Friday, October 05, 2007

WHERE'S JOHNNY GOSCH?

September 05, 2007

Johnny Gosch: 25 Years of Heart Break and Service

It's a story that catapulted Iowa into the national spotlight, changed state law and continues to draw awareness to human trafficking. It's a recurring nightmare for parents across the nation... and a living nightmare for Noreen Gosch that has unwillingly launched her into a life of public service.

On this day 25 years ago, Johnny Gosch left his home to work his Des Moines Register paper route. What happened after that has been the subject of speculation. According to Noreen Gosch, two men approached him, he was thrown into a vehicle and kidnapped.

"Last September I received a packet of photographs," Gosch said during an abuse prevention conference in Cedar Rapids. The image of a young boy, hog-tied and wearing only his underpants and socks illuminated the wall beside her. "This is my son Johnny near the time when he was kidnapped. His is still 12-years-old in this picture."

Gasps and sobs filled the hotel conference room on that day in May, but Gosch stood in quiet testimony to what she believed happened to her son 25 years ago.

"I knew immediately it was my son and it has also been confirmed by forensic specialists at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who have examined and compared [the photos] with existing pictures I had," she said.

West Des Moines police are no longer tracking the origin of the photos, reports the Register. They stopped after a Florida investigator said the photos stemmed from a case he investigated prior to Johnny's disappearance.

Early this morning, Gosch wrote a personal note to her son on the website she created in his honor.

"You are loved and missed by all of your family," she wrote. "It is important for you to know that we have tried everything possible to bring resolution to your case, to make it safe for you to live your life. All of the information which we have researched and collected has been given to the FBI, it is in their hands now... If nothing is done then we will all know that they did not go forward with it.

"My hope is that the latest report saying you are still alive is true and that one day we will be able to see each other again."

She also posted a list of the things she knows 25 years after her son was kidnapped. She begins the list with noting how it all feels "like it was yesterday."

Gosch believes her son was taken for the purpose of satisfying pedophiles, that he was sold into a human trafficking network. She's had reports that he is alive and living in fear his life will be ended by those who wish to silence his knowledge of the trafficking network. And, of course, that the photos sent to her last fall are of her son and were taken shortly after he was kidnapped.

A month after Johnny was taken, Noreen founded The Johnny Gosch Foundation and developed a program called "In Defense of Children." She has toured the nation, providing nearly 1,000 personal appearances on missing children, law enforcement, human trafficking and overall awareness. On July 1, 1984 a bill she authored -- the Johnny Gosch Bill -- was passed into Iowa law. It mandates immediate police involvement when a child is missing. It has since been adopted by eight additional states.

That same year, she traveled to Washington, D.C. and testified before Congress as a part of hearings on organized crime. Her testimony led to death threats and also, in part, the eventual establishment of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She was invited by Pres. Ronald Reagan to the opening and dedication of the center.

She has also worked on two documentaries, one for HBO and another for the State Department. Her story and Johnny's story was the focus of a book, "Why Johnny Can't Come Home" that originally published in 2000.

Source: http://www.johnnygosch.com/

HOW DID CIARA DURKIN DIE?


How Did Specialist Ciara Durkin Die?


Soldier In Finance Unit At Bagram Air Base Said To Have "Discovered Things" Is Found Dead


Spc. Ciara Durkin worked in the finance unit at Bagram Air Base. She'd told her sister a few weeks ago, "I discovered some things I don't like and I made some enemies because of it." Durkin was later found dead from a gunshot wound within the air base. (CBS)



Military Death Questioned


The family of Ciara Durkin, who was killed under suspicious circumstances while on deployment in Afghanistan, is demanding answers from high-ranking military officials. Kelly Wallace reports.



Related
Pat Tillman
Photo Essay
In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Kerry said the circumstances need to be uncovered expeditiously and thoroughly.

Durkin's extended family has also asked for help from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

The family doubts suicide, pointing to an upbeat "Happy Birthday" voicemail Durkin left for her brother just hours before she died.

"I thought it was cute at the time," Pierce Durkin said. "Now it's priceless."

The family's grief, made more torturous by the limited information being released and rumors, is not helped by remembrances of past instances where misinformation followed the deaths or injuries of service members.

The military initially said Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed in an enemy firefight in Afghanistan in 2004, even after evidence came to light that he had been killed by friendly fire.

There were also reports circulated that captured Army pfc. Jessica Lynch had bravely fired upon insurgents after being wounded, though she testified later that that was not so.

Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey and 1st Lt. Andre Tyson, killed in Iraq in 2004, were first reported to have been killed in an insurgent ambush, when they were actually killed by two Iraqi soldiers they were training.


Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/world/main3328739.shtml

AVERY CARDINAL DULLES, S.J.

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., is currently the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, a position he has held since 1988. An internationally known author and lecturer, he was born in Auburn, New York, on August 24, 1918, the son of John Foster Dulles and Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. He received his primary school education in New York City, and attended secondary schools in Switzerland and New England. After graduating from Harvard College in 1940, he spent a year and a half in Harvard Law School before serving in the United States Navy, emerging with the rank of lieutenant.

Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Avery Dulles entered the Jesuit Order, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956. After a year in Germany, he studied at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was awarded the doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1960. He was created a Cardinal of the Catholic Church in Rome on February 21, 2001 by Pope John Paul II.


Installation of Cardinal Avery Dulles

Cardinal Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974 and that of The Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988. He has been a visiting professor at: The Gregorian University (Rome), Weston School of Theology, Union Theological Seminary (New York, N.Y.), Princeton Theological Seminary, Episcopal Seminary (Alexandria, Va.), Lutheran Theological Seminary (Gettysburg, Pa.), Boston College, Campion Hall (Oxford University), the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic University at Leuven, Yale University, and St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie.

The author of over 700 articles on theological topics, Cardinal Dulles has published twenty-two books including Models of the Church (1974), Models of Revelation (1983), The Catholicity of the Church (1985), The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System (1992), The Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology of Christian Faith (1994), The Splendor of Faith: The Theological Vision of Pope John Paul II (1999), The New World of Faith (2000), and his latest book, Newman (2002). The fiftieth anniversary edition of his book, A Testimonial to Grace, was republished in 1996 by the original publishers, Sheed and Ward, with an afterword containing his reflections on the past fifty years.

Source: http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/Dulles

POPE SHARES IRAQ CONCERNS WITH BUSH

Pope Shares Iraq Concerns in Meeting With Bush
Pool photo by Plinio Lebri

President Bush took a close look at his gifts, an etching and a medallion, from Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday.

Published: June 10, 2007

ROME, June 9 — President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI, both religious conservatives, met for the first time on Saturday in the papal palace at the Vatican, where the pontiff privately expressed his concerns to the president about “the worrying situation in Iraq,” especially the treatment of minority Christians there.

Skip to next paragraph
L'Osservatore Romano via Associated Press

President Bush met Pope Benedict XVI today at the Vatican for the first time.

Mr. Bush, speaking to reporters after having lunch with Prime Minister Romano Prodi, conceded that the pope had raised those concerns. He pronounced himself “in awe” of Benedict and said he felt he had been “talking to a very smart, loving man.”

The president said he reminded the pope of America’s commitment to spend more on AIDS in Africa and American attempts to “feed the hungry.” And the two talked about immigration; the pontiff is apparently watching the immigration legislation debate in the United States with great interest. But Iraq loomed large over their hourlong session in the grand and elegant private papal library, with its plush regal chairs, ceiling frescoes and a crucifix by Giotto.

Many Italians have been against the war, and Italy pulled the last of its troops out of Iraq last year. On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters — including antiwar demonstrators — turned out for anti-Bush marches, some of which turned violent in the early evening. Protesters in Rome’s downtown historic district lobbed beer bottles and rocks that bounced off the plastic shields of the riot police officers, who fired at least one round of tear gas to break up the demonstration.

Benedict, like Pope John Paul II before him, has expressed deep concerns not only about Christians in Iraq, as the president suggested, but also about violence there and the war more broadly. When he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became pope, he made a much-quoted remark dismissing the idea of Iraq as a “just war” — a topic Mr. Bush said did not come up on Saturday.

“We didn’t talk about ‘just war,’ ” the president said, addressing reporters in a courtyard of the Chigi Palace, the seat of the Italian government, with Prime Minister Prodi by his side. “He did express deep concerns about the Christians inside Iraq, that he was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion. And I assured him we’re working hard to make sure that people lived up to the Constitution, the modern Constitution voted on by the people that would honor people from different walks of life and different attitudes.”

The Vatican described the session as “cordial,” and the pope apparently did not go as far as his predecessor, who in 2004 urged Mr. Bush to end the “grave unrest” in Iraq.

The Vatican did not release the exact substance of the meeting. A church statement, however, said that both the pope and his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who also met Mr. Bush, raised “Israeli-Palestinian questions, Lebanon, the worrying situation in Iraq and the critical conditions in which the Christian community finds itself.”

Until Saturday, talk of Iraq had been largely missing from Mr. Bush’s eight-day, six-country European tour. There was little talk of it in Prague, where Mr. Bush emphasized his freedom agenda, or in Heiligendamm, Germany, where leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations turned their attention to climate change and aid to poor nations, or in Poland, where missile defense was the central issue.

But here in Italy, where Mr. Bush’s policies on Iraq and the global war on terrorism arouse intense passions, he found himself once again in the war’s shadow — not only in Vatican City, but also in the streets of downtown Rome, which were virtually shut down by a heavy police presence anticipating the protests.

The protesters — a mix of antiglobalists, members from left wing and radical groups and other citizens — wound their way down Rome’s Via Cavour from Piazza Della Repubblica and ended at Piazza Navona. One demonstrator, Michela Chimetto, a 37-year-old office assistant who was in town from Vicenza, where the United States has faced sharp protests in the past about plans to expand a military base, pronounced Mr. Bush “the worst president the United States ever had.”

The protest did not turn violent until the evening, when Mr. Bush was miles away, at the United States ambassador’s residence on the other side of downtown. There did not appear to be any injuries, and the protest ended around 8:30 p.m..

The Italian authorities had earlier been so concerned about Mr. Bush’s safety that the White House canceled plans for him to visit the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches in Rome.

The church’s location, in a square surrounded by narrow streets, left Italian officials fearing that Mr. Bush’s motorcade could wind up surrounded. The president was to meet with a human rights advocacy organization there; the session was held instead at the American Embassy for “logistical reasons,” the White House said.

WHY BUSH GAVE BENEDICT A WALKING STICK


Gift or Gaffe?

Why Bush Gave Benedict a Walking Stick

BY WAYNE LAUGESEN

REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

image

DALLAS — A walking stick is the unlikely center of a debate about political protocol, theological precision and news-marketing as a corporal work of mercy.

President Bush gave the odd, carved walking stick to Pope Benedict XVI on June 9 on a visit to Rome. In some quarters, the gift became a laughingstock.

As a post on one Catholic blog put it, “You go all the way to Rome and you give the Pope a stick! Mr. Bush, has America nothing better to offer?”

But stick supporters point out that the staff, inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was one of several gifts of state the president presented to Pope Benedict that day. And the fact that the president gave it to the Pope may have kept a former homeless man and his wife off the streets and in their rented apartment.

First, the case against the stick.

Detractors point out that not only was the stick homely, but the version of the Decalogue carved into it was the Protestant one. Bush seemed to commit a further faux pas when he forgot to address the Pope with the usual honorific, “Your Holiness,” and used “sir” instead.

The Pope did not seem fazed by the choice of words — or offended that the president did not come bearing something more precious than a cane.

“The Ten Commandments?” he asked curiously.

“The Ten Commandments, yes, sir,” President Bush responded.

One critic called it “an embarrassing breach of protocol.”

“Protestants don’t necessarily recognize the Pope as ‘his holiness,’ but George Bush wasn’t there representing himself. He was there representing the United States,” said Frank Flinn, a professor of religious studies and a practicing Catholic at Washington University in St. Louis.

Furthermore, Flinn said, any gift featuring the Ten Commandments should have included the version used by the Pope and most Catholics.

“This gets the president involved in a religious controversy,” he said. “More appropriate would have been a nice copy of the United States Constitution. When the president gets into the business of distributing the Ten Commandments, it raises the question, ‘Which version should he use?’”

But others say the walking stick may be the most thoughtful, heartfelt gift a president has given to a head of state.

“I think this gift is better than what President Lyndon B. Johnson gave to Pope Paul VI, which was a statue of Lyndon B. Johnson,” said Jimmy Akin, head apologist for Catholic Answers, a San Diego-based Catholic apologetics organization.

Akin also said he understands why Bush referred to the Holy Father as “sir,” and he doesn’t think it reflected disrespect.

“As someone who grew up in Texas, I know that it’s drilled into you to call everyone either ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am.’ So even if it’s not proper protocol, it’s the kind of thing that can slip out without thinking about it,” Akin said.

As for the Protestant version of the Decalogue, Akin agreed Bush could have done better.

“It was a nice gift, but it would have been nicer if it were inscribed with the version of the Ten Commandments that the Pope uses,” Akin said. “It doesn’t make the gift offensive, and I’m sure the Holy Father received it in the spirit it was intended — the spirit of good will and an appreciation that the ability of people in impoverished conditions can contribute to society.”

Why a Stick?

The stick was designed and carved by Roosevelt Wilkerson, a man who lived on the streets of Dallas with his wife until a good friend of George and Laura Bush discovered his craft and began helping him sell the carvings, known as Moses Sticks.

Susan Nowlin, of Dallas, was the “big sister” of Laura Bush at a Southern Methodist University sorority. She and her husband, Edwin Nowlin, are frequent guests at the White House, and Nowlin has given Bush two of Wilkerson’s Moses Sticks.

Nowlin met Wilkerson in 1997 at a craft class at her church, First Presbyterian of Dallas, and later decided she wanted to buy one of his sticks. She asked around, and ended up tracking Wilkerson down by shouting his name in a rough area of southeast Dallas.

Nowlin and Wilkerson struck up a friendship, and she agreed to try selling the sticks. They devised a plan in which Wilkerson would carve sticks, Nowlin would sell them for $75 each, and proceeds would help Wilkerson and his wife rent an efficiency apartment and get off the street.

The first stick Nowlin bought was given to her pastor. Subsequently, she gave a stick to then-Gov. Bush because she knew he cared about the homeless and the poor — and the Ten Commandments. Greeting Nowlin for a luncheon at the governor’s mansion, Laura Bush told her that Gov. Bush considered his Moses Stick “the greatest gift ever.”

“Later, President Bush told me: ‘I have to admit, when I first saw it I thought it was a fishing pole,’” Nowlin said.

Homeless to Celebrity

In preparing for the Vatican visit, Bush contacted Nowlin about acquiring a stick so the White House protocol office could review it as a possible gift for Pope Benedict XVI.

Wilkerson and his wife haven’t been homeless for most of the past 10 years because of the Moses Sticks, but Nowlin says it hasn’t been easy. Sometimes, sales have been slow.

“I needed to sell at least seven sticks a month, if they were to stay off the street,” Nowlin said. “When orders were slow, Roosevelt and I would pray. We would just pray and pray and pray and the orders would come in.”

As a result of the president’s gift to the Pope, Nowlin said she and Wilkerson can’t keep up. She has raised the price of the sticks to $100, but says she could probably charge $1,000 or more and still have a backlog of orders.

Nowlin said Wilkerson remains a shy, soft-spoken man who doesn’t want publicity. She said a CNN crew showed up at his apartment recently and confronted him with cameras while his false teeth were out.

“He was very upset, and was in tears over it,” Nowlin said. “He’s a very simple man who has been given a simple purpose in life. People want him to say something about all of this, and he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t want to disappoint them.”

Wilkerson and his wife have long melded into the crowd at St. Paul United Methodist Church, the oldest black church in Dallas. When they walked in June 10, the pastor announced from the pulpit that a “celebrity” was in the congregation, telling the story of a Moses Stick carved by Wilkerson making its way to the president and Pope.

“The entire congregation gave them a standing ovation,” Nowlin said.

Nowlin said Wilkerson is honored to have carved a stick for the Pope. However, she said he’s so shy about the publicity that he and his wife have temporarily left their home to stay with friends of the Nowlins.

The New York Museum of Folk Art has inquired about displaying Wilkerson’s work, and Nowlin said people are calling and writing with requests for different versions of the Ten Commandments on a stick.

“One man called this morning and said he needed the Fourth Commandment to say ‘remember the Sabbath’ which is on the stick, but he wanted it to also say ‘and keep it holy.’ I told him there’s no more room on the stick. We are not doing multiple varieties of the Ten Commandments. We just can’t manage that,” Nowlin said.

Akin said Catholics, Jews and Protestants use slightly different Hebrew-to-English translations of the Ten Commandments, but he said none of the differences are substantive. The biggest difference between the Protestant and Catholic versions, Akin said, involves grouping. Catholics combine into the First Commandment what Protestants separate into the First and Second Commandments. Likewise, Protestants combine into the 10th Commandment what Catholics break out into the Ninth and 10th.

“Historically there have been three different schemes, but the Church doesn’t dogmatically favor one over the other,” Akin said. “These differences, and some of the abbreviations that are common, mostly reflect practical considerations.”

Wayne Laugesen is based in

Boulder, Colorado

Source: http://ncregister.com/site/article/2954

TWO BEASTS BECOME FRIENDS

Two Beast Become Friends

004JOIN.JPG

(Setting Up The Final Conflict)
(The Two Beasts of Revelation 13)

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.... And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life... And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads... Revelation 13:1,8,11,12,16

In Revelation 13, two beasts are described that will dominate world events at the end of time. The first arises out of the sea and the second out of the earth. Moreover, the second beast pays homage to the first beast by causing all that dwell upon the earth to worship the first beast and in so doing they receive the mark of the beast. Again, by applying the Biblical definitions to the symbols employed in this great prophecy, we can unravel its mysteries.

The core symbols are beasts, heads, horns, sea, dragon and earth. As outlined in the chapters The Mists of Time and The Man Behind the Mask, a beast is a king or a kingdom (Daniel 7:17) and the two beasts of Revelation 13 thus represent two kingdoms or political powers that dominate world events in the last days. The first beast arose out of the sea, representing the nations, the multitudes, peoples, and kings as defined in Revelation 17:15 where the waters were said to symbolize the nations of the earth. In contrast, the second beast arises out of the earth thus representing the opposite of nations, multitudes and kingdoms; therefore, it must arise in areas of the world where nations, multitudes, and kings were not established.

The first beast has ten horns, which remind us of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 which referred to Rome with its ten horns. The seven heads of the first beast represent historic time periods, but the number seven is also the divine number thus indicating that this beast lays claim to deity. The attributes of the beast are further described, and the similarities with the little horn power of Daniel 7 are seen to be the same as those of this beast. They must be seen as one and the same and we are thus dealing with Rome in its papal form (see The Man Behind The Mask). This beast has leopard, bear and lion characteristics, which we recognize again from Daniel. The order in which these three beasts appear here in Revelation is the reverse seen in Daniel. This is because Daniel was looking ahead and John was looking back.


... and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat and great authority. Revelation 13:2

The dragon is identified as Satan in Revelation 12:9.

The little horn power of Daniel 7 had the following attributes in common with the first beast of Revelation 13:

-it spoke great things and blasphemies (Verse 5)

-it made war with the saints (Verse 7)

-it overcame the saints (Verse 7)

-it was more stout than its fellows, or authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation (Verse 7)

-it was given authority to continue forty-two months/1260 days (Verse 5)

John’s vision parallels that of Daniel 7 and the imagery and attributes of the beast out of the sea link it directly with the little horn power. However, the imagery is enlarged, in that the beast also incorporates components of the lion, the bear, the leopard and the terrible ten-horned beast, which were symbols of the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. There is a distinct reason for this, as the Church of Rome has incorporated and refined many of the systems of worship and styles of governance of the kingdoms of antiquity into its own systems. The absolute power of the ruling monarch, the infallibility of his decrees, the total subservience of his officers, the hierarchy of its elite and the many secret organizations that make her power absolute are all inherited from the kingdoms of old. Rome also maintains many of the rites and vestments of the bear; the triple crown worn by the Pope, made of solid gold, is of Persian origin- “King of Heaven, and of Earth, and of the Nether World,” as well as the rites and titles of Mithraism. The rites and ceremonies dating from the Grecian and Babylonian periods form the basis for most of the liturgies, festivals and grand ceremonies observed by the Roman Church. Even the titles used by presentday Popes are the same as those used in early pagan religions and by the monarchs who were seen as representatives of the gods and even as gods themselves.

As the power of pagan Rome declined, the power of papal Rome increased as the church accumulated more and more power and influence. When the emperor Constantine accepted the veneer of Christianity and Paganism and Christianity blended into one, Rome became the religious capital of the world. Abbot’s Roman History, p.236 declares:

The transfer of the emperor’s residence to Constantinople was a sad blow to the prestige of Rome, and at the time one might have predicted her speedy decline. But the development of the Church, and the growing authority of the Bishop of Rome, or the pope, gave her a new lease on life, and made her again the capital – this time the religious capital – of the world.

From 538 A.D., when the emperor Justinian issued a decree, proclaiming the pope to be supreme in religious matters he assumed the garb of representative of Jesus Christ on earth. When Constantine moved his seat to Constantinople, the popes inherited the power of the Roman emperors - their prestige, and even their titles. The most significant of such titles was that of: “Pontifex Maximus” a pagan title for “Bridgebuilder between Heaven and Earth”. Moreover, the Roman clergy also wore the same vestments of the priests of Dagon, the fish-god. The fishhead mitre, worn by bishops and popes is also the same as the ancient mitre used by the priesthood of Babylon. The keys of the pagan female and male god figures have also become a symbol of the papacy, as are his staff, which is the symbol of the snake, and was carried by ancient emperors from Babylonian through Egyptian to Roman times. The keys became the “keys of Peter” and the staff became a shepherd’s staff, christianizing these pagan artifacts.

The papacy is but the ghost of the Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon its grave.[i]

Source: http://windsofprophecy.org/prophecy/two-beasts.html

PSALM 50



Psalm 50


1The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

3Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

4He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

5Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

6And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.

7Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.

8I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

9I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

10For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

11I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

12If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

13Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

14Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

15And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

16But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee.

18When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

19Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

20Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

21These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

22Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

23Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS

STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the solemn watchword hear;
If while ye sleep He suffers, away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil, within you or without,
Charge for the God of battles, and put the foe to rout.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey;
Forth to the mighty conflict, in this His glorious day.
Ye that are brave now serve Him against unnumbered foes;
Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the Gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, each soldier to his post,
Close up the broken column, and shout through all the host:
Make good the loss so heavy, in those that still remain,
And prove to all around you that death itself is gain.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song.
To those who vanquish evil a crown of life shall be;
They with the King of Glory shall reign eternally.


Words:
George Duf­field, Jr., 1858.

Music: Webb,
George J. Webb, 1830
(MI­DI, score). Al­ter­nate tunes:

  • Day of Rest,
    James W. El­li­ott (1833-1915)
    (MI­DI, score)
  • Stand Up,
    Jo­seph Barn­by (1838-1896)
    (MI­DI, score)

George J. Webb (1803-1887)

‘Stand Up for Jesus’ was the dy­ing mes­sage of the Rev­er­end Dud­ley A. Tyng to the Young Men’s Christ­ian As­so­ci­a­tion…The Sab­bath be­fore his death he preached in the im­mense ed­i­fice known as Jaynes’ Hall, one of the most suc­cess­ful ser­mons of mo­dern times. Of the five thou­sand men there as­sem­bled, at least one thou­sand, it was be­lieved were ‘the slain of the Lord’…The fol­low­ing Wed­nes­day, leav­ing his stu­dy for a mo­ment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-pow­er, shell­ing corn. Pat­ting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk stu­dy gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out the roots! His death oc­curred in a few hours…The au­thor of the hymn preached from Eph. 6:14, and the…verses were writ­ten simp­ly as the con­clud­ing ex­hor­ta­tion. The su­per­in­tend­ent of the Sab­bath school had a fly-leaf print­ed for the child­ren—a stray co­py found its way into a Bap­tist news­pa­per, from that pa­per it has gone…all over the world.

George Duffield, Jr.


DURO, DURA FUN JESU

Duro, dura fun Jesu,
Enyin om’ogun Krist:
Gbe asia Re soke
A jo’gbodo fe ku;
Lat’isegun de ’segun
Ni y’o ma to ogun Re;
Tit’ao segun gbogb’ota,
Ti krist y’o j’Oluwa

Duro, duro fun Jesu
F’eti s’ohun ipe
Jade s’ohun ipe
L’oni ojo nla Re:
Enyin akin ti nja fun
Larin ainiye ota,
N’nu ewu, e ni ’gboiya
Dojuko agbara.

Duro, duro fun Jesu,
Duro l’agbara Re
Ipa enia ko to
Ma gbekele tire:
F’ihinrere hamora
Ma sona, ma gbadura
B’ise tab’ ewu ba pe
Ma se alai de ’be.

Duro, duro fun Jesu
Ija na ki y’o pe;
Oni, ariwo ogun,
Ola, orin ’segun,
Eni t’o ba si segun,
Y’o gba ade iye
Y’o ma ba Oba Ogo
Joba titi lailai…Amin

Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/non/yo/durodura.htm (Yoruba)

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/t/standufj.htm (English)

Thursday, October 04, 2007

WHY ARE SO MANY DETRACTORS ASSASSINATED?


Confession to the Jesuits No. 32: Why Are So Many of Their Detractors Assassinated?

Nury Rivera, wife of former Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera, says her
husband was poisoned by Vatican and Jesuits. She will appear Monday on The Investigative Journal radio show, telling the full story.

By Greg Szymanski, JD
Sept. 29, 2007


In this Confession to the Jesuits No.32, we ask why so many of their
critics have met untimely deaths or were systematically discredited while alive?

One such victim of Jesuit retaliation was former Jesuit priest, Fr.
Alberto Rivera, who died on June 20, 1997, after leaving the evil Order and dedicating his life to exposing Jesuit satanic corruption.

Rivera was killed by the Jesuits with the "poison cup" or "Cup of Borgia" for alerting America about Jesuit infiltration through secret societies in almost every facet of American, including intelligence agencies, financial institutions and religious organizations.

Here is a short video clip featuring Rivera from an interview by James
Arrabito, a truth seeker on a world-wide mission to expose the Jesuits and Vatican. Arrabito was also killed by the Jesuits, according to insiders, when his small airplane crashed in Alaska in 1990. A complete version of the video, 2 hours and 23 minutes in length, can be found in the Arctic Beacon Radio archives.

http://www.lemaroc.org/videos/video-oh3d0MrLqVA.html


On Monday, Oct. 1, 2007, Rivera's wife, Nury, will make an appearance on Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal, at http://www.libertyradiolive.com/ telling the full and complete story of her husband's life and death.

Read More


Source: http://www.arcticbeacon.com/

JFK SPEECH: GREATER HOUSTON MINISTERIAL ASSOC.


John F. Kennedy Speeches


Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

(September 12 1960)


ANNOUNCER. From Houston's Rice Hotel, Senator John Kennedy is about to address a special meeting of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association to which he has been invited. During this telecast, Senator Kennedy will participate in an informal question and answer period. The telecast of this meeting is sponsored by the Kennedy-Johnson Texas Campaign Committee, and is being seen throughout Texas on a special 22-station network. The audience you are seeing is composed of clergymen of the Houston area who have been invited by the association.


Rev. Herbert Meza will introduce the Democratic presidential candidate. The meeting is about to be called to order by the president, Rev. George Reck.


Mr. RECK. May I call this special meeting of the Association of Ministers of Greater Houston to order. Let us stand for prayer.


God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon earth. Thy saving health among all nations. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall praise Him. With these words of the psalmist, we stand before Thee, O God, as our only Sovereign Lord. Forgive us, Good Lord, and show us Thy mercy. Let Thy grace rest upon our Nation and do not take our Gospel life from us, incline our ears to Thee and to Thy will and show us always the truth that makes and keeps men free, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, amen.


We are very happy that so many of you ministers are present at this meeting. The treasurer of our association, Pastor E. S. Harrison, has wondered to me if some of you would not like to pay your dues for this time, this year which begins with September. I am sure that he will be in the lobby after this session, ready to shake your hands. [Laughter.]


We are very happy to see so many of you ministers present, and we want this to be a true meeting of the association, under the policy of your executive committee this year, we wish to have as guests for regular and special meetings as many personalities of note and reputation as possible. The purpose, of course, is to provide not only a good program, but to give knowledge and enlightenment to the spiritual leaders of our community. Thus, a similar invitation was extended by the association to Mr. Nixon. Please understand that this is not a political rally. This is a meeting of the association of ministers, and we rely upon your sense for good order, proper respect for the nominee to the highest office of our land, and good Christian behavior generally.


Our little mouse has grown into a lion of significance. This has not been our original intention, but things happen these ways. Nevertheless, the atmosphere will be informal here, an informal gathering of ministers, and may such atmosphere be maintained.


May I speak a welcome to all of you. I recognize at this time the Reverend Herbert Meza, vice president of the association, and our program chairman.


Mr. MEZA. This program this evening does not constitute an endorsement of either the speaker or the party which he represents. The program has been motivated by the religious issues in this campaign, issues that are not modern. There are some who insist that nothing has changed within the Roman Catholic Church and there are others who insist that nothing should change. The problem is not to deny the religious issue or to brand as intolerant those who raise it. The problem is to place it in proper perspective and to determine where the candidate stands in relationship to that perspective. The extremists on both sides have tended to dominate the debate.


Contrary to common propaganda, the South is not a hotbed of religious or racial intolerance. There are many honest minds that are raising honest questions. Many Catholics differ with us on many questions that are relevant to the welfare of our country.


The fact that the Senator is with us is to concede that a religious issue does exist. It is because that there are many serious minds decently raising questions that we have invited the speaker of the evening, and it is for that same reason that we have allowed this meeting to be broadcast to that end.


I should like to introduce, at this time, the Senator from Massachusetts and the candidate for President of the United States, Senator John F. Kennedy.


Senator KENNEDY. Reverend Meza, Reverend Reck, I'm grateful for your generous invitation to speak my views.


While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida - the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power - the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctor bills, the families forced to give up their farms - an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space.


These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues - for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.


But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured - perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again - not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me - but what kind of America I believe in.


I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.


I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.


For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew - or a Quaker - or a Unitarian - or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim - but tomorrow it may be you - until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.


Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end - where all men and all churches are treated as equal - where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice - where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind - and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.


That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe - a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the Nation or imposed by the Nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.


I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would, our system of checks and balances permit him to do so - and neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test - even by indirection - for it. If they disagree with that safeguard they should be out openly working to repeal it.


I want a Chief Executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none - who can attend any ceremony, service, or dinner his office may appropriately require of him - and whose fulfillment of his Presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual, or obligation.


This is the kind of America I believe in - and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we might have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty" or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died."


And in fact this is the kind of America for which our forefathers died - when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches - when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom - and when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo. For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died McCafferty and Bailey and Carey - but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not. For there was no religious test at the Alamo.


I ask you tonight to follow in that tradition - to judge me on the basis of my record of 14 years in Congress - on my declared stands against an Ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools, and against any boycott of the public schools (which I have attended myself) - instead of judging me on the basis of these pamphlets and publications we all have seen that carefully select quotations out of context from the statements of Catholic church leaders, usually in other countries, frequently in other centuries, and always omitting, of course, the statement of the American Bishops in 1948 which strongly endorsed church-state separation, and which more nearly reflects the views of almost every American Catholic.


I do not consider these other quotations binding upon my public acts - why should you? But let me say, with respect to other countries, that I am wholly opposed to the state being used by any religious group, Catholic or Protestant, to compel, prohibit, or persecute the free exercise of any other religion. And I hope that you and I condemn with equal fervor those nations which deny their Presidency to Protestants and those which deny it to Catholics. And rather than cite the misdeeds of those who differ, I would cite the record of the Catholic Church in such nations as Ireland and France - and the independence of such statesmen as Adenauer and De Gaulle.


But let me stress again that these are my views - for, contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters - and the Church does not speak for me.


Whatever issue may come before me as President - in birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject - I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.


But if the time should ever come - and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible - when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.


But I do not intend to apologize for these views to my critics of either Catholic or Protestant faith - nor do I intend to disavow either my views or my Church in order to win this election.


If I should lose on the real issues, I shall return to my seat in the Senate, satisfied that I had tried my best and was fairly judged. But if this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole Nation that will be the loser, in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people.


But if, on the other hand, I should win the election, then I shall devote every effort of mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the Presidency - practically identical, I might add, to the oath I have taken for 14 years in the Congress. For, without reservation, I can "solemly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution * * * so help me God."



Source: http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speeches/spe_1960_0912_kennedy

PSALM 46

Psalm 46

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

THE MESSAGE AND COMTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

EUGENE PETERSON, THE MESSAGE AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

Riding a spreading tide of publicity and enthusiasm, Eugene Peterson's The Message is sweeping into Christian bookstores, homes and churches from coast to coast. In the first four months after its mid-July lease, 100,000 copies of this "New Testament in contemporary English" were printed by NavPress. Seventy thousand books were sold. Thousands were either donated or distributed at reduced prices to youth leaders, Young Life staff, and pastors who could share Peterson's message with their followers. Apparently, most readers were delighted. "The Message is so good it leaves me breathless," writes popular author Madeleine L'Engle in her endorsement.

Considering this ground-swell of acceptance, we do well to ponder the question: What is Peterson's Message?

"The Message is the boldest and most provocative rendering of the New Testament I've ever read," writes Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe, general director of "Back to the Bible" broadcast and former pastor of Moody Bible Church. "The Message is certainly destined to become a devotional classic - not to mention a powerful pastoral tool," adds pastor Jack W. Hayford.

What does Eugene Peterson himself say? In his introduction to The Message, he tells us that "This version of the New Testament in a contemporary idiom keeps the language of the Message and fresh and understandable in the same language in which we do our shopping, talk with our friends, worry about world affairs, and teach our children their table manners...."

This sounds like a good idea, but what if essential Biblical concepts are not part of our everyday conversation? Should we then rewrite God's holy Scriptures to fit today's more shallow and worldly communications? Read the rest of this article by Kjos Ministries.

Source: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/themessage.htm

HE LIVES!

He Lives!
Words and Music by Alfred H. Ackley
© 1933 Homer A. Rodeheaver
Renewal 1961 by The Rodeheaver Co. (Word Music, Inc.)

        I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today;
        I know that He is living whatever men may say;
        I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
        And just the time I need Him, He's always near.

          Chorus
          He lives, He lives,
          Christ Jesus lives today!
          He walks with me and talks with me
          Along life's narrow way.
          He lives, He lives,
          Salvation to impart!
          You ask me how I know He lives?
          He lives within my heart.

        In all the world around me I see His loving care,
        And tho' my heart grows weary I never will despair;
        I know that He is leading thro' all the stormy blast,
        The day of His appearing will come at last.

          Chorus
          He lives, He lives,
          Christ Jesus lives today!
          He walks with me and talks with me
          Along life's narrow way.
          He lives, He lives,
          Salvation to impart!
          You ask me how I know He lives?
          He lives within my heart.

        Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing
        Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
        The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find,
        None other is so loving, so good and kind.

          Chorus
          He lives, He lives,
          Christ Jesus lives today!
          He walks with me and talks with me
          Along life's narrow way.
          He lives, He lives,
          Salvation to impart!
          You ask me how I know He lives?
          He lives within my heart.


              Wednesday, October 03, 2007

              A LOOK AT KISSINGER, ENEMY OF AMERICA

              A LOOK AT HENRY KISSINGER, ENEMY OF AMERICA


              Henry Kissinger Was a Pawn of the Rockefeller/CFR Elite Plan to Destroy US Sovereignty While Building a Global Community of Tyranny.

              Henry Kissinger is an intriguing story to say the least.

              One of the biggest questions concerning Kissinger is how did a German immigrant rise to such power inside American politics so quickly?

              Especially a man who originally only wanted to be an accountant?

              When Kissinger was at the pinnacle of his career, he was often displayed in the (controlled) press as a Superman, the man keeping the world together.

              In truth, Henry Kissinger was merely a CFR/Rockefeller creation.

              Once you understand who was behind the Kissinger Legend, his career makes more sense.

              It makes more sense as to why President Richard Nixon would name a person struggling with English and who had never even claimed he was Republican, as security advisor and later as Secretary of State.

              When the Rockefeller connection is made, it makes more sense why Henry Kissinger not only survived all other Nixon advisors during Watergate, but also the President himself!

              "One thing is certain: Dr. Kissinger has owed far more allegiance to the globe-girdling
              interests of the House of Rockefeller than to his ostensible superiors in the White House, or even to the American people he purports to serve. (And the best interests of Americans, and America, are by no means synonymous with the Grand Design of the House of Rockefeller!)." – Gary Allen, "Kissinger: The Secret Side of the Secretary of State".

              Source: http://www.fdrs.org/henry_kissinger.html#top

              BOMB SCARE IN NYC

              Bomb threat over, traffic reopens in Manhattan

              Wed Oct 3, 2007 6:07pm EDT

              NEW YORK (Reuters) - A brief bomb threat in New York ended on Wednesday afternoon when police determined that an unattended suitcase was harmless, a police spokesman said.

              Police had shut down a section of midtown Manhattan to investigate, barring vehicles and pedestrians from several blocks around 50th Street and Eighth Avenue.

              Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0327311320071003?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

              CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

              Civil Disobedience: A Christian Value

              by Doug Newman



              In 1940, at Dunkirk, on the northern coast of France, a British military officer sent a telegram to London consisting of the following three words: “But if not.”

              The person in London who read the telegram recognized this as a reference to the Old Testament (Daniel 3:17-18, KJV): “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

              When faced with the choice of serving God or serving man, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would sooner be incinerated than worship a graven image.

              No fiery furnace awaits American Christians who defy civil authority in the service of God. At least not yet.

              A few years ago, I wrote of Jody McCloud, principal of Roane County High School in Kingston, Tennessee, just west of Knoxville. In September 2000, he delivered a speech before a football game, which he opened by criticizing a Supreme Court decision forbidding prayers at such events. He went on to outline how he is allowed to use school facilities to promote all manner of perversion and godlessness. He was on a pretty good roll until he said the following:

              “Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical. I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.

              "For this reason, I shall 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's,' and refrain from praying at this time."

              Which God is Mr. McCloud serving? Is it the God of the Bible or is it some black-robed goobers who told him not to pray?

              I recently received an e-mail in defense of Mr. McCloud:

              “In his speech, he mentioned all of the things the school "could" do such as hand out condoms, celebrate earth day, presenting the merits of abortion, etc. Our school never did any of these things. We did not receive condoms, hear the good side of abortions, celebrate earth day by worshipping "mother earth". I firmly stand in support of what he did at this game, even the "render unto Caesar" part. How can you go in front of practically the whole town and break the law (no matter how ridiculous it may be) and expect no student to use that as a defense to break the rules later. If he were to say a prayer in front of our students and parents no one would probably have cared. The visiting team may have. I say what he did was right. If he would have said a prayer he more than likely would have lost his job.”

              Let’s begin with the “lost his job” part and work backwards.

              In 1979, my father’s employer brought him some documents to review and sign. Upon reading them, he discovered two boldfaced lies, and refused to sign them. When he was told that he would be terminated if he did not sign these documents, he remained steadfast in his refusal to sign off on total falsehood. His employer showed him the door.

              His integrity was not for sale. He could not serve God and mammon.

              Three years ago, a good friend willingly ran the risk of termination from her job. My friend, a Christian girl, had refused twice to falsify some documents. As a result, she was written up twice for insubordination. She said she felt good telling her employer, “I don’t think so.” Shortly thereafter, she found another job.

              Her integrity was not for sale either. She, too, made the right choice between serving God and serving mammon.

              Herewith is a grotesquely informal and incomplete history of biblical civil disobedience.

              The Bible is full of folks who said “I -- or we -- don’t think so” to earthly governments. Time and again, the Old Testament Jews were at loggerheads with their earthly governments.

              In Daniel 6, Daniel was forbidden from praying out loud to God for 30 days. Chuck Baldwin, a man with whom I wish I could trade brains (1), had this to say: “I can just hear today's Christian pragmatists screaming, ‘It's only for thirty days. You can still pray in your heart. We must obey the government.’"

              Daniel knew that if you gave your government an inch, they would take a mile. He risked death by praying out loud to God anyway.

              Jesus was crucified on political charges. He defied his government! Consider Luke 23:2:

              "And they began to accuse him, saying, 'We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.' "

              Would millions of emasculated Christians in the year 2005 even recognize such a man as their King?

              In Acts 4:19 and 5:29, we see examples of Christ’s followers telling us that, when push comes to shove, we must obey God rather than man.

              Several of Paul’s letters were written in Roman jails. John wrote the book of Revelation in exile.

              Where do you get this idea that Christians must always obey their earthly governments?

              We hear no end of how “America was founded on Christian values.” Yet we forget that the Founders were, among other things, rebels, tax protestors, smugglers and militia members who engaged in armed shootouts with their government. (Some of them even grew the devil’s lettuce on their plantations!)

              In the 1850s, slavery was well on its way to extinction. Indeed, it would have gone away without Lincoln’s War. Not only were technological advances making it economically obsolete, but the conviction was growing in the hearts and minds of Christians that slavery was just plain wrong. Some of the most frequently defied laws in American history were the Fugitive Slave Laws, which made it a crime to harbor runaway slaves.

              In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks defied the law by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Does any Christian today dispute her decision to break the law because the law was an a**? (2)

              American Christians applaud those Christians who resisted the Nazis, the Soviets and the ChiComs. Indeed, the nation with the largest Christian population in the world is Red China! And in China – as in ancient Rome – Christianity is an outlaw faith!

              In recent years, we have seen courageous Christians like Michael New and my friend Rick Stanley take a stand against a rogue government.

              But for some reason, millions of American Christians have this totally absurd idea that you should always obey your government. Where do they get this? To steal a phrase from the venerable cyber-pundit Alan Stang, they get it from the “pulpit pansies” who recklessly misapply Romans 13.

              Have a look at Romans 13:1 in the New International Version: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities . . . .”

              Now have a look at Romans 13:1 in the King James Version: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . . . .”

              There is quite a bit of difference. “Every soul” includes every government employee. They too are subject to God’s judgment. And when they are wrong, it is a Christian’s duty to disobey them in order to honor God.

              Adolph Hitler's totalitarianization of Germany was aided and abetted in no small part by pastors and Christians who went right along with everything he said. When – not if, when – the full-blown persecution of Christians comes to America, the fault will lie with all those false teachers – pastors and lay people -- who would have you think that a Christian should always obey his government.

              Jody McCloud would have set a wonderful example had he prayed aloud in public before that football game. There are some rules with which we merely disagree. I have such rules where I work and I obey them. They are not at all immoral. They are just weird. There are other rules, however, that are immoral and downright godless. Christians have a duty to disobey them and to encourage others to do likewise. Mr. McCloud wasted a wonderful opportunity to strike a blow for the causes of Christ and liberty.

              Jesus proclaimed that “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) While the gates of hell will not prevail against God’s True Church, numerous lesser entities have prevailed against the contemporary American church. Why? Because Christians let them.

              When full-blown persecution comes to America, it will not be the fault of the schools, the courts or the ACLU. Rather, it will be the fault of all those Christians who rolled over and played dead when their faith was challenged.





              (1) I doubt, however, that he would want my pea-sized brain.

              (2) This word appears 76 times in the King James Bible referring to a not-too-horribly-brilliant beast of burden.

              June 22, 2005


              Source: http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/newman/newman10.html

              JESUS AND NICODEMUS THE PHARISEE

              John 3

              1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

              2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

              3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

              4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

              5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

              6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

              7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

              8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

              9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

              10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

              11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

              12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

              13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

              14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

              15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

              16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

              17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

              18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

              19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

              20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

              21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

              John the Baptist's (the Baptizer) Testimony of Jesus Christ

              22After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

              23And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.

              24For John was not yet cast into prison.

              25Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.

              26And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

              27John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

              28Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

              29He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

              30He must increase, but I must decrease.

              31He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.

              32And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.

              33He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.

              34For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

              35The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

              36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.


              P.S. Bolds and Highlights added for emphasis. *Many quote John 3:16, yet they fail to acknowledge what Jesus said afterwards: verses 17-21. "That light has come into the world, yet men love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil"... John 3:19. Blogmaster.