Update 698

On July 25, 2015, Dave Harris will present the sermonette, titled, “By The Book,” and Norbert Link will present the sermon, titled, “The Sufferings of the Apostle Paul.”

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

After the general election in the UK in May 2015, two of the defeated political parties licked their wounds and counted the cost.  Defeat for both the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats forced them to review what they stood for and how they could regain much lost ground.   New leaders were to be elected and it was acknowledged that, after the electorate had dealt them such a savage blow with the Conservatives securing an outright win, a new approach from them would be needed.

I read one definition on the internet that stated that “A political party voluntary, organised, possesses beliefs and translates these into policies or legislation.  It also assumes that political parties have a set of core beliefs which may change slowly over time.”

Core beliefs may change over time?   That’s a very dangerous position to be in if it applies to our Christian lives, but apparently in political circles no problem is seen in making changes that may not necessarily agree with their party but is to their political advantage.

Tony Blair won three elections by moving the Labour party from the left of the political spectrum to the centre ground, but when he gave way to others, it appeared that this approach was abandoned, resulting in two subsequent election defeats.   Mr Blair did this by various methods, one of which was through “focus groups” who gave the feedback as to what they thought the country wanted.   It was a case of “we are the leaders but tell us what we need to do so that we can be in charge.”   In other words, we will lead from the rear!

Political commentators state that it must now be on the agenda of defeated parties to move back to the centre ground if they are to be electable again.   It is not so much a matter of what they necessarily believe in, more in how they can be elected to form a government to run the country.   They are short on principle in their pursuit of power.   Where are the conviction politicians?

In fact, whatever happened to principles, where politicians inform the electorate what they stand for and believe in, not just what will put them into power?   Where are those who spell out their core beliefs, not what they are told will enhance their chances of political power?

What ground do they stand on?   In such situations, the ground moves and they move with it, purely to get their hands on the reins of power – yet another reason why we, as Christians, don’t vote or get involved with politics!

In 1995, in our former association, the ground moved.   We were asked “who moved?”, but the one asking the question was the one moving!   If we stand on firm ground, we will not move ground.   Unfortunately, so many at that time seemed not to be grounded in the truth and they moved.   Those of us who refused to give way to error stayed on the ground which we had proved to be solidly based on the truth of God.

Politicians can move to the left, centre or to the right of politics, but that is because of advantage to them in their pursuit of power and influence.   We, as members of the Body of Christ, must not move in any direction except forward towards the Kingdom of God, and, to achieve that goal, we have to make sure we are not on moving ground.

Just solid ground!

We begin this week’s news with appalling revelations about the selling of body parts of aborted babies by Planned Parenthood; hacking threatens to expose the adulterous activities of over forty million website subscribers; Isis’ activities in Europe; France calls for more European governing authority while the EU seeks to take on peacemaking for the Middle East, and a Greek exit seems off the table.

We present more problems between US and Germany and those arising from President Obama’s Iran deal; highlight the staying power of Donald Trump’s confrontational political presence, and conclude with an interesting article about Rome’s decay and with renewed efforts to find “alien life.”

The Abortion Culture of America

 The Boston Globe reported on July 22:

“It’s not often that a business-lunch conversation becomes a viral YouTube video. But then, it’s not often that a top Planned Parenthood official is recorded discussing, over a leisurely lunch of salad and red wine, the business of selling fetal organs harvested from aborted babies.

“More than 2.5 million people have seen the undercover video in which Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, readily details the ins and outs of harvesting the body parts of aborted fetuses, which are then sold for research. Nucatola thought she was speaking to buyers for a fetal-tissue supply firm in California. In fact, her lunch companions were researchers for the pro-life Center for Medical Progress, which posted the recording online — both the full footage, as well as a nine-minute abridged version.

“The video came as a bombshell. Selling fetal organs for profit is illegal under federal law, yet Nucatola appears quite candid in describing Planned Parenthood’s lively commercial interest in human tissue from abortion. She is alert to market demand — ‘I’d say a lot of people want liver,’ she tells her lunch companions — and understands how to carry out an abortion to maximize the quality of the organs that can be supplied to buyers afterward.

“’We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that,’ says Nucatola, ‘so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.’ She talks about properly trained abortion doctors using ultrasound to ensure that forceps don’t damage organs destined for sale. When she is asked for a ‘price range,’ Nucatola replies: ‘I would say it’s probably anywhere from $30 to $100’ per specimen, depending on the facility.

“Planned Parenthood adamantly insists that it does not traffic in fetal remains. Women who have abortions ‘sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research,’ the organization said in a formal statement, and Planned Parenthood receives ‘no financial benefit’ for facilitating such donations — merely compensation for its ‘actual costs,’ which is legal.

“As a matter of law, Planned Parenthood may be on solid ground. But it isn’t illegality that makes this video so scandalous. It is amorality. It is the nonchalance with which Planned Parenthood’s senior medical director schmoozes, between swigs of wine and forkfuls of salad, about dismembering a healthy unborn child and selling its parts for ‘anywhere from $30 to $100’ apiece. It is the sheer indifference to the enormity of destroying life in the womb and then ‘donating’ the wreckage for money.

“On Tuesday, a second undercover video was released. This one shows Dr. Mary Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood’s medical directors council, haggling over the price for fetal organs. ‘We’re not in it for the money,’ Gatter says; still, the payment ‘has to be big enough that it’s worthwhile for me.’ She settles on $100 a specimen — and says she’ll talk to the abortion doctor about using a ‘less crunchy’ technique to retrieve more intact body parts.”

This scandalous admission reminds us of the nonchalance with which Nazi German officials planned the “final solution” at the infamous conference at Wannsee. The Bible warns that in these last days, the use and sale of organs (“bodies and souls of men”) will dramatically increase (Revelation 18:13).

Adultery Hacked!

CBS News wrote on July 22:

“The hackers who infiltrated AshleyMadison.com, a dating website geared toward people seeking extramarital relationships, have sacrificed their first hostage.

“The attack, reported Monday, collected personal information on 37 million members. The perpetrators demanded that the whole website be taken down or they would release all the names and private data they have…

“For a website like Ashley Madison that prides itself on secrecy and anonymity, a breach like this can be catastrophic. The site’s subscribers presumably felt that their private information was safe — and many even paid extra to have their information scrubbed.

“‘The quick answer is: not that safe,’ Dr. Michael Sulmeyer, the director of the Cyber Security Initiative at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center, told CBS Boston.

“He said Ashley Madison’s clients know now the truth of the web: Everything is hackable.”

The simple answer to situations like these can be found in the Bible; “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14) and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:17).

1 in 5 Ottawa Residents are on Ashley Madison

Global News reported on July 22:

“Ashley Madison, the Toronto-based website created for married people to find new lovers, is popular in Ottawa.

“According to data on AshleyMadison.com, there were more than 55,000 users on the website living in Ottawa in 2013, making it the most infidelity-friendly city in the country.

“The same was true this year when the website gave updated data to the National Post in February as Ottawa topped the list with roughly 189,000 users, or nearly one in five people living in the city. That’s a lot of people who might be worried their information might get leaked after Monday’s highly-publicized hack…”

ISIS Terrorists Sneak Into Europe 

Express wrote on July 22;

“ISIS fanatics have taken advantage of porous borders by travelling from North Africa to Italy on boats packed with refugees, according to terrorism experts.

“Now it is feared that the notorious group, which controls much of Iraq and Syria, could target Europe within months.”

Proposal for Eurozone Government

Bloomberg reported on July 19:

“French President Francois Hollande said that the 19 countries using the euro need their own government complete with a budget and parliament to cooperate better and overcome the Greek crisis. ‘Circumstances are leading us to accelerate,’ Hollande said in an opinion piece published by the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. ‘What threatens us is not too much Europe, but a lack of it.’

“While the euro zone has a common currency, fiscal and economic policies remain mostly in the hands of each member state. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made a plea this week for deeper cooperation between the euro members after political squabbles over Greece almost led to a rupture in the single currency.

“Countries in favor of more integration should move ahead, forming an ‘avant-garde,’ Hollande said…”

International Business Times added on July 19:

“In his proposal, Hollande floated the idea of instituting an elected eurozone parliament ‘to ensure its democratic control.’ The escalating tensions over Greece’s debt have raised questions over the long-term viability of the eurozone project, doubts Hollande hopes a less-removed governance system would dispel. ‘What threatens us is not an excess of Europe but its insufficiency,’ Hollande wrote.

“‘Parliaments remain too far away from decisions,’ Hollande said. ‘And people are turning away after having been bypassed so much.’”

For more information on the future of the Eurozone, please view our StandingWatch program, “Greece in Prophecy.”

Europe the Next Middle East Peacemaker?

Fox News reported on July 20:

“The European Union’s top diplomat is looking for a fresh formula to revive the now moribund peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Federica Mogherini, who chaired negotiations that led to a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, said Monday she’s working on fleshing out an idea for ‘an international support group.’ The group would build on the existing ‘quartet’ of the EU, United States, Russia and the United Nations.

“Right now ‘there seems to be no peace process at all’ between Israel and the Palestinians, Mogherini said.

“She said a new regional and international framework is necessary to foster a more positive environment.

“Mogherini spoke to reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, who said in a statement that leaving the status quo unchanged ‘is not an option.’”

Grexit Off the Table?

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 19:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected the idea of a Greek debt haircut, saying it wouldn’t work in a currency union. At the same time, she has also ruled out forcing Greece to leave the eurozone. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday dismissed the idea of writing off part of Greece’s debt, but she said Berlin was open to a flexible repayment plan…

“On Friday, German MPs voted overwhelmingly to back another financial rescue package, despite being branded senseless by many voters…”

Germany Demands Answers

The Local wrote on July 23:

“Germany said on Wednesday it was ‘demanding answers’ from the United States over fresh allegations of official US espionage, this time against German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Berlin ‘confronted’ Washington with German media reports based on Wikileaks documents indicating that the… NSA… ‘systematically’ spied on Foreign Minister Steinmeier a ministry spokesman said. The spokesman, Martin Schaefer, told reporters that the revelations, ‘if true’, were ‘damaging’ relations between Germany and the United States.

“A high-ranking ministry official, Stefan Steinlein, phoned the US ambassador to Berlin, John Emerson, Tuesday. ‘He confronted him with the accusations and stressed that we expect the necessary clarifications and explanations on this case and all the other cases that remain unresolved,’ Schaefer said [continuing] that during the nearly two-year-long scandal over NSA spying against Germany, information had only emerged ‘bit-by-bit and via media outlet’…

“German-US relations were badly strained after fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed widespread US foreign surveillance, although a probe into the alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was dropped due to lack of proof…”

Seven Disturbing Facts about the Iran Deal

Beitbart wrote on July 17:

“As Iran and President Barack Obama cheer and champion their controversial nuclear deal, critics are roundly condemning the deal as a historic and catastrophic agreement that will strengthen Iran and imperil national security for America and its allies. Here, then, are seven facts about Obama’s proposed Iran nuclear deal Americans should know:

“1. U.S. Nuclear Inspectors Are Banned From Inspecting Iran’s Nuclear Sites. 

“Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice admitted to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that ‘no Americans will be part of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspection teams.’

“The administration’s claim that the deal provides inspections ‘anytime, anywhere’ is also false. Obama’s deal allows Iran to block inspector access to any undeclared nuclear site…

“2. Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal Lifts Economic Sanctions that Could Boost Iran’s Economy with $150 Billion in Revenue.

“As the Washington Post reports, ‘Yet another worry is that the lifting of tough economic sanctions on Iran would provide it with as much as $150 billion in revenue. Some of that money would be spent on infrastructure and the Iranian people. Some of it, critics say, would go to the likes of Hezbollah, Syrian Bashar al-Assad and Iraqi militias that no long ago were killing Americans.’

“3. The Obama Administration Admits That ‘We Should Expect’ Iran Will Spend Some of the $150 Billion in Revenues Obama’s Deal Gives Them On Their Military and Possibly Terrorism.

“In the same interview with Wolf Blitzer, Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice conceded the following: ‘Yes, it is real, it is possible, and, in fact, we should expect that some portion of that money would go to the Iranian military and could potentially be used for the kinds of bad behavior that we have seen in the region up until now.’

“4. On the Very Week Obama Brokered His Iran Nuclear Deal, Large Crowds Across Iran Could Be Heard Chanting ‘Death to America’—And Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Declared ‘Death to America’ Just Months Ago.

“As even the Huffington Post noted… ‘hatred towards the United States remains a basic tenet of Iran’s ruling system, on display just last week during an annual protest day that saw large crowds across Iran chanting ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel.’…

“5. Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal Does Not Require Iran to Release Any American Prisoners…

“6. Obama’s Deal Allows Russia and China to Supply Iran with Weapons.

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed on Tuesday that ‘weapons supplies will be possible’ under the new deal. As the International Business Times reported, ‘Russia and China will continue to make weapons deals with Iran under U.N. procedures.’…

“7. 77 Percent of Americans Oppose Obama’s Lifting of Sanctions Against Iran

“According to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll, 77 percent of Americans believe U.S. sanctions against Iran should be kept the same or increased, not lifted as Obama’s deal calls for…”

Secret Iran Deals?

The Blaze reported on July 22:

“Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) revealed on Tuesday that they were made aware of two secret side deals included in the Iran nuclear deal that will not be shared with Congress or the public.

“The lawmakers reportedly met with the International Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday and were informed that ‘two side deals made between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will remain secret and will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the public,’ according to a press release.

“One of the alleged secret deals involves the ‘inspection of the Parchin military complex,’ and the second ‘details how the IAEA and Iran will resolve outstanding issues on possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program,’ the release added.

“The parties involved in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, including the Obama administration, reportedly agreed to the arrangement. Cotton and Pompeo urged the Obama administration to disclose details of the full Iran deal.”

“Stop Laughing at Donald Trump”

The Washington Post wrote on July 17

“… writing Trump off is dangerous… while establishment candidates in both parties might want to ignore him… an enormous number of voters clearly like his views…

“Republicans especially need to stop laughing…  Trump happily appeals to older, more conservative white baby boomers and seniors… Vilifying them cannot be a lasting political strategy for tomorrow…”

Donald Trump continues to change the political landscape in the presidential race. He is favored by 23% of potential GOP voters.

Rome in Decay

The Telegraph wrote on July 16:

“The Eternal City is facing crisis, with its administration engulfed in corruption scandals and debt, its roads scarred by pot-holes, the main airport partially closed and a growing immigration crisis… ‘Rome is on the verge of collapse,’ Giancarlo Cremonesi, the president of the Rome Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters… Everything has been exacerbated by the effects of Italy’s longest recession since the Second World War, with homeless people on the street and youth unemployment over 40 per cent…

“Along the Tiber River, Romany gipsies have set up shanty villages, their shacks hidden from view by tall thickets of cane grass… A lack of bins mean that locals and visitors alike drop their rubbish on the ground…

“An investigation found that corrupt local politicians had colluded with criminal gangs to cream off money from a range of services, from rubbish collection to the management of refugee facilities. The scandal has been dubbed ‘Mafia Capitale’, and comes amid growing evidence that the city is being infiltrated by organized crime groups. On Wednesday police raided a restaurant close to the Pantheon… on suspicion that it was controlled by the Calabrian mafia…

“The crime syndicate is believed to be laundering more and more of its money through legitimate businesses in Rome, as well as Milan… On main roads out of the city, teenage prostitutes from eastern Europe and west Africa tout for business in miniskirts and high heels – a brutal departure from the romantic image of the capital portrayed by sentimental films such as Eat, Pray, Love or Three Coins in the Fountain…”

Looking for Aliens?

ABC News reported on July 21:

“Stephen Hawking is ready to find aliens.

“The cosmologist is throwing his support behind a $100 million initiative, funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, to begin an extensive search for proof of extraterrestrial life.

“What makes the search different this time, Hawking said at a news conference on Monday, are the extensive resources and access to some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, which may help answer the lingering question of whether we are alone.

“‘Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn to know,’ Hawking said. ‘We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important to us to know if we are alone in the dark.’

“The team behind the project, which is being called Breakthrough Initiatives, has booked time using two of the world’s best telescopes, one in West Virginia, the other in Australia, to beginning scanning the entire Milky Way and neighboring galaxies for radio waves and light sources that could indicate life exists beyond Earth.

“The telescopes are 50 times as sensitive and will cover 10 times as much territory as previous searches, according to Breakthrough Initiatives, giving the group what it believes could be mankind’s best opportunity yet to take a gamble on finding life outside Earth.

“Instead of asking the cosmos if anyone is out there, the project will instead focus on listening…

“’It’s time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth,’ Hawking said. ‘We are alive, we are intelligent, we must know.’”

If one were to believe the Bible and not pride in atheism and agnosticism, then these horrendous amounts of wasted money could be put to a much better use. According to Scripture, GOD created the universe and all life on earth, and there is no hint of any alien lifeforms in the physical realm. For more information, please read our free booklet, “Heavens and Earth…Before and After the First Man!”

There is so much confusion about the definition of a family today where secular society, governments and politicians have made up their own definitions, and so this question is not quite as simple as it might at first seem.

Marriage and the family have been generally accepted for a long time that they are the building blocks on which a stable society is founded.   However, attitudes have changed; the liberal society with its permissiveness has invaded every nook and cranny of society and, instead of looking for inspiration and direction from the Word of God, most countries now find themselves overtaken by secularism.   God is generally excluded from any discussions about right and wrong, with man making up his own definitions.

One UK politician said that a family was any group of people who lived together.   That was something that he thought up without consulting the Holy Bible.   That means that he (and others) would consider that homosexuals living together would be a family, as would be two lesbians. Co-habiting would also fall, erroneously, into that same category.   Any group, however made up, would be a family!   And politicians who make such ridiculous assertions are those who frame our laws!

On the BBC News Channel on 6th November 2007 it had an article “The UK family: In statistics” and quoted the following:

“Families are changing shape and facing up to new lifestyle challenges. The facts and figures below give an idea of what the typical UK family looks like in the early 21st century.

“WHAT IS A ‘TYPICAL’ FAMILY?

“There were 17.1 million families in the UK in 2006 – up from 16.5 million in 1996.  Most were still headed by a married couple (71%), although the proportion of cohabiting couple families had increased to 14%, from 9% 10 years earlier.”

Of course, since that time, laws have been passed to legalise same-sex marriage which is a contradiction in terms.   Marriage as God ordained it is between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:24).

The official site of PruHealth states: “Civil unions are now permitted in Western countries, but for nearly a thousand years marriage in the Western world was a religious contract. The Christian church undertook its supervision in the 9th cent., when newlywed couples instituted the practice of coming to the church door to have their union blessed by the priest. Eventually the church regulated marriage through canon law.”

To shed further light on this issue, one of our Q&A’s asks and answers the question: “Is it a Biblical obligation or merely a Church tradition that God’s ministry officiate during a wedding or burial of Church members?”

Whilst there is much confusion, even argument and debate in society about the definition of a family, the Bible can give us clarity with real clear-cut answers.

The Creator God Who created man in His own image gave a blueprint in His instruction manual for mankind in order to enjoy life and live happily.  The general definition of a family used to be “A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.”   We must further add that those parents should be married as the Bible clearly teaches that “living together” without being married is sin.   There are many verses in the Bible that condemn fornication (see 1 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; and many other references).

It is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman who then have children.   That group is a family.   Of course with the divorce rate so high, a spouse can be left on his or her own to bring up any children from that union.   That of course is still a family.

Those who are reared in a family where Christianity is a strong influence will, in general, tend to be so minded but those who are not brought up in a family with those same core values may very well adopt a secular position.   We know that there are examples where this does not apply but often they would be in a minority.   In Proverbs we read: “Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Parents are to heed the words of Deuteronomy 6:6-9: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.   You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.   You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.   You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In a family environment, parents (or a parent) can teach their children the right way to go and how to follow the ways of God.   We read in Proverbs 13:1: “A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.”   There are many other wise admonitions about family life in the book of Proverbs.

“The Christian Home” is the sub-heading of Colossians 3:18-21, showing the duties and responsibilities of family members, wives, husbands and children: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.   Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.  Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”

One on-line commentator made these observations: “All Christians believe families are important. Many Christians believe that the family is the best place for having, and raising children. They believe God intended the family to be a place where children can be raised in a loving and supportive environment. They also believe parents should raise their children to learn about, and believe in God. The love that family members show to each other, should show how much God loves everyone. Many Christians believe that parents play an important role in showing their children, and non-family members, how much God loves and cares for them.”

The five cardinal sins of Rome—and of all past great nations—are described in Edward Gibbon’s work “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1788). The first of these five reasons was “the increase of divorce and breakdown of the family.”   It happened then and it is happening again now.

We read in Hebrews 2:9-11 the following: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

This passage, written by the apostle Paul, shows that Jesus “is not ashamed to call them brethren.”   This clearly shows that true Christians are of the same family – the God Family.

God is a Family now.   In our free booklet “God is a Family” the following is taken from page 1: “The Bible reveals that God is not just a single being, but is comprised of two separate beings. These two beings are often referred to as the ‘Father’ and the ‘Son,’ illustrating the fact that God is actually a Family. While the Bible reveals that God is, in fact, a Family, it also shows that God is not a trinity. The Holy Spirit is not God, nor is it a separate being within the God Family. It is literally the power of God through which the God Family works.”

If Satan the devil can confuse society as to what a family is, he will be able to hide the fact that Spirit-born members can become part of the God Family.   Revelation 19:7-9 states the following about the marriage between Christ and His Church: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb [Jesus Christ, compare Revelation 5:1-14] has come, and His wife [the Church, compare Ephesians 5:31-32] has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”‘…”   Satan wants to distract and divert those called by God by causing confusion as to how much marriage matters and what a family is.

The last three paragraphs in this booklet are very instructive and read as follows:

“We would like to encourage our readers to read or re-read our free booklet, ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom of God,’ which proves from the Bible that it is indeed the potential of man to enter the kingdom of God—by becoming a member of the Family of God.

“The very last book of the Bible tells us the destiny of those who become born again members, that is, Spirit beings-God beings-in the God Family. We read in Revelation 3:12, ‘He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God.’ They will receive God’s name—they will enter the very Family of God as born again spirit beings. Revelation 22:4 confirms this, ‘They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.’ At that time, they will be truly ‘born again’—and not before then. At that time, they will truly have inherited ‘all things.’

“Yes, God IS a Family—and He wants YOU to truly become a born again member of His Family—His spiritual offspring. This is the reason WHY you were born. Just imagine YOUR awesome potential and destiny-to become, and to be named, GOD!”

The family, as correctly defined, is vital to a healthy society today.   For even more information, please also read our free booklet, “The Keys to Happy Marriages and Families!”

In the future, in the Kingdom of God, all those who are saved and changed from physical into spirit will be a member of the Family of God forever!

For additional information, please see one of our Q&A’s, discussing the “spiritual analogies applying to our relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.”

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

Norbert and Johanna Link, accompanied by Margaret Adair, are travelling to visit brethren in California, Oregon, British Columbia and Colorado. Mr. Link will be presenting a live sermon on this coming Sabbath from Fort Collins, CO.

“Warum Hat König Saul Versagt?” is the title of this week’s German sermon. Title in English: “Why Did King Saul Fail?”

“The Turning Point,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Rene Messier, is now posted. Here is a summary:

There are factors involving the inevitable downfall of America precipitated by the recent Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage.

“Do Dreams Influence Your Life?” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Do dreams come from God? Does God give us secret instructions through dreams, which could be interpreted in different ways? How can we ascertain whether someone has received a dream from God, or whether someone tells false dreams? Is the concentration on dreams often times nothing but superstition? Do we need dreams and signs in order to believe God and obey Him?