is the Prophet of all prophets!

There are many instances in the Bible where Christ is referred to as a prophet (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:15, 18; Luke 7:16; 24:19; John 4:19; 6:14; 9:17; Acts 3:20-23; Hebrews 1:1-2). There are many more where He gave prophecies (e.g. Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 25:31-34; 26:64; Mark 13:1-2; John 7:37-40).

Prophecy is revelation from God about what He is going to do. Christ prophesied, and every bit of that prophecy has comes to pass or is about to!

The prophetic signs Christ gave in Matthew 24 are intended to help us to be watchful and to prepare for His Second Coming. “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (verses 42-44). Christ said we wouldn’t know the day or the hour, but we should know when it is near—at the door (verse 33). We must understand that!

War With the Dragon

End-time prophecy describes a great, fearsome political power that has “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies .… And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God” (Revelation 13:5-6). This “beast” is prophesied to ally with another “beast” that looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon (verses 11-12). This is a powerfully deceptive religious entity prophesied to kill millions and even to martyr the saints of God (e.g. verses 13-15).

What a condemning prophecy! Thus, it should be no surprise that the powers it describes would seek to take people’s focus off prophecy, and off the prophetic message of the greatest prophet ever, Jesus Christ.

In reality, a statement that Jesus is not a prophet is an attack on Christ—and on those who have the testimony of Christ!

Consider this end-time prophecy: “And the dragon [Satan the devil] was wroth with the woman [the biblical symbol of a church], 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 12:17). The devil hates that testimony and tries to discredit and suppress it. And he does so by warring against those who have it.

Again, that “testimony” is “the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). Those who have this revelatory spirit look to the one who gave that testimony—the one who alone can unloose the seals of Revelation so we can understand it—the Prophet of prophets, Jesus Christ! They then turn around and proclaim and publish that prophecy, which exposes Babylonish religion and reveals the deceitful, blasphemous spirit that dominates it (Revelation 17).

Revelation 12 tells the story of this battle, throughout history, between God’s saints who have Christ’s spirit of prophecy, and a church inspired by this “old serpent” that seeks to silence them in order to avoid that exposure!

Act Now!

It is a rather brazen statement to say that Christ wasn’t a prophet. He is the Prophet of all prophets! If He hadn’t unsealed the seven seals, which is the whole story of Revelation, we wouldn’t know anything about the time frame or sequence of all other prophecies in the Bible.

This error ought to powerfully motivate anyone who has the testimony of Jesus Christ remaining in their memory to repent and cleave to the Father of lights where His lamp of truth burns so brightly!

The time for taking such action—and receiving God’s protection from the devastating end-time Tribulation prophesied by Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:21)—is fast running out! Was Jesus a Prophet?

Fixing America's Broken Government

Ron Fraser — 2013-06-18T05:00:00+01:00

When you are the guest of a foreign country, it is generally considered bad manners to criticize it.

I’ve been an ex-pat resident of the U.S. for going on sixteen years. I love my home country which is a most loyal ally of America, but I’ve also come to love America, and have a particularly affinity with the people of Oklahoma, our state of residence for our tenure in the U.S.

The fact that my daughter married a real Okie, who was born in Muskogee, adds a personal touch to our attachment to this most conservative of states of the Union.

Mind you, I don’t like the climate in OK—freezing in winter, steaming hot in summer, with but little relief in spring and autumn. Then there are the tornadoes …

Added to all that this coastal boy from Aussie greatly misses the sound of the surf and the feel of golden sand between the toes.

Having said that, it must also be said that I live in one of the friendliest states of the Union, in, culturally, one of its most pleasant of cities, Edmond.

And there’s something else.

There’s still a real feeling of national pride here where Old Glory is respected for the heritage it signifies as is, generally, the nation’s constitution. It’s really akin to the depiction of the Oklahoman as expressed in the Merle Haggard song. Still, even dwelling here in red state Oklahoma, one cannot avoid observing that something has gone wrong, terribly wrong, with this once great country during the last decade and a half.

So I am moved, for what it’s worth, to speak out on what I have observed take place in this once great Superpower during my time of residence here.

Bill Clinton had been elected to a second term as president of the United States just a month before I relocated to America with my wife following a five-year tenure in Britain. Days later Madeleine Albright was appointed as America’s first female secretary of state. I did not consider either as worthy appointments to their respective offices for this great superpower, which America still was, at the time.

As time would reveal, of all post-war governments, it was the Clinton administration that brought to bear, on both domestic and international politics, some of the worst aspects of post-war moral relativism. That administration was overpopulated with children of the ’60s and ’70s who had their minds “closed” to reality (in the term used by Professor Allan Bloom in his masterful work The Closing of the American Mind) via the brainwashing received from liberal-socialist professors at their universities and colleges during those two socially disruptive decades.

Within the U.S., in particular during the Clinton administration, moral sickness in the White House skewed the perspective of the governing elite away from the old moral absolutes and tore at the fabric of true democracy that had underpinned America in its greatest era of growth and development. The result was a warping of the national perception of just what it is that American democracy was supposed to stand for.

As Professor Wesley McDonald of Elizabethtown College, Penn., commented, “The American political culture has changed so dramatically during the Clinton era that it is now reasonable to conclude that the social, moral and cultural basis necessary for the prevalence of genuinely conservative ideas no longer exists” (Salisbury Review, Winter 2000). That was over 12 years ago, and the situation certainly has not improved since.

There simply cannot be a genuine democracy without a strong representation of the genuine, timeless values and virtues upon which it was founded. Unless those fundamental values and virtues are given a strong voice of support, the moral relativism of the left will overwhelm society and work to destroy its democratic foundations.

As America has dumbed down its culture—its taste in all things from food to dress, from music to sitcoms—the quality of life and the fruits thereof are painting a very different picture of the results of democracy to the rest of the world from that which the Founding Fathers envisioned. Family breakdown, a huge drug subculture, rampant sexual perversion, violent crime, the failing family structure—all these bitter fruits now being reaped by an Anglo-American society in decline are being perceived by undemocratic, religiously zealous, reactionary regimes as dramatic proof of the failure of the great Western dream.

After visiting the autocratically ruled state of Turkmenistan, British journalist Katie Grant observed that “We extol democracy, which allows societies to operate on the level of the lowest common denominator, as the best way to function. But when you compare our filthy streets and yob culture with the dignity of the Turkmen, democracy seems a shoddy affair. We haven’t risen to Bach; we have sunk to Marilyn Manson. … When we export democracy, we export Big Brother. When we insist on the supremacy of individual rights, we export family breakdown and the culture of whinge and litigation” (Spectator, June 29, 2002).

Those tendencies have been terribly exacerbated under America’s current administration. The acceleration of the “big brother” approach to government that has occurred over the past four and a half years has been staggering. The loss of the traditional freedoms enjoyed by Americans from the time the Founding Fathers put their signatures to the Constitution of the United States has, over less than half a decade, been breathtaking. The sense of impending national catastrophe is overwhelming to any independent observer inside America.

Yet the answer to halting this spreading quagmire of deeply entrenched fraud, corruption, sleight of hand and immoral purpose that emanates from the most senior levels of government in Washington is not a return to a truly democratic government. To completely route this perversion of government will take an administration of far greater purity in its motives of ruling the masses for the good of all: in fact, a government that is literally out of this world—believe it or not, the Government of your Maker!

Herbert Armstrong explained the root cause of our misgovernment in his booklet titled “A World Held Captive.” In that booklet he stated, “You live in a world of awesome progress, but paradoxically, of appalling evils. Why? It’s a world held captive, deceived into loving its captivity. … [M]ost astonishing of all is the actual fact of the colossal kidnapping of all time—in which the captive for 6,000 years has willed to pursue the life and evil philosophy of the archkidnapper—Satan the devil. The willing victim in this case is the world that inhabits this planet Earth! Yet this world has been so completely deceived that it cannot realize what actually has happened to it.”

The Trumpet’s editor in chief, Gerald Flurry, has outlined the current effect of that Satanic captivity on the American nation in his booklet America Under Attack. In that masterful expose of just what has happened to America over the past half decade, he states: “Many people are deeply concerned about the direction of America today. Many can see that the nation is on the wrong course and is rapidly losing its moral character and its strength. … [W]e have seen a rapid breakdown of law and an increasing amount of poison spreading through America’s political system.”

Identifying the root cause of the nation’s demise, just as Herbert Armstrong did, Gerald Flurry declares, “Satan is bringing these nations down. Through all the destruction, he is using individuals that he can to destroy law and government, so everything comes unglued and falls apart. That is what this is all about.”

The end result?

As Mr. Flurry states in the aforementioned booklet, “I’m watching as this government takes one step after another that is weakening this country and hastening the fulfillment of some of the most terrifying prophecies in the Bible! And I know that the devil, who is a liar and who hates law, is behind that.” That means that Satan, who is a spirit and thus a level above that of the human, can only be dealt effectively at the spiritual level.

Yet with the vision of Bible prophecy, we may look beyond the disheartening events of the day as we witness the rapid collapse of effective government within Anglo-Saxon society, to a time of great hope for the future, when this deceitful spirit will be finally dealt with.

As Gerald Flurry states in the conclusion to America Under Attack: “The events we see around us are deeply sobering. But they should also fill us with hope—and anticipation of the great event they lead to: the Second Coming of Christ to this Earth!

“Once Christ banishes the devil and takes his rightful place on the throne over the Earth, we will have joy and happiness and peace for the rest of eternity!

“Thank God for that!”

Only then will not only government in America, but the totality of government worldwide be fixed forever!

Read our booklets, America Under Attack and The Epistles of Peter: A Living Hope for a real prophetic perspective on the broken government in America and the guaranteed solution to that problem.

Number of Stay-at-Home Dads on the Rise

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-17T21:08:19+01:00

The number of stay-at-home fathers in the United States is multiplying. Since 2001, the number of dads who remain home to care for children while mothers work full-time has doubled. Today, 3½ percent of men remain home to care for the kids.

One example is Joe McLaughlin. Joe does most of the care-taking, cooking and cleaning in the home. While Joe and his daughter mingle with other stay-at-home dads and their kids in the park, his wife, Elizabeth, provides for the family by working as an executive coach.

[SOUNDBITE: Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, working mom]

“It was pretty much a no-brainer for us because Joe’s income where it was would’ve equaled childcare and we knew very much that we wanted at least one parent to stay home for a certain period of time.”

One reason more and more fathers are staying at home is finances. Women are earning more college degrees than men, and about 28 percent of married mothers in the United States now make more money than their husbands.

A Pew Center survey found that approximately 50 percent of people believe children are better off if Mom stays at home and doesn’t work. About 8 percent feel that way about stay-at-home dads.

The woman’s most important job is taking care of the home and children. When God created male and female, He also created specific roles. The woman is the nurturer and caretaker—the man is provider and protector. However, today parents have inverted these biblical roles. To understand where it is leading, read Conspiracy Against Fatherhood.

Under His Vine and Under His Fig Tree

Ron Fraser — 2013-06-17T17:00:00+01:00

There’s a deeply thought-provoking prophecy in your Bible about a great social and environmental revolution. It’s a complete change from our bloated, city-centered society and rat-race social mentality—to a calm, peaceful, largely rural habitat where man can concentrate on creation and Creator.

We read of the global outcome of this coming revolution in the prophecy of Micah 4:4: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”

Perhaps the closest we have ever come to this society was old rural England. In their enlightening book Rural England—Our Countryside at the Crossroads, Derrik Mercer and David Putnam paint a picture of Southeast England that is sadly fast diminishing in scope: “It is a cozy countryside where village greens echo each summer to the sound of cricket and polite applause. Overlooking the green will usually be the village church, still a place of architectural and spiritual homage in this more secular age. Church and inn, manor house and cottages, together they reflect a story of man’s impact on the land which frequently goes back a thousand years or more.”

During our five years living in Britain in the 1990s, my wife and I occasionally stayed at an inn in just such an idyllic, traditional English village. It made for interesting reflection on a way of life in the old country that, as these authors stated, “goes back a thousand years or more.”

The Industrial Revolution changed that way of life. While bringing massive progress in man’s technical capacities, it began to denigrate his long-held attachment to the land and its seasonal rhythms. That disruption dramatically escalated stress-related diseases, mental illness and the evolution of a rampant drug culture. These are all signs of a distressed society in the throes of a self-inflicted demise.

What the Industrial Revolution started in the early 19th century has run full course. Greed priced our labor out of the market years ago. Our industrial capacity moved overseas. Former and potential enemy nations now manufacture our goods—even key components of our military hardware, something the United States vowed after the Revolutionary War would never happen again. Last decade, the U.S. became a net importer of food, further eroding its once-independent economy. America now faces the fiscal cliff. Ideas for saving the national economy have been exhausted. Our society—in America, Britain and other English-speaking nations—faces unfixable economic and social woes.

In the process, Americans are fast losing peace of mind. They are daily subjected to personal terror—that tomorrow morning will bring not just Islamist terror, but loss of income, of home, of marriage, of family. Thousands of years ago, God prophesied that all these things would befall our society when we rebelled against Him and His laws (Leviticus 26:16).

The American way of life is barely two centuries old, and is already rapidly falling into decay.

Yet for over a thousand years, a traditional way of life existed in rural England, the last vestiges of which can be still experienced.

What’s the explanation of the two phenomena? To a major extent, it has to do with every man sitting “under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” Note that there are two elements to this vision of the future: a rural-based economy promoting the economic independence of man, and its conformity with the will of God!

The English discovered the value of the organized rural economy and built a society around it during the first millennia a.d. To a certain extent, their seasonal rural principles conformed to biblical tenets, until they were broken by the Industrial Revolution and chemical farming methods.

Developing much later—post-Industrial Revolution—the U.S. has broken both of these stabilizing elements of society that guarantee equitable distribution of national wealth. Other Anglo-Saxon nations are hell-bent on the same course.

So just how will the Anglo-Saxons—and ultimately all nations—extricate themselves from their present catastrophes to obtain that future forecast in Micah 4:4?

They won’t. They can’t. The task is simply beyond them.

To change today’s profit- and mass-production-oriented system—where too much wealth is concentrated in too few hands—into a world where every man has the potential to capitalize and maintain his own independent farm, we need the mighty hand of God.

Shinzo Abe's Japanese Economic Renaissance

Ron Fraser — 2013-06-17T05:00:00+01:00

British-based economics analyst Dr. Peter Warburton believes that under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s aggressive political leadership, Japan is finally set to emerge from its economic stupor.

Director of London-based consulting firm Economic Perspectives Ltd., Warburton senses a change in the mood of the population with the government now under Abe’s direction. He observes that the Japanese “believe a kind renaissance is going to happen” (Lignet, June 13).

One of the problems that has developed in the wake of Japan’s economy becoming moribund in the 1990s following decades of spectacular growth is the accumulation of a massive public debt.

Predicting a growth rate of 2 percent for the current year, Dr. Warburton posits that 2014 may “have Japan on a growth path that allows it to begin to address its huge public debt” (ibid).

A principal factor that weighs heavily on Japanese economic, fiscal and foreign policy at the moment is the state of the Chinese economy. “Abe’s economic stimulus policies are having a significant effect on the Chinese economy. According to Warburton, the declining value of the Japanese yen is ‘plumping up’ China’s currency. Warburton said this is not entirely a bad thing, since it is restraining Chinese inflation” (ibid).

In an April report, Stratfor stated, “The new governor of the Bank of Japan won almost unanimous consent for his proposal to launch massive monetary stimulus in Japan. The anticipation of the new policy has already contributed to a sharp drop in the yen’s value relative to export competitors. This move will not revive the whole economy, but the combination of political consensus and the government’s willingness to embrace new ideas is a notable development” (April 8; emphasis added).

This is what has become a primary indicator of change in Japan—consensus. As Japanese governments have come and gone in rapid succession over recent years, it has been difficult for the nation to reach a consensus on the direction of economic policy. We now appear to have a collective mind change taking place not only within government circles in Japan, but also in the mind of the public.

If Abe is able to manage this significant psychological advantage—a phenomenon that has not been experienced for decades in Japan—to his political advantage such that he wins a majority in the upper house of the Japanese Diet during elections this July, he could well be on course to lead Japan back to its prior status of an economic powerhouse, this time in direct competition with China.

That said, any revival of the Japanese economy must also be seen in the light of Abe seeking to propel Japan forward on a trajectory of military development. A significant plank in his political platform is the revision of the Japanese Constitution to enable it to legally embrace such a move.

In a December 2012 report, Stratfor observed that Japan sported a “world-class military” force. The report continued, “Over the years, postwar Japan has acquired formidable conventional capabilities despite Article 9 of the country’s U.S.-drafted constitution, which prohibits belligerency and armed forces.

“While remaining content with its limited military role for more than six decades, Japan’s current regional security and political concerns are accelerating the impetus for normalization—the political process of eliminating restrictions on the military” (Dec. 17, 2012).

Shinzo Abe’s election in December as prime minister of Japan has been followed by an increasingly bellicose stance by the Japanese government on changing its defensive posture to embrace legitimate entry into zones of combat as a recognized military power unfettered by restraints built into its constitution since World War ii.

These recent developments in Japan have been anticipated by the Trumpet for the past two decades. A check of our archive will prove that.

The reason we have written with such confidence of a Japanese “renaissance” is because of the prophecies documented in your Bible. Those prophecies reveal Japan will be a powerhouse economy, ultimately embracing Southeast Asia in something akin to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was its initial goal in World War ii.

By checking the ethnicity of the nations named in the future Far East alliance in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38:6, we see Japan and its Southeast Asian relatives combined in alliance with China and Russia (verses 1-3).

At present, Russo-Chinese relations are quite warm, to the point of holding periodic joint military exercises together. It is not yet apparent, given certain tensions between Japan and China over territorial questions, just how the two will form a future alliance to complete the prophesied Far East triumvirate. But, given that the prophecy cannot be broken (John 10:35; 2 Peter 1:19), it is something we should be watching for.

In the meantime, watch for the outcome of the Japanese elections in July. If the majority falls to Abe’s government at that time, we may well see Japan rapidly propelled forward into its future prophesied status as a global military power, yet once again to be reckoned with by the West. Read our booklet Russia and China in Prophecy for more insight into these developments.

What's Wrong With Marijuana?

Wik Heerma — 2013-06-17T05:00:00+01:00

Marijuana is getting stronger. It has become increasingly popular since open drug use crashed through cultural and moral barriers in the 1960s. Now the youths of the ’60s are parents, grandparents, voters and politicians. Today, youths and even adults say that marijuana is basically harmless—if not glamorous, like it is portrayed in entertainment—or even medically beneficial. Attitudes have become so relaxed that Americans in two states actually voted in November to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

We are watching marijuana change from a counterculture banned substance into a mainstream recreational aid. But the debate is far from over. What are the facts about cannabis?

Marijuana in America

The real extent of marijuana use is unknown, but it is chronic and widespread. Ninety-five million Americans have experimented with this drug at least once. In 2002, three out of four illicit drug users admitted they had used marijuana in the 30 days prior. In 2007, a survey found that 14.4 million Americans had smoked marijuana in the previous 30 days. Between the ’60s and 2000, the average age of marijuana users dropped from 19 to just over 17. Under-18 marijuana initiates now make up 67 percent.

Why is marijuana so popular? One student used this frank reasoning: “We do it because it’s there, because we like it, and because it is one way to tell the grown-up world to go to h—-.” Youths and even adults often claim it as an adolescent rite of passage. Many try it due to peer pressure.

The Facts

People have grown the Indian hemp plant for use as a hallucinogen for more than 2,000 years. The name comes from the Portuguese maringuango, meaning “intoxicant.” Drugs extracted from the Indian hemp are collectively called cannabis, and all forms of cannabis are hallucinogenic. The plant contains more than 400 known chemicals, many of which are toxic to the human body.

One compound, tetrahydrocannabinol (thc), produces psychoactive effects in the brain, which are usually called highs. This distortion of mental perception usually takes effect within minutes; sensations include increased heart rate, a slight rise in blood pressure, conjunctival vascular congestion, lessened coordination and balance, and a dreamy, unreal state of mind. These sensations peak within the first half hour, and usually wear off after a couple of hours, depending on the potency of thc and the amount ingested.

Marijuana is not only getting stronger culturally, it is getting stronger chemically. There are some significant differences between the marijuana teens and young adults use today and what their parents used. The levels of delta-9 thc have multiplied from less than 1 percent in the mid-1970s to more than 6 percent. In the past two decades, the potency of sinsemilla—a form of cannabis produced from the smaller leaves and flowers—increased from 6 percent to more than 13 percent. Some samples contained thc levels as high as 33 percent.

A Harmless Herb?

Many people claim that cannabis is a comparatively benign natural herb—less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Yet it contains many of the same cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco. The amount of tar and carbon-monoxide inhaled by those who smoke marijuana is three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers, regardless of thc content. And unlike alcohol, where the ethanol is eliminated within a few hours, marijuana residues can stay in the body for weeks.

Marijuana use can also seriously damage respiratory and cardiovascular health, causing chronic coughing, wheezing and bronchitis. Smoking a relatively small amount of marijuana has a similar impact to smoking five to seven times that amount in cigarettes, one after another.

And there is no denying that cannabis affects the mind—that is its purpose. This has been directly linked to health, safety, social, behavioral and academic problems. The drug can affect concentration, attention and learning for up to 24 hours. A University of Iowa study showed that people who used marijuana frequently exhibited deficits in mathematical skills and verbal expression. They also showed impairments in memory-retrieval and mental aptitudes. Animals given marijuana in scientific studies have suffered structural damage to the brain.

Like other hallucinogens, cannabis disrupts the flow of chemical neurotransmitters. Its use can lead to increased anxiety, panic attacks, depression and other mental health issues. One study showed that children ages 12 to 17 who smoke marijuana weekly are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users. Recent research showed how the risk of major depression quadruples through cannabis use. Swedish scientists have also found a link between marijuana use and an increased risk of developing schizophrenia.

Long term, the cannabis user risks triple the likelihood of illicit drug abuse or dependence, poor job and academic performance, cognitive deficits, lung damage, lesions to the brain and other brain abnormalities similar to those caused by long-term abuse of other major drugs.

Many people believe cannabis use is not addictive. But use can lead to dependency, and heavy users have shown withdrawal symptoms that include increased aggression, irritability, anxiety and insomnia.

Marijuana use can deform the structure of sperm cells and cause temporary sterility in men. It can upset a woman’s menstrual cycle and is one of the few drugs that create abnormal cell division resulting in severe hereditary defects. It also drastically affects the immune system, reducing resistance to common illnesses.

Marijuana use also loosens inhibitions—since the user loses control of his mind—which, among other things, leads to more risky sexual behavior. This indirect consequence causes myriad problems for individuals and society. Research shows that the younger a person is when he begins using cannabis, the more likely he or she will suffer these long-term consequences.

A Growing Problem

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 40 percent of adult males arrested for crimes tested positive for cannabis at the time of their arrest.

Among adults 26 and older who used the drug prior to age 15, 62 percent later went on to use cocaine, 9 percent went on to use heroin at least once, and 54 percent abused mind-altering prescription drugs.

Of all teens entering drug treatment, nearly two thirds are dependent on cannabis—a larger proportion than all other illicit drugs combined.

Rather than making people mellow, users showed a four-fold increase in violent and aggressive behavior. Users also tend to disobey authority and cause destruction of personal or public property.

An increasing risk to cannabis users, and the rest of society, is that of driving under the influence. Blood analysis shows 15 percent of trauma patients who were injured while driving a car or motorcycle had smoked marijuana. Another 17 percent had both alcohol and thc in their blood.

But It’s Beneficial

Many states allow people with certain medical conditions to use marijuana for relief. Yet, as a smoked product, cannabis has never been proven to be medically beneficial; it is more likely to harm the patient’s health. The majority of marijuana medicinal studies have been relatively short-term and limited in scope. They have looked for the treatment (suppression) of existing conditions, but have never proven that cannabis has any healing properties.

As with any drug at low doses, the intoxicated individual may profess an increased sense of well-being in a dreamy, carefree state of relaxation. Yet this distortion is a false sense of security—fooling the brain into thinking it is operating normally, or better, when the reality is the opposite.

In stronger doses, marijuana can even precipitate psychosis. More than a “personality disorder,” psychosis is a severe mental derangement.

No matter the dosage, marijuana is far from a harmless high. Evidence continues to mount that it causes harmful long-term physical and psychological effects.

People take marijuana and other drugs to escape certain situations or feelings. The high masks the problem for a while, but when the pleasure wears off, the problems are back—more intense and numerous than before. This often drives users to seek harder drugs. The long-term physical and psychological results of cannabis are far from dreamy or predictable.

A Physical and Spiritual Sin

Controversy over marijuana stems partially from confusion on the subject. Effects differ from person to person with the same amount of the drug, and even from occasion to occasion in the same individual. Some emphasize this, and the pleasure of the high, to argue that everyone should be “free” to use cannabis.

To clear the air from confusion, we have to open our Bibles. Scripture reveals that our bodies and minds are not our own to abuse as we please. God commands that we “glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20). The Bible reveals man’s incredible potential: to use our bodies, our minds and His Holy Spirit (verse 19) to develop the character of God!

An incredible, eternal future awaits each of us when we turn to God to let Him develop our minds and character. Intoxicating ourselves on the “pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25) and the “lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16; 1 John 2:16) destroys this incredible human potential. 1 Corinthians 6:10 states outright that drunkards—meaning the intoxicated—will never enter God’s Kingdom unless they repent—and that includes intoxicating drug hallucinations.

If you have a problem with drugs, conquering it will not be easy, but you can do it! Philippians 4:13 says all things are possible with Christ strengthening us. He will give you the real and lasting solution to your problems. And He will also reward you for overcoming sinful pulls and developing your God-given abilities (Luke 19:12-27; Revelation 2:26). No one is perfect; we all yearn to escape our problems, we all commit sin (Romans 3:23). But God gives us all the same amazing promise in Hebrews 4:16, encouraging us to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Conquer this vice! Flee the temptation. Don’t try to slowly reduce your intake—throw away everything remotely related to it and never look back! Look forward to truly conquering your problems and embracing an incredible future ahead—unimaginably awesome and impossible to compare with any high. God will free your mind, individually—and everyone’s mind, at His return—from these debilitating effects and help you experience far, far greater experiences: your incredible human potential!

TV's War on Fathers

Richard Palmer — 2013-06-16T05:00:00+01:00

Fathers are useless, ignorant layabouts, less mature than the children they are supposed to be raising. That’s the message you get from nearly every tv show and ad. Almost all parents—93 percent—acknowledge that children’s tv shows don’t represent real-life fathers, according to a report by UK parenting website Netmums published on June 11. But most don’t care.

The figures show that only 18 percent think these shows could make children believe their dads are useless. Presumably that means 82 percent don’t have a problem with them.

But the fact is, children’s tv gives children a horrible message about fatherhood. And it’s getting worse.

For years, shows aimed at teens, like The Simpsons, have encouraged children to look down on their fathers. But now it’s spreading to a younger audience.

The trend in young children’s tv is striking. Go back a couple of generations, and shows for young children often supported family. They featured reasonable families—not perfect of course—but with the father in control, looking after his wife and children. When I was growing up, children’s tv didn’t really show families at all—we had programs like Thomas the Tank Engine and Postman Pat.

Now the shows attack the father. The Netmums report introduced me to Peppa Pig, currently one of the most popular children’s tv shows in the Western world. I’d never seen it before, so I went to YouTube, and clicked on one of the top hits.

It starts with Daddy Pig sitting in his favorite sunny spot. “Daddy Pig loves doing nothing,” said the narrator. He spends the rest of the show being told off, bossed around and laughed at by his children.

I clicked on another episode: The dads are having a barbeque but end up starting a fire. The moms, who were manning the fire station at the time, have to come and save them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_YCy2Pl1b0

Already, I’m starting to notice a pattern. The Times’ Ian King, who has obviously watched way more Peppa Pig than I have, writes:

Want a picture nailing to a wall? Daddy Pig manages to demolish the entire wall. Taking the family camping? Daddy Pig is too big to fit in his tent and ends up sleeping in the car. Having a family barbecue? Daddy Pig incinerates the lot .… Putting up a new flatpack toy cupboard? You get the idea. If there’s a wrong way to do it, Daddy Pig will find it.

The Bible describes the direction today’s families are taking in detail in Isaiah 3. “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (verse 12). Masculine leadership has become rare, and so families are led by women and children.

Peppa Pig is Isaiah 3:12 made into a children’s tv show. Peppa, the little girl pig, is the smartest and most mature character on the program. She makes all the decisions for the family. And if it’s not her, it’s her mother.

Peppa Pig is a more pernicious attack on fathers than shows older generations might be familiar with (e.g. The Simpsons) simply because it is aimed at a much younger age group.

Too many have dismissed Netmum’s criticism of these kind of shows because they say children know it is a joke, and it won’t affect how they treat their real fathers. Can a 4-year-old understand the “joke”? Can they really remain unaffected by this not-so-subtle message they receive every time they turn on the tv?

Unfortunately, at times fathers actually do show some of the characteristics of Daddy Pig. This show tells children that these lapses are normal rather than mistakes.

This is far worse than merely poisoning family relationships. In his booklet Conspiracy Against Fatherhood, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes, “The human father pictures God the Father. … The family of man pictures the God Family! God created the human family to get us into His Family.” Mr. Flurry quotes the May/June 1970 issue of Tomorrow’s World magazine, which stated: “This vicious and subtle attack on fatherhood is really aimed at God Almighty. Its aim is to warp people to the point where they cannot have a right relationship with their heavenly Father.”

That 1970 article goes on to talk about how children learn to respect their fathers. “We learn to yield to their authority and to be more loving and respectful to them,” it said. “We must transfer this same wonderful feeling of reverence to our heavenly Father!”

Peppa has zero respect for her father and is teaching a whole generation of children to behave the same way. It will be a real struggle for them to relate properly to their heavenly Father.

Of course fathers play a far more important role in teaching children these lessons than the tv does. But this is part of the same attack on family that we see in the whole of society.

Why has children’s tv become so much worse in the last few years? Because this attack has become worse. Almost every aspect of society is geared toward getting fathers to neglect their responsibilities—to tell them that they don’t need to teach and train their children.

Mr. Flurry calls fatherhood “the core institution of our society!” (op. cit.). It is something we must get right, despite these attacks. For more information on the critical role of the father, please read our article “Fatherhood 101.”

Remember Father's Day

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-16T05:00:00+01:00

Every year on the third Sunday of June in America, Dad gets special attention and reward recognizing his sacrifice and hard work for his family. And with Americans spending over $8 billion on their dads for the event, it is little wonder that advertisers invest so much into Father’s Day.

But statistics show that a diminishing number of Americans have reason to celebrate on this day.

In a society where divorce is rampant, single parenting is common, and cohabitation is the norm, for many Americans, dadhood isn’t what it used to be. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 66.3 million fathers in America, only 26.5 million are married with children under 18. www.fatherhood.org informs us that, between 1960 and 1995, the percentage of American children living in single-parent homes increased from 9 to 27. An estimated 40 percent of American children live in homes without their biological father. Among African Americans, that number is about 75 percent.

Families without fathers can experience devastating consequences. Columnist Phyllis Schlafly wrote June 15, “Most of our social problems are caused by kids who grow up in homes without their own fathers: drug abuse, illicit sexual activity, unwed pregnancies, youth suicide, high school dropouts, runaways and crime.” Yet, so often, society’s most prominent leaders overlook this connection between fatherlessness and teen pathologies.

A strong movement is afoot to portray fathers as unimportant and unnecessary. The institution of marriage itself is more commonly considered merely temporary, if not entirely antiquated. Yet the fruits of stable families headed by a dedicated father are obvious. Study after study shows that good fathers not only have a positive and powerful impact on their families, but on society as a whole.

It certainly is a role worthy of honor—even codified within the fifth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12)—not just one day out of the year, but every day.

To understand more deeply the vital significance of fathers, read our booklet Conspiracy Against Fatherhood. Practical instruction on how to recapture some of the fundamental qualities of strong fathering can be found in our article Fatherhood 101.

There Is No Such Thing as Two Fathers

Joel Hilliker — 2013-06-16T05:00:00+01:00

President Obama used this past Father’s Day to show his support for homosexuals raising children. “Nurturing families come in many forms,” he wrote in a presidential proclamation, “and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian.”

Of course, biologically there is no such thing as “two fathers.” A child may be raised by his father and his father’s homosexual partner, but not by “two fathers.” That euphemistic term is a gross error.

In June, completely outside the purview of elected legislators, the Obama administration’s Labor Department unilaterally announced that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) now covers “all families, including LGBT families.” Thus, companies will now be forced to permit homosexual couples that adopt children up to 12 weeks of leave.

How could it make such a change? Simply by redefining “son or daughter” to “extend to the various parenting relationships that exist in today’s world.” Thus, using the president’s own terminology, a child’s father’s homosexual partner may now legally also be considered a second “father.”

“This action is a victory for many non-traditional families, including families in the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community,” the press release from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said. “[A]n employee who intends to share in the parenting of a child with his or her same-sex partner will be able to exercise the right to FMLA leave to bond with that child.”

All this language is framed to sound like it promotes family in general—that it is just win-win-win all around. In truth, it represents the ceaseless efforts of self-professed intellectuals to popularize deviant sexuality.

They are hostile to the actual meaning of deep and wonderful words like father, son and daughter, and are eager to redefine them after their own fancies.

On July 1, the administration gave another big assist to homosexuals. Now same-sex “domestic partners” of federal employees can receive long-term care insurance benefits as if they were married; all they have to do is sign a form to receive the benefit. The president ordered the change about a year ago, when he instructed agencies to find benefits that could be given to homosexuals who live together. Under the Defense of Marriage Act, the term “marriage” cannot refer to homosexuals, but the new Office of Personnel Management regulation circumvented that law by creating the classification of homosexual “domestic partners.” It denies the same benefits to heterosexual co-habitators, saying that they can get them by marrying, whereas homosexuals cannot—yet.

On June 9, the Obama administration’s State Department dropped this bombshell: “The U.S. Department of State is pleased to use the occasion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month to announce its new policy guidelines regarding gender change in passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.

“Beginning June 10, when a passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will reflect the new gender. The guidelines include detailed information about what information the certification must include. It is also possible to obtain a limited-validity passport if the physician’s statement shows the applicant is in the process of gender transition.”

Thus, anyone with a doctor’s note confirming his or her gender confusion can receive an official U.S. passport stating as fact that he or she is the opposite sex from plain biological reality! The press release nonchalantly states, “Sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance.”

What utter confusion! Even male and female are open to redefinition in their minds. Perhaps there is no clearer illustration of the muddled thinking plaguing liberal secularists than the fact that they simply will not accept something so simple and clear-cut as male and female. In their twisted view, gender is a choice, and always open for reinterpretation.

Again, though, all this redefining is an intellectual fraud aimed squarely at exalting deviant sexuality.

The official language being deployed by the president and the federal departments he has staffed—“two fathers,” “various parenting relationships,” “lgbt families,” “gender transition,” “new gender”—camouflages some grotesque realities. Gussied up to look like it is promoting family, this is nothing short of an aggressive assault on family.

It is impossible to encourage both deviant sexuality and traditional family; they are diametrically opposite. And traditional family must be vigorously promoted and defended if it is to thrive.

The Ten Commandments speak to this fact by commanding both marital fidelity (“Thou shalt not commit adultery. … [T]hou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”) and parental authority (“Honour thy father and thy mother”). Such laws are necessary to guide us toward appropriate conduct; our baser nature always gravitates toward what is not in society’s or our own long-term best interests.

Today’s society is forcefully pursuing a contrary, anti-Bible agenda that is dismantling families and leading to our ruin. All history proves that strong societies begin with strong marriages and families, yet self-professed intellectuals continue heedlessly striking blows at the pillars of family life.

In our own families, we must do all we can to resist this attack. Promote and defend family as originally and correctly defined by the Being who created it.

Floods Give German Army a Chance to Shine

Richard Palmer — 2013-06-15T05:00:00+01:00

Even 70 years after World War ii, the German Army has an image problem. “Not long ago wearing a uniform around an average town in Germany could get you beaten up; and even today it draws frowns, says Jan Ströhmer, a naval commander in Kiel.” So began an article by the Economist last year.

But this summer, that is changing.

On June 3, Central Europe, including Germany, was hit with massive flooding. The floods have continued, and 19,000 German soldiers have been deployed to help the victims—the biggest domestic humanitarian operation in the army’s history.

“The army, recently covered in the news largely for its failed drone program, is now generating positive headlines again,” wrote Spiegel Online. “At the same time, it is also regaining the trust of a German people who have traditionally been skeptical of the nation’s armed forces.”

Residents hold banners with slogans like “Thank you, Bundeswehr!”

“I’ve never experienced such a positive relationship with the civilian population,” said army spokesman André Sabzog. “We can’t even eat all the masses of pizza and cake that people are bringing.”

Of course there’s nothing wrong with the public’s gratitude or the army’s actions. The army is doing some genuinely good work at the moment, and it’s only right and natural that many are grateful. But it is part of a more disturbing trend. The German Army is becoming more “normal”—Germany is starting to use and view its armed forces in the same way as any other nation.

As Germany’s army becomes more popular, Germany is less afraid to use it around the world.

The nation’s history and geography alone make this concerning. Germany is a powerful country. If it becomes a strong military power, it will automatically affect the power balance around the world.

As the German public gives its army positive reviews—and forgets its history—the time is coming when it will be easier for Germany to use its army to attack others. For more on this trend, see our article “German Military Propaganda War.”

Teen Time With Dad Critically Important

Dennis Leap — 2013-06-15T05:00:00+01:00

It is often assumed that teens prefer to spend time with their friends, rather than their parents. A new study just released from Penn State University shows this is not necessarily the case.

Yes, teens want to spend time with friends. Yes, teens want their own space. Yes, teens want more independence. Yet, teens do not always just want to spend time with their friends.

Researchers have discovered that teens want to spend private time with their parents, and that time can actually increase during these critical developmental years.

Psychcentral.com reported on August 22 that Susan McHale, a professor of human development at Penn State University and co-author of the study, said, “The stereotype that teenagers spend all their time holed up in their rooms or hanging out with friends is indeed just a stereotype.”

McHale also said, “Our research shows that, well into the adolescent years, teens continue to spend time with their parents and that this shared time, especially shared time with fathers, has important implications for adolescents’ psychological and social adjustment” (emphasis added). The study is published in the August issue of Child Development.

HealthDay News also reported that the purpose of the study was to discover how time spent with parents affected teens’ self-esteem and sense of social competence with their peers.

Researchers created a study in which they invited families in 16 school districts in Central Pennsylvania to participate. Two hundred white, middle- and working-class families living in small cities, towns and rural communities accepted the invitation. The study lasted for seven years.

On five occasions over the seven years, the research team conducted home and telephone interviews with the father, mother, teenager and younger sibling in each family. At the start of the study, the oldest child was about 11 years old, the second-oldest was about 8.

During the home interview, the children reported on their social skills with peers and their self-esteem. After each home visit, the researchers also conducted a series of seven nightly phone interviews, asking the teens about their activities during the day of the call, including who participated in the activities with them.

McHale said, “Talking to the kids on the phone about what they did that day really gives you insight into the reality of everyday life for them. Rather than getting generalized or processed information, it’s right when things have been happening and in the children’s own words, and it’s harder for them to make mistakes or forget.”

One conclusion drawn from the study shows that teen time with parents and friends together declines as the teen grows older. However, teen private time with the parent often increases as the child grows into the late teen years.

The study authors were surprised to discover that when fathers spent more time alone with their teenagers, the kids reported that they felt better about themselves. “Something about the father’s role in the family seemed to boost self-esteem among the teenagers in the study,” McHale said.

Researchers also recognized that one of the significant ingredients that differentiated one family from another was how much time the father was around and involved with the family.

This study flies in the face of previous studies that concluded the role of the father was obsolete. Be sure to read online or download Gerald Flurry’s booklet Conspiracy Against Fatherhood. This booklet emphasizes the need for strong, loving fathers.

U.S. to Grant Military Aid to Rebels

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-15T05:00:00+01:00

After confirming it now believes that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, the United States announced that it will give direct military aid to the Syrian rebels. The announcement came on June 13, after U.S. intelligence informed President Obama that Bashar Assad’s regime had “used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.” This latest development could turn the tide of the war back in the rebels’ favor. However, it may bog down the U.S. in another Middle East conflict.

According to reports, the U.S. may impose a no-fly zone over parts of the nation that borders Jordan. Whatever Washington plans, its support will give a much-needed boost to the rebels, who have suffered some major setbacks in the past few weeks. Extremist rebels have been forced out of Qusair and are currently being threatened in the stronghold of Aleppo. Just knowing they will soon receive military aid from America will give the rebels a moral lift. It will also strike a blow to the Assad regime, which has enjoyed military dominance for the majority of the two-year conflict.

This latest development in Syria pushes events closer to the conclusion revealed in Bible prophecy. When discussing Syria, the Trumpet often refers back to the alliance of nations prophesied in Psalm 83, which includes Syria (anciently the Hagarenes). This is an alliance of nations that allies with the king of the north (Daniel 11:40) after the king of the north destroys the Iranian-led king of the south. Psalm 83 indicates that Syria will not be allied with Iran for much longer. This suggests that the Assad regime’s days are numbered.

For more information on this Psalm 83 alliance and why we expect a political realignment in Syria is soon, read “A Mysterious Alliance” by Gerald Flurry.

The Key of David (2013)

Gerald Flurry — 2013-06-15T05:00:00+01:00

Jesus Christ only gives one message to His Church in this end time, and that is the key of David message. This is the only message that He tells His very elect to deliver. The key of David message is one of the deepest truths in the entire Bible, and the more you understand it, the more it stirs your imagination and your inspiration for God’s Word.

Evolution's 'Unnecessary' Organs

Jeremiah Jacques — 2013-06-14T17:07:19+01:00

Why do you have an appendix? Or wisdom teeth? Or something called a coccyx? Since the days of Darwin, numerous scientists and educators have argued that “useless” or “vestigial” organs prove the theory of evolution. These organs, they say, are like leftover scaffolding that had previously performed vital functions in mankind’s “pre-human ancestors.” They just haven’t evolved their way into oblivion quite yet.

“Organs or parts … bearing the plain stamp of inutility are extremely common, or even general, throughout nature,” Darwin explained in On the Origin of Species. “It would be impossible to name one of the higher animals in which some part or other is not in a rudimentary condition.” His prime examples: the appendix and the coccyx (tailbone).

Subsequent specialists greatly expanded Darwin’s original list of useless organs. In 1895, German anatomist Robert Wiedersheim compiled a list of human structures he considered vestigial, which came to be regarded as the official one. How many human body parts were on it? More than 180.

American zoologist Horatio Newman said this staggering number was “sufficient to make of a man a veritable walking museum of antiquities.” These organs represented “evidence that man has descended from ancestors in which these organs were functional,” he said. “Man has never completely lost these characteristics; he continues to inherit them though he no longer has any use for them.”

Textbook publishers quickly joined the pack, saying the human body—with its myriad useless relics—is like an “old curiosity shop,” full of “showpieces” proving evolution.

The rapid embrace of the vestigial organ belief deepened the traction of the evolutionary theory, and also spawned new trends in the medical community. “There are undoubtedly cases where we know that certain vestigial structures are not only useless to man but worse than useless,” Henry Drummond wrote in The Ascent of Man. He called the appendix “a veritable death trap,” and also cautioned readers of the perils of other organs lurking inside of their bodies. Throughout much of the 20th century, medical practitioners removed appendixes, tonsils and other “dangerous” organs as routine operations.

The idea of vestigial organs is not a fringy, peripheral support of the evolutionary theory, but lies at its very heart. And the most frequently mentioned examples of these organs in mankind remain the appendix and the coccyx.

Appendix: The Last Shall Be First

The wormlike abdominal structure called the appendix has long occupied the lowest position on the organ totem pole. Darwin called it a leftover piece from mankind’s leaf-eating, pre-human predecessors. Many experts swallowed the theory, hook, line and sinker. The organ’s primary importance seemed to be only for the financial support of surgeons, and to provide fodder for tv sitcoms.

For that reason, experts took note in 2009 when immunologist William Parker at Duke University Medical Center said, “Maybe it’s time to correct the textbooks. Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a vestigial organ” (LiveScience, Aug. 24, 2009).

Parker suggested the correction after he and his colleagues discovered that the appendix serves as a storehouse where good bacteria can lie in wait until they’re needed to repopulate the stomach after an episode of diarrhea or other intestine-emptying illness.

A separate recent study showed that the appendix conducts operations similar to those of the tonsils at the opposite end of the alimentary canal, which increase resistance to throat infections. (The tonsils, too, were long branded by evolutionists as useless and problematic.) A 2011 study showed that the appendix also helps generate, guide and train white blood cells, especially for fetuses and children. Valerie O’Loughlin, a professor of medical sciences at Indiana University, said it is “the site where a type of white blood cell called b-lymphocytes can be recognized and where the newborn and young child’s body can start to recognize certain pathogens that are in the [gastrointestinal] tract.”

The organ is far from useless, and removal of a healthy appendix under most circumstances today is considered medical malpractice.

The Tale of the Tail

Most of the evolutionary faithful maintain that the human tailbone is a leftover, useless part from mankind’s ape-like ancestors. Darwin explained: “[T]he os coccyx corresponds with the true tail in the lower animals. … [I]n many monkeys the basal segments of the true tail are embedded … [and] plainly correspond with the four coalesced vertebrae of the human os coccyx” (The Descent of Man, 1871).

Some later evolutionists argued that the human coccyx was more of a reptilian relic than a mammalian one: “The human coccyx is an evolutionary remnant of an ancestral, reptilian tail …” (William D. Schraer and Herbert J. Stoltze, Biology: The Study of Life).

Though evolutionists disputed whether it descended from a simian ancestor or a reptilian one, they agreed that the tailbone is largely useless and, therefore, a proof of evolution.

In 1994, however, renowned anatomy professor David Menton produced evidence disproving the idea that the coccyx is vestigial. “[M]ost modern biology textbooks give the erroneous impression that the human coccyx has no real function other than to remind us of the ‘inescapable fact’ of evolution,” Menton wrote in Essays on Origins.

He explained that among the key functions of the coccyx is its acting as an anchor point for several converging muscles from the ring-like arrangement of the pelvic bones. “The incurved coccyx with its attached pelvic diaphragm keeps the many organs in our abdominal cavity from literally falling through between our legs” (ibid). Removal of the coccyx often causes incontinence and serious difficulties with sitting, standing or giving birth.

The evolutionary faithful long considered the tailbone vestigial and pointed to it as evidence against creation. But the tailbone, too, was placed in the body for a purpose.

The Body Is One

Biomedical research made great strides in the latter half of the century, and experts shortened the list of “functionless organs” considerably. By 1971, Encyclopedia Britannica labeled just over 100 human organs as vestigial. Research yielded more and more understanding about the importance of organs once called mere “accidents of nature.” One by one, they were proven to serve vital functions in the human body. For many biologists, Wiedersheim’s list—that once included over 180 vestigial organs—is now down to zero.

Again, the idea of vestigial organs lies at the heart of the evolutionary theory. As recently as 2004, prominent evolutionist Douglas Theobald said, “Some of the most renowned evidence for evolution are the various nonfunctional or rudimentary vestigial characters, both anatomical and molecular, that are found throughout biology” (29+ Evidences for Macroevolution).

Yet, the idea of “vestigial” organs is deeply flawed even in strictly scientific terms.

The argument claims that the organs in question have no function. But such a conclusion cannot be arrived at scientifically. Without infinite knowledge, it is impossible to prove that something has no function. The most a scientist could say would be that, despite rigorous efforts, no clear function was discovered for a certain organ, but that a future experimenter may well uncover one.

The heart of the vestigial organ argument, then, is either an acknowledgment of ignorance (“I wasn’t able to discover the function”), or a scientifically flawed statement (“It has no function”). Observational or experimental science allows no place for such a statement. Reputable scientists acknowledge that the teaching of “vestigial organs” actually retarded the progress of science for years. Rather than experiment to discover the purpose of structures like the appendix or tonsils, they were called “vestigial” and removed.

So, how did such a flawed theory gain widespread acceptance? The idea is the product of men groping for evidence to back the theory of evolution.

Adherents of this theory didn’t immediately see a use for certain body parts, so they hastily, blithely branded those organs as useless—or even harmful. The notion was based on a lack of knowledge about how the human body functions. Even vitally important organs such as the parathyroid and thymus glands were considered vestigial until fairly recently, simply because experts didn’t understand their crucial purposes. And, despite the fact that modern science has found purposes for all organs in the body—and that future experimentation will certainly reveal even more—evolutionists still cite “vestigial organs” as one of the sturdiest proofs for evolution and against design by an intelligent Creator.

Why are these scientists willing to compromise their objectivity, which is one of the foundations of science?

Done With a Purpose

In the centuries leading up to the Scientific Revolution, the Catholic Church reigned as the primary authority and knowledge source for much of the world. The clergy often viewed scientists and their discoveries as a threat to Catholic doctrine, and sometimes embarrassed the church by striving to defend erroneous church teachings like geocentrism that science offered empirical evidence against.

Competition intensified between science and the church, and, for some scientists, the desire to undermine the church’s authority became the driving force. Some scientists aimed to challenge God’s very existence as a way to discredit the underpinnings of religion. Such reasoning spawned the evolutionary theory. Proponents of the evolutionary theory have sometimes undertaken studies with that conclusion already firmly in mind. Whatever they can contort into supporting the arguments for evolution, they keep. All else they often reject or downplay.

Long before the evolutionary theory was hatched, the Apostle Paul labeled such movements “science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). True science upholds objectivity and seeks truth free of any agenda. A person’s understanding of the human body will be incomplete until he accepts that it is “fearfully and wonderfully made” by a Supreme Being (Psalm 139:14). This Creator designed mankind after His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He placed organs within the body in a specific way and for a specific purpose, and He called His design “very good” (verse 31).

The advancement of science only brings the perfection of the Creator’s designs more clearly to light. Evolutionists strive to present plausible-sounding arguments to the contrary, but this only reveals how blind and irrational the evolutionary religion truly is. The astonishing perfection and purpose in every element of the body’s design should deepen man’s faith in the divine intelligence behind our existence (Romans 1:20). But when evolutionists are confronted by proof of this Divinity, they instead resort to extremes of ludicrousness, striving to attribute the wonders of the human body to blind coincidence. In so doing, they unknowingly exercise a blind, deceptive and irrational religious faith.

Christians face a difficult battle against this blind faith in science, which is often found even among religious adherents. We must be able to recognize this blind faith in order to weigh evidence objectively. If we resist the vain, intellectual allure of this blind but fashionable faith, then we make it possible for the wonderment of God’s masterful biological designs to boost our faith in the Omnipotent Creator. And His purpose for our lives is as perfect as the bodies He designed to sustain us!

Sidebar: The Appendix; Why So Disease Prone?

If the appendix was created for a purpose and is indeed functional, why do many suffer from appendicitis, requiring the organ to be surgically removed?

Disease and degeneration do not reflect on the suitability of God’s original design, but are the result of man rejecting God’s law, and instead living by his own ideas. Additionally, appendicitis is common only in populations that subsist on a very highly processed and refined modern diet. Societies enjoying a high-fiber diet of vegetables, fruits and unrefined grains have very low instances of the disease.

Morning-After Pills for All

Tyrel Schlote — 2013-06-14T05:00:00+01:00

In a controversial move, the Obama administration has announced it will allow the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step to be sold to girls and women of all ages without prescription or proof of identity.

The government announced on Monday that it will drop its appeal of U.S. District Judge Edward Korman’s ruling to make the pill available to females age 15 and up without prescription. Back in April, Judge Korman overturned a ruling that required girls younger than 17 to have a prescription for the pill. When Plan B One-Step was first created in 2011, it was going to be made available to all girls and women without a prescription, but Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the decision and implemented the requirement for a prescription instead.

When the government filed its appeal last week, a federal appeals court decided to block the unrestricted sales of Plan B until the appeal was resolved, but ruled that it would allow the more generic, cheaper, two-pill version to be sold over the counter without a prescription to girls and women of all ages. The government, not wanting the two-pill version to become widely available, dropped its appeal, making Plan B One-Step available to all child-bearing-age females without a prescription or ID. The Food and Drug Association said there is less safety data available on the use of the two-pill version by younger adults than there is for the Plan B One-Step, which it approved to be “safe” for all ages.

This move has caused concern among certain groups which feel the decision shows contempt for parental rights and limits the amount of influence parents have in their children’s lives.

“A 12-year-old girl in a New York City school cannot be given an aspirin by her teacher, even if she has a fever. The same girl cannot buy a large soda during lunchtime because Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decreed that it is not good for her. But she can be given a pill, unbeknownst to her parents, that could arguably abort her baby,” notes Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

However, women’s rights groups are hailing the move as “a huge breakthrough” in the fight for women’s health and equality. Up to this point, many had criticized the government for bringing politics into the issue. “It’s about time that the administration stopped opposing women having access to safe and effective birth control,” said Annie Tummino, coordinator of National Women’s Liberation.

While both sides banter over the government’s decision, both sides are missing two big points.

First, America is hooked on promiscuous sex. While “pro-choice” groups see the pill as “reproductive justice” and a benefit to women’s health, pro-family groups are mostly focusing on why teenagers shouldn’t have such free access to contraceptives. Nobody is even talking about the universal problem of fornication. As Trumpet columnist Stephen Flurry wrote in March last year,

Promoting everyone’s right—including that of young teenagers—to a consequence-free, illicit lifestyle of casual sex now trumps the constitutional right every American once had to practice his or her religious convictions. And make no mistake, America’s government is the state religion when it comes to actively and aggressively promoting a sexually deviant lifestyle—a lifestyle that undermines everything God teaches about marriage, family and sex.

Second, the morning-after pill is potentially a form of abortion. It works by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterus. In other words, the already conceived embryo dies because it is unable to implant itself in the mother’s uterus. This is a form of abortion by any traditional definition. To treat that so casually as to make it available over the counter even to teenagers shows contempt for that unborn life. To understand why this is so serious, read “Is Abortion Really Murder?”

America’s backward values regarding sex and family are at complete odds with the wholesome values God outlines in the Bible. Herbert W. Armstrong outlined these values in his book The Missing Dimension in Sex. But America has rejected those values and gone its own way. To learn more about the birth control issue in America, read “The Inalienable Right to Illicit Sex.”

The Profound Secret of an Ancient Prophecy

Gerald Flurry — 2013-06-14T05:00:00+01:00

Hosea 5:13 is one of the most revealing prophecies in the Bible. The whole book of Hosea is for the end time, and this verse contains a prophecy for today—a stunning secret that even most religious people do not understand.

This secret is about three nations: America, Britain and Israel. These are the modern descendants of three ancient Israelite tribes: Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah. If you want to understand the foreign policy of these three countries, you have to understand this verse. It shows us why our policy is failing.

What is happening today in the Middle East reveals a lot about this verse and this prophecy. The Palestinians are out to conquer the entire Jewish nation. They have stated their goal officially and repeatedly: Eliminate the Jews. But modern-day Judah keeps trying to negotiate some kind of peace pact with them and with its other enemy nations in the Middle East.

Why is this important to the rest of us? Because soon, the whole world will be dragged into the crisis in Jerusalem. This amazing verse gives us an incredible insight, and it includes more than just modern-day Judah.

What Is ‘Judah’s Wound’?

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). Judah is the modern Jewish nation: Israel.

This is a serious wound—like an open, running sore. In fact, it is deadly; it will kill if some kind of correction isn’t made. Yet men simply try to put a Band-Aid on it. Strong’s Concordance says the word wound has the sense of binding up, a bandage or a remedy. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it as the pressing together or the binding up of a wound, used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wound of the state.

What is the wound of the Jewish state?

Seven years ago, the Jews pulled out of Gaza—every settlement, every soldier, every Jew—about 8,000 of them. The world incessantly demands that Israel give land for peace. So Israel made a peace pact. It gave up Gaza—and it got no peace. Palestinians in Gaza voted in Hamas terrorists, and soon they began shooting rockets at Israeli citizens by the hundreds. The Israelis gave up the land, and they have had war ever since!

The Palestinians in Gaza have broken every peace pact. They have no intention of having peace with the Jews—that is obvious by now. You’d think the world would be praising Israel for its peace efforts, including giving up chunks of its own country! But it is not. Turkey’s prime minister labeled Israel a “terrorist” nation in this most recent conflict when the Jews tried to defend themselves from terrorists in Gaza. And on November 29, the United Nations voted 138 to 9 to elevate the Palestinians’ status within that body.

Israel is under attack by terrorists. Other nations are putting pressure on it. The Jewish state sacrifices parts of itself—yet terrorists continue to attack, and other nations hate Israel all the more.

The “peace” process is Israel’s wound!

Although they don’t see its connection to the prophecy in Hosea 5, some people are beginning to see what a wound the land-for-peace process is. Here is what journalist Caroline Glick wrote on Nov. 23, 2012 (emphasis mine throughout):

All commentators who warned of the strategic calamity that would befall Israel in the aftermath of a withdrawal from Gaza were marginalized and demonized as extremists. In a noble gesture, [the Wall Street Journal’s Bret] Stephens along with Commentary’s Max Boot acknowledged their error in supporting the withdrawal from Gaza. Their recantations are noteworthy because most of their colleagues who joined them in pushing Israel down the garden path and cheered Sharon’s “democracy” as 8,500 Israelis were thrown out of their homes and off their land in order to free it up for a terrorist takeover, continue to deny that they were wrong to do so. But Stephens’s and Boot’s belated intellectual integrity on Gaza is not enough to make a difference for Israel today. …

Israel is in a strategic trap. And it is one of its own making. Starting with the Rabin-Peres government’s decision to embrace the plo terrorist organization as a peace partner in 1993, Israel has been in strategic retreat. Each incremental retreat by Israel has empowered its worst enemies both militarily and diplomatically, and weakened the Jewish state militarily and diplomatically.

Though she probably doesn’t realize it, Glick is talking about what the Bible calls Judah’s “wound.”

Prophesied!

Eight years ago I warned that the Gaza withdrawal would lead to greater trouble—more war, not less. I said it was a deadly mistake for the Jews to give up Gaza. For some Israeli civilians and soldiers, it already has been. But this situation is far from over.

Obadiah 1:7 contains a prophecy that helps us better understand Hosea 5:13: “All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.” This “wound” is similar to the one in Hosea; both are from the same root word. Gesenius’ Lexicon defines it as “falsehood, hence fraud, insidious dealing.”

This scripture is talking about a falsehood or fraud involving a peace pact. Caroline Glick calls it a “fake peace process.” God calls it “a wound under thee.” Glick calls it a “strategic trap.” God calls it a snare. It looks good, yet it is a deception.

The Israelis have given territory and cities to the Palestinians: Gaza, Jericho, Bethlehem. They gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. The agreement was that they would get something in return: The Palestinians and Egyptians would not try to kill them. All that land given for peace—and now those areas are being used to attack them! Peace doesn’t work that way. It’s a wound when you try to give land in return for peace to people who hate you.

The United States, Britain and the Jews—the West, overall—cherish the delusion that everything can be solved by negotiation and compromise. It simply is not true. The Palestinian terrorists don’t want peace. They have never wanted peace! They want all of Palestine, as they call it. They have blatantly stated that they want to annihilate the Jews! The Muslim Brotherhood, which now controls Egypt, has also said that. Iran has said it repeatedly. Both of these countries are stirring up trouble by using the Palestinians. Yet astonishingly, Israel keeps making peace pacts with these people! IT’S A TRAP!

Do you recognize how precisely this prophecy is being fulfilled? Glick’s words are almost biblical! She is saying the same thing that the Bible prophesied in precise detail and that is now coming to pass.

That should build our faith in the inspired prophecies of the Bible! The greatest single proof that God exists is fulfilled prophecy! God lives! And He tells us precisely what is coming upon us because of our sins.

Why do so many people ignore God’s Word when it is so plain to anybody who is willing to look into it? Human nature is just that way. People usually refuse to accept the truth until they are in deep trouble. Only then will people cry out to God.

Three Nations

How are the U.S. and Britain involved in this? Shamefully, in many cases America and Britain have used their strength to push the Jews into these negotiations.

Britain and America have quite a history with the Jewish state. Britain, supported by the U.S., gave Israel its freedom in 1947. The United States has given billions and billions of dollars to Israel since its inception as a nation. As a result, Washington has a lot of leverage over the Jews, and it oftentimes forces them into certain peace pacts. Both political parties in the U.S. have done that.

Caroline Glick observed, “Obama and [Hillary] Clinton compelled Israel to accept wording in the ceasefire that arguably makes Egypt the arbiter of Israeli and Palestinian compliance with the agreement.” That is a disaster! U.S. leaders gave power in this process to Egypt, which is now ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, the mother of Hamas terrorists!

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi boldly said that his government stands with the Hamas terrorists. This is a major change from what the previous president, Hosni Mubarak, said for decades. The Muslim Brotherhood threatened to get involved, and it has the support of many Egyptians. And Morsi recently declared himself essentially a pharaoh—with far more power than Mubarak had before him! (article, page 12). America called Mubarak a dictator and helped remove him from power. But Mubarak was nothing compared to President Morsi. Just look at what this man is saying.

Yet this is whom America just made the arbiter of Israeli compliance with this latest agreement!

If the Middle East peace process is a terminal wound, that means that American foreign policy is also a wound!

The link between these nations points directly to a profound secret in this prophecy.

Who Is Israel?

A number of people understand that the modern descendants of biblical Judah are the Jews. Far fewer would recognize that the Bible’s end-time prophecies concerning Judah apply to the Jewish state of Israel!

And what about the other nations listed in this passage, and in other biblical prophecies? Most people in Christianity don’t even know who Ephraim, Manasseh and Assyria are in prophecy—what their modern identities are. Do you know? You can’t understand these prophecies unless you do! We can’t guess about something that God says “shall surely be” (Hosea 5:9).

Notice this in verse 5: “And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.”

Three nations are mentioned here—and all will fall together! Both “Israel” and “Ephraim” will “fall in their iniquity”—or their lawlessness—right along with Judah, the Jewish state.

As Herbert W. Armstrong proved in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Ephraim is modern-day Britain. And Israel in this case is specifically talking about Manasseh, which is the United States. You can see that because Britain is also part of Israel but is listed separately as Ephraim, along with “Israel.” God put the name “Israel” on Ephraim and Manasseh in particular (Genesis 48:14-16), and the prophecies about end-time Israel apply most specifically to the modern descendants of these two. Many scriptures show that Ephraim and Manasseh, the two birthright nations, are going to be corrected by God together. I believe God refers to America as Israel here, and “the pride of Israel,” because the U.S. is the superpower of modern Israel, though it is now failing to fulfill that role.

Verse 3 also refers to Ephraim and Manasseh—Britain and the United States—as “Ephraim, and Israel.” Ephraim is also mentioned right alongside Judah in verse 13. Again, all three of these nations are prophesied to fall together.

When you prove the modern identity of these three nations and realize that Hosea is giving you a detailed end-time picture—and describing exactly what we see happening to them right before our eyes—it just about knocks you over!

The Secret

“Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be” (Hosea 5:8-9).

Notice: There are “tribes of Israel”—not just Judah, but 12 tribes, three of which are mentioned in particular in these prophecies. And God says, I made known what shall surely be! God says He is going to trumpet this message in this end time about these prophecies! So where is that message today? God uses men, but it is His doing! And nobody is going to stop what God has prophesied!

The key to understanding this prophecy is to realize that it is fulfilled at the same time that people are blowing the trumpet and warning these nations.

That warning is going out! It has been going out for 70 years. Herbert W. Armstrong and now the Trumpet have been telling America, Britain and the Jewish nation exactly what is going to come to pass. Many of these prophecies have already been fulfilled. These world events are detailed in Bible prophecy, and anybody can see that if they will quit trusting their enemies and heed God’s message!

This is a profound secret that we all should know and understand! Still, no one is talking about this crucial prophecy. That is because God has to reveal this secret. He reveals it only to people who earnestly seek Him.

Spiritual Rottenness

“Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness” (Hosea 5:12). The word rottenness should read “like a worm” or “like maggots infesting open wounds.” There’s something very rotten spiritually about these three nations that they need to see, and it goes right to the bones—it’s that deep. Americans, Britons and Jews have rejected God and His law and lived their own way. Our nations are sick!

In the Jewish nation of Israel, that rottenness shows up in its determination to try to make peace with men who seek to destroy it. Hamas terrorists have been bombarding Israel with rockets for years, yet Israel has done nothing to permanently end the terrorism. As a result, the rocket attacks have only increased! Israel’s inaction shows that it is faint and fearful!

Do you think King David would have allowed Israel’s enemies to do that? He never would have stood for such terrible attacks! And he wouldn’t have looked to any other nation or any people or coalition—but to God. He destroyed Goliath in the name of the living God.

Where are our Davids today? Where are they in Israel? Where are they in America and in Britain?

What we are seeing on the news is a faint heart and a lack of faith. That attitude is going to cause far more problems. The Jews finally did react, but before they did, they let a million of their people live in fear of those rockets.

The Jews have lost their will to fight, and the terrorists know it. A U.S. intelligence document states that the Arabs now believe the Jews have lost their will to fight. They’re right! They’ve lost their will to win and their will to survive! That is an absolutely deadly mistake. You cannot survive in this dangerous world with a faint heart.

Modern-day Judah has a deadly wound—and frankly, America and Britain have it as well. The foreign policy of all three nations has gone askew because of their spiritual and moral problems. Overall, our foreign policy is a failure, and we are in a desperate situation.

In America and Britain, deep spiritual rottenness appears in news headlines every day. Yet these peoples don’t see the problems, or won’t admit them!

The United States is fatigued with all of its conflicts. Supposedly, the United States supports Israel. Yet it was the U.S. that helped push Mubarak out of office after 30 years of peace with Israel and ushered in the Muslim Brotherhood. Look at Benghazi, Libya. America was attacked there on Sept. 11, 2012—almost a sacred day, the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. Yet how much do Americans care?

God said in Leviticus 26:19 that “I will break the pride of your power.” All three of these nations have nuclear bombs and awesome power, but they are afraid to use it! They are afraid because God has broken their will because of their sins. “I will set my face against you,” He said in verse 17.

In Hosea 5:12, God compares Himself as a “moth” to them. If you have a nice suit in the closet and you leave it there for a long time and don’t check it, sometimes moths will eat away its lining and fabric. The suit will still look good—until you take it out of the closet and put it on—then it falls apart.

God is saying that we had better look beyond the surface or else we won’t see our deadly serious problems for what they are!

For example: America has $16 trillion in debt that it cannot pay back. Our leaders won’t even really discuss what a serious problem it is, much less deal with it. No one has a solution for that erosive dilemma.

But even if America were debt-free, the even more important threads of our society are already eaten away—perhaps worse than our economy. Our minds are hollowed out by drugs and pornography. Our character is disintegrating because of our foul entertainment and debased music. Our families have been destroyed.

Verse 4 says that these nations do not know God. They are going to be corrected very severely because they have turned away from the God who gave them their nations in the first place! Their problem isn’t ineffective foreign policy; the problem is that they don’t know God! That is what God is upset about and what He is going to correct.

Hosea 7:7 says about the British people, “[T]here is none among them that calleth unto me.” None! God says “Ephraim is a cake not turned” (verse 8). This is another good metaphor for what is wrong with Britain—and all three of these nations. If you put a cake in the oven for too long, the heat burns it out inside. It looks great from the outside, but when you slice it with a knife, it crumbles.

American, British and Israeli societies still look good on the surface, but they are burned out inside.

We are entering a dangerous and deadly time. What we need is not shrewd foreign policy or ever greater technology. What we need is to be honest to see our sickness and our rottenness. We must see it now! It is clear in God’s Word. But most people don’t want to see it, so they won’t see it until they suffer horrendously as these prophecies come to pass.

But you can choose to prove it for yourself, personally. If you believe your Bible, you know that Hosea’s prophecy for modern-day Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah is beginning to come to pass. That is the terrible truth that we have brought on ourselves. We are not going to negotiate or fight our way out of it this time. Our rottenness and sickness will finally destroy our three nations.

Do you believe your Bible? Do you believe these end-time prophecies?

King Jareb

Let’s return to Hosea 5:13 to see where this explosive situation is leading.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” Who is “the Assyrian”? This too is proven in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, and in our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, to be Germany. And King Jareb means “King Contentious” or “warlike monarch.”

Modern Ephraim and Judah are prophesied to go to a nation known for its history of starting wars—including wars against Britons and Jews!

Recently, an Israeli official said the Jews have started making overtures toward Berlin in case America fails to help them when they really need it. So this process of going to King Jareb has already begun.

The Jews are under life-threatening pressure. They are being threatened by Iran, Egypt and other Arab nations. Jews are being killed by rockets launched from Gaza, supplied by Iran, abetted by Egypt. Their position is deteriorating rapidly. Since the Arab Spring debacle, it has only gotten worse. We said from the beginning that it would be anything but a “spring,” and proved that from the Bible—yet who believes God and His prophecies?

Meanwhile, the United States has started backing away from helping Israel. The Jews are running out of options and beginning to look elsewhere for help. It seems they will trust almost anybody—the U.S., Britain, India, Turkey—even their worst enemies from World War ii who slaughtered 6 million of them—rather than trust God!

The Jews looked to God in 1948 and beyond—and God worked miracles for them! Even Israel’s recent history has seen this little nation trust God much more than it is doing today. It has since turned away from that kind of faith and trust, just like America and Britain.

Judah’s wound was caused by trusting in men. Yet when it sees its wound, when it sees that this process is rotten, what does it do? It turns to men again! The Jews go to Germany for peace! They see the effect, but they still don’t see the cause of the problem. If they did, they wouldn’t attempt to make a pact with Germany—they would cry out to God!

The people of Judah simply will not trust in God. That’s the problem with all three of these nations! We would rather make peace pacts with our enemies and put our national lives in peril than submit to God.

These nations want the Germans to protect them from their enemies. What can they give Germany in return? Israel and Britain both have nuclear weapons. Do you think they might make a pact with Germany where Berlin gets access to and control over their nuclear bombs? The United States already has about 20 nuclear bombs deployed in the Rhineland, presumably to protect the Germans from Russia and China. Do you suppose Germany might get control of those?

Daniel 11:40-41 show that Assyria is going to lead Europe to the “glorious land”—Jerusalem—and will “enter into” it. Nothing indicates that it will have to fight its way in. It will be invited in, apparently to protect Judah. Certainly it is going to get control of Israel’s nuclear bombs, regardless of what happens with the British and American nukes.

We look to men—but men can’t help us! King Jareb can’t help us! That’s what this prophecy says—kings and presidents can’t help us because this is a spiritual problem.

The only healing of our national sickness, the only cure for our national wounds, is to seek God. God wants us to heed His Word and be healed! His saying that King Jareb can’t heal you implies, I can heal you of that wound if you will look to me! Those who heed that warning will receive God’s protection! But most people don’t listen to God’s words—they will have to go through a terrifying experience to learn this lesson.

‘They Will Seek Me Early’

But there is hope! Think about it: Why is God allowing and even bringing about such terrible suffering for America, Britain and Israel? Because it is the one and only way that we can be cured of our spiritual sickness! After we are crushed and see what our sin produces, we will finally—finally—seek God!

It is going to be painful. The destruction and death will be unimaginable. But for those who survive, it will cause them to finally seek God and know Him! And those who do not survive, God will resurrect and teach, and they too will come to know Him!

Look where Hosea’s prophecy leads: “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face,” God says: “in their affliction they will seek me early” (Hosea 5:15). These nations have committed an offense against God. He doesn’t want to see people suffer—He wants the opposite! But they won’t listen to Him today. God says, however, that when He starts correcting them, then in that intense affliction and suffering, the Jews and the people of the U.S. and Britain are going to seek Him—and they are going to find Him.

Here is a powerful lesson from God: If we will seek Him, we will find Him, and everything will be fine. If we don’t repent and turn to God, we cannot escape the affliction coming on these nations. It is already too late for these nations to repent, but you can individually. Throughout these troubling times we’re entering into more deeply every week, you can have God’s protection.

The wound of Hosea 5:13 is directly tied to the coming of the Messiah! He is coming immediately after the wound is experienced in its fullness. That is inspiring beyond words to describe. Immediately after these problems in the Middle East, the Messiah returns. Those problems will get a lot worse first, but He is coming so soon—within just a few years!

At that time, the end-time nations of Israel will say, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 6:1-2). A “day for a year” in fulfilled prophecy means that there will be 2½ years of tribulation, then God will punish the Gentiles who punished the nations of Israel. As He tore us apart, God will heal us.

Here is a prophecy of these three nations seeking God! What a beautiful, repentant attitude! That is good news that we have never seen in our nations, but it is about to come to pass. All of these events are leading directly to that point. This is better than a Hollywood ending!

Just as God’s prophecies have already happened, are happening and will happen, you can take infinite hope in where these dark days are leading. Our nations are going to suffer, but then they will repent! Along with the whole world, they will know the great God! And their loving Father is about to bring them and this whole world peace for all eternity!

Are We in the Last Days?

Stephen Flurry — 2013-06-14T05:00:00+01:00

Even to the casual observer, it is evident this world has withstood a series of profound crises over the last decade.

In 2004, a devastating earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean, which triggered a massive tsunami that wiped out 230,000 lives in Indonesia. Nearly a quarter of a million people were swept out to sea. That natural disaster was followed by a similar catastrophe in March 2011, when Japan was pounded by an earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis.

In July 2005, radical Islamists bombed the London underground rail system, killing 56 people and injuring 700. A month later, Hurricane Katrina plowed into the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people. It was the deadliest hurricane to strike America in more than 75 years.

In August 2006, Iran started the Second Lebanon War by orchestrating the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers. In 2007, Israel bombed Syria’s nuclear facility in September. Some analysts said this nearly started World War iii. There was the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007, which has proved to be a continual thorn in the side of Israel, as hundreds—sometimes thousands—of rockets fired from Gaza strike Israeli soil every year.

In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, Iran conquered Lebanon, Germany conquered Kosovo, the United States ran Musharraf out of office, adding to Pakistan’s instability, and the U.S. economy came within a few minutes of total financial meltdown.

In 2009, the new leadership in the United States spent the year courting its traditional enemies while at the same time sticking it in the eye of its allies. Israel went to war with Hamas in Gaza, Iran crushed a democratic uprising called the Green Revolution, and the Lisbon Treaty became Europe’s new constitution! That same year, Europe was rocked by economic crisis, which opened the way for Germany to ride to the rescue.

In 2010, for all intents and purposes, Iraq fell to Iran—something we had been predicting for many years. The U.S. dollar came under assault. America’s strong traditional ties with Israel unraveled. Britain surrendered its military sovereignty. And then there were the natural disasters: More human beings died in natural disasters in 2010 than any other year on record! The Associated Press called 2010 “the year the Earth struck back.”

Today we face an ever-radicalizing Islamist movement in the Middle East. Its momentum has been greatly accelerated since February 2011, when the United States helped oust former President Hosni Mubarak. Two years on, we see continued unrest and human rights violations committed by the Muslim Brotherhood administration daily, proving that the idea of a pro-West, democratic Egypt was a colossal failure.

In Syria, civil war rages, claiming over 90,000 lives to date. Meanwhile, Syria is becoming the center point of a dividing line between Sunnis, Shiites (often radical Islamists) and European allies.

Last year Americans reelected Barack Obama and with him the most radical leftist administration this country has ever seen. In recent months, we have witnessed another deadly terrorist attack on American soil in the Boston bombing, as well as the infamous attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year.

Multiple political scandals have also hit the headlines this year, beginning with the release of White House e-mails that showed a deliberate alteration of talking points presented after the Benghazi attack in order to make it appear as though the violence erupted from a spontaneous protest. In May, the Department of Justice admitted to monitoring AP and Fox News journalists, while the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released an audit report that showed the Internal Revenue Service had targeted known conservative groups in its tax reviews during the 2012 election season. This was closely followed by National Security Agency leaks in June that revealed the government has been collecting phone records and vast amounts of Internet data from ordinary American citizens for years, sparking outrage over the unknown data collection and the lack of honesty from the Obama administration about the programs.

Given these many earthshaking events, is it any wonder why many people now believe we are living in the prophesied last days of this age?

In his booklet Are We in the Last Days?, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “Time was, when some wild-eyed freak shouting a ‘doomsday’ warning was ridiculed as ‘off his rocker.’ But today serious world leaders and scientists are saying grave things about the current drift in world conditions.”

Added to that, never before in history—until this generation—has it been possible for man to destroy all flesh from the Earth. This, in itself, makes it possible for the prophecy of Matthew 24:22 to be fulfilled: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

In 2 Timothy 3:1 Paul warned, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” The word perilous can also be translated dangerous. These dangerous times are upon us now!

Commenting on this prophecy, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “When I was a little boy, 90 years ago, those conditions were not true or escalating as they have been within the last 20 or 30 years. … The weapons have never existed in all history that could have laid all cities waste until the hydrogen bomb of some 30 years ago. How significant that this became possible only during the time while this gospel of the Kingdom was going from nation to nation into all the world for a witness to all nations.”

2 Timothy 3:2 describes human nature in all of its ugliness. People today are lovers of themselves—they couldn’t care less about the needs or desires of other people. Everywhere we look, we see lovers of money, materialism and radical individualism—people who are contemptuous of God and His law and who aggressively promote the upside-down families spoken of in Isaiah 3. Here in 2 Timothy 3, Paul says people are unholy, unthankful and without natural affection (verse 3).

We love pleasure more than we love God, Paul wrote. And it all has a “form of godliness” (verse 5), meaning there is an outward formality to its appearance—but it’s all a show.

God says we deny His authority by our rebellious actions! The Bible no longer bears any direct authority over people’s lives. The miraculous events of Scripture are explained away as fable or old wives’ tales. People may claim to be religious, but they don’t really believe that God will intervene and change world events. They deny that Christ will return and rule this Earth with a rod of iron, even though dozens upon dozens of prophecies describe that soon-coming reality.

The world is filled with churches, which send hundreds of “missionaries” into foreign lands, telling people about Christ. Yet His message, the good news of the Kingdom of God, they deny. The true gospel they oppose. This world has been deceived by a counterfeit gospel about Christ the person. His actual message has long been forgotten.

“From such turn away,” Paul says. He describes this generation as ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (verse 7). The Greek word for ever in that verse means at all times or always. In other words, Paul is describing a generation where there has been an explosion of materialistic knowledge. And yet, we are further from the truth than ever before! This is the “great paradox” Mr. Armstrong spoke of on so many occasions. Advances in science have not put an end to war and suffering—instead, we have seen tragedies increase.

And yet, many people still deceive themselves into thinking there is no special danger right now—that the world has always been like this. Of course, this is true in part. From the very beginning, it was man, under the influence of Satan, who introduced this world to selfishness, destruction and death. But 2 Timothy 3 tells us that in the latter days, world events will take a dramatic turn for the worse. This, coupled with the stark reality that never before has human annihilation been possible as it is today, ought to wake us up!

In Matthew 24, the disciples came to Christ and asked Him what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world.

The focus of Christ’s message was on today—the end of the world, or the end of this age. Not only did Christ describe signs of the end of the world, He gave signs of the end of the end time! He gave specific details to watch for!

Now notice the first and most important warning Christ gave them: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (verses 4-5).

This religious deception is the first horseman of the apocalypse! It is not just about deception from false, non-Christian religions. People are going to be deceived about Christ and His message—about what true Christianity really is.

Christ went on to say, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”

All this is only the beginning, He says in verse 8. These end-time events, Jesus continued, are leading to a world war, the likes of which this Earth has never seen (verse 21). Without God’s intervention, mankind would literally destroy itself (verse 22).

“Many other scriptures show that conditions will become more frightful than ever before or ever shall be again on Earth,” Mr. Armstrong continued in Are We in the Last Days? “Such conditions are rapidly escalating at this moment. Person is against person, even within a large proportion of families. Group is against group. Nation is against nation. Violence is escalating as never before in history. Terrorism is throwing fear and consternation into people all over the world.”

But we can thank God that all these self-inflicted curses will culminate in the prophesied return of Jesus Christ to this Earth: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (verse 30).

Jesus Christ will set foot on this Earth for the second time, arriving in the exact same manner He left the first time (Acts 1:11). This time, however, He isn’t coming to sacrifice His life for the sins of a rebellious mankind. This time, He is coming to forcibly put an end to human suffering and death and to set up the Kingdom of God—the royal Family of God that will administer God’s righteous government over all the Earth!

Syrian Violence Threatens Golan Heights

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-14T00:00:00+01:00

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the 40-year ceasefire between Syria and Israel over the disputed Golan Heights region is threatened by Syria’s civil war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the threat from Syria’s civil war on Thursday during a press conference in Poland.

[SOUNDBITE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]

“On Syria, both our countries are concerned about the terrible carnage occurring in that country. Israel is not a party to the internal conflict in Syria, but Israel will defend itself if attacked. And we reserve the right to act if our national security is threatened.”

Ban recommended bolstering the vulnerable UN peacekeeping force in the Golan by more than 300 troops to 1,250. He also advocated improving its self-defense equipment.

On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Council issued a new analysis of the Syrian death toll. From March 2011 to April 2013, the UN has documented 92,901 killings. However, UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay said it was impossible to provide an exact current figure and suggested the figure is “potentially much higher.”

Where is the bloodshed in Syria leading? The UN sees the violence increasing, but what will be the final outcome? The answer can be found in your Bible. To know the ultimate outcome of the Syrian revolution, read “Syria in Civil War.”

German Constitutional Court Threatens Euro, Again

Richard Palmer — 2013-06-13T18:45:40+01:00

It’s starting to become an annual event. A group of Germans claim that part of the euro bailout is illegal. The case reaches the German Constitutional Court. And then financial experts around the world sit on the edge of their seats, waiting to find out if this group of judges will destroy the euro.

It happened last September, and the September before that. Then on June 11 the court began yet another hearing after 37,000 German citizens complained. It’s expected to rule after the German election, which takes place in September.

This time though, the case revolves around the European Central Bank (ecb). Last August, when the euro crisis looked like it could take a turn for the worst, the ecb announced a new program to help prop up indebted countries. If an indebted country first submitted to the European Union’s conditions (read Germany’s conditions), the ecb would lend the government an unlimited amount of money in order to keep its borrowing costs down. In order to get around EU rules, it’s a little more complicated—it can’t buy the debt from the government directly, for example—but that’s the gist of its plan.

The theory is that investors would know that the country could never go bankrupt because the ecb would always lend it money, meaning that the investors would feel more confident about lending money. The program was called Outright Monetary Transactions (omt). So far it has succeeded. Borrowing costs for southern Europe have gone down, without the ecb having to do anything beyond make the announcement. It has not lent a single cent under omt.

But, quite understandably, a lot of people in Germany are concerned by the ecb’s promise to essentially print money and hand it over to governments that can’t pay their bills. One of these parties is the Bundesbank (Germany’s central bank), which is opposing the ecb in this court case.

Former Constitutional Court Judge Udo di Fabio published an opinion a few days ago where he said that if the court believed the ecb was acting far beyond its mandate, it “must decide whether Germany can remain a member of monetary union on constitutional grounds.” In the most extreme scenario, the court could rule that the ecb’s actions are incompatible with the German Constitution. This would leave Germany with three options: Persuade the EU to change; change the German Constitution; or leave the eurozone.

Such an extreme action is unlikely, but it could limit how involved the Bundesbank is with omt, which could cause the whole system to collapse. “[I]t would pull the rug from under the whole project. It is the omt alone that has calmed markets and saved the periphery,” Andrew Roberts from Royal Bank of Scotland said, according to the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

“Over the past few months, Draghi and the heads of government in the European capitals have felt confident about the outcome of the impending ruling,” writes Der Spiegel. “After all, the judges in Karlsruhe have always ultimately endorsed Germany’s contributions to eurozone bailout programs. Nevertheless, the list of questions compiled by the judges for this week’s deliberations indicates that everything may be at stake this time around.”

The court’s decision has now become one of the biggest risks for the eurozone in the near future.

“When Draghi recently visited French President François Hollande in Paris, the main topic of discussion was not the state of the French economy or southern Europe, but rather the question of what will happen in Karlsruhe,” continues Spiegel, Karlsruhe being the location of the Constitutional Court. “Only one hour by train away from Frankfurt, a conflict is brewing that already appeared to have been resolved last autumn.”

“For the last few days, ecb head Draghi has constantly consulted with his aides on the latest developments of the debate in Karlsruhe and what people in Germany are saying about it,” it writes. Spiegel then quotes a court official as saying: “The people at the ecb are really afraid.”

Once again, the very existence of the euro is threatened and no one knows how it is going to turn out. The court case is already scaring investors in southern Europe. After the court began its hearings the Milan stock exchange, for example, fell by 1.63 percent.The judges’ line of questioning showed they were skeptical of the ecb’s measures. “The justices clearly have grave doubts about the legality of the omt program,” writes Spiegel.

As we’ve pointed out since the start of the crisis, the euro was designed to fail in order to force EU nations to unite. There are a whole number of ways the court’s decision could lead this along. But it is an important reminder that the drama in Europe is far from over. Europe is only part of the way toward integration. It will take more crises, as well as the involvement of the Catholic Church, to force the nations to unite.

On the Road to Sharia Law

Stephen Flurry — 2013-06-13T18:43:46+01:00

When President Mohamed Morsi appointed himself a virtual pharaoh of Egypt on November 22, demonstrations broke out across the nation. Thousands of secularists and liberals stormed the neighborhood outside Morsi’s palace, protesting the audacious power grab. They were met by thousands of Islamists who fought back in support of Morsi’s absolute rule. Cries of “no to dictatorship” clashed with chants from the Islamists: “Defending Morsi is defending Islam.”

Then, after 2½ weeks of political turmoil and riots on the streets, Morsi rescinded his controversial decree. Under heavy pressure from the Arab street, we were told, Morsi backed down.

But this was hardly an act of conciliation or compromise from Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood. As columnist Andrew McCarthy wrote, “Morsi grabbed the reins with a shrewd caveat: His dictatorship would end once the draft constitution was approved by Egyptians in a national referendum—which is to say, once the dictatorship had served its purpose” (National Review, Dec. 1, 2012; emphasis added throughout).

As it turns out, Morsi rescinded his decree a few days before Egyptians voted in a referendum on the new draft constitution. Thanks to his 17-day dictatorship, that draft was a sharia-based constitution—exactly what he wanted, and without any interference from the Egyptian courts.

The dictatorship had served its purpose.

“In the end, Morsi got everything he wanted,” author and activist Bassem Sabry told the Times of Israel. “He protected the constituent assembly, the draft constitution and rammed into a referendum when people will have no time to study it against what he had promised before, which is that the document won’t be put into a referendum without sufficient national consensus.”

McCarthy wrote, “In effect, Morsi has used the West’s democracy fetish to put a gun to his population’s head: Either democratically approve anti-democratic sharia or accept the sharia-compliant rule of your democratically elected Islamist despot.”

The Strategy for Sharia

From the beginning, the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy has always been to impose sharia law. That’s the real dictatorship here—not Mohamed Morsi. Installing Islamic law as the new constitution has always been the Brotherhood’s top prize. It knew that if it could just force a sharia-based draft through the assembly and past the courts and subject it to a vote, a majority of Egyptians would most likely approve it. It didn’t matter how many freedom-lovers took the streets in protest—what mattered was sidestepping the rest of the government and getting to the national vote.

This has been the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy from the beginning. As soon as Mubarak was run out of town, it was the Brotherhood—and the White House, by the way—that pushed for free elections sooner rather than later. That’s because the Brotherhood had the best-organized, most popular party in Egypt.

McCarthy wrote, “The Brothers are no fools. They realized that rapidly held elections would favor them, and if they won big, they’d have a hammerlock on the constituent assembly that would write the constitution. They also grasped the disdain in which the West, under progressive regimes, holds military governments. … The Brotherhood knew the U.S. and the EU would be similarly—and self-destructively—supportive of a call for quick elections that would pressure Egypt’s reigning military junta to cede authority to a ‘democratic’ civilian government.

“Consequently, the Brothers insisted that parliamentary and presidential elections could proceed promptly if the public just approved a handful of amendments to the current constitution, with a new constitution to be drafted afterwards.”

That’s exactly what happened. In the country’s historic first free elections, the Muslim Brotherhood’s amendments were adopted by a landslide. The amendments referendum in early 2011 perfectly foreshadowed what happened in parliamentary elections soon after—with supporters of the Brotherhood and its radical allies thumping secular democrats by almost a four-to-one margin.

The courts later declared the results of the parliamentary elections unlawful. But the Brotherhood would not be deterred from executing its Islamist agenda. After promising not to field an Islamist candidate for president, it reversed course and put Morsi on the ballot. And he won!

Prior to the presidential election in June, Egypt’s military court thrust the political process into chaos when it dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament. At the time, we said this power struggle between the Brotherhood and the military might continue for a few months, but that it was only a matter of time before Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood gained enough strength to transform Egypt into a radical Islamist state.

The power struggle with the military barely lasted two months. In August, Morsi fired his top military chiefs and replaced them with Brotherhood loyalists, a move that locked in Egypt’s transformation into an Islamist state.

The Brotherhood already controlled the assembly responsible for drafting the constitution. The only remaining roadblock to applying Islamic law in Egypt was the judicial branch. And so, with his November 22 decree, Morsi put himself above the law just long enough for the assembly to hurriedly finalize the constitution.

Morsi had no incentive to back down, McCarthy wrote, “because he is doing what he was put there to do, and he has little to fear. He has already faced down the remnants of Mubarak’s armed forces and replaced them with Brotherhood loyalists—a ragtag collection of Facebook malcontents does not faze him. He also knows the national referendum on the new constitution will go the same way as the original referendum on constitutional amendments: Sharia will win going away.”

Of course, the Western media will try to put a positive spin on these earthshaking developments. They’ve done that from the start. Since the revolution began in February 2011, reporters have tried to make it look like the Egyptian population is teeming with secular democrats. The reality, though, is that radical Islam is the predominant ideology in Egypt. Most Egyptians want strict Islamic rule.

And they’re about to get it. You can expect Western commentators to continue their defense of Morsi by saying things like the principles of sharia are not the same thing as sharia.

But that’s just willful blindness. It’s McCarthy who’s right: Sharia will win going away.

What the Bible Prophesied

Now let’s go back to something my father wrote almost 20 years ago: “Islamic extremism is gaining power at a frightening pace in Egypt .… There is a prophecy that indicates Egypt will probably fall to Islam—or be strongly influenced by Islam” (Trumpet, July 1993).

That prophecy he spoke of is in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 40: “And at the time of the end [that is, just before Jesus Christ returns] shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.”

The king of the north is the German-led European superpower—the final resurrection of the prophesied “Holy” Roman Empire. The king of the south is radical Islam, headed by Iran.

But there is another critical player in this end-time clash. Notice verse 42: “[The king of the north] shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.”

Egypt won’t escape this whirlwind attack from the north. That means it has to be allied with Iran in these latter days. That’s what God prophesied 2,500 years ago. And that’s why, for as long as the Trumpet has been around, we’ve been telling you that Egypt would transform into an Islamist state!

“I believe this prophecy in Daniel 11:42 indicates you are about to see a radical change in Egyptian politics,” my father continued in that 1993 article. In 2006, he told readers to watch for Cairo to distance itself from Washington. He spotlighted the Muslim Brotherhood and said that if it got control, it would form a strong alliance with Iran.

Here is what he wrote on June 22, 2009: “Egypt is about to experience a radical change! No doubt the Muslim Brotherhood is going to gain control of Egypt.”

This prophesied event has now been fulfilled.

An Assist From America

Verse 43 continues, “But he [the king of the north] shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt [notice again the emphasis on Egypt]: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” When the king of the north overtakes his enemy to the south, he takes the spoils of Egypt, as well as Libya and Ethiopia. This indicates that those three countries must have been his enemies, part of that “king of the south” power bloc.

This shows that Egypt is the top prize, as far as Iranian-led radical Islam is concerned. It also means that Egypt will play a critical role in radicalizing all of northeast Africa.

“We need to understand the enormous impact that Egypt working with Iran will have in the Middle East and even globally,” my father wrote in the October-November 2012 Trumpet. “This Iran-Egypt axis is going to change the game in the Middle East—particularly in Libya and Ethiopia.”

The game has certainly changed. And probably the most stunning aspect of this radical transformation throughout the region is the help provided by the United States.

Consider the November war between Hamas and Israel. Hamas, of course, is the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is why Morsi repeatedly blamed the war on Israel, even though Egypt had provided a helping hand in supplying Hamas with the rockets that started the war in the first place. After Israel finally retaliated in Operation Pillar of Defense in November, Morsi immediately recalled Egypt’s ambassador in Tel Aviv and sent his prime minister to visit Gaza City in support of Hamas. A Muslim Brotherhood official even threatened to get involved in the conflict in support of Hamas.

And yet, in the end, it was the United States that helped turn the ceasefire agreement into a political boon for Mohamed Morsi. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton abruptly left her tour of Asia with President Obama to fly to Egypt and attempt to help pressure Israel into a ceasefire. And when the ceasefire was agreed to on November 21, Egypt got the credit for brokering it.

“I want to thank President Morsi for his personal leadership to de-escalate the situation in Gaza and end the violence,” Secretary Clinton said the day the ceasefire was agreed to. She went on to call Egypt a “cornerstone of regional stability and peace.”

That same day, the New York Times reported that President Obama had been impressed with President Morsi’s “pragmatic confidence” throughout the Israel-Hamas crisis. According to White House aides, Mr. Obama was pleasantly surprised by how little ideology there was in Morsi’s politics.

The very next day—you can’t make this up—was the day that Mohamed Morsi awarded himself unchallenged control over Egypt. In a matter of months, Morsi had grabbed dictatorial powers greater than Hosni Mubarak ever had! And when the secular democrats returned to the streets in protest, the Muslim Brotherhood rounded many of them up and beat them into submission inside torture chambers, according to a front-page story in the New York Times, December 10.

America’s response to Morsi’s abusive power grab? It raised “concerns” for many Egyptians and for the international community, the State Department said. The New York Times said the widespread reports of Egyptian citizens writhing in torture chambers were hurting Morsi’s “credibility”!

What a drastic difference from the leave now or else ultimatum the United States gave to Hosni Mubarak back in February 2011. “You don’t understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now,” Mubarak told abc shortly before he was run out of town. He had already agreed not to seek reelection eight months down the road. But he warned that an abrupt transition would result in a chaotic scene that would enable the Muslim Brotherhood to turn Egypt into a radical Islamist state.

Today, some are finally waking up to the frightening truth about Egypt, but it’s already too late. The Muslim Brotherhood is now firmly in control. Mohamed Morsi grabbed absolute power just long enough to put Egypt on the road to sharia law. And all along the way, the United States has been helping to make sure the Islamists have a smooth and comfortable ride.

Russia and China Conduct Joint Military Exercises

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-13T13:00:16+01:00

Chinese and Russian special forces started a 10-day joint military exercise in Beijing on Tuesday. “Cooperation 2013″ marks the first-ever joint training operation held in China.

Forty-six personnel from China’s elite anti-terrorism Snow Leopard Commandos joined 29 Russians from a special task force unit in domestic security. The two forces aim to learn from each other to improve their counter-terrorism skills and tactics.

The Cooperation 2013 military exercises consist of training courses on shooting, forced entry, hostage rescue and terrorist camp raids.

Russia and China previously conducted a joint anti-terrorism drill in Russia in September 2007.

Watch for these two countries to continue to strengthen their military ties. Bible prophecy indicates that these powers will be part of a huge 200 million-man army. To understand what this massive power will do, read Russia and China in Prophecy.

Germany Is the New America

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-13T05:00:00+01:00

Give Germany credit. As America unwisely abdicates its leadership role in the Middle East, Berlin is quietly and steadily positioning itself to play a decisive role in the future of this important region. Right now, German foreign policy in the Middle East isn’t controversial, dramatic or eye-catching. Especially not compared to recent events in Egypt, Gaza, Syria and Iran.

But you watch: Germany is about to emerge as the key player in the Middle East.

The New America

Germany’s presence there, politically, commercially and militarily, is already more significant than most people realize.

Germany contributes to the war in Afghanistan largely because doing so gives Berlin a military toehold on Iran’s northern flank. German naval forces patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa and on Lebanon’s coastline as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Germany is selling tanks, missiles and other military hardware to multiple Gulf states, and it has recently stepped up its involvement in Syria’s civil war. Berlin recently announced it would send surface-to-air missiles to Turkey (to defend itself against Syria) and will dispatch up to 400 Bundeswehr personnel to operate these missiles, serve as command staff and assume other support roles.

Germany also defied its European peers and did not support the United Nations’ bid to upgrade the Palestinians’ status. After the Gaza war, it quickly approved the sale of rocket-propelled grenades and anti-armor weapons to Israel. In nearly every instance, Germany is assuming a responsibility that America has shirked or is in the process of shirking.

When it comes to leading the Middle East—in particular, supporting and arming Israel and opposing Iran and its radical Islamist allies—Germany is the new America.

Siding With Israel

This is the context in which we must view Germany’s participation in the November Israel-Hamas conflict. From the moment war broke out, Berlin made it clear whose side it was on. On November 16, a spokesman for the German government expressed empathy for Israel and placed blame squarely on Hamas. “Hamas in Gaza is responsible for the outbreak of violence,” spokesman Georg Streiter told reporters (emphasis added throughout). “There is no justification for the shooting of rockets at Israel, which has led to massive suffering of the civilian population.” Streiter also stated that Israel’s government had the “right and obligation” to protect its population.

On November 18, Germany’s chancellor restated Berlin’s position and pledged moral and political support to Israel. “Every country has the right to defense, self-defense and the protection of its citizens,” Angela Merkel stated. The chancellor said sovereign governments don’t merely have a right to protect their citizens, it is their moral and political duty.

On November 19, two days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the region, Germany Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle traveled to Israel and met with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president. After meeting with Netanyahu, Westerwelle said brokering a ceasefire was a top priority for Berlin. Netanyahu was encouraged and invited Berlin to play a key role in peace talks. “I believe that Germany can have a constructive role in seeking an end to this conflict and a long-term arrangement, such that these terror weapons are not introduced into the Gaza Strip,” he stated.

Compare Berlin’s response to Washington’s. After initially pledging support for Israel, within a day or two the White House began sending signals that Israel needed to pull back its Gaza campaign.

Even after the ceasefire went into effect, Germany remained interested in the situation. On November 27, more than a week after the ceasefire was agreed on, a report from the German Foreign Ministry said Berlin was still monitoring the situation closely, and was seeking the “rapid reactivation” of the European Union Border Assistance Mission (eubam) at the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing. (eubam existed for two years between 2005 and 2007, and ended when Hamas took power of the Gaza Strip.) Germany wants a EU contingent stationed at the crossing to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza.

The Foreign Ministry document distributed to EU member countries said, “A special European force must be activated for the mission.” Germany, it seems, is ready right now to dispatch EU “peacekeepers”—soldiers—to Gaza!

Consider too: While the news of a possible EU mission at the Rafah crossing only broke in late November, the purpose of the proposed mission gelled almost perfectly with what Netanyahu said a week earlier, after his meeting with Westerwelle, about Germany helping craft a “long-term arrangement, such that these terror weapons are not introduced into the Gaza Strip.” Add it up, and it appears the plan for an EU border mission was likely formulated by Germany and Israel during the height of the war in mid-November.

If this is true, it indicates that the Germany-Israel relationship is stronger and tighter than most people know. It shows that Israel clearly believes Germany possesses the desire and the means to preserve and defend it. It indicates that Germany is replacing America as Israel’s go-to ally in the region.

And—it marks the thrilling fulfillment of Bible prophecy!

A Fulfilled Prophecy

Gerald Flurry’s article (page 4) explains the prophecy well—that once the peace process fails and the Jewish state faces annihilation from Iran, Egypt and their radical Islamist proxies, it will turn to Germany for help and protection. This, in essence, is exactly what has been happening since November!

Think about it. The peace process has not only failed spectacularly, it has actually strengthened the position of Israel’s enemies. Radical Islam—be it Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Egypt or Libya—is quickly encroaching, making further conflicts inevitable. Next, Israel’s relationship with America, once a powerful ally, is shaky and will only deteriorate under four more years of the current administration. Meanwhile, Germany is strengthening its reputation and presence, politically and militarily, throughout the Middle East and is emerging as an increasingly capable opponent of Iran and radical Islam.

Watch and see: Israel’s position is only going to become less defensible. As America fades from view, the Jewish state will effectively be left with only two options: It can turn to Germany, or it can turn to God. Sadly, it’s not about to turn to God.

German Investment in Jordan

theTrumpet.com — 2013-06-12T18:30:38+01:00

Germany has taken on four industrial projects in Jordan because the ailing water infrastructure and limited water supply in Jordan’s north is under strain from the thousands of refugees pouring in from Syria. The projects are intended to improve supply and reduce leakage from the current system. The projects will be entirely funded by the German Development Bank to the tune of $5.6 million.

It is of significance that it is Germany that is supplying the aid. Germany is actually prophesied to form an alliance with a number of Arabic nations, including Jordan. German involvement in the region is a testimony to the foundations of that relationship being laid.

After Italy, Germany is Jordan’s most important European trading partner. The estimated bilateral trade value between the two countries is over $358 million. Germany has donated over $180 million in development assistance to Jordan, with most of it going toward water systems.

Germany has a history of industrial projects in Jordan. German industry in Jordan can be traced back to the early 1900s. In 1900, the Ottoman government, with German assistance, began constructing a railway which was designed to transport Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and aid in the military control of the Arabian Peninsula. When the Ottomans allied with Germany in 1914, the railway served as a crucial supply line through the region.

German renewable energy companies are also at work in Jordan. German developer mena Cleantech is developing the world’s largest concentrated solar thermal power plant using direct solar steam generation. Such projects are costly and time consuming, but they ultimately benefit both parties with energy, financing, and overall strengthened ties.

Jordan has also hired German experts to assist Jordanian officials with areas such as water and environment, agriculture and rural development, poverty alleviation, education and renewable energy.

While much of Germany’s involvement in Jordan is non-military, there are also arms deals between the two countries. Between 2005 and 2010, Germany sold Jordan 2,496 sub-machine guns, 431 grenade launchers, 336 assault rifles and 10 light machine guns.

As Jordan now finds itself in tough times with the flood of refugees and subsequent shortage of water, Germany is stepping in to help, thereby strengthening ties that will eventually culminate in an alliance. That union is prophesied in Psalm 83. In this remarkable prophecy, Germany will join with a number of Arabic nations, including “Moab” and “Ammon”—known as Jordan today. Read this detailed prophecy for yourself in Psalm 83:5-8 and consider reading “A Mysterious Prophecy” to truly appreciate the surety of God’s Word.

Time to Buy Gold?

Robert Morley — 2013-06-12T17:00:00+01:00

If you had invested $1,000 in ExxonMobil a decade ago, your investment would have doubled. If you bought technology giant Microsoft, your investment would still be worth about $1,000. An investment in General Electric stock would be worth only $660 today. Bank of America, even less at $400. But you could have done worse. Had you invested in Pets.com, Lehman Brothers, Long Term Capital Management, Enron and a host of other big-name companies, you would have nothing.

What would your investment be if you had invested in gold? $6,800.

Why would a shiny metal with few industrial uses, and that doesn’t earn interest or generate income, almost septuple in such a short time?

First a little background. In case you didn’t notice, the global financial system is in danger of collapse. The dollars, yen and euros backing it could fall with it. Governments are cracking. The world is at risk of a new Greater Depression.

The problem behind it all is too much debt. In the United States, federal debt is now $16.3 trillion—but America’s economy only measures $15.5 trillion. Europe, Japan and the UK have the same problem: Debts are growing—economies, not nearly so much. According to the World Economic Forum, total global debt, including local governments, corporations and individuals, reached a whopping $190 trillion at the end of 2010—more than 3.3 times the size of the total global economy. And even that does not describe the full problem. Governments owe tens if not hundreds of trillions more in promised retirement benefits that people are relying on. There is no way these debts can be paid.

Central banks around the world are responding by doing what all the fashionable textbooks say should be done: They are printing money like crazy to pay debts.

The trouble is, this “solution” comes with side effects: devalued currencies, trade war, and a risk of America being reduced to a barter economy. That is why the world’s biggest banks are also buying up a whole lot of an asset that can’t be created or willed into existence by politicians seeking to cheat economic realities.

That asset is gold. They’re buying it. Should you?

Emergency Countermeasures

In late 2009, Cheng Siwei, a former vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Standing Committee, said China was alarmed by U.S. money printing. He stated that China had lost confidence in the U.S. dollar and was moving toward a partial gold standard through reserve accumulation. “If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard,” he said.

That same year, Hong Kong announced that it would repatriate all its gold that was stored in London. The central bank of India also announced that it had secretly purchased 220 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund. In 2011, Venezuela ordered the return of all 220 tons of gold it stored in London and New York. Reports emerged of Russian and Middle East central banks buying gold.

For the first time in many years, central banks became net buyers of gold in 2010. Since then, bank gold-buying has accelerated. This year, central banks will purchase an estimated 550 tons of gold—up from 85 tons in 2010. In 2012, Ecuador asked its banks to repatriate one third of its gold stored overseas. Forbes reported that China imported 76 tons through its new gold center in Hong Kong—up 22 percent from a year earlier. In November, the Bank of Korea announced it had increased its gold supply by 20 percent. In November it was reported that Brazil’s central bank had purchased 19 tons.

Now, golden heavyweight Germany is also bringing its gold home from New York. After German authorities were not allowed to inspect their gold deposits, Berlin has asked for 165 tons—about 10 percent of its holdings in America—to be returned. Germany repatriated two thirds of its gold from London years ago.

Analyst John Mauldin calls gold “central bank insurance.” He says history shows that “monetary stability yields to political exigency.”

If central banks, which have shunned gold for the past 41 years, are now turning to it as an insurance policy, something must be very wrong. The scramble for gold is heating up.

But if central banks are looking to gold to fix the world’s debt problems, gold is going to be in very short supply—very soon.

What About You?

Is gold a safe investment for you?

As long as the global economy is functioning and people are worried that paper money is being destroyed, there will be a growing demand for gold. In the short term, gold has potential as a good investment.

Gold is in a stealth bull market. Since 2002, when Trumpet news editor Ron Fraser predicted that gold could “head out of orbit,” it has increased from $300 per ounce to around $1,700 per ounce. That’s more than a 500 percent return. The Dow Jones rose only about 30 percent during that time.

Yet much of America seems oblivious to gold’s glittery record. Outside of conservative talk radio, just about the only mention of gold you hear is from companies that want you to pawn or sell your gold jewelry. This is the opposite of the 1970s and ’80s when coin stores across the country popped up to sell investment-grade gold to people. Most Americans missed one of the best investments of the past decade.

For 10 years in a row, gold has crept higher and higher. Why has it gone up so consistently? And will it continue to do so?

“Gold is great disaster insurance,” wrote Mr. Fraser. “Predictions of global economic disaster presently abound even among some high-profile commentators” (September/October 2002). In that article, he noted that gold is a hedge against banking troubles, the falling dollar, and growing U.S. government credit risk.

These were very real and looming threats in 2002. Today, the economic situation is orders of magnitude worse—with no solution in sight. As economic reality eventually dawns on the collective mind of the public, gold prices could easily head for that “moon shot” Mr. Fraser talked about.

But by then, buying gold will be an exercise in futility. If you are looking to gold to save you from looming economic collapse, you’re in for a shock.

A Very Relevant Prophecy

When the economic system collapses and there is no food to eat, no one will care how much gold you have. Deep down, many investors realize this. That is why some financial advisers recommend becoming self-sufficient and learning to farm.

But even growing your own food and knitting your own clothes won’t provide security.

The Bible warns that the world’s economic troubles are about to worsen. Times will get so bad that people will throw their gold and silver in the streets (Ezekiel 7:19). Ezekiel warns that all the gold and silver in the world won’t be able to buy food. Read this whole chapter; it is a prophecy for the future of the United States and Britain.

There is, however, another safe investment guaranteed to produce an absolutely massive return—but you have to be willing to invest.

Invest in God. Invest in your relationship with Him. Store up treasures in heaven, where moths and rust—and quantitative easing—can’t destroy them (Matthew 6:19-21). Put your heart in God’s work today. This is the only sure investment you can make. God doesn’t need your money; He can support His work in all kinds of ways. But God is concerned about your priorities—where you are spending your time and energy. God wants to know what is important to you. What do you put first in your life? What do you spend your money on? What do you sacrifice for?

Invest in gold if you wish. But if you really care about your future, invest in the one true source of protection. Invest in God.