Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A WAR THE PENTAGON CAN'T WIN

Op-Ed Contributor

A War the Pentagon Can’t Win

By DANIEL BENJAMIN and STEVEN SIMON
Published: July 24, 2007

AS the National Intelligence Estimate issued last week confirms, a terrorist haven has emerged in Pakistan’s tribal belt. And as recent revelations about an aborted 2005 operation in the region demonstrate, our Defense Department is chronically unable to conduct the sort of missions that would disrupt terrorist activity there and in similarly ungoverned places.

These are perhaps the most important kind of counterterrorism missions. Because the Pentagon has shown that it cannot carry them out, the Central Intelligence Agency should be given the chance to perform them.

The story of the scrubbed 2005 operation illustrates why the Pentagon is incapable of doing what needs to be done. The preparations for the mission to capture or kill Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, appear to have unfolded like others before it. Intelligence was received about a high-level Qaeda meeting. A small snatch or kill operation was to be carried out by Special Operations. But military brass added large numbers of troops to conduct additional intelligence, force protection, communications and extraction work.

At that point, as one senior intelligence official told this newspaper, “The whole thing turned into the invasion of Pakistan,” and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pulled the plug.

To those of us who worked in counterterrorism in the 1990s, this sequence of events feels like the movie “Groundhog Day.” Similar decision-making led to the failure to mount critical operations on at least three occasions during the Clinton administration. The most notable was the effort to get the Pentagon to conduct a ground operation against the Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan beginning in late 1998.

The Clinton White House repeatedly requested options involving ground forces that could hunt and destroy terrorists in Afghanistan. Repeatedly, senior military officials declared such a mission “would be Desert One,” referring to the disastrous 1980 effort to free American hostages in Iran. When the Pentagon finally delivered a plan, the deployment envisioned would have been sufficient to take and hold Kabul but not to surprise and pin down a handful of terrorists.

But the Zawahri stand-down is even more telling. It occurred four years into the global war on terrorism, when the basic questions about the nature of the Qaeda threat had been settled and the nation, in the oft-intoned phrase of the Bush administration, was said to be always “on the offensive.” Moreover, it happened on the watch of Donald Rumsfeld, the most dominating secretary of defense in memory, who overruled military planners routinely as he micromanaged the deployment to Iraq. Perhaps his attention was focused on the growing mess in that country, but even Mr. Rumsfeld, who viewed special forces as the keystone of a transformed 21st-century American military, could not keep on track a mission that would have stunned Al Qaeda.

Highly mobile, highly lethal counterterrorism operations are clearly possible. Israel scored victories with raids in Entebbe, Uganda; Tunis; and Beirut, Lebanon, in the 1970s and 1980s. Other countries, like Germany, have carried out similar operations, like the Mogadishu raid of 1977 that freed passengers on a Lufthansa plane hijacked to Somalia by the Baader-Meinhof gang. An operation in Pakistan’s tribal areas — setting aside the issue of whether this could politically upend President Pervez Musharraf — would be extremely difficult. But it is hard to believe it is impossible.

Since the Desert One debacle, the United States has poured vast resources into its special forces. The Special Operations Command budget has nearly doubled since 2001, and it is expected to grow 150 percent over five years. The command includes more than 50,000 troops, the equivalent of three or four infantry divisions. The best of them — Delta Force and the Navy Seals — have developed into highly skilled unconventional forces.

Yet fear of failure and casualties has meant they are seldom, if ever, deployed for such counterterrorism operations. In theory, the best place in the government for small-scale missions to be planned and executed is the Pentagon, because snatch or kill teams should be plugged into a larger military support team. The reality, unfortunately, is that they can’t be plugged in without being bogged down.

Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Steven Simon, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, were members of the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1999.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/opinion/24benjamin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

EVANGELICAL MISGUIDED SUPPORT OF ISRAEL

Evangelical Christians are becoming militant in their misguided support of this current Illuminati government in Israel today.


NEWS BRIEF: "Evangelicals increase anti-Iran rhetoric", YNET News, 7.23.07

"The American Christian Evangelical movement, acting in the name of tens of millions of followers, has begun lobbying the American government to abandon its 'Chamberlain approach' to the Iranian threat to Israel ... Evangelical leaders had taken a decision to pressure the US government to adopt a more aggressive policy towards Iran. 'I just came back from Washington DC, where there were 4,000 Christian delegates from every state in America, and we were lobbying our government on behalf of Israel and on behalf of the future of western civilization as we know it. Yes, the Evangelical Church in the US and around the world is completely standing with Israel and the Jewish people', Stearns declared."

While I am fervently pro-Israel, I am not in support of this current government, whose leadership since May, 1948, has been decidedly Illuminist. You can easily see the truth of which I speak by just glancing at the Israeli flag; the dominant symbol is a Satanic hexagram! Yes, it is called a "Star of David", because King Solomon adopted it as a main symbol when he was building pagan temples for some of his pagan wives. Former Satanists adamantly state that King Solomon actually became one of the most powerful Shamans in world history, having slipped deeply into the practice of the occult.

Well-meaning Christians today are allowing themselves to be duped into supporting Israel today, because they do not know the information I have just shared with you above. Neither have they stopped to think that this current Israeli leadership is planning to build the next Temple - which too Christians have supported - which is going to be the Temple of Antichrist.

Israel is proceeding to complete fulfillment of prophecy, which will culminate in the Masonic Christ (Antichrist) coming to the world scene, deceiving Israel and then being slaughtered in fulfillment of Zechariah 13:8-9, where God will allow Antichrist to kill 66% of all Jews. This is the point where all these Illuminati Jews will meet their Maker.

Then, Israel will be composed only of the Christian remnant whom God has preserved. When Jesus returns, He will return to a Christian Israel. THAT is the Israel upon which I have my eye and my affections. THAT is the Israel for which Evangelical Christians ought to be praying. This Petra DVD, above, tells the story of how God is preparing Petra to be His hiding place for the one-third remnant which God is going to divinely protect.
P.S. Not all the opinions expressed on this article are scripturally accurate.

Monday, July 23, 2007

WATCH FOR ANOTHER 911

My wake-up call: Watch for another 9/11-WMD experience
By Paul Craig Roberts
Online Journal Guest Writer


Jul 20, 2007, 01:02

This is a wake-up call that we are about to experience another 9/11-WMD experience.


The wake-up call is unlikely to be effective, because the American attitude toward government changed fundamentally 70-odd years ago. Prior to the 1930s, Americans were suspicious of government, but with the arrival of the Great Depression, Tojo, and Hitler, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Americans that government existed to protect them from rapacious private interests and foreign threats. Today, Americans are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to government than they are to family members, friends, and those who would warn them about the government’s protection.


Intelligent observers are puzzled that President Bush is persisting in a futile and unpopular war at the obvious expense of his party’s electoral chances in 2008.


In the July 18 Los Angeles Times (“Bush the Albatross”), Ronald Brownstein reminds us that Bush’s behavior is disastrous for his political party. Unpopular presidents “have consistently undercut their party in the next election.” Brownstein reports that “88 percent of voters who disapproved of the retiring president’s job performance voted against his party’s nominee in past elections. . . . On average, 80 percent of voters who disapproved of a president’s performance have voted against his party’s candidates even in House races since 1986.”


Brownstein notes that with Bush’s dismal approval rating, this implies a total wipeout of the Republicans in 2008.


A number of pundits have concluded that the reason the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies is that they expect Bush’s unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory next year.


There is a problem with this reasoning. It assumes that Cheney, Rove, and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts or are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his warmonger-police state fling. After me, the deluge.”


Isn’t it more likely that Cheney and Rove have in mind events that will, once again, rally the people behind President Bush and the Republican Party, that is fighting the “war on terror” that the Democrats “want to lose”?


Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran.


If Bush’s intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three carrier strike forces.


Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran.


Alternatively, false flag “terrorist” strikes could be orchestrated in the US. The Bush administration has already infiltrated some dissident groups and encouraged them to participate in terrorist talk, for which they were arrested. It is possible that the administration could provoke some groups to actual acts of violence.


Many Americans dismiss suspicion of their government as treasonous, and most believe conspiracy to be impossible “because someone would talk.”


There is no basis in any known fact for this opinion.


According to polls, 36 percent of the American people disbelieve the 9/11 Commission Report. Despite this lack of confidence, and despite the numerous omissions and errors in the report, it has proven impossible to have an independent investigation of 9/11 or to examine the official explanation in public debate. Even experts and people with a lifetime of distinguished public service are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists,” “kooks,” and “traitors” if they question the official explanation of 9/11. This despite the fact that war in the Middle East, a long-planned goal of Bush’s neoconservative administration, could not have been initiated without a “new Pearl Harbor.”


That powerfully constructed steel buildings could suddenly turn to dust because they were struck by two flimsy aluminum airliners and experienced small fires on a few floors that burned for a short time appears unexceptionable to a majority of Americans.


Moreover, people have talked. Hundreds of them. Firefighters, police, janitors, and others report hearing and experiencing a series of explosions in upper floors and massive explosions in the underground basements. This eyewitness testimony was kept under wraps for three or more years until the official explanation had taken root. The oral histories were finally forced loose by Freedom Of Information Act suits. The eyewitness reports of explosion after explosion had no effect.


Larry Silverstein, who received billions of dollars in insurance payments for the destroyed buildings, talked. He said on public television that the order was given “to pull” building 7. His stunning admission had no effect.


The Bush administration is preparing us for more terrorist attacks. The latest intelligence report says that Al Qaeda has regrouped, rebuilt, and has the ability to come after us again. "Al Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put operatives here," says the report.


Security operatives, such as Michael Chertoff, and various instruments of administration propaganda have warned that we will be attacked before next year’s election. Chertoff is not a person who wants to be known as Chicken Little for telling us that the sky is falling.


Bush has the Republican Party in such a mess that it cannot survive without another 9/11. Whether authentic or orchestrated, an attack will activate Bush’s new executive orders, which create a dictatorial police state in event of “national emergency.” [See here.]


The UK government is hand-in-glove with the Bush administration and will provide cover or verification for whatever claim the Bush administration advances. So will the right-wing governments in Canada and Australia. That takes care of the English-speaking world from which contrary explanations might reach the American people.


It is possible that Bush is now too weak, that suspicion is too great, and that there is too much internal resistance in the federal bureaucracy and military for any such scenario. If so, then my prediction prior to the invasion that the US invasion of Iraq will destroy Bush, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement will be proven true. The Democrats’ strategy of doing nothing except making sure Bush gets his way will produce the landslide that they expect.


However, this assumes that Cheney, Rove, and their neoconservative allies have lost their cunning and their manipulative skills. It is difficult to imagine a more dangerous assumption for Democrats and the American people to make.


Once the US experiences new attacks, Bush will be vindicated. His voice will be confident as he speaks to the nation:


“My administration knew that there would be more attacks from these terrorists who hate us and our way of life and are determined to destroy every one of us. If only more of you had believed me and supported my war on terror these new attacks would not have happened. Our security efforts were impaired by the Democrats’ determined attempts to surrender to the terrorists by forcing our withdrawal from Iraq and by civil libertarian assaults on our necessary security measures. If only more Americans had trusted their government, this would not have happened.”


And so on. Anyone should be able to write the script.

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.


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Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2214.shtml

GONZALES VOWS TO STAY

Gonzales vows to stay, fix Justice's image

'Troubling to hear' allegations about attorney hirings, he will tell Senate
IMAGE: Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on April 19 about the controversial dismissal of eight U. S. attorneys. He's set to testify before the panel again on Tuesday

Updated: 2:49 p.m. ET July 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he’s staying at the Justice Department to try to repair its broken image, telling Congress in a statement released Monday he’s troubled that politics may have played a part in hiring career federal prosecutors.

Senators already skeptical of Gonzales’ ability to lead the department were preparing to hammer him about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and conflicts between his earlier statements and the testimony of a former aide.

The attorney general’s comments came in 26 pages of prepared testimony that was released on the eve of his scheduled appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. After months of critics calling for his resignation, Gonzales appears to have weathered the political furor that began with the prosecutors’ purge last year and subsequently revealed a Justice Department hiring process that favored Republican loyalists.

In his written testimony, Gonzales touted the department’s focus on terrorists, violent crime and even aid to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina victims. He made no reference to the fired U.S. attorneys and only briefly mentioned the controversy that has torpedoed morale at the Justice Department and has called the fairness of its attorneys into question.

“Reinforcing public confidence in the department is also critical, and will be one of my top priorities as attorney general for the remainder of my term,” Gonzales said in the prepared statement.

“I believe very strongly that there is no place for political considerations in the hiring of our career employees or in the administration of justice,” he said. “As such, these allegations have been troubling to hear. From my perspective, there are two options available in light of these allegations. I would walk away or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems. Since I have never been one to quit, I decided that the best course of action was to remain here and fix the problems.”

Schumer responds
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., was unswayed.

“There are probably only two people on Earth who think the attorney general ought to stay: Alberto Gonzales and President Bush,” Schumer, who was the first senator to call for Gonzales’ resignation, said Monday. “As long as he’s in charge, the Justice Department, the rule of law and America will suffer.”

Gonzales also reminded senators that the Justice Department has launched an internal investigation — one that he has no control over — into the accusations. The results are not expected for months.

It’s against federal law to discriminate against career employees by hiring or firing them based on their political loyalties. But two months ago, former top Gonzales aide Monica Goodling admitted she did just that when she served as the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House — including, at times, looking to see whether job applicants had contributed to the GOP or other political parties.


Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19914360/

THE C.I.A.

The CIA

The Central Intelligence Agency was formed at the end of World War II in order to fight the new covert Cold War. It found its roots in the already formed OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the military intelligence organization that had reached a high profile with its control over the top-secret Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear bomb.

The founding fathers of the CIA William "Wild Bill" Donovan and Allen Dulles, were both prominent Roman Catholics, and members of the secret society the "Knights of Malta".

Recently declassified documents show that following the war the Knights of Malta were responsible for aiding the escape of many prominent Nazis, including Death Camp scientists and many from the inner circles of occultist Heinreich Himmler's Gestapo - the Nazi intelligence service. Many of these, including Knight of Malta General Reinhard Gehlen, went directly to work for the newly formed CIA, which at Donovan's insistence, was now a civilian organization. This kept the fervently anti-Nazi General Dwight Eisenhower and the US military out of the initial equation, which allowed the CIA to represent the interests of American industrialists and transnational Corporations, above and beyond the interests of the American people.

A.B."Buzzy" Krongard's appointment to the top of the CIA pyramid by George Bush Jnr., after a long career in investment banking, once again illustrates who's interests the CIA is serving. The 68 year old Krongard recently boasted to the Washington Post "the whole OSS was nothing but Wall St. bankers and lawyers". He fails to mention that many of these bankers and lawyers were ardent political and financial supporters of the Nazis - who were perceived as an ally against the ideology of communism - regardless of their methods and beliefs.

The Cold War created a new enemy in Russia, and as propaganda was allowed to run to fever pitch, the ambitious young CIA was given a free reign within the American government. Roman Catholics were favored as agents because of their attitude towards "Godless Russia". However, the true aims of the CIA's leaders were more complex than the simple cold war politics of "commie bashing".

The Knights of Malta's intimate links with the Nazi movement found its ideological base in their common Rosicrucian belief system. This states that Man's evolution is held back by certain lower sub-races who must be removed for the process to continue. Through the CIA this feudal belief system had infiltrated the heart of democratic America. Under the cover of the cold war apparatus, the CIA became a global leader in biological and chemical warfare, mind control techniques, psychological operations, propaganda and covert warfare.

Close links were forged with South American military dictatorships, many of whom were led by Catholic Knights of Malta. It is of no coincidence that these same countries played a major part in the escape of Nazis through the "Rat Run". These countries immediately saw a massive rise in neo-Nazi movements, led by leading German Nazi figures such as Klaus Barbie and Otto Skorzeny. The introduction of concentration camps complete with Nazi Swastikas saw hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples and political opponents tortured and murdered. Democracy movements were brutally smashed by these fascist governments who were backed by the CIA. Weapons, financial aid, and even American troops were given in support under the guise of fighting communism. The "School of the Americas" is an infamous CIA training school were many South American military personnel are still taught torture techniques.

During the 60's, 70's and 80's peasant populations around the world, inspired by American ideals of democracy, rose up against their feudal and colonial overlords. But these nations suddenly found themselves at the center of the raging American Russian Cold War and their revolutions were unjustly labeled communistic. The CIA's fight against communism became a worldwide fight against the self-determination of indigenous peoples. As the CIA supported fascistic "anti-communist" regimes across the globe, and particularly in Africa, a constant state of war was created leading to the horrific sufferings of countless innocent men, women and children.

Ordinary Americans saw this constant unrest through the distorting lens of cold war propaganda, giving the Rosicrucian hierarchy of the CIA unprecedented financial support and powers.

The intimate ties with the Roman Catholic Church allowed the CIA access to intelligence from Eastern Europe and Latin America through the Church's own intelligence service, which is funded by the CIA and has operated from within the Vatican since World War II. Pope Paul VI prior to becoming Pope worked for this Jesuit unit "Pro Deo" (For God) and passed on comprehensive dossiers regarding politically active priests to the CIA. This policy continues to the present day, and the Vatican is well placed through it global network of churches and priests to gather information.

An example of this is the murder of young American Ben Linder in 1987 in Nicaragua. Ben was living with an indigenous village high in the mountains. He entertained the children as a clown, and put his engineering skills to use by organizing the construction of a small water dam to provide hydroelectricity to the village. However, before the dam was finished Ben and two villagers were riddled with bullets in a right-wing Contra rebel ambush. Recently declassified CIA documents were able to provide the precise names of the ten Contras who murdered Ben. It was revealed the rebels had been instructed by the CIA to kill any foreigners helping the villagers in any way.

Recently declassified documents state that the Contra rebels were informed of Ben's presence by the CIA, who were alerted to his whereabouts by their network of spy-priests opposed to the Socialist government, which had been democratically elected by the majority of the Nicaraguan people.

Propaganda about "out-of-control" Third World populations became prominent and was illustrated and substantiated by the many famines of sub-Saharan Africa. Emotionally potent images of starving babies proved the Malthusian theories of "not enough food to go around" time and time again. Official government reports constantly stressed the desperate need for population control against the developing countries. Whereas recent United Nations' reports state that the richest 20 percent of the world, i.e. the Western developed countries, consumes 86 percent of the planet's resources. This same 20 percent causes 75 percent of all environmental destruction and pollution. The famines of Africa were clearly not caused by overpopulation and over-consumption, but were the direct result of covert foreign policies, and undoubtedly compounded by global warming.

As Africa today finds little support for its insurmountable problems such as the AIDS epidemic, increasing environmental disasters such as floods and famines, and constant internal political upheavals and civil wars, it is clear that through cold war communist fears and subtle propaganda, "Wild Bill" Donovon and Allen Dulles's racist and elitist Rosicrucian beliefs have inadvertently been embraced by most of the white western world.

Official admissions that the CIA were involved in the initial supply and distribution of "crack" cocaine were met with little interest from the population and mainstream media, regardless of the story being conveyed by a Pulitzer prize winning journalist (Gary Webb), and its documented links to the Iran/Contra scandal. From this it is clear that racist attempts at social engineering within the United States are tolerated by an indifferent or uninformed population. With the introduction of incredibly harsh drug laws simultaneously with the "discovery" of new and even more addictive drugs, is it apparent that the black population has become a target.

With one in four African American men either behind bars or on probation, mostly due to minor drug related offences, it is not surprising that the black community is claiming a conspiracy of massive proportions.

Even though recent statistics show that drug use amongst whites is five times greater than blacks, the massively disproportionate incarceration of blacks, with often a "three strikes you're out" life sentence being given for non-violent offences as trivial as "stealing a slice of pizza" or "a single bottle of vitamins" is disturbing. This obvious injustice creates a climate of fear and insecurity amongst black youth and their families. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the current "mandatory minimum sentencing" for drug related offences, which took away the right of judges to use their discretion in handing out prison terms, was introduced by David Rockefeller, heir of the Rockefeller empire and creator of the New World Order think-tank "The Trilateral Commission", a sister organization to the shadowy "Bilderberg Group".

As the scientific community acknowledges, AIDS is being transmitted from high-risk prison populations into Black and Latino communities. This inevitable consequence of unjust social policies, which many would label a conspiracy, could indeed amount to a covert genocide.

This would be in keeping with the aims of the Knights of Malta and their Rosicrucian-inspired secret agenda.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/newworldorder_themovie/cia.html

CHARLES J. BONAPARTE FOUNDER OF THE FBI

Roosevelt's Attorney General founded the FBI—Federal Bureau of Inquisition!!

Charles Joseph Bonaparte, Attorney General of the U.S. from 1906 to 1909.

Charles Joseph Bonaparte was the grand nephew of Emperor Napoleon and attorney General under Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909.

He founded the Bureau of Inquisition which later became know as the "Federal" Bureau of Inquisition or the FBI. He also founded an organization called the American Protective League (APL) which spied on patriotic people who exposed Rome's activities. People confused it with the patriotic U.S. Protective Association or the APA.

The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover created a brutal dictatorship in the U.S. with total control of the press, radio, and television.

This dictatorship led to the Great Depression, the "election" of FDR in1932, the building of the Pentagon, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, the fake moon landings, the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc., etc., etc.


Source: http://www.reformation.org/us-spanish-inquisition.html#Roosevelts

Sunday, July 22, 2007

SUPERIORITY OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH?

20 July 2007, 16:46

New document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not affirm superiority of Catholicism over other confessions

In his interview with the Interfax-Religion website Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Holy See representative in Russia, comments on the recent two Roman Catholic documents strategically important from the perspective of the tasks and priorities the Vatican has set itself in its policy. These documents are: Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church and Summorum Pontificum, an apostolic letter of Benedict XVI on the Latin mass.


- In your opinion, what effect will the Vatican document on the superiority of the Catholic Church over other Christian confessions have on the ecumenical dialogue?

- As it is written in the introduction to it, the new document published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been prompted by the desire to clarify some expressions of the church teaching on the Catholic ecclesiology and therefore, as Metropolitan Kirill has rightly remarked recently, essentially it has brought nothing new and it fully corresponds with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Having thoroughly studied its contents, I would not say it affirms any “superiority of the Catholic Church over other Christian confessions”. It rather sets forth in an objective way the characteristics which make it possible to regard a ‘church community’ as the Church. First of all, it is the apostolic succession handed down in the sacrament of ordination and present, as Metropolitan Kirill has recently emphasized, in the Orthodox Church, but absent in church communities born out of the Reformation.

Actually we read in the text that “separated” Churches are also “instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church”. On the other hand, the document stresses the need to search for ways towards unity, which the Catholic Church itself needs in order to be truly itself, as it follows further from the text: “Universality, which is proper to the Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him, is not fully realised in history.”

- The recent Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum has become another ground for a worldwide discussion. It simplifies the procedure for celebrating the Latin mass in Catholic parishes. Is it possible, in your opinion, for the Trent mass to be celebrated in Moscow and other cities in Russia? Is there any demand for it here; are Russian Catholics interested in it?

- I would like to specify that what is in point is not the Trent mass, but the liturgy according to the Roman Missal (Missale Romanum) issued by Pope John XXIII in 1962, which has never been canonically repealed. This liturgy can be celebrated as an extraordinary form, while the Missal issued by Pope Paul VI and subsequently re-issued twice by Pope John Paul II remains a regular form of the Eucharistic service. Incidentally, we should not forget that the use of the previous version of the Missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical education as well as an adequate knowledge of Latin. Both are rare today. It is wrong to speak about “two rites” as there are two versions of the same canonical rite.

As His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has stressed, “there is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place”. I personally have always noted the great consideration given in Russia to the beauty and reverence of the liturgy, thanks also to the dominating influence of the Orthodox culture. The Pope’s call to reflect anew on the liturgical dimension perfectly fits in this context. This can be realized both through the use of the 1962 Missal on some occasions and mostly through a new discovery of traditional elements of the liturgy in the use of the regular Missal.

Source: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=interview&div=55

P.S. (F.Y.I.)

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III with the Constitution "Licet ab initio," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition as its duty was to defend the Church from heresy. It is the oldest of the Curia's nine congregations.

Pope St. Pius X in 1908 changed the name to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. It received its current name in 1965 with Pope Paul VI. Today, according to Article 48 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, "Pastor Bonus", promulgated by the Holy Father John Paul II on June 28, 1988, «the duty proper to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence.»

The congregation is now headed by Prefect Cardinal William Joseph Levada.

Source: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_pro_14071997_en.html

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY

22 June 2007, 17:51

Final Document of the International Scientific Conference on Christianity, Culture and Moral Values

The International Scientific Conference on Christianity, Culture and Moral Values took place from June 19 to 21, 2007, at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. It was organized by the RAS's Institute of General History, the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, the Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences. The conference was held under the agreement of cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Orthodox Church. It was a follow-up of the scientific international conferences which took place in 2005 in Moscow under the theme State, Religion, Society: Historical Experience and Modern Problems, and in 2006 in Vienna under the theme 'To Give a Soul to Europe. The Mission and Responsibility of the Church'.

Among the participants in the Conference were Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Department for External Church Relations, Academician A. Chubarian, director of the RAS's Institute of General History, Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Mr. Rene van der Linden, president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. The Conference was attended by over 50 scholars from Russia, the Vatican, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and the USA.

The conference considered the place of Christianity in the European heritage, in the culture, science and social thought of European countries. It dealt with three issue sets: Christianity in Europe's Political Life, Christianity in Cooperation with Science, Culture and Education in Europe, and Christian Values in the Past and the Present.

The participants have come to the following conclusion:

1. Europe's religious and cultural heritage provides an excellent ground for dialogue between religions and social sciences. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were often opposed to each other on such issues as sources of law and foundations and parameters of social order. Today religion and social sciences should intensify their dialogue to make society more harmonious, which is impossible to achieve without either faith or science.

2. There is a vacuum of religious and moral values in modern European countries. This vacuum can be filled by school - the proposition shared in particular on the level of the Council of Europe. The models of such values' presence in school may vary, depending on regional and national contexts as well as types of educational institutions. We are convinced however that there can be no education without formation. It is necessary to search for ways and forms of spiritual and moral as well as religious formation of children and youth in dialogue on the level of both particular countries and churches and the entire Europe.

3. In propagating the knowledge of moral values in society, it is impossible to overestimate the role of the mass media as making an increasing influence on the worldview and outlook of our contemporaries. The secular character of informational work should by no means imply any disregard or full neglect of such major social phenomenon as religion. We hope for the establishment of a fruitful dialogue between secular media community and people of faith. Both sides need relations of this kind if they are really concerned for establishing a healthy spiritual climate on our continent.

4. The nations of Europe with their millennium-long moral values should be aware of their moral responsibility for the future of humanity. European societies should show more responsibility for the ethical contents of the cultural space. Creative work has always been and will remain free, but society should be able to discern what kind of cultural developments are beneficial for it and hence worthy of support. In this connection, there must be a dialogue between cultural workers, statesmen and public figures.

5. The participants are convinced that the continuation and development of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, between secular scientists and creative workers will benefit the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, promoting peace and justice in society and asserting in it authentic spiritual and moral values.


June 19-21, 2007
Moscow




Source: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=documents&div=111

CHURCH OF ENGLAND PREACHING POTTER

From

July 18, 2007

Church preparing to preach Potter’s missionary message

The Church of England is publishing a guide advising youth workers how to use Harry Potter to spread the Christian message.

Days before the release of J K Rowling’s seventh novel about the boy wizard, they were being told yesterday that they could use the popularity of the books and films to debate Christian themes. The guide, Mixing it up with Harry Potter, is published this week by Church House Publishing.

The Potter books and films have been attacked by evangelicals for allegedly glamorising the occult. But the Rt Rev John Pritchard, the Bishop of Oxford, said yesterday: “Jesus used storytelling to engage and challenge his listeners.

“There’s nothing better than a good story to make people think, and there’s plenty in the Harry Potter books to make young people think about the choices they make in their everyday lives and their place in the world.”

The guide’s suggested 12 sessions introduce short clips from the films to provide discussion among 9 to 13-year-olds.

Owen Smith, its 24-year-old author and a youth worker at St Margaret’s Church in Rainham, Kent, said: “To say, as some have, that these books draw younger readers towards the occult seems to me both to malign JK Rowling and to vastly underestimate the ability of children to separate the real from the imaginary.” Asda has apologised “unreservedly” for having criticised Bloomsbury, the Harry Potter publisher, in a dispute over money owed. The supermarket chain will now be selling the books.

Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1867872/posts

CLEAR TO BOARD AIRPLANE

Orlando Airport Program To Skip Security Lines Expanding

POSTED: 12:33 pm EDT July 19, 2007
UPDATED: 5:35 pm EDT July 19, 2007

A program allowing air travelers to pay a fee and skip long security lines will soon be expanded in New Jersey, Arkansas and New York, authorities said Thursday.

Participants in the Clear Registered Traveler program pay $100 annually, submit to fingerprinting and eye scans, and must be approved by the Transportation Security Administration. Passengers still go through metal detectors, but use a dedicated line with little wait.

Verified Identity Pass Inc. announced plans to place its services in LaGuardia Airport, and launched operations at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday. Albany International Airport, Little Rock National Airport in Arkansas and Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., were slated to open Clear lanes in August.

The program started as a federal pilot in Orlando, and now 52,000 passengers nationally are enrolled. Similar programs operated by Verified Identity Pass and its competitors also will expand to Washington, D.C., Denver, Atlanta and San Francisco in the coming months, the New York-based company said in a release.

Clear is already in place in San Jose, Calif., Cincinnati, Indianapolis and other cities.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

GEORGIA MEAT PROCESSOR EXPANDS RECALL

Georgia Processor Expands Meat Recall

The Associated Press
Saturday, July 21, 2007; 11:35 PM

WASHINGTON -- A Georgia meat processor on Saturday expanded its recall of canned meat products that may be connected to a botulism outbreak.

Castleberry's Food Co. of Augusta recalled more than 80 brands of canned chili, beef stew, corned beef hash and other meat products in addition to the 10 brands it had recalled Thursday.

Cans of chili sauce made at the Castleberry's plant were found in the homes of an Indiana couple and two children in Texas who had been hospitalized with botulism. All four are expected to survive.

Botulism is a muscle-paralyzing disease caused by a toxin made by a bacterium, Clostridium botulinum. Such bacteria are commonly found in soil.

The Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Thursday that an equipment malfunction may have been responsible for the contamination.

On Saturday, FSIS said the malfunctions at the Augusta processing plant may have existed longer than initially estimated.

Castleberry's, which is owned by Bumble Bee Seafoods LLC and based in San Diego, voluntarily expanded the recall.

Brand names of the recalled products include Austex, Best Yet, Big Y, Black Rock, Bryan, Bunker Hill, Castle, Castleberry's, Cattle Drive, Firefighter, Food Club, Georgia, Goldstar, Great Value, Kroger, Lowes, Meijer, Morton House, Paramount, Piggly Wiggly, Prudence, Southern Home, Steak N Shake, Thrifty Maid, Triple Bar and Value Time. The recall also includes four varieties of Natural Balance dog food.

Consumers with questions about the recall may contact Castleberry's at 1-888-203-8446.

__

On the Net:

Castleberry's Food Co.: http://www.castleberrys.com/

Food Safety and Inspection Service: http://www.fsis.usda.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/21/AR2007072101364.html

CATHOLIC TOWN OPENS IN FLORIDA

Birth of clean town: Ave Maria
Updated 2d 6h ago

Visitors to Ave Maria University, brainchild of Domino?s founder Tom Monaghan, take the walkway between the Canizaro Library, right, and the cathedral-size oratory.
Enlarge By Tim Ribar for USA TODAY

Visitors to Ave Maria University, brainchild of Domino?s founder Tom Monaghan, take the walkway between the Canizaro Library, right, and the cathedral-size oratory.

Tom Monaghan

By Tim Ribar for USA TODAY


WHAT CAN BE FOUND IN THE NEW TOWN

Ave Maria, Fla., sits on 5,000 acres in the southwest part of the state. It will include 11,000 "dwelling units": condominiums and single-family and town homes. To date, 335 dwelling units are under contract.
The town center features 1.2 million square feet of mixed-use space, including commercial retail, office space and condominiums.
140 students are enrolled in a private K-12 school opening in a few weeks. Public schools also are planned.
The 104-foot-tall oratory is scheduled to be completed in time for Christmas Mass. It will seat 1,100. The master plan calls for the construction (not yet started) of a 55-foot crucifix, the largest in North America.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<
AVE MARIA, Fla. — Ten years ago, Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan had a vision to create a "fresh, faithful voice" in Catholic higher education. Now he has both a university and a brand-new town to put it in.

On Saturday, the town will open its doors to the public. Next week, Ave Maria University will move from its cramped quarters in Naples to a permanent campus here, which sits on what used to be about 1,000 acres of tomato plants.

Ave Maria has not been without controversy. The Florida American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to sue if the town bans birth control, as Monaghan suggested in a speech. Catholic educators say he could have found better ways to reach out than to create a town where single-family home prices range from $256,900 to $481,900.

Monaghan, 70, remains steadfast. "Everything I do I think I do for the right purposes," he says. "I only have to answer to my God."

The town and university will operate independently but the Catholic influence is hard to miss. Streets bear names like Assisi and Annunciation. The town center holds a cathedral-size chapel based on a design Monaghan sketched himself. Atop it is a 13-foot-high cross, the highest point in the town.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Catholic /College/ Diocese/ Domino's Pizza/ Tom Monaghan/ Ave Maria

The seeds for this $400 million enterprise were sown in 1998, the year Monaghan sold his pizza business for $1 billion and founded Ave Maria College, a liberal arts school in Ypsilanti, Mich. (It closed this year.) By 2000, he had founded Ave Maria School of Law there; it is set to relocate to Florida in 2009.

In 2002, real estate development company Barron Collier offered to donate 1,000 acres of southwestern Florida farmland for Monaghan's dream university. He partnered with the company to create a town to support it. He has committed more than $200 million to build the university and invested $100 million to develop the town. Profits from that investment will go to the university.

Monaghan dismisses questions about whether the town will tolerate non-Catholic views. But he created a stir last year when he was quoted as having said in a speech to a Catholic men's conference that pharmacies wouldn't be allowed to stock condoms or birth control pills and that cable TV would show no pornography.

Monaghan has since said he misspoke. Project manager Donald Schrotenboer says the town will obey all local ordinances, but officials "would prefer" that businesses sell only products consistent with a family-friendly environment.

That hasn't appeased the ACLU of Florida, which threatened a lawsuit. Monaghan's "comments on the record give us legitimate concerns about the community he's creating," says Executive Director Howard Simon. Although many religious groups, from the Amish to Hasidic Jews, have their own communities, "constitutional issues arise when the religious group wants to act as if it also has governmental authority."

The USA already is home to more than 200 Catholic colleges and universities. But Monaghan and his administrators say Ave Maria's campus will reflect a faithfulness to Catholic teachings that they do not see elsewhere. The campus will have single-sex dorms, for instance. And every residence hall will have a chapel.

"We make no apologies for seeking to uphold Catholic moral teachings," particularly when it comes to relations between men and women, Ave Maria University President Nicholas Healy says. "We would not approve of or facilitate something that is very common, I'm told, on college campuses today, hooking up and sleeping around, and … binge drinking."

Such talk has not endeared Monaghan, who dropped out of college when his pizza business took off, to Catholic educators.

"This is his dream, fueled by his money and his vision. There are people who admire him … and others who feel he ought to have more humility about it all," says Richard Yanikoski, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. "He comes across as, 'I know best how to educate Catholics at the college level.' "

Monaghan's relationship with the Diocese of Venice, whose boundaries include the town of Ave Maria, remains undefined. Campus priests can celebrate Mass in the oratory, but need permission from the bishop to perform sacraments.

"The bishop has spiritual and pastoral responsibility" for Catholics in the new town, as for any who move into the diocese, says diocese spokeswoman Adela Gonzales White.

Monaghan hopes that will change in time. Overall, he's content with where things stand. "If they buried me now, I'd be satisfied."

And Renee Beckner of Naples, who with husband Alan plans to open a jewelry store and build a home in Ave Maria, says she was impressed by the "vision God had given him."

"I don't see why there's such a fuss about having a community (where) the values are based on faith and family and religion," she says.

Contributing: The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.
Posted 2d 22h ago ...Updated 2d 6h ago
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-18-ave-maria_N.htm?csp=34

P.S. Bolds and Highlights added for emphasis. Blogmaster.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES



Minimum wage increases to boost nation’s poor


Workers cheer, industry braces for first bump on Tuesday in decade


Updated: 4:14 p.m. ET July 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday’s increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.


“My goal personally is to get a vehicle so I can independently go back and forth to work and maybe pick up extra work so I can have that extra income, because minimum wage is not cutting it,” said Townsend, who is 24 and single.


“Being a single person, you can’t pay all your bills with one minimum wage job.”



Many lawmakers, along with advocates for low-wage workers, are celebrating the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Yet many acknowledge that raising it from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 will provide only meager help for some of the lowest paid workers.

About 1.7 million people made $5.15 or less in 2006, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.


“The reality for a minimum wage worker is that every penny makes a difference because low-wage workers make the choice between putting food on the table and paying for electricity or buying clothes for their children,” said Beth Shulman, former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.


“Saying that, it’s clear going up to $5.85 is not enough to really make sure that people really can afford the things that all families need,” said Shulman, author of “The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans.”


Wage boost
Minimum wage workers will get an additional 70-cent boost each summer for the next two years, ending in 2009 at $7.25 an hour. That comes to just above $15,000 yearly before taxes for a 52-week work year.


Now, someone in such a job and earning $5.85 an hour would bring home $12,168 a year before taxes. The federal poverty level for singles is $10,210, couples is $13,690 and $17,170 for families of three.


“In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, it is an outrage that anyone who works full time would still wind up in poverty,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “Everyone who puts in an honest day’s work should receive a fair day’s pay.”


Poverty and the minimum wage are becoming a major issue in the Democratic presidential race. John Edwards and Barack Obama are emphasizing raising the minimum wage during their tours of impoverished areas.


Edwards, who said he wants to eliminate poverty within a generation, favors raising the minimum wage to $9.50. Obama is advocating a “living wage” that would go up as inflation rises and he has promised to eliminate the phrase “working poor.”


THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

The
Ten Commandments

Gods 10 Commandments Introduction

Today it is often believed by many Christians that Gods Ten Commandments were meant for those who lived in Old Testament times, and do not apply to Christians who are under grace in the New Testament. The Bible has much to say on the subject of law and grace, but even though it is true that Christians are saved by faith in Christ, nowhere in the Bible does it say God's laws are not binding upon man. Keeping the commandments of the Decalogue is not the method of salvation, but the fruit of it. Obedience to God is the test of the genuine Christian.

1 John 3:4 "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and SIN IS LAWLESSNESS."

Some say that Gods Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross of Christ: but this cannot be so. This scripture defines sin as the "breaking of God's law". You see, if the law is abolished, then so is sin and if sin is abolished, then the need of a Saviour becomes unnecessary. Why did Christ die on the cross? To save us from our sins, which are transgressions of God's law. If it were possible to do away with the law, Christ need not have died, but the fact that He was prepared to make this supreme sacrifice proves the unchanging character of God's law that shows us how to love God and man. If the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross then love was nailed to the cross along with them. Thankfully this was not the case.

Romans 3:20 "Therefore BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW NO FLESH WILL BE JUSTIFIED in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

We are saved because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and not because we keep God's law. This scripture does not say it is unnecessary to keep the law, but it says we are not justified by keeping it. We are justified by the blood of Jesus. This scripture in no way says it is unnecessary to obey Gods 10 commandments.

Romans 6:14,15 "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for YOU ARE NOT UNDER LAW BUT UNDER GRACE. What then? SHALL WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE NOT UNDER LAW but under grace? CERTAINLY NOT!"

We are not under the condemnation of the law because of the grace (Gods unmerited favour) of Christ. His blood covers our sins so that the law cannot condemn us. The question is asked by Paul; "Shall we sin (or break the law) because we are not under the law but under grace?" and the reply is most definite - "God forbid". God's forgiveness to us does not give license to sin.

Romans 3:31 "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, WE ESTABLISH THE LAW."

Genuine Christians will not seek to break God's law, instead they establish it; uphold it and keep it. It is only as one breaks the law that he comes under the condemnation of it. For example, one is not affected by the roads speed limit law while driving, until he exceeds the limit - then he is condemned by it. Simply because we are under grace, does not give us free rein to break the law rather we are under greater obligation to keep it. We are only under grace so long as we keep the law. For example, if a prisoner is given a pardon and is released from prison, does his freedom allow him to break the law? If he does, he is no longer free. The law of the land condemns him and he goes back to prison. In the same way, God's law will condemn us when we break it.

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

Romans 7:7 "What shall we say then? IS THE LAW SIN? CERTAINLY NOT! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

Paul is emphatic. There is nothing wrong with the law. In fact he says that he would not be conscious of sin without the law to show him his errors. Here Paul quotes from the 10th commandment. The Ten Commandments can be likened to a mirror. If a person with a dirty face looks in the mirror, then the mirror tells him his face is dirty - but it won't clean it for him, he needs soap and water. As we look at the Ten Commandments they show us our sins, but they do not cleanse us. We need the blood of Christ to make us clean. When we are cleansed and look into the Ten Commandments, they no longer condemn us.

Romans 7:12 "Therefore the LAW IS HOLY, and the COMMANDMENT HOLY and just and good."

God's law is perfect and cannot be faulted.

What change did take place at the cross concerning the law?

Colossians 2:14-17 "HAVING WIPED OUT THE HANDWRITING OF REQUIREMENTS that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, HAVING NAILED IT TO THE CROSS. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in FOOD or in DRINK, or regarding a FESTIVAL or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

The sacrificial ceremonies were fulfilled at the cross and blotted out.

An ordinance is a rite or a ceremony. In Old Testament times animal sacrifices were made, symbolising the supreme sacrifice Christ or the Messiah would make one day. There were many ceremonies that revolved around these sacrifices, such as partaking of certain foods and drinks. Why do we not offer animal sacrifices today? Because this would show we have no faith in Christ's sacrifice. Just as it is no longer necessary to shed, the blood of animals, so it is no longer necessary to partake in the ceremonial system associated with the killing of animals. Christ fulfilled the law of ceremonies. When He died, the temple veil tore in two as an indication that the temple services had come to an end. Generally speaking, the Bible does not try to differentiate between Gods 10 commandments and the law of Moses. To the Jew there was one law of God, and all details of the law were important, whether ceremonial or moral. However, the New Testament in many instances mentions specific parts of the law. This text mentions the ceremonial system, and not the moral law. Even the sabbaths mentioned were not necessarily the seventh day Sabbath of the fourth Commandment. The Jews had several ceremonial sabbaths which fell on certain dates of the year, each one occurring once a year.

THE TWO LAWS

Gods 10 Commandments stand forever but the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross.

When God led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, He delivered to them in fiery majesty the Ten Commandments. This holy law was spoken by God, written by God, recorded on tables of stone, and is of eternal duration. At the same time another law, of temporary usage, was also delivered to the children of Israel. This law dealt with the ceremonial rites of the Jewish sanctuary service, and concerned itself with a system of religion that passed away at the cross. Large sections of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy describe in detail this temporary ceremonial system. This Law can easily be identified in the Scriptures. It talks about circumcision (a religious Jewish rite), sacrifices, offerings, purifications, ceremonial holy days, and other rites associated with the Hebrew sanctuary service.

To the unbiased reader of God's Word, it becomes more than clear that Gods Ten Commandments are binding upon all men for all time in every place, whereas no man is bound to keep the Ceremonial Law that was fulfilled in Christ. The Ceremonial Law with its sacrificial system pointed God's people to the coming of Christ. Every time the blood of a beast was shed in the old Jewish temple, it was a dramatic reminder to the onlooker that One would come and die for his sin. Hence, John the Baptist pointed to our Lord and declared the significant words, "Behold the Lamb of God".


When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, the veil of the great temple curtain was torn from top to bottom, to signify the entire ceremonial system was forever finished. (See Matthew 27:50-51). No longer did the priests need to offer sacrifices. The One great and perfect Sacrifice was offered that Friday afternoon, when the true Passover Lamb bowed His head and died. When Jesus cried out, "It is finished", the old Ceremonial Law that pointed the people to His sacrificial death was nailed to the cross. But NOT SO with The Ten Commandments. There was nothing temporary about any of Gods 10 Commandments. They are to last as long as heaven and earth.

Jesus said the Ten Commandments are here to stay.

Matthew 5:17-19 "DO NOT THINK THAT I CAME TO DESTROY THE LAW or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore BREAKS ONE OF the least of THESE commandments, and teaches men so, shall be CALLED LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus certainly did not have any intentions of making any change, in fact, He condemned men who taught that it was in order to break God's law, and commended those who taught the necessity of keeping it.

THE BIBLE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Exodus 24:12 "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the LAW AND COMMANDMENTS WHICH I HAVE WRITTEN, that you may teach them."

Exodus 31:18 "And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, TABLETS OF STONE, WRITTEN WITH THE FINGER OF GOD."

The Ten Commandments were written with God's own finger.

The whole Bible has been written by man, yet inspired by God. The Ten Commandments, however, were written by God Himself. Surely He must have regarded them very highly.

Where were the Ten Commandments located?

Exodus 25:16 "And you shall put INTO THE ARK THE TESTIMONY which I will give you."

A small box called the "Ark", which was situated in the sanctuary, was the resting place of the Ten Commandments. The law of Moses was placed in the "SIDE" of the ark. The Ten Commandments are often referred to as the "testimony".

The Ten Commandments were placed in the Ark.

The Ten Commandments are recorded in full in Exodus 20:3-17. Briefly they are as follows:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make unto thee any graven image.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
5. Honour your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet.

The first four commandments deal with our love to God, and the last six deal with our love for our fellowman. They can be divided into these two sections. There is one underlying principle behind these commands - "LOVE". In these commands we see a transcript of God's character: "God is love". At first they may appear to be a list of don'ts, but when a Christian is motivated by love, he wants to please God and love his fellowman.

James 2:8-12 "If you really fulfill the ROYAL LAW according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall KEEP THE WHOLE LAW, AND YET STUMBLE IN ONE POINT, HE IS GUILTY OF ALL. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be JUDGED BY THE LAW OF LIBERTY."

There is no virtue in keeping 9 instead of 10 commandments. If a man is hanging from a great height by a chain with ten links, and only one link breaks, he falls. The strength of the chain is dependent on its weakest link. If we willingly break one of Gods Ten Commandments, we are as guilty as if we break them all. True, we are not saved by keeping the law, but this scripture shows we will be judged by it. If Jesus reigns within, He will give us the strength to keep His law.

Psalm 111:7-8 "The works of His hands are verity and justice; all His precepts are sure. THEY STAND FAST FOREVER AND EVER, and are done in truth and uprightness."

Revelation 14 says that Gods people in the last days will keep God's Commandments.

Gods Ten Commandments are eternal.

Revelation 14:12 "Here is the patience of the saints; HERE ARE THOSE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD and the faith of Jesus"

God's last people on earth before the end of time are commandment keepers. There is no thought that the law is abolished, instead they establish it.

Hebrews 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

God will write His law on our hearts.

In the New Testament age we no longer need the Bible Ten Commandments on stone. We have something better. Those who are led by the Spirit have these laws written in their minds and on their hearts. This is the promise of the New Covenant. They are firmly established in the Christian way of life.

Hebrews 5:9 "And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation TO ALL WHO OBEY HIM."

We are not saved because we are obedient - but because we are saved, we are obedient.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, FOR THIS IS MAN'S ALL."

Jesus said in John 14:15 "IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS."

The test of love is obedience. Friend, do you love Jesus enough to obey Him? Remember, He loved you enough to die for you. His plea to you today is to keep His Ten Commandments. They are not grievous - in fact to keep them, will keep you out of trouble in this life, and bring you happiness. God's way of willing obedience is the best way, and if Jesus is supreme in your life, He will give you the strength to keep all Gods 10 Commandments.

Those who love Jesus will keep His Commandments.

Gods 10 Commandments and His Character

Notice how God's moral law (Gods 10 Commandments) is a reflection of God's most beautiful and holy character. To declare that the God's moral law is no longer relevant is an insult and attack on love, God and His Holy character.

Gods 10 Commandments equals God's Holy Character
» Romans 16:26: God is Eternal
» Psalms 111:7-8: The law is Eternal
» Luke 18:19: God is Good
» Romans 7:12: The law is Good
» John 4:24: God is Spiritual
» Romans 7:14: The law is Spiritual
» Deuteronomy 32:4: God is Just
» Romans 7:12: The law is Just
» Psalms 145:17: God is Righteous
» Psalms 119:172: The law is Righteous
» 1 John 3:3: God is Pure
» Psalms 19:8: The law is Pure
» Matthew 5:48: God is Perfect
» Psalms 19:7: The law is Perfect
» I John 4:8: God is Love
» Romans 13:10: The law is Love
» I John 1:5: God is Light
» Proverbs 6:23: The law is Light
» Psalms 48:1: God is Great
» Hosea 8:12: The law is Great
» Deuteronomy 32:4: God is Truth
» Psalms 119:142: The law is Truth
» Isaiah 5:16: God is Holy
» Romans 7:12: The law is Holy

Gods 10 Commandments and the Ceremonial law

This table shows the differences between the two laws. Please notice each text carefully. See also the Roman Catholic Ten Commandments table and description or use the menu option 'Catholic Version'.

The Moral Law
(The Ten Commandments)
The Ceremonial Law
(A temporary Jewish law)
1. Spoken by God Himself. Exodus 20:1,22.1. Spoken by Moses. Exodus 24:3.
2. Was written by God. Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:16.2. Written by Moses. Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 31:9.
3. On stones. Exodus 31:18.3. In a book. Exodus 24:3, 7; Deuteronomy 31:24.
4. Handed by God its writer, to Moses. Exodus 31:18.4. Handed by Moses, its writer to Levites. Deuteronomy 31:25, 26.
5. Deposited by Moses "in the ark". Deuteronomy 10:5.5. Deposited by the Levites "by the side of the ark". Deuteronomy 31:26, ARV.
6. Deals with moral precepts. Exodus 20:3-17.6. Deals with ceremonial, ritual matters. (See parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).
7. Reveals sin. Romans 7:7.7. Prescribes offerings for sins. (See book of Leviticus).
8. Breaking of "the law" is "sin". 1 John 3:4.8. No sin in breaking, for now "abolished". Ephesians 2:15. (Where no law is, there is no transgression. Romans 4:15.)
9. Should "keep the whole law". James 2:10.9. Apostles gave "no such commandment" to "keep the law". Acts 15:24.
10. Because we "shall be judged" by this law. James 2:1210. Not to be judged by it. Colossians 2:16.
11. The Christian who keeps this law is "blessed in his deed". James 1:25.11. The Christian who keeps this law is not blessed. (See for example, Galatians 5:1-6).
12. "The perfect law of liberty". James 1:25 (Cf. James 2:12).12. The Christian who keeps this law loses his liberty. Galatians 5:1,3.
13. Paul said, "I delight in the law of God". Romans 7:22 (Cf. verse 7).13. Paul called this law a "yoke of bondage". Galatians 5:1; Galatians 4:3, 9 (See Acts 15:10).
14. Established by faith in Christ. Romans 3:31.14. Abolished by Christ. Ephesians 2:15.
15. Christ was to "magnify the law and make it honorable". Isaiah 42:21.15. Blotted "out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us". Colossians 2:14.


Ten Commandment Scriptures

Here are the most relevant scriptures that refer to the Ten Commandments in the New Testament. All scriptures quoted are from the King James Bible. Where Gods 10 Commandments are been referred to and perhaps not obvious to all, [10 Commandments] has been added. Also, in appropriate places where the word "commandments" has been used and it refers to the Ten Commandments, "ten" has been added and both words shown are now in italics. Old Testament scriptures can be found on this page.

New Testament Scriptures

Matthew

Gods 10 Commandments are eternal and will not change till heaven and earth pass.
Matthew 5:17-19 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest you me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the Ten Commandments.

All the law hang on these two commandments.
Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Mark

Mark 10:19 You knowest the Ten Commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour your father and mother.

Luke

A very similar verse to Matthew 5:18. Heaven and Earth will pass before Gods 10 Commandments change by even a tittle which is the smallest change you can have to a single Hebrew character.
Luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

John

If we love Jesus we will keep all Gods 10 Commandments.
John 14:15 If you love me, keep my Ten Commandments.

He that keeps God's Commandments is he that loves God.
John 14:21 He that has my Ten Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 15:10 If you keep my Ten Commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Romans

Romans 2:12-13 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Paul asks if the law is nullified just because we have faith in Christ's saving grace. His answer is that the law is established and reinforced in the life of a grace saved Christian.
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the law.

Romans 6:14-15 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Paul tells us that Gods 10 Commandments are just, holy and good.
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.

Loving your neighbour as yourself covers anything not mentioned in Gods 10 Commandments.
Romans 13:9-10 For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

1 Corinthians

Keeping God's Commandments is what is important.
1 Corinthians 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the Ten Commandments of God.

Hebrews

With the new covenant, God's Commandments are now written on our hearts.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
See also Jeremiah 31:33

Hebrews 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; [10 Commandments]

Again we are told with the new covenant, Gods 10 Commandments are written on our hearts.
Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

James

Gods Commandments are the perfect law of liberty we will be judged by.
James 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

If we break one of Gods Commandments were guilty of all.
James 2:8-12 If you fulfil the royal law [10 Commandments] according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbour as thyself, you do well: 9 But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. 10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

1 John

Jesus is the truth and if we don’t keep Gods 10 Commandments we do not know Christ.
1 John 2:3-4 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his Ten Commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Sin is breaking of God's Commandments.
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Those that keep Gods 10 Commandments receive what they ask of Him.
1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his Ten Commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

1 John 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.

It should not grieve us to keep God's Commandments. We should desire to love God and man.
1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his Commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his Ten Commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

2 John 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

Revelation

Satan hates those that keep God's Commandments.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Ten Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Those that don't get the mark of the beast obey Gods 10 Commandments.
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Ten Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The original Ark containing Gods original Ten Commandments are in the heavenly temple.
Revelation 15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony [10 Commandments] in heaven was opened:

Blessed are those that keep God's Commandments and may have access to the tree of life.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his Ten Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

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