The Update

On September 7, 2024, Brian Gale will present the sermonette, titled, “Covid – A Precursor of Future Events?,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “The Coming End of the World.”

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

In the face of trials, what do we do?

“‘Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.
“‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me’” (Psalm 50:14-15).

When we find ourselves greatly blessed, what do we do?

“‘Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!

“‘For His mercy endures forever’” (1 Chronicles 16:34).

In our time, thankfulness to God is not something practiced or even rightly understood. God is not glorified as the Creator of all things. Rather, He is ignored and shamelessly disobeyed! Nevertheless, Jesus said of the Father that “‘…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’” (Matthew 5:45).

King David extolled God with overflowing thankfulness. His Psalms reflect praise and thankfulness to God (Psalm 23; 145), and many other Psalms in the Bible also laud and exalt God (Psalm 100;148).

We need to take the time to reflect on the majesty of God in the context of our own lives—especially our calling to the Truth of God and eternal life. David wrote:

“LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
“Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?” (Psalm 144:3).

We have been called to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). Being thankful to God in the darkness of this age is our great challenge: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

by Norbert Link

We begin with a critical analysis of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and the feeling that America is moving towards an autocratic dictatorship; and that it is a “beached” superpower in Europe.

We continue with an article stating that abortion is always wrong [please see our new StandingWatch program, titled, “What Does God Say About Abortion and IVF?”] and report on America’s “missionaries” bringing “evil” to Africa.

We speak on the dictatorship of Brazil and its Supreme Court persecuting Elon Musk; and show that without Telegram, some facts would have never been revealed.

We speak on the newest debacle of Olaf Scholz’s government; the idea of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount, and the murders by Hamas’s butchers of many of the Israeli hostages.

Daily Mail’s Terrible Indictment of Harris and Walz

The Daily Mail wrote on August 30:

“Four weeks into campaigning, she finally granted an interview — to a very friendly CNN, toting her VP pick Tim Walz along for reasons unknown. Moral support, perhaps?… it wasn’t a winning look for someone who wants to be president of the United States. As for her answers: Harris was vague, policy-free, and at times just plain full of it… In attempting to answer Dana Bash’s unimaginative first question — ‘What would you do on Day One in the White House?’ — Kamala was the proverbial car engine struggling to turn over, delaying an actual answer with extraneous, redundant verbiage…

“Kamala… claimed she was taken by total, utter surprise when President Biden called her on that fateful Sunday, informing her of his decision to withdraw from the 2024 race. Bash allowed Kamala to feign shock — even though the Democratic plot to oust Biden… is now well reported…

“Walz, sitting uselessly by…, doubled down on the lies he’s already told. If this otherwise pointless interview proved one thing, it’s that Harris clearly saw a fellow traveller in Walz: a shameless prevaricator and a fraud who will say anything…

“Harris is incapable of articulating her thought processes because they don’t exist. She cannot speak extemporaneously. She has no intellectual reservoir, no internal editor, no cogent line of reasoning… Asked why she should be president, she said: ‘I believe that I am the best person to do this job.’ In an interview where Harris was unclear on nearly everything, one fact came into sharp focus: she is quantitatively not the best person for this job.”

In a related article, the Daily Mail wrote on August 30:

“The fact CNN had agreed to Walz’s presence showed the network had effectively thrown in the towel before the interview even started. As president, Harris would have to deal with the world’s most powerful dictators… Yet she doesn’t feel up to facing a middling broadcast journalist like Bash on her own? It was all a bit pathetic…

“The interview was pre-recorded, Harris’s people (probably rightly) concluding that ‘live’ was too risky…

“Though we learned nothing new and Harris made no serious gaffes, the interview reminded us of what has largely been forgotten in her recent reinvention: that in essence Harris remains a mediocre lightweight given to glib answers with no substance.…”

And she wants to be America’s next President? It is hard to believe that apparently many (willfully ignorant?) Americans are willing to vote for her…

George Clooney—the Weasel

On September 2, the New York Post published the following article by Piers Morgan:

“… it was [actor George Clooney] who first publicly plunged the knife into Biden’s back with a withering op-ed in the New York Times in which he demanded his presidential head on a plate. But it was the details of Clooney’s reasoning that were so brutal…  The op-ed was the catalyst for many other leading Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, to join in the humiliating campaign to force Biden to quit the 2024 race, something he had made absolutely clear he didn’t want to do…

“What he did to Biden was a political hit job of the most ruthless kind. He took a cold, calculating sniper aim at his friend and metaphorically sprayed him with a hail of bullets…

“Yet now the same George Clooney wants us to believe Biden’s in fact the new George Washington who many polls of Americans say was not only the nation’s first president but also its greatest. In a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, he waxed lyrical about the man he’d just politically assassinated… Nobody, as Judas Iscariot could attest, forgets a famous friend who so publicly betrays another famous friend. Least of all Joe Biden, who is reportedly still spitting blood at the way you all set him up….”

USA—Moving Towards a Totalitarian Society

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on August 29:

“Facebook worked in concert with the Biden administration to censor content related to COVID-19…  The government is not protecting us from ‘dangerous’ disinformation campaigns. It is laying the groundwork to insulate us from ‘dangerous’ ideas that might cause us to think for ourselves and, in so doing, challenge the power elite’s stranglehold over our lives…

“The steady, pervasive censorship creep that is being inflicted on us by corporate tech giants with the blessing of the powers-that-be threatens to bring about a restructuring of reality straight out of Orwell’s 1984, where the Ministry of Truth polices speech and ensures that facts conform to whatever version of reality the government propagandists embrace. Orwell intended 1984 as a warning. Instead, it is being used as a dystopian instruction manual for socially engineering a populace that is compliant, conformist and obedient to Big Brother…

“Eventually, depending on how the government and its corporate allies define what constitutes ‘extremism’, ‘we the people’ might all be considered guilty of some thought crime or other… We should all be alarmed when any individual or group—prominent or not—is censored, silenced and made to disappear from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram for voicing ideas that are deemed politically incorrect, hateful, dangerous or conspiratorial…

“Eventually, as Orwell predicted, telling the truth will become a revolutionary act. If the government can control speech, it can control thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry… With every passing day, we’re being moved further down the road towards a totalitarian society characterized by government censorship, violence, corruption, hypocrisy and intolerance, all packaged for our supposed benefit in the Orwellian doublespeak of national security, tolerance and so-called ‘government speech.’

“What we are witnessing is the modern-day equivalent of book burning which involves doing away with dangerous ideas—legitimate or not—and the people who espouse them. Seventy-plus years after Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 depicted a fictional world in which books are burned in order to suppress dissenting ideas, while televised entertainment is used to anesthetize the populace and render them easily pacified, distracted and controlled, we find ourselves navigating an eerily similar reality.”

Canada has already become a dictatorship. The USA is next in line, perhaps together with the UK. Of course, we all should know the path Europe is walking.

America a “Beached” Superpower

The Hill wrote on August 30:

“The root problem is growing uncertainty about America’s willingness to fight and die on behalf of its nominal allies… Would the U.S. mobilize to fight a hot war against Russia in Eastern Europe?… There is already dispositive evidence that America will not fight in defense of non-NATO members in Eastern Europe… The U.S. can be counted on to supply critical military and economic aid — for a time, at least — but it has announced in no uncertain terms that Americans will not be placed in harm’s way in defense of non-allies in Europe.

“In reality, there is also reason to doubt whether the U.S. would risk nuclear war with Russia in defense of some NATO members, such as Poland or the Baltics… sitting U.S. leaders would work hard to de-escalate any future conflict with Russia, even if it meant abandoning nominal allies in a time of need…

“The U.S. is a beached superpower [in Europe]…”

The allies will not be helped by the USA, and the USA will most certainly not be helped by its allies.

Abortion Is Always Wrong

The Federalist wrote on August 27:

“The intentional ending of an innocent human life is always wrong; so too then is every abortion and every destruction of a human embryo by an IVF clinic. However, a majority of Americans will never vote to ban all abortions or prohibit the destruction of embryos created for IVF. Our country has tumbled too far down the slope of situational ethics, brainwashed along the way with the rhetoric of choice. And if the overturning of Roe v. Wade proved anything, it was that a large swath of Americans will readily accept the lies of abortion apologists to prevent even a hypothetical complete ban on abortion — even if that means sacrificing a few thousand near-term babies demand by the Left’s extremism of abortion on demand, until birth.

“… the Republican platform and the Trump-Vance ticket has abandoned any effort to advance pro-life positions, and, to the contrary, appears supportive of the unregulated destruction of human embryos through IVF…

“Trump may not govern as a pro-life president, but Harris will most assuredly be the most pro-abortion president ever elected…”

So, there are really no good choices for voting-hungry Americans. When it comes to IVF clinics and procedures, the Heritage Foundation wrote on February 15, 2023:

“One key battleground is in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is the process whereby ova are fertilized with sperm in a laboratory rather than in a woman’s body. The resulting live embryo is then implanted in the biological mother or a surrogate. For those who believe that life begins at conception, IVF is morally troubling indeed… To date, over one million babies have been born using IVF. Another one million embryos are frozen… They are ‘disposable’ babies due to common IVF practices like embryo destruction, freezing, genetic testing, and genetic editing.

“Let’s take embryo destruction. IVF is an attractive option for couples who are struggling with infertility, same-sex couples, and single persons. To raise their odds of success, doctors create multiple embryos. After testing them for genetic problems or physical traits, they then destroy the ‘unfit’ embryos. The remaining embryos are either implanted or frozen. Embryo freezing serves many purposes. In each case, it allows men and women to delay childbearing beyond normal limits. Stories like the embryos created in 1992 but not born until 30 years later will only become more common. Still, many don’t realize that only 53% of defrosted embryos result in a live birth.

“When it comes to genetic testing…, doctors routinely destroy the embryos suspected of carrying traits the parents deem undesirable. If they’re hoping for a male baby, out go the female embryos. Embryos with a treatable disease like cystic fibrosis face a similar fate. Genetic editing takes this process one step further… [It] alters the very makeup of an embryo. It can be used to change an embryo’s IQ, physical ability, or the ability to contract a disease…

“Rather than accept children as gifts, IVF treats children like products to be bought, sold, or designed. Worse, it destroys embryos that are deemed not good enough. Any practice that destroys or subverts innocent human life, even at the earliest stages, is at odds with pro-life principles.”

This horrible practice is of course ungodly. The Bible calls it murder.

America’s ”Missionaries” Bring “Evil” to Africa

LifeSiteNews wrote on August 29:

“African Catholic archbishops are sounding the alarm over Western efforts to indoctrinate Africans into homosexual lifestyles in what one prelate describes as a new kind of proselytism – one of ‘evil.’… The efforts are pervasive enough that archbishops from Kenya to Cameroon and Ghana to Tanzania are all testifying to similar problems, which reportedly include LGBTQ classroom indoctrination and gay sex parties. Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast, Ghana described… how tourists will entice boys with money to pull them into homosexual activity… Archbishop Palmer-Buckle alluded to a growing phenomernon in Africa in which boys are paid money, which is little by American standards but astronomical by African standards, to be in homosexual pornography films. These boys are then sent to recruit others, for which they are paid even more.

“Archbishop Leonard Nkwande [of Tanzania] said [that his] experience has also suggested that the Biden administration has been involved in promotion of homosexuality in his country… This is consistent with the declaration of U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby last year that so-called ‘LGBTQ+ rights’ are a ‘core part’ of U.S. foreign policy, and the December 2023 report that the U.S. had spent more than $4.1 billion in taxpayer money on LGBT-promoting initiatives around the world…

“The West is not only corrupting Africans through on-the-ground efforts but through virtual influence via social media… This is especially the case in places like Kenya, where more than 60 percent of residents have a smartphone, much more than in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa…”

That is the kind of example the “ungodly” nation of the USA is setting.

Now Persecution of Musk in Brazil 

The Hill wrote on August 30:

“X owner Elon Musk slammed Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes [a Catholic] as an ‘evil dictator [cosplaying as a judge]’ Thursday as he threatened to shut down the billionaire’s social media platform in the country….

“The months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes reached a fever pitch Wednesday night when the judge ordered X to name a legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours or face a ban… ‘Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,’ X’s Global Government Affairs team said in a post. 

“X closed its office in Brazil earlier this month after de Moraes ordered the platform to remove posts from the site. If X failed to comply, the judge said he would levy a daily fine of $3,650 and an arrest decree against its representative, Rachel Nova Conceicao….  Starlink, Musk’s satellite company, also revealed Thursday that de Moraes had frozen its finances and was blocking the firm from conducting financial transactions in Brazil…  ‘It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil…’”

Brazil’s Dictatorship

The Associated Press wrote on August 31:

“Brazil started blocking Elon Musk’s social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through its mobile app after the company refused to comply with a judge’s order… To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday at midnight local time, major operators began doing so… The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it…

“X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings… but it has since been restored.”

Even Apple and Google were initially instructed to remove X from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN obstacles that would make it more difficult for users to find access, but de Moraes later reversed that part of his order, saying it would not be needed.

Judge de Moraes has a controversial history. He was a member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party. He was accused of covering up police violence. He was accused of defending Brazil’s main drug trafficking group. Already in 2020, he was criticized by outlets such as The Intercept on the basis of censorship and attack on the freedom of the press. In 2022, he ordered the suspension of the messaging app Telegram, accusing it of repeatedly failing to block accounts spreading disinformation (so he said), and ignoring previous court decisions. President Bolsonaro called the ruling “inadmissible“. In October 2022, the Superior Electoral Court gave de Moraes the unilateral authority to order the removal of online content that did not comply with previous TSE rulings, as part of an effort to combat disinformation. Bolsonaro supporters and legal experts criticized the move, fearing that it could allow for censorship. American journalist and lawyer Glenn Greenwald has criticized several decisions of de Moraes, accusing him of censorship and undermining freedom of speech.

In 2023, the New York Times published a piece questioning if the decisions of de Moraes were beneficial for democracy, and noted that he “has jailed people without trial for posting threats on social media; helped sentence a sitting congressman to nearly nine years in prison for threatening the court; ordered raids on businessmen with little evidence of wrongdoing; suspended an elected governor from his job; and unilaterally blocked dozens of accounts and thousands of posts on social media, with virtually no transparency or room for appeal.”

It is clear that this Supreme Court Judge rules as an unhinged dictator.

Without Telegram Many Things Would Not Have Been Possible…

Report 24 wrote on August 30:

“When the arrest of Pawel Durow was announced – according to rumors, the Telegram founder was even lured to France by… Macron personally – the MFG party invited people to the big freedom demonstration in Vienna. Durow is now out on bail – but he is not allowed to leave France and is in danger of becoming the next ‘Assange case’…

“One thing is certain: Without Telegram, many things that probably saved millions of lives from the dangerous mRNA experiment would not have been possible. With the free messenger, Pawel Durow opened up the opportunity to live freedom of expression.  The problem in recent years has not been that there has been a problem with radical, dangerous or violence-glorifying opinions. It was simply about being able to openly express and promote a completely legal opinion guaranteed by fundamental rights, the constitution and the basic law.

“The ‘Western’ governments have banned and censored these dissenting opinions as they did in the darkest days of the past. A uniform opinion was and is sold as ‘science’…

“And one must not forget: Just because Durov is temporarily free on bail, doesn’t mean that the Deep State doesn’t want to lock him up for a long time – or want to blackmail him into restricting or turning off Telegram’s privacy and capabilities.”

The Bible makes it very clear that Europe will become a complete dictatorship. We are already seeing the beginning of this prophesied development.

Scholz—Germany’s Best Chancellor?

ntv wrote on August 30:

“Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach emphatically praised Chancellor Olaf Scholz shortly before the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia. When asked whether Scholz was the right candidate for chancellor for the SPD in the next federal election, Lauterbach told ‘Stern’: ‘Olaf Scholz is the best chancellor we have ever had.’ He is convinced of that… 

“Lauterbach himself expressed interest in holding the office of Health Minister for another term…”

Lauterbach has been called the German Dr. Fauci. His credibility is finally gone… if he even had some credibility left. But calling the worst German chancellor after the Second World War the best chancellor is the absolute height of ludicrous nonsense.

Victory for AfD in Thuringia and Saxony

Report 24 wrote on September 1:

“[FPÖ leader] Herbert Kickl congratulated the AfD and the voters in the German states of Thuringia and Saxony on the historic election results: ‘The clear victory in Thuringia and the head-to-head race with the CDU in Saxony – each with the historic ones best results – are an expression of hope for a system change. The system parties were massively punished. At the federal political traffic light, all three lights went out at the same time. [The coalition parties of the government] were presented with the bill for her harmful policies with a total of less than 15 percent for three parties in both federal states.

“‘The election results are also a lesson for all those who exclude and refuse democracy, who now have to show whether they are still capable of learning or whether they want to stubbornly continue their path to political insignificance,’ said Kickl.”

The FPÖ is an Austrian right-wing party that was led at one time by Joerg Haider and was later a coalition party in Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s government. In 2024, the FPÖ reached first place in the election for the European Parliament.

The CDU won in Sachsen with 31,9 percent; the AfD reached second place with 30,6 percent. In Thüringen, the AfD won with 32,8 percent, and the CDU only got 23,6 percent. The coalition parties of the government were far behind in both states. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is “a fresh embarrassment for Olaf Scholz’s government” and “a political earthquake and a milestone for a continent where centrist parties are increasingly on the defensive.”

“Correction” of German State Election in Thuringia

Breitbart wrote on September 2:

“Right-wingers and populists have devastated legacy left-wing parties in two state elections in Germany, even if a ‘software error’ in one state was blamed for changing the initial official results, taking two seats away from the right. The right-populist anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won a state election for the first time, taking 32.8 per cent of the vote in east Germany’s Thuringia… This is particularly consequential to the AfD, as it no longer has a blocking minority in the state, which could have allowed it to block certain votes like the appointment of constitutional judges, the state auditors, and even a vote to dissolve the parliament. In such instances, votes need a two-thirds supermajority to pass, and now the AfD is one seat short…

“In both elections, voter turnout was at historically high levels, and in the case of Saxony, it was the highest state election turnout in modern German history…  In many cases, responses to the state-level success of the AfD in this election have been dismay in the international press, with the label ‘far right’ routinely applied to the AfD, even as such words lose their power through over-use…

“For the AfD themselves, the votes in their favour yesterday are all about the German public rejecting tone-deaf, failed establishment parties delivering stagnation…

“As is now typical for many European elections, while a populist-right party may have the largest number of seats, it does not hold close to a majority and few friends to build coalitions with, which may leave these states heading towards yet more rainbow coalition governments to keep the border control right out at all costs…”

One might wonder about the “software error”…

Nazi Comparisons Exaggerated and Punishable?

Report 24 wrote on September 2:

“The election results from Thuringia and Saxony are just as displeasing to the traffic lights [Germany’s governing coalition] as they are to the loyal system press: Corresponding derailments were to be expected. Yesterday, September 1, ZDF [Germany’s second public broadcast company] viewers witnessed particularly disrespectful statements: Editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten quickly put the election in the context of the start of the Second World War 85 years ago:

“‘On September 1, 1939, World War II began with the Wehrmacht attack on Poland. Germany spread suffering and death across the world and murdered 6 million Jews. On September 1, 2024, 85 years later, a party will become the strongest political force in the German state of Thuringia, which, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is proven to be right-wing extremist, with a candidate at the top who talks like a fascist and can also be called one. This is difficult to bear and makes this September 1 a political milestone and a reminder to those born after. More than 30% of voters in Thuringia and Saxony voted right-wing extremist. For the most part, they are not neo-Nazis, but, and this is no less shocking, they don’t care about voting right-wing extremist.’

“What users on social networks find particularly difficult to bear is the fact that they also finance the constant defamation and criminalization of voters with their compulsory fees. Sharp criticism also comes from legal experts: Volker Boehme-Neßler, professor of media and telecommunications law, demanded [Schausten’s] immediate dismissal.

“Lawyer Markus Haintz has now filed a criminal complaint against Schausten – and it is based on an argument from the same public prosecutor’s office, according to which an alleged comparison with the Third Reich in the Corona context constituted incitement to hatred. Thus, in Haintz’s view, any argument against the existence of sedition in Schausten’s case is a dismantling of one’s own previous argument. On X he discussed:

“‘According to the public prosecutor’s own argument, to whom I sent the criminal complaint, this is a case of sedition. A client… was charged with a criminal warrant by the same public prosecutor’s office due to an alleged COVID-related settlement and was convicted in the first instance by a district court for alleged incitement to hatred. The appeal against this has been with the regional court for almost 2 years, which is obviously having problems handling the case…

“A conviction by the district court should never have been made. Based on the arguments of the public prosecutor’s office and the district court, I also filed a criminal complaint against Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on suspicion of incitement to hatred. A preliminary investigation has been initiated in this regard, which as far as I know has not yet been completed… In his speech on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Steinmeier made a connection between the Ukrainian War and the Wehrmacht’s war of annihilation in Eastern Europe. Schausten provided a context with the Wehrmacht’s attack on Poland on September 1, 1939 and 6 million murdered Jews.

“I’m really curious to see how the politically dependent public prosecutor’s office… will try to get out of this ‘legal dilemma’. I call on my legal colleagues to oppose the countless wrong decisions made by courts and authorities, the unconstitutional impairments and the state’s excesses of power, especially since March 2020…’

“What happens with the legal complaint remains to be seen. In Germany, politicians and their court reporters are often said to have the freedom of fools that is typical of totalitarian systems. This would be an opportunity to prove that the same ‘right’ still applies to everyone. But will [this opportunity] be used?”

Mongolia Asked to Arrest Putin

The Sun wrote on August 31:

“Putin is due to visit Mongolia on September 3… Ukraine has called on the Mongolian government to arrest Putin blasting him as a war criminal… But Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov shot back at suggestions of an arrest saying: ‘No, no worries about this. We have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.’…

“Arresting the dictator and sending him to The Hague is up to the signatory countries as the ICC doesn’t have its own police force. Many powerful countries are not members of the court – such as the US, Russia, and China.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March of last year against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation, saying it is politically motivated.

“The warrant obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory… Putin is set to visit the country to mark the 85th anniversary of the victory of Russian and Mongolian forces over Japan in WW2….”

Putin will not be arrested in Mongolia—home of Genghis Khan. It will be seen what action, if any, other signatory member states of the ICC will take against Mongolia.

Russian and Mongolian Cooperation

Reuters wrote on September 3:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin received a red carpet welcome on Tuesday on a state visit to Mongolia, whose failure to arrest him under a warrant from the International Criminal Court was criticised by Ukraine as a blow against justice… The Mongolian leader said he hoped the visit would boost trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

“Mongolia is on the planned route of a major pipeline that Russia wants to construct in order to carry 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from its Yamal region to China. The project, Power of Siberia 2, is part of Russia’s strategy to compensate for the loss of most of its gas sales in Europe since the start of the Ukraine war. It is the planned successor to an existing pipeline of the same name which already supplies Russian gas to China and is due to reach its planned capacity of 38 billion cubic metres per year in 2025.”

A Synagogue on the Temple Mount?

Israel Today wrote on August 28:

“The US State Department stated on Tuesday that it ‘strongly opposes’ Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s call for construction of a synagogue on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The proposed Jewish house of worship ‘on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount’ would ‘demonstrate blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem,’ Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said…

“Ben-Gvir said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Monday that Jewish prayer is allowed on the Temple Mount. That prompted a denial from the Prime Minister’s Office… During the interview, Ben-Gvir was asked repeatedly if he would build a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He replied, ‘yes.’

“Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were among the Muslim countries that officially condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments…”

A synagogue or a Temple on the Temple Mount? Even though some are still determined to dispute the overwhelming biblical evidence and the signs of the time, a Third Temple will be built PRIOR to the return of Jesus Christ.

Hamas—a Murderous Terrorist Organization

Newsmax wrote on September 1:

“Israel said it recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza where they were apparently killed shortly before its troops reached them… ‘they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,’ military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… said Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible… Senior Hamas officials said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a ceasefire agreement, was to blame for the deaths… The recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages captured during the Hamas-led shock incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year. Their deaths leave 101 Israeli and foreign captives still in Gaza, but around a third of these are known to have died, with the fate of others unknown…”

How anyone, including Americans, Europeans and others, can think that one can or should negotiate with murderous lying terrorists is beyond comprehension.

Biden vs. Netanyahu

The Times of Israel wrote on September 2:

“US President Joe Biden on Monday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, while revealing that his administration was ‘very close; to presenting a final hostage deal offer later this week… At a press conference later Monday, Netanyahu denounced calls for Israel to make concessions after Hamas ‘murderers executed six of our hostages.’ ‘They shot them in the back of the head…and now, after this, we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says kill more hostages, murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions,’ Netanyahu stated, speaking in English in response to a question.

“‘The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes, they say no all the time. But they also murdered these people. And now we need maximal pressure on Hamas. ‘I don’t believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving their release would seriously ask Israel, Israel, to make these concessions,’ the prime minister argued…

“The Israeli sources said Monday that Biden’s statement that Netanyahu was not doing enough to reach a deal was also dangerous because it came days after Hamas executed [six hostages] who were all kidnapped on October 7.”

The position of the Biden Administration and most of the international community is not only stupid and incompetent, it is also dangerous, anti-Semitic and extremely worrisome. 

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

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

In the previous installments of this series, we showed that both the last revival of the Roman Empire [through the raising up of the ancient Chaldeans, and their subsequent defeat] and the preaching of the gospel are described as the Work of God. We then concentrated on God’s Work in these end times, as it relates to the preaching of the gospel and to the warning of the nations. In this final installment, we will talk about the connection between aspects of the Work of God and our salvation, as well as the marvelous Truth that the more we are involved in God’s Work of preaching the gospel, the more we will overcome our sins and our human nature… which is necessary to be able to enter the Kingdom and Family of God.

First, we need to understand that some aspects and tasks might have been referred to as the Work in the past, even though that may not necessarily have relevance for us today. But whenever God used people to do His Work, they had to do it with their whole heart, and in complete obedience to God’s instructions.

One of these aspects was the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness. When everything was done, we read in Exodus 40:16, 19, 21-27, 29, 32-34:

“Thus Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did… And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the LORD had commanded Moses… And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD had commanded Moses… He put the table in the tabernacle of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil; and he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses. He put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting, across from the table, on the south side of the tabernacle; and he lit the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses. He put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil; and he burned sweet incense on it, as the LORD had commanded Moses…  And he put the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses… Whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting, and when they came near the altar, they washed, as the LORD had commanded Moses. And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

When the people had completed the building of the tabernacle, under Moses’ direction, that aspect of the Work of God was finished.

When God had inspired David to prepare the building of the first temple, which would be accomplished through his son Solomon, we read David’s admonition in 1 Chronicles 29:1: “Furthermore King David said to all the assembly: ‘My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced; and the work is great, because the temple is not for man but for the LORD God…’”

The Israelites were willing to participate in the Work of the building of the temple. When David asked in verse 5, “Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?”, we read in verses 6-10:

“Then the leaders of the fathers’ houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the officers over the king’s work, offered willingly. They gave for the work of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD, into the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly, because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly to the LORD; and King David also rejoiced greatly. Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: ‘Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever..’”

When the building of the temple was completed, THAT aspect of the Work of God was finished.

Jesus, the Son of God, became a Man to fulfill the great purpose of becoming Savior of Mankind. But that was not the only reason for His coming. We explain in our free booklet,  “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?”, chapter 18, “The Purpose of Jesus’ Coming,” pages 87-92, the many aspects of the Work of God and the many purposes which He had to fulfill.

He said early on in His ministry, in John 4:34: “‘… My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”

He also said in John 5:36: “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

In His prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, in John 17:4:  “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”

When He died at the cross, He said at that moment: ”It is finished” (John 19:30). He finished that part of the Work which the Father had given Him to do as a human being.

And so, His disciples who were alive at that time were entrusted with the task of finishing that part of God’s Work that had been given to them.

We read what Christ said in a parable, in Mark 13:34-37:

“It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

The admonition to watch their spiritual condition applies to all Christians at all times, as nobody knows the time of their death and they need to be ready at every time, to meet their Maker in the resurrection, but Christ clearly referred foremost to the actual time of His Second Coming.

And so, God has given His end-time Church the WORK of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God as a witness, which includes warning the nations of impending disaster.

That aspect of the Work had NOT been given to the Church in prior times, after the early apostles had died. Of course, God’s Church did warn people or nations at certain times (compare Christ’s and the disciples’ warning to the Jews that Jerusalem would be destroyed under Titus), and the Church did preach the gospel (compare 2 Corinthians 5:18-20) and warn that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10), but the Work of preaching the gospel to the world as a witness and the warning message to the end-time nations was decisively given to God’s end-time Church, because it was to be THE sign of Christ’s speedy return, once that aspect of the Work was fulfilled (Matthew 24:14). Today, this preaching has been made possible through the invention of the internet and many other means of electronic communication.

The gospel message is also a message of repentance (Luke 24:47), which includes the realization of what sin is—the transgression of the Law of the Ten Commandments (1 John 3:4).  God had originally written the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone; today He is writing them in and on our hearts. Both are aspects of the Work of God. We read in Exodus 32:15-16:

“And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.”

Today, the law must be written in our hearts. In Isaiah 51:7, we read: “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.” Compare also Psalm 37:30-31; 40:8.

Jeremiah 31:33 says: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

This, God has already done to those spiritual Israelites whom He has called and converted in this age to become born-again members in His Family. In 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, Paul says to the Church members at Corinth: “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

When the early apostles began to do God’s Work of preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, they encountered opposition from the religious establishment. But let’s notice what one of the wise men in the Sanhedrin advised his colleagues in Acts 5:38-39—an advice which is relevant for our times as well:

“And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”

We are called co-workers with Christ. We read that God the Father works, and Jesus Christ works (John 5:17), and we must be working with them. Regarding our labor, God says in Isaiah 61:8: “I will direct their work in truth.”

But those whom God has called to fulfill the end-time commission of His Work are also to become more and more holy, as God is holy. Isaiah 52:11 says about our challenge to leave the philosophies and customs of this world behind and become different: “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.”

We also read in Deuteronomy 6:24-25 what God, through Moses, told the Israelites of old; and what He tells us today:

“And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.”

In doing the Work wholeheartedly, and being involved in the Work, be it through prayer and financial support, or be it in actively helping the Work, wherever we can and whenever an opportunity presents itself, the more we will be growing in Christ’s grace or favor and His knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), and the more we will be able to overcome sin and to become more and more righteous.

This connection becomes clear when considering John 6:26-29:

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.’ Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’”

The Work of God is to believe in Christ. That’s the starting point. But it does not stop there. Our belief in Christ will motivate us to DO something. Christ also said above: “Labor… for the food which endures to everlasting life.” Believing in Christ is just the beginning. We must then also believe Christ (believe what He tells us), repent, accept His Sacrifice for us, become properly baptized and receive thereby the gift of the Holy Spirit, being led by the faith of Christ—Christ’s faith living in us—and in the end, after constantly overcoming, we will receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom and Family.

Our faith is shown by our works, as we read in the letter of James. He admonishes us in James 1:22-25:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

What Work are James and Christ talking about? Why is believing in Christ, as the starting point, the Work of God? Again, what IS the Work of God Christ makes reference to?

We read in Philippians 1:3-6:

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

Here, Paul is saying that God has begun a good work IN us. And so, we read in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The New Jerusalem Bible states: “We are God’s work of art…”

We can see that Christ’s statement that this is the Work of God that we believe in Him describes our road to salvation. We are God’s Work which He wants to bring to completion.

We read God’s assessment of the people of this age in Isaiah 29:13-16:

“Therefore the LORD said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.’ Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, And their works are in the dark; They say, ‘Who sees us?’ and, ‘Who knows us?’ Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? (The Authorized Version says: “… shall the work say to him that made it, He made me not?”). Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”

The marvelous Work which God is doing is two-fold: Whatever wisdom and understanding the wise of this age—including their religious and political leaders—might have had will completely vanish. But God adds another remarkable prophecy, in verse 23:

“But when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel.”

Job knew that he was God’s Work, and that God was working in and with him. We read in Job 14:14-15: “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.”

Even though all of mankind are the Work of God’s hands (Job 34:19; Isaiah 19:25), many do not recognize this fact at this time and the responsibility which that entails, but some do. Many will come to that understanding later.

Isaiah 60:20-22 says: “Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the LORD will be your everlasting light, And the days of your mourning shall be ended. Also your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land [better: the earth] forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”

Isaiah 64:7-8 adds: “And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”

Isaiah 62:11 confirms that especially those who turn to God ARE the Work of God: “Indeed the LORD has proclaimed To the end of the world: ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.”’”

God grants us salvation as a gift; we are not saved through our works; we cannot earn it through our works. But God expects of us to labor, to work—even working out our own salvation with fear and trembling—thereby showing that we are serious about God’s calling and our potential, but it is still God who does His Work in us, as Philippians 2:12-13 tells us:

“… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Isaiah 26:12 confirms this: “LORD, You will establish peace for us, For You have also done all our works in us.”

We read in Romans 14:17, 20: “… for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.”

The Work of God is equated here with the Kingdom of God. We are warned not to do anything which causes a stumbling block for others which will prevent them from entering the Kingdom, as they, too, are part of the Work of God.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, we read: “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul tells the Church members that God counts them worthy and fulfills in them the Work of faith with power so that the name of Jesus is glorified in them.

The Work of God will be short in these end times, and God says that He will finish the Work and cut it short in righteousness (compare Romans 9:28). This is also a reference to us—God’s Work—as we have only been given a short time, comparatively speaking, to qualify for God’s Kingdom.

God’s Work which we must be concerned about deals with the creation of man and man’s ultimate potential. God wants that every man be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Some will reject salvation, but that is not God’s desire. God’s Work is to enlarge His Family, and then, to rule with His enlarged Family for all eternity.

And so, we must do whatever God has given to us to do within His marvelous end-time Work to support and assist in this process. And we need to watch ourselves, to be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man when He returns (Luke 21:36; 1 Timothy 4:7-8; but compare also 1 John 2:28).

Christ said that this is the Work of God that we believe in Him; in other words, that we are God’s Work, and the first step to reach our destiny is to believe in Jesus. And that we must keep laboring for the food which leads to eternal life, while remembering that believing in Christ is the Work of God because He gives us that belief. That is how the Work of God begins in us.  It is God who accomplishes all of this. God leads us and gives us the strength to persevere, but we have to follow His lead and accept what He offers us. All glory belongs to God, for without Him, we can’t do anything (John 15:5).

Today, we are just the firstfruits of God’s Work—the forerunners or pioneers. God will give the opportunity to all of mankind to be a part of His Work—to enter His Kingdom and Family as born-again God beings.

In conclusion, God’s Church—God’s Work—is commissioned today to proclaim the warning message of the final rise of the European Empire and what it will set in motion, and to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world as a witness, and then Christ will return. As John the Baptist prepared the people for Christ’s First Coming, so God’s Church is to prepare the world for Christ’s Second Coming. As we are involved in faithfully and zealously fulfilling our commission, we are growing and maturing in our Christian Way of Life and to qualify abundantly for entrance into the Kingdom of God (2 Peter 1:10-11).

Malachi 3:2 asks the pertinent question: “… who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?”

Psalm 24:3-5 tells us:

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

And Psalm 15:1-5 adds:

“A Psalm of David. LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.”

Let’s do this, and we will live (compare Luke 10:25-28)—as the Work of God.

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“What Does God Say About Abortion and IVF?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is the summary:

The ending of innocent human life is always wrong, and there cannot be any exceptions. But what about IVF procedures, and how do they work? Are they morally acceptable? What does God say? This program will show amazing parallels between the creation of human life and the spiritual begettal of a Christian, and shows WHY the destruction of innocent embryos is never justified.

“Gottes Werk—die endzeitliche Verkündigung des Evangeliums!” is the title of this Sabbath’s German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: “God’s Work—the End-Time Proclamation of the Gospel.”

“Niedergang und Aufstieg des Jüdischen Volkes,” the German version of our booklet, “The Fall and Rise of the Jewish People,” has been sent to our printer in Germany.

“Kreuzigung Jesu Christi und die Auferstehung von den Toten,” last Sabbath’s German sermonette presented by Tahir Coban, is now posted. Title in English: “Christ’s Crucifixion and the Resurrection from the Dead.”

“Choose the Path,” last Sabbath’s sermonette presented by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is the summary:

In the Book of Jeremiah, we are told to stand at the crossroads of our lives, and we are to choose paths. How can we ensure that we are taking the proper paths that God wants us to?

“Godlessness and Perversion in Our End—Time Society!” last Sabbath’s sermon presented by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is the summary:

How does the Bible describe people living in the end times today? How do they think and act? What is their attitude and motivation? Why will there be a near-total annihilation of the human race—nuclear world wars that will threaten the survival of humanity like never before? Could ungodliness, indifference, self-importance, mockery, and other terrible sins in their many forms have something to do with it? The Bible shows exactly what people are like TODAY and how corrupt and spiritually sick and perverted our society is.