Pope Francis Praises Gay Children Book
On August 28, AFP wrote the following:
“Pope Francis has sent his blessing to a lesbian author of children’s books dealing with same-sex families, wishing her and her wife well in their work, it emerged on Friday. As Vatican officials scrambled to clarify that the message was simply a standard courtesy which did not signal any change in Church teaching on the subject, the author told AFP she had been pleasantly surprised to have received such a positive response. Francesca Pardi, who writes and publishes books such as ‘Why you have two mummies’, wrote to Francis in June after the publishing company she runs with her wife came under fire from Christian groups.
“She included examples of her works, some of which have recently been controversially withdrawn from nurseries and primary schools by a new mayor in Venice. ‘My books present different types of families without setting any of them up as a model,’ Pardi told AFP, praising the pope for having responded in a manner that showed ‘respect and dignity’ towards her, her wife and their four children…
“In his message, the pope wished the two women ‘ever more fruitful work in the service of young generations and in spreading authentic human and Christian values.’
“Francis has signaled that he wants the Church to adopt a more pragmatic and understanding approach to the situation of believers living in gay relationships… But proposals to integrate a shift to a more welcoming tone… have been opposed by conservatives. Bishops from around the world will return to the subject at a Vatican synod in October which will seek to find a compromise on that and other divisive issues…
“Pardi and her partner got married in Spain. Italy is the only major western European country that has no provision for same sex couples to have their unions legally recognized. The center-left government has pledged to enact legislation introducing the possibility of civil unions by the end of this year but there are no plans to legalize gay marriage.”
Zenit published the following “retraction” on August 28:
“Once again Pope Francis is being ‘used’ by those in favor of promoting the same-sex lifestyle. The latest case arose this morning following news of a letter sent by an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State to the author of children’s books that promote ‘different family types.’ The Guardian reported the letter with the headline, ‘Pope Francis sends letter praising gay children’s book.’
“What actually happened is that, as customary, the Secretariat of State responded to a letter sent to the Pope… The official reply on the part of the Holy See followed, in which Father Benedettini himself, describing the tones of Prandi’s letter as ‘respectful and educated,’ confirmed a reply letter had been sent, signed by the councillor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, Monsignor Peter Brian Wells. He specified that ‘it was a private answer and, therefore, not destined for publication (something that unfortunately happened).’
“The Vatican spokesman then added that ‘the Pope’s blessing at the end of the letter is to the person and not to eventual teachings not in line with the doctrine of the Church on gender theory, which in no way has changed…”
The pope’s congratulations and blessings do not sound like a “simple courtesy message,” nor is the “clarification” of the Vatican’s spokesman in any way convincing. It is clear that a power struggle between the pope and conservative bishops and Vatican officials is happening in the Catholic Church. It will be interesting to see who will win this war.
Abominable Admission—Judaism Demands Abortion in Certain Cases
The Daily Caller wrote on August 26:
“In recent weeks, presidential candidate Marco Rubio has defended his opposition to abortion in all cases, even to save the life of the mother, by claiming a scientific consensus that life begins at conception. As such, the argument goes, a law protecting the mother’s life over that of her fetus would be criminal.
“He may not know, though, that his position could destroy the lives of some Orthodox Jews like me. Because in our faith tradition, abortion to save the life of the mother is not ‘permitted.’ It is mandatory. Jewish law considers a fetus threatening the mother’s life to be a ‘rodef’ (a pursuer) – similar to a knife-wielding man about to murder someone. Jewish law requires killing a rodef to protect the life of an innocent person.
“Well-respected Modern Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has explained the Jewish approach this way: ‘What determines the “right of life” for the fetus is its potential danger. If it “pursues” the mother, threatening her life, then the fetus must be destroyed.’…
“Now, many liberal Jews discussing American politics have incorrectly proclaimed that ‘Judaism is pro-choice’ because our texts and precedents allow abortion in certain circumstances beyond saving the mother’s life – for example to protect her from grievous emotional harm, and in some opinions when the child has a fatal diagnosis portending a short and painful life. But Jewish law does not require abortion in those other cases; it just allows it…
“But that rule does not apply to mandatory termination of life-threatening pregnancies under Jewish law. If the Rubio policy prevails, some traditional Jews will have excruciating decisions to make – like whether they want to pursue secret and potentially unsafe medical procedures; leave the country; or face jail time for doing something we believe God demands.”
This teaching of Judaism is an abomination. The rationale of comparing an unborn child “who must be destroyed” with “a knife-wielding man about to murder someone” is a horrible outgrowth of an aberrant mind. To suggest that God demands the murder of an unborn child under any condition is blasphemy. To be clear, the position of Marco Rubio on abortion is the ONLY correct position taught in the Bible. Please note the next article.
The Pope’s Mixed Message on Abortion
AFP wrote on September 1:
“Pope Francis on Tuesday called on priests to pardon women who have abortions during the upcoming Jubilee year — overruling hardline traditionalists within the Catholic Church. ‘I have decided, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, to concede to all priests for the Jubilee Year the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness,’ he said.
“In a message outlining special measures for the Jubilee year starting in December, Francis said he knew that while ‘abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness’ many others ‘believe that they have no other option’. The Argentine pontiff said he was ‘well aware of the pressure’ that some women were under to abort, adding that he had ‘met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonising and painful decision’.
“Abortion is considered a particularly serious sin and is punishable under Canon law by excommunication, by which those guilty are expelled from the Church and considered to be condemned to Hell in the afterlife… Catholics for Choice, a US-based pro-choice organization, said this was another positive example of Francis trying to bridge the gulf ‘between what the hierarchy says and what ordinary Catholics really do’. ‘However, despite what Pope Francis has said, I do not believe that Catholic women will be queueing up to ask for forgiveness,’ the organisation’s president Jon O’Brien said in a statement. And limiting the period of forgiveness to one year ‘suggests that he still has a blind spot when it comes to women and what they want.”’…
“In his message, Francis also reached out to the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a break-away super-conservative group which refuses to recognize church reforms and has been accused of being mired in anti-Semitism. Vatican expert John Allen, writing for Crux, said by putting measures which will please both liberals and conservatives alike in the same package, Francis had performed ‘a daring pastoral double play’…”
Apart from the mixed and contradictory messages on abortion with a temporary option of forgiveness for just one year, the concept that those who have aborted their child must go to “hell” is of course totally unbiblical, since such a “hell,” as taught by the Catholic Church, does not exist.
Europe’s Migrant Crisis—Worst Since World War II
The Associated Press wrote on August 29:
“Death and desperation mounted in Europe’s migrant crisis Friday as Austrian police said 71 people appeared to have suffocated in the back of an abandoned truck, while an estimated 200 people were feared drowned off Libya when two overloaded boats capsized. More than 300,000 people have sought to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2015, up from 219,000 in all of last year, as European authorities grapple with the largest influx since World War II…
“The International Office of Migration has recorded 2,636 deaths linked to Mediterranean crossings this year, and more may have vanished beneath the waves out of sight of rescuers.
“Each day, thousands are boarding flimsy boats for Italy or Greece, and many more are placing themselves and their families at the mercy of human traffickers by slogging for days or weeks through the western Balkans toward what they hope will be a brighter future. Most are fleeing war, conflict or persecution in countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea…”
Bad News for Migrants
Breitbart wrote on September 1:
“An Afghan man who tore pages out of the Koran and threw them in a nearby toilet ended up making a decision that almost cost him his life, as an angry Syrian migrant mob reacted by chasing him through the streets of a refugee area in Suhl, Germany, this week. In total, over 17 people were injured during the incident, including six police officers and members of the press, according to reports. It remains unknown if the Koran-desecrating man would have survived had there not been a police presence in the immediate area.
“After the Afghan man ripped up the Koran and discarded its pages in a nearby toilet, dozens of Syrian refugees began to chase the individual who had purportedly ruined their holy book. It took a team of armed guards to stop the rioting men, who then began pelting the policemen and security officers with rocks and steel weapons, local reports stated. ‘The Syrian men, armed with iron rods, bricks and concrete blocks, then they went completely berserk. They smashed doors, windows, police cars chased the journalists and tossed about with furniture and other things,’ read a translated report from DKA.
“The violence has continued into Tuesday, the Daily Mail UK reports. Migrants ‘smashed car windows, ransacked buildings and demolished the walls which divide the shelter in the rampage which lasted several hours,’ the report stated. The refugee camp has taken in approximately 1,700 individuals, which is five hundred over what is supposed to be its maximum capacity, local reports said. In order to try and prevent future hostilities, German officials are planning on dividing migrants by their ethnicity…”
Those incidents, based on religious fanatic behavior, will not help Muslim migrants one bit.
Calls for the Army to “Defend” Borders in Europe
Bloomberg wrote on August 31:
“The Czech Republic should defend its borders, using the army to expel ‘illegal immigrants’ because the European Union isn’t curbing the influx of refugees into the bloc, President Milos Zeman said. Zeman’s comments echoed those of other politicians calling for the EU to take action to stem the flood of people into the region from Syria and other conflict areas as they travel through Greece and the Balkan states to western Europe.
“‘Of course I would wish for the EU to strengthen its borders, but I don’t see any real action,’ Zeman told reporters in Prague castle on Monday. ‘Therefore I believe the Czech Republic should take [care] of its borders alone and expel illegal immigrants from the borders, including with the use of the army.’”
Horrible images of East German soldiers patrolling the Berlin Wall come to mind.
The Terrible Fate of Migrants in Hungary
The New York Times wrote on September 2:
“A ragged metropolis of thousands of weary and bedraggled migrants continued to rise here on Wednesday in the labyrinth of underground passageways outside Keleti train station [in Budapest, Hungary]. The Hungarian authorities, saying they were merely obeying European migration regulations, continued to keep migrants out of the station, despite having allowed thousands onto westbound trains on Monday. At the same time, the desperate migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan — most of them hoping to reach Germany — continued to pour over the Hungarian border from Serbia. The construction of a razor-wire fence seems to have barely slowed them down.
“And so, while European ministers squabbled and prepared for a series of meetings to discuss the crisis, vowing to move toward some sort of common and humane response, the squalid city outside Keleti grew and festered, developing new suburbs by the hour…
“Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been seeking refuge in Europe, only to find themselves confronted with a patchwork of incoherent asylum policies across the 28-member European Union. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment, stoked by far-right political parties, is fostering a backlash in some countries, including Britain, France and Hungary, where those parties have influenced the political agenda…
“Many of the migrants had valid tickets to board trains to the West, bought in a mad rush on Monday evening and Tuesday morning after the Hungarian authorities allowed some migrants to leave. But because they could not get inside the station, they could not board their trains. And because the tickets were nonrefundable, they watched as more of their precious resources evaporated into the muggy air…
“Outside Hungary’s Parliament building, several thousand people marched Wednesday evening to protest the government’s treatment of the migrants….”
Deutsche Welle added on September 2:
“After the initial joy of arriving in Europe, it becomes clear to most of the refugees in Budapest that they’re trapped at the train station. Police are watching over an increasingly disgruntled crowd of thousands… Right now, it’s a trap with no way out.
“The people here want one thing: To go to Germany. The joy they felt at arriving in the EU has evaporated. When asked what the worst part of his journey so far has been – the war zone, the sea, or the scorching heat in the Balkans – one of the men answers quickly: ‘This here.'”
It’s Getting Ugly in Hungary
Reuters wrote on September 3:
“Hungarian police halted a train packed with migrants bound for the Austrian border and tried to force them to disembark in a town with a detention camp on Thursday, a confrontation that has become a focus of Europe’s migration crisis.
“After shutting migrants out of the main train station in the capital Budapest for two days, authorities allowed exhausted and confused migrants to board a westbound train. Hundreds crammed aboard clinging to doors and squeezing their children through open carriage windows.
“But instead of proceeding to the Austrian border, the train was stopped just west of Budapest in the town of Bicske, where Hungary has a migration reception center, and police ordered the migrants off. Police cleared one carriage, while five more stood at the station in the heat. Fearing detention, some migrants banged on windows chanting ‘No camp! No camp!’
“One group pushed back dozens of riot police guarding a stairwell to fight their way back on board. One family – a man, his wife and their toddler – made their way along the track next to the train and lay down in protest. It took a dozen riot police wrestling with the man to get them up again…
“European public opinion was galvanized by images of a drowned three-year-old Syrian boy face down in the surf on a Turkish beach which appeared on the front pages of newspapers across the continent on Thursday…
“The influx has strained the European Union’s asylum system to breaking point, sowing division among its 28 nations and feeding the rise of right-wing populists.
“The major EU countries have taken sharply opposing positions on whether to offer welcome. Germany plans to receive 800,000 refugees this year, while Britain has set up a program to allow in vulnerable Syrians that has admitted just 216… Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday the problem could not be solved by Britain taking more refugees…
“Prime Minister Viktor Orban [of Hungary], in Brussels for talks with other EU leaders, said Europeans were ‘full of fear because they see that the European leaders … are not able to control the situation.’ In an opinion piece for Germany’s Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, he wrote that his country was being ‘overrun’ with refugees, most of which, he noted, were Muslims, not Christians. ‘That is an important question, because Europe and European culture have Christian roots,’ he said…”
EU’s 30-Year-Old Schengen Agreement Under Attack
The Telegraph wrote on August 31:
“The German Chancellor says for the first time that the Schengen zone, which allows passport-free travel across mainland Europe, cannot continue in its current form unless other EU countries accept their share of migrants. The European Union could be forced to bring back border controls in the wake of the migrant crisis, Angela Merkel said last night…
“Her comments echo those made by Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, who also raised the prospect of border controls earlier this month. And they signal that European leaders are beginning to question whether the EU can continue to exist with open borders as it struggles to cope with the hundreds of thousands of migrants coming into the continent from Africa and the Middle East.
“Her comments came as Austria imposed tough new controls along its eastern border with Hungary on Monday… Mrs Merkel’s decision to raise the prospect of border controls could benefit David Cameron’s attempts to reform the European Union as it would require major treaty change.”
Smugglers Capitalize on Desperate Condition of Migrants
The Daily Mail reported on August 28:
“[There is] a growing number of Facebook pages which offer to smuggle desperate Syrians and Iraqis to mainland Europe for thousands of pounds. The traffickers are seeking to cash in on the thousands of middle-class families who are willing to risk their life savings on the promise of a ‘safe’ passage… Thousands have died crossing the Mediterranean in unseaworthy craft this year, meaning the traffickers are now playing on families’ fears by offering expensive package deals…
“One Facebook page, titled ‘Safe Journey from Turkey to Greece’, tells its would-be clients they will board a 130ft yacht in the Turkish port of Izmir. It carries a picture of the gleaming white Orient Bosphorus, its upper deck strung with fairy lights. Passengers pay a hefty £2,500 per ticket but are told it is ‘forbidden’ to bring any luggage or to wear headscarves because they must look like Western tourists… The men behind the Facebook page, who do not give their names, insist their boats are ‘100 per cent safe’ and suggest their customers carry digital cameras and laptops to help them look like tourists and evade capture. For those who do not want to risk a sea crossing, the site also offered a two-day route to Austria via lorry for £5,500 per person. In reality, both routes could be deadly, as shown by the grim discovery of 71 migrants’ bodies in a lorry in Austria this week.
“And in fact the ‘safe’ five-star yacht pictured on the site is also an illusion. When the Daily Mail contacted the operators of the Orient Bosphorus, they said it was used only for romantic river cruises along the Bosphorus in Istanbul, and never went to Izmir, let alone across the Mediterranean… For Syrians travelling without valid documents, various shady companies offered passports for sale, with prices starting at £650. Visas for European countries can cost thousands.”
This is an example of human nature at its worst.
The Late Curse of the Balkan War
Der Spiegel Online wrote on August 29:
“More than a third of all asylum-seekers arriving in Germany come from Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. Young, poor and disillusioned with their home countries, they are searching for a better future. But almost none of them will be allowed to stay…
“30,000 Kosovars… have applied for asylum in Germany since the beginning of the year… the country has [also] seen [this year] the arrival of 5,514 Macedonians, 11,642 Serbians, 29,353 Albanians and 2,425 Montenegrins. Of the 196,000 people who had filed an initial application for asylum in Germany by the end of July, 42 percent are from the former Yugoslavia, a region now known as the Western Balkans.
“The exodus shows the wounds of the Balkan wars have not yet healed. Slovenia and Croatia are now members of the European Union, but Kosovo, which split from Serbia and became prematurely independent in 2008, carves out a pariah existence. Serbia is heavily burdened with the unresolved Kosovo question. The political system in Bosnia-Hercegovina is on the brink of collapse, 20 years after the end of the war there. And Macedonia, long the post-Yugoslavia model nation, has spent two decades in the waiting rooms of the EU and NATO, thanks to Greek pressure in response to a dispute over the country’s name. The consequences are many: a lack of investment, failing social welfare systems, corruption, organized crime, high unemployment, poverty, frustration and rage.
“… close to two-thirds of 14-to-29-year-olds want to leave Albania, as do more than half of those in the same age group from Kosovo and Macedonia. They have lost all confidence in their young democracies, and they dream of a better life. They apply for asylum in Europe because that is the only way to obtain a residence permit. But almost all applications are ultimately denied… One of the topics of discussion at the next asylum summit in Berlin on Sept. 9 will be whether Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo should be added to the list of ‘safe countries of origin’ along with Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina [This would mean, asylum seekers from those countries would be denied as well].
“And there are, indeed, hardly any reasons to grant asylum to migrants from the Balkans. Even human rights organizations have few objections to classifying these countries as ‘safe,’ with the exceptions that apply to minorities like the Sinti and Roma, as well as homosexuals… After Syrians and Kosovars, Albanians have become the third-largest group of asylum seekers in Germany… Albania became a candidate for EU accession a year ago, but it is also a country where human trafficking and organized crime are rampant… Albania is also the poorest of… 37 European countries…
“Belgrade has become a transit hub for tens of thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Iranians who are flowing into northern Europe via Turkey and Greece. The EU, their dream destination, is located just 200 kilometers from the Serbian capital and around 2,500 refugees arrive in Serbia every day. And so many refugees are arriving in neighboring Macedonia that the government declared a state of emergency last Friday…
“On Thursday, the Western Balkan Conference is set to begin. Ironically, the meeting will be held inside Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, the heart of the former Habsburg Empire. The countries touching the empire’s former external borders still haven’t found lasting peace even 100 years after it unraveled…”
The curse of war does not only apply to the senseless killing of thousands, if not millions of people, but also to the related problems of innocent refugees and migrants who are driven away from their homeland due to the fighting and barbarous acts of “friends” and enemies alike… See the next article.
The Curse of the Syrian War
The Washington Post wrote on August 29:
“While the world’s attention is fixed on the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees swarming into Europe, a potentially far more profound crisis is unfolding in the countries of the Middle East that have borne the brunt of the world’s failure to resolve the Syrian war. Those reaching Europe represent a small percentage of the 4 million Syrians who have fled into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, making Syria the biggest single source of refugees in the world and the worst humanitarian emergency in more than four decades.
“As the fighting grinds into a fifth year… [the] conflict has left at least 250,000 people dead in the strategic heart of the Middle East and displaced more than 11 million overall, yet there is still no peace process, no discernible solution and no end in sight. Now, the humanitarian effort is failing, too…
“Syrians accounted for the largest percentage of asylum-seekers in Europe over the past two years, and their numbers are growing fast — 63 percent of the 160,000 people who have washed up in Greece so far this year were Syrian. But Europe is an option available only to refugees with the means to pay the $5,000 or $6,000 fee demanded by smugglers…”
“ISIS Growing Like Crazy”
Newsmax reported on August 30:
“September marks the first anniversary of the U.S. war against the Islamic State group (ISIS), but American efforts are showing little success, NBC News reported on Sunday. Turkey’s recent permission for airstrikes and drone missions to be based there was ‘a huge tactical gain,’ NBC’s Richard Engel reported… but added, ‘ISIS doesn’t seem to be shrinking.’ Engel quoted one U.S. official as saying the terror group’s international branches are ‘growing like crazy,’ spreading [across] North and West Africa, Arabia, Afghanistan and into the Far East.
“‘ISIS has expanded far more quickly and extensively than Al Qaeda ever did,’ Engel said… The current [U.S.] strategy is based on three pillars, ‘and they’re all shaky,’ Engel said. Retraining of the Iraqi army has been slow, and Iran often calls the shots, he said. Only a few Syrian rebels have been trained, and many have been kidnapped already. The airstrikes have been successful in killing ISIS leaders and fighters, but they all are quickly replaced.”
ISIS Destroys Temples Dedicated to Baal
AFP wrote on August 31:
“Satellite images confirm the destruction of another famed temple in Syria’s Palmyra, the United Nations said late Monday. ‘We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity,’ the UN training and research agency UNITAR said, providing satellite images from before and after a powerful blast in the ruins of the ancient city Sunday… UNITAR said its satellite program put to rest any doubts that the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel had been destroyed in the blast… IS already destroyed the smaller Baal Shamin temple at Palmyra last week… UNITAR on Friday also presented satellite images confirming the destruction of the Baal Shamin temple, which the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO called a ‘war crime’… [Baal Shamin was dedicated to the Phoenician god of storms and fertilizing rains]…
“The jihadists have carried out a sustained campaign of destruction against heritage sites in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq, and in mid-August beheaded the 82-year-old former antiquities chief in Palmyra. The extremist group’s interpretation of Islam considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous, but it has also been accused of destroying heritage sites to loot items for the black market and to gain publicity.
“Known as the ‘Pearl of the Desert’, Palmyra, which means City of Palms, lies 210 kilometres (130 miles) northeast of Damascus. Before the Syrian conflict erupted 2011, more than 150,000 tourists visited Palmyra every year. Before the arrival of Christianity in the second century, Palmyra worshipped the Semitic god Bel, along with the sun god Yarhibol and lunar god Aglibol… Construction on the temple began in 32 BC and ended in the second century, and it later served as both a church and a mosque.”
Daily Mail Online added on August 31:
“Constructed in 32AD, the temple [of Bel] was dedicated to gods worshipped by the Semites – a group of different cultures in the Ancient Middle East including Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs. It stood on an artificial hill which dates back more than 2,200 years and lavish carvings of the then-known seven planets, zodiac signs and Makkabel the fertility god adorn the monolithic ceiling of its northern chamber… ISIS also destroyed the treasured Lion of al-Lat – the 15-tonne, 3.5m-high piece made out of limestone early in the 1st Century AD. The lion was considered the ancient consort of al-Lat, the goddess of the underworld who abhorred violence…”
Old Testament Israel and Judah were involved in Baal worship for which God strongly condemned them. Baal was a sun god, and today, those who worship God on Sunday, instead on the biblically-commanded Sabbath, are following Gentiles who did worship Baal and other pagan gods on Sunday. God tells us, however, that we must not attempt to worship Him in this way (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).
ISIS to Conquer Rome?
Express wrote on August 30:
“ISIS… was founded on the belief that all civilisations will crumble in an imminent apocalypse, with their wild theory also identifying four likely locations for a battle they claim will bring about the end of the world. Three of those sites exist in the Middle East, including two in Syria and one in Israel. But the fanatics have also pinpointed Italy’s capital Rome as the site of another great clash between their soldiers and the West. ‘The Muslim armies are supposed to take over Rome, and eventually they are supposed to take over the whole world,’ explained William McCants, a US expert on jihadism, who has written a new book on the ISIS obsession with the apocalypse…
“Jihadists believe the Prophet Muhammed is said to have remarked that ‘the last hour will not come; until an army vanquishes the Romans at ‘Dabiq or Al-A’maq’. [Dabiq is a tiny town in northern Syria]. Also highlighted as a potential flashpoint is a town just outside the Syrian capital Damascus, while Jerusalem in Israel also gets a mention as the potential epicentre of an apocalyptic clash. But most worrying to those in the West is the suggestion that Rome could also be targeted… The group has threatened to bring in Sharia law in the city… There have also been threats made against the Pope, whose official residence is in the Vatican City…
“According to their theory, ‘nations gathering under 80 flags will confront the Muslim armies’. For many jihadists, the alliance of Western and other powers against ISIS in bombing raids over Iraq and Syria is seen as the fulfilment of that prophecy… to date, more than 60 nations have committed to fight against the terror network. It means that were a handful more countries to join the growing anti-ISIS alliance, jihadists could act on their terrifying prediction.”
Because of such perceived threats, some have concluded that ISIS is the king of the South, mentioned in the book of Daniel, pushing against Europe (identified as the king of the North). Others have claimed that ISIS or some other Muslim groups will produce the “Antichrist.” None of that is biblical.
However, we do read that Rome will ultimately be destroyed by the modern “Medes” (Ukrainians and Russians), leading an alliance of several military nations from the Far East (the “kings of the East” in biblical terms), and it appears that Iran, for example, will be part of that alliance. Other Muslim countries may be too.
For further information, please read our free booklets, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy” and “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.”
The Ice War
Fox News wrote on September 2:
“President Obama announced Tuesday he would speed up the acquisition of icebreakers to help the U.S. Coast Guard navigate an area that Russia and China increasingly see as a new frontier. The announcement is the latest power play in the Arctic north… Forty percent of the world’s oil and natural gas reserves lie under the Arctic… Russia wants to establish a kind of Suez Canal which it controls. More than a Cold War, Russia may be preparing for an Ice War, and the Pentagon is taking note.
“Last March, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a snap, full combat military exercise in Russia’s Arctic north to mark the anniversary of his annexation of Crimea — with 40,000 Russian troops, dozens of warships and submarines… Russia has reestablished Soviet-era military bases across the Arctic and begun building a string of search-and-rescue stations along its Arctic shores. In April, Russia’s economic minister explained the importance. ‘For us, the Arctic is mineral resources, transportation, and one also should not forget about fish and sea products, and bio-resources. The potential here is enormous,’ Alexey Ulyukaev said.
“Meanwhile, the U.S. only has two functioning icebreakers. Russia has 41, with plans to build 11 more… Meanwhile, the U.S. Army, facing budget cuts, plans to pull out 3,000 troops from Alaska, in what some say is poor timing as the U.S. plays catch-up to Russia in the Arctic.”
The USA is on the losing side of this battle as well.
What DOES the US Constitution Say about Birthright Citizenship?
The Huffington Post wrote on August 28:
“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Friday that he is open to changing the United States’ birthright citizenship policy… During an interview, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the Republican presidential hopeful about the current debate over the 14th Amendment which grants American citizenship to any individual born on U.S. soil… Marco Rubio said he wouldn’t support a law to abrogate birthright citizenship…
“Huckabee questioned the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which reads, ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.’…
“Debate over the 14th Amendment came to the forefront of the GOP primary after Donald Trump called for an end to birthright citizenship earlier this month… Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, like Huckabee, has addressed ‘birth tourism,” particularly in the cases of Chinese women who pay to come to the United States to give birth so their children can grow up as American citizens…”
Breitbart wrote on August 19:
“Talk radio host and author of ‘Plunder and Deceit,’ Mark Levin said that the 14th Amendment does not require birthright citizenship… Host Sean Hannity stated, ‘Rand Paul was right on this, Trump was right on this, Cruz is right on this, Walker’s right on this.’ He then put up a quotation from Citizenship Clause author Senator Jacob Howard (R-MI) during the debate on the 14th Amendment that ‘Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction is, by virtue of natural law and national law, a citizen of the [United States]. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers, accredited to the government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.’
“Levin said that people are getting the clause wrong, ‘Because they’re result-oriented. Because they want to insist the Constitution says what it doesn’t say. Moreover, the Supreme Court has never ruled that the children of illegal aliens are American citizens… The clause speaks for itself, the author of the clause made it abundantly, unequivocally clear, let’s add another thing, let’s read the clause together, shall we? “All persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Let’s stop there. If it means what the proponents of birthright citizenship say, it would stop right there. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens… Then it says, and, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
“Now, you have slip and fall lawyers, some phony constitutional lawyers, they have “Esquire” after their name, they come on TV, they go all over the place [and say:] “Jurisdiction means geography.” Jurisdiction has nothing to do with geography. Zero. It [has] to do with political allegiance to the United States of America. How do we know it? Because they said it. And they also excluded everybody that the left, and some of the Republicans want to include.
“‘Now… there’s another part of the Constitution. It’s Article I, Section 8, Clause 4. Here’s what that says, in plain English. “The Congress shall have power to… establish a uniform rule of naturalization.” Now, you know what that means, that means Congress, not the courts, not the president, not ICE, it means the United States Congress has the power to regulate immigration in this regard… in the 1920s, that’s exactly what it did. The 14th Amendment excludes Indians, that is Native Americans, as US citizens, because they felt that they had allegiance to their own national tribes… I believe it was in 1923, Congress reversed course, and said, “… Under the 14th Amendment and under this Article I, we’ve decided to grant citizenship, national citizenship to all Native Americans.’”
Other scholars and legal experts would of course disagree with Levin’s interpretation of the 14h Amendment.
Mass Deportations Coming?
The Associated Press reported on August 30:
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for mass deportation of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, as well as their American-born children, bears similarities to a large-scale removal that many Mexican-American families faced 85 years ago. During the Great Depression, counties and cities in the American Southwest and Midwest forced Mexican immigrants and their families to leave the U.S. over concerns they were taking jobs away from whites despite their legal right to stay. The result: Around 500,000 to 1 million Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were pushed out of the country during the 1930s repatriation, as the removal is sometimes called.
“During that time, immigrants were rounded up and sent to Mexico, sometimes in public places and often without formal proceedings. Others, scared under the threat of violence, left voluntarily. About 60 percent of those who left were American citizens, according to various studies on the 1930s repatriation. Later testimonies show families lost most of their possessions and some family members died trying to return. Neighborhoods in cities such as Houston, San Antonio and Los Angeles became empty…”
A repeat of such a terrible development in the 1930s, as described above, would indeed be an appalling injustice and totally inhumane. However, Trump’s claims so far do not advocate such measures.
Politics Getting Really Ugly
Breitbart wrote on August 28:
“A day after Hillary Clinton compared GOP candidates to terrorists, she has suggested an opponent’s plan to deport illegal immigrants is reminiscent of the Nazis. At a press conference Friday in Minneapolis, Hillary [said]: ‘I find it the height of irony that a party which espouses small government would want to unleash a massive law enforcement effort– including perhaps National Guard and others–to go and literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces’… Then she added an image which evoked the Nazis: ‘Round them up, put them, I don’t know, in buses… boxcars, in order to take them across our border.’
“The picture Clinton paints of placing people in boxcars is a potent one because, during World War II, Jews were forced into boxcars and transported to Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s final solution. Clinton’s choice of the words appears extemporaneous but not accidental. She mentions buses then pauses and adds ‘boxcars,’ rather than simply saying ‘trains.’…
“The ‘boxcars’ statement comes just one day after Clinton made another controversial attack on her Republican rivals. At a speech in Cleveland Clinton compared Republicans to terrorists, saying, ‘Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.’ Clinton’s terrorism comparison was widely reported, though some observers wondered why it didn’t get even more media attention, given how extreme her statement was.
“Allison Moore, national press secretary for the RNC, put out a statement blasting Clinton’s remarks: ‘Not 24 hours removed from calling Republicans terrorists, Hillary Clinton reached a new low today hurling Holocaust references at her political opponents,’ she said. ‘Hillary Clinton may be getting desperate over her sinking poll numbers and growing email scandal, but that’s no excuse for this kind of inflammatory and extreme rhetoric.’
“In July, GOP candidate Mick Huckabee used a Holocaust reference during a radio interview with Breitbart News’ Alex Marlow on Sirius XM Patriot. Speaking of President Obama’s Iran deal, Huckabee said, ‘he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.’ For making this reference, Huckabee was widely criticized in the media. He said later that ‘maybe the metaphor is not a good one.’”
On the other hand, some Republicans have referred to Hillary Clinton as a “criminal” who committed a “crime,” referring to her ongoing E-mail scandal. It was reported that “more than 3-in-5 voters, 61 percent, think Clinton isn’t honest and trustworthy. Overall, more than a third of poll respondents said their first thought about Clinton was some version of: She’s a liar” (Politico, August 27). But maybe politicians (who influence the public by what they say) should think—and think again and again—before they talk. However, who would expect them to do this?
“Dow Posts Worst August Decline in 17 Years”
Market Watch reported on August 31:
“The month of August can be pretty rough for stock investors. But this August has earned its place in the record books, as stocks were unsettled by uncertainty over the state of affairs in the world’s second largest economy, China. As far as Augusts go, this has been the worst in nearly two decades (since 1998) for the Dow Jones Industrial Average…
“Overall it was the sixth worst monthly performance for the Dow and the worst since May 2010.”
High School Students Take a Stand against Crazy Rules
CBS reported on September 2:
“Over 150 Missouri high school students voiced their displeasure about a transgender teen using the girls’ locker room by walking out of class. Students at Hillsboro High School staged a two-hour walkout Monday over 17-year-old Lila Perry, a student who has identified as a female since she was 13, using the girls’ locker room during gym class.
“The school offered Perry a gender-neutral bathroom, which she turned down… Family members of high school students were also holding a protest… Lila has dropped out of gym class for safety concerns, but she still plans on using the girl’s bathroom.”
The left-liberal propaganda in this country knows no limits and bounds, imposing their agenda on others. While claiming to uphold the rights of “minorities,” they are willing to violate the rights of others. We applaud the high school girls for making their concerns known.
US Supreme Court Upholds Another Controversial Decision regarding Same-Sex Marriage
Bloomberg wrote on August 31:
“A Kentucky county clerk must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected contentions that she is being forced to violate her religious convictions. The justices, without explanation, refused to lift a lower court order requiring Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to resume distributing marriage licenses. She stopped issuing any licenses — and defied an order from the state’s governor — after the Supreme Court ruled in June that gay marriage is a constitutional right.
“The emergency appeal marked an early test of how the Supreme Court will handle religious objections to gay marriage in the aftermath of the landmark June 26 ruling. Davis, an elected official in the northeastern Kentucky county, has become a flashpoint in that debate. She now could face contempt charges if she doesn’t comply with U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning’s order. In addition, the state attorney general’s office has received a request that Davis be prosecuted.
“Davis, who describes herself as a devout Christian, says it would violate her conscience to approve a marriage license to a same-sex couple. She has also barred her deputies from issuing licenses because the documents would bear her name. Davis argued that… [the] Supreme Court’s cases ‘do not create a fundamental right to receive a marriage license from a particular person’… In rejecting those arguments, Bunning said Davis isn’t being asked to condone same-sex marriage. ‘Her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County clerk,’ the judge wrote.”
Following the decision of the US Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, this new case is further testimony of a country having completely lost its course. As feared, now decisions are made AGAINST those who want to live by the standards of the Bible. Religious persecution in the USA is continuing dramatically. A legal opinion compelling someone to follow rules which did not exist when the person took an oath is very troublesome. It was that kind of reasoning which many Germans adopted when following orders of the Nazi regime, and many soldiers continued fighting for Hitler because they had initially taken an oath to follow their Fuehrer (which, of course, they should have never done).
The next article is even more appalling… and should send a warning message to all who believe in religious freedom.
In Contempt of Court
Newsmax wrote on September 3:
“A Kentucky county clerk was jailed on Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and a full day of court hearings failed to put an end to her two-month-old legal fight over a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding same-sex marriage.
“U.S. District Judge David Bunning found Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in contempt then elicited a pledge from five of her six deputies to issue the licenses. But attorneys for Davis said she would deny them that authority, raising questions about the validity of any licenses they might issue…
“Bunning warned the deputies they would be back in court if they refused to resume issuing licenses on Friday…
“Davis’ jailing drew instant criticism from her supporters with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee tweeting, ‘Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity in this country.’
“Christian lobbying group Family Research Council said religious freedom in the United States was under attack. It urged Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to call for a special session of the state legislature to alter the law to accommodate clerks like Davis. In a statement the governor said a special session was unnecessary and too costly…
“Davis told Fox News earlier she was ready to go to jail for her beliefs. ‘I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to go to jail,’ she told Fox in an interview published on Thursday. ‘This has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. This is about upholding the word of God..’ Apostolic Christian beliefs are rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible…”
Religious liberties and freedoms are “criminalized” in this country, as Mike Huckabee put it. What will be next? Will maverick judges hold US citizens in contempt and jail them because they are opposed to fulfilling their “civil duty” of serving as jurors, based on the clear instructions of the Bible prohibiting the same? Will conscientious objectors be incarcerated in case of the institution of the draft because religious beliefs mean nothing anymore in the USA—a country which was founded on the principles of religious liberty and freedom?
