Monday, March 10, 2008

IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY!


All About The Money

LAST WEEK, After the explosive attack of a small Armed Forces Recruiting Office in between 7th Avenue, and Broadway, in the Times Square area of New York City; Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a news conference in which he pledged to bring to justice the "terrorists" that had fire bombed the Recruiting Station, recently. He then added (by the way-) that all tourists, and visitors should be aware that NYC, "was open for business".

After the deadly attacks on September 11, 2001; President George W. Bush, promised that he would hunt down the (surviving) culprits of the dastardly deeds, dead or alive. A few days lapsed, then the President commented that the people should buy and sell, and carry on as in normal times for the sake of the economy. He said it was "business as usual".

Let me point out that from both these incidents, and the reaction from the two executives; It seems that what 'really' matters, is that the buying and selling of everyday existence continues as usual. That the main concern is that the funds continue to flow. Which brings me to the conclusion that it's all about the money! Everything else is a side issue, and second in importance to the money concern. Money talks.

Arsenio

P.S. And the value of the dollar keeps diminishing, day by day!

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT



The Council of Trent

The Council of Trent played an important part in determining the outcome of the Counter-Reformation. Along with the part played by the Jesuits and certain individuals, the Council of Trent was a central feature of the Counter-Reformation. But whether Trent represented a positive move by the Catholic Church remains contentious.

Any long term change in the Catholic Church depended on the attitude of the pope in power at one particular time. If there was no desire for change, then there would be no change! Julius III (1550 to 1555) showed little interest in reform. There were those popes who were the opposite and were truly interested in moving forward the Catholic Church such as Sixtus V (1585 to 1590).

The Council of Trent was called by Paul Ill who was pope from 1534 to 1549 and it first sat in December 1545. It was finally disbanded in 1563 but though it would appear to have a life span of 18 years, it was only engaged in talks for four and a half years. Most of the popes at this time did not want to lose power and "they did not feel any enthusiasm for the abolition of abuses which were lucrative for the Papacy." (Cowie)

The pope did not attend the meetings of the Council and he took no formal part in it. But his legates ensured that the pope’s views would always be put forward and this meant that there was no danger in the revival of conciliarism (the Council being superior to the pope).

700 bishops could have attended the Council but to start with only 31 turned up along with 50 theologians. By 1563, a total of 270 bishops attended and the vast majority of them were Italian which was a great bonus for the pope as they were under his control and it was the pope who effectively controlled promotion to cardinal etc. and these men would not be seen in public doing anything other than what the pope wanted. The bishops also insisted that they vote as individuals rather than as a block-country vote and as there were 187 Italian bishops, 32 Spanish, 28 French and 2 German the Italians vastly outnumbered the other three countries put together! As such what was to be passed at Trent was what the pope accepted as being acceptable to him.

The Council had been called to examine doctrine and reform. Charles V had wanted abuses looked at first in an attempt to please the Protestants and hopefully tempt them back to the church. Once they were back they could look at doctrine. Paul III did not want this as reforms could financially damage him and concessions could diminish his authority. The result was that two separate sections dealt with reform and doctrine simultaneously.

The First Session

The Second Session

The Third Session



Source: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/council-of-trent.htm

ISRAEL'S FALLEN CONDITION

Lamentations 4

1How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

3Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

5They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

6For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

7Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

8Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

9They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

12The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

13For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

14They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

15They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

16The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

18They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

19Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

ROBERT SCHULLER 33rd DEGREE FREEMASON

Robert Schuller 33rd Degree Freemason

Robert Schuller, good friends with many 33rd Degree Freemasons such as Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, John Wayne, W.Clement Stone and also.Rich DeVos the founder and chairman of Amway Corporation. He also names John Wimber of the Vineyard-Toronto churches as one of.the top ten ministers on the planet. Schuller was helped into ministry by Masonic brother Billy Graham.
..


Robert Schuller, involved with Freemasonry and the Illuminati
by Fritz Springmeier

There are a number of important "powerful" (in their own eyes) Christian
clergymen, who are Freemasons. These men collaborate with each other. Once one
of them is established in a famous ministry they use their established
ministry to birth (to launch) someone else into prominence. This is an
overview on Robert Schuller and his ties to this group.

I originally concluded that Robert Schuller was a Freemason based on:
a.Testimony/claims of individuals
b.How he worked within this pack of Masonic clergymen
c.The fact that certain photographs showed him doing Masonic handshakes with
other Masons. I used to have one. I suggest that a person examine past photos
of him with the "right" people, and you may well also find a Masonic
handshake. I concluded he is a Freemason.

This was a conclusion I came to in 1991. It seems that years later, I saw a
Masonic reference to his membership, but since I had already concluded he was
a Mason, I didn't take the effort to keep track of this reference. I also felt
that his own anti-Biblical teachings (which are openly taught) should scare
Christians away from the man.

Although it is significant that he is a Freemason, what is more significant is
that he promotes Masonic doctrine. (I said the same about Charles T. Russell,
but the response back to me by individuals was that I was wrong, they
contended that the membership is more important than what the man does. How
people can think this way boggles my mind. I am much more concerned with what
a man does, rather than the labels he puts on himself.)

In material that is authorized by Robert Schuller I's ministry, it is stated
that Norman Vincent Peale was his mentor and "close friend". For documentation
on this see Nason, Michael and Donna Nason. Robert Schuller: The Inside Story
(Waco: Word Books, 1983, p. 61) Schuller often praised Norman Vincent Peale,
for instance, in his Hour of Prophecy Show of April 2, '89, which had a clip
of Peale. Less than a month after Peale died, Schuller did a show on Jan. 16,
'94, where Schuller talked with tears about how Peale had been his mentor and
his inspiration. Peale was more than that. Peale helped his ministry over the
years.

Who was Norman Vincent Peale? I have the Scottish Rite Magazine that shows
Peale's picture in the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple in the Scottish
Rite's Hall of Honor. Norman Vincent Peale's 33 degree membership was not kept
secret. He was also a Shriner (Imperial Grand Chaplain of the Shrine). Billy
Graham's Christianity Today gave Peale positive publicity. In Billy Graham's
New York Crusade the larger number of people who came forward (373) were sent
to Peale's Marble Collegiate Church. The second largest group of new converts
(135) were sent to the Rockefeller's Riverside Church, whose pastor was an
infidel. Peale's gospel was the gospel of Positive Thinking, and he taught
visualization and other techniques that are important for people to function
under the Illuminati's trauma-based total mind-control programming. In other
words, he was enhancing their mind-control of their victims in the general
population. Peale promoted a number of different religions and methods from
other religions such as TM and witchcraft, and he consistently criticized
traditional Christianity. Peale was very close to the Unity School in Kansas
City, and so was Schuller. I knew a man who had taught at the Unity School
before he became a Christian. He told me that he had personally witnessed
Robert Schuller perform a Luciferian initiation ceremony at the Unity School,
and that Robert Schuller knew what he was doing. I also happened to bump into
two men in Kansas one day (this was in the '80's, before I was exposing all
this stuff) and as we talked they wanted to talk about something very
frightening that they had experienced. They had bumped into Satanic Rituals
going on at night near the Unity School, and were chased by these Satanists
and barely escaped. Norman Vincent Peale was also part of the Pilgrim Society
(which is an Illuminati front) reserved for higher up Illuminati members.
Peale and Billy Graham are close friends.

Armand Hammer (whose father Julius named his first name after the Communists
arm and hammer symbol) was Jewish and the top man for the Communists under
Lenin and Stalin in the United States. I spent several days as the guest of a
woman who had been programmed with Illuminati mind-control to be a sexual
slave for Armand Hammer. This convinced me that it was no accident that Armand
Hammer was great friends of the European Rothschilds, and many other prominent
Illuminati members. It clearly showed me what seemed obvious anyway, the man
was Illuminati. It helps explain why J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, and many
other supposedly anti-Communists were friendly with Hammer. William Casey
(once head of the CIA) while he was head of the Export-Import Bank was in
favor of Hammer activities in Russia, and in 1974 loaned Russia $216 million
dollars on unprofitable ventures that Hammer wanted to carry out in Russia. In
1966, when the Arabs found out that Hammer was Jewish, he nominally joined a
Unitarian church so that he could claim he wasn't Jewish. This man, Armand
Hammer, was the man who got Robert Schuller into Russia and regularly onto
Russian T.V.

Robert Schuller taught a Masonic gospel. Schuller told Moslems that if he,
Schuller, came back in 100 years and found his descendants to be Moslems it
wouldn't bother him. The Record (Spring, 1997) reports that 80 homosexual
pastors and lay leaders from the Metropolitan Community Churches participated
in Schuller's 1997 Robert Schuller Institute for Successful Church
Leadership.

Masons within the Masonic lodges know that Kenneth Copeland, Billy Graham and
others are Freemasons. They have been reported saying so to other Masons, and
to Christians. For instance, some friends of mine went to a Masonic open house
where they were trying to impress new comers (probably hoping for new
recruits) and one of the Masons boasted that Billy Graham was a Freemason. My
friends were very impressed because it confirmed what they had read in my
material.

Prominent Masonic Clergymen who hide their Masonic membership would include:
Kenneth Copeland, Billy Graham, and Oral Roberts.

Kenneth Copeland has shaken hands with Masons with Masonic handshakes, and
placed the Masonic Square & Compass on his tapes and books. His daughter has
her picture on the cover of "Shout" (Copeland's magazine for kids) wearing an
upside down star, which represents both Baphomet (Lucifer/Satan) and the
Masonic Women's Eastern Star. Kenneth Copeland started his ministry under Oral
Roberts. Oral Roberts was, in turn, started out by Billy Graham. (Oral Roberts
admits that Graham got him started in one of his books, Miracle of Seed Faith,
p. 9). I have spent time with victims of Illuminati mind-control who were
Satanic Ritual Abuse victims in ceremonies led by Oral Roberts. I would say
about half a dozen people who could give personal details of how Oral Roberts
is a Satanist have talked (confided) with me. They also would talk about his
Masonic membership. There is a large number of hurting people who are SRA and
DID. These people live in different parts of the country, and have never seen
each other, but have personal accounts that collaborate each other.

Where these 3 Masonic Clergymen expose themselves is what they have said that is
heretical, what they have said that is obviously mind-control triggers for
Illuminati mind-control, and the infidels and heretics that they embrace who
are best of friends with them. The financing for these men shows that men like
Armand Hammer, William Randolph Hearst, the Rockefellers and numerous others
of similar ilk are willing to support them with large donations/and or help.
Part of the proof of who Robert Schuller, Billy Graham, and Oral Roberts is
seen when one assembles the pieces of the puzzle as to what they are doing. An
accumulation of evidence then piles up that is so vast, that it is clear that
these men are dirty. Robert Schuller is on the public record as denying all
the beliefs of Christianity. He is only a "Christian" if one redefines
Christian to be just the opposite of what it used to mean. For anyone who
wants to comprehend that Schuller does not teach Christian doctrine, I suggest
they simply compare his teachings to the Bible. Billy Graham, Oral Roberts,
and Kenneth Copeland are usually more subtle, (but not always). Billy Graham
openly said we should embrace the New World Order. Copeland openly said that
the Romans had anal sex with Christ. Roberts openly said his fantastic vision,
that brought him so much ridicule. The man who "saved" Roberts was not a
Christian. The man who Graham says initially told him to become a Christian
minister was the head of the Jesuits, Malachi Martin, who I know to be an
Illuminati mind-control programmer. There are plenty of off color things about
these men, if one has the clear thinking to see the blatant off color facts.
But most people think that the world's establishment news will tell them the
truth. When Billy Graham is rated the most popular respected man in America
for several years, the herd instinct of the sheeple is to idolize the man.
Then when this idol of a man tells us Oral Roberts is a great man of God, the
sheeple swallow that one too. It all works together, and all these men work
together.

I do not think most Christians can think clearly and with critical thinking.
I say this because Billy Graham has openly supported Norman Vincent Peale and
Robert Schuller. Both of these men preach a gospel of positive thinking, and
openly defy the doctrines of the Bible. All three of these men preach
ecumenicalism and participate in Ecumenical meetings and ecumenical groups.
They are also in favor of a One-World-Religion, which does not teach Christ as
the only way of salvation. Because I am centering on Robert Schuller, this
article will not go into the fullness of what these other men have done. In
light of what I know these men are doing, their reported 33 degree memberships
in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry seem trivial. Peale, Schuller, and Roberts
are Illuminati. Graham is used by the Illuminati, and has participated in
Luciferian rituals. It is hard to conceive that they would use him so much,
(and he knows they use him by the way), if he were not also a member. Since
there is a small possibility he is primarily just blackmailed, without being a
member, I might entertain a small doubt about whether he is actually a member.
Copeland participates in the Illuminati's mind-control over people, and is
also I suspect one of their members. These men don't want to taint their
Madison avenue images by revealing their Scottish Rite memberships, but they
have much darker secrets than their Scottish Rite memberships.

The Double Headed Eagle of the Scottish Rite, 33rd Degree Of Freemasonry

(Above) Here we have the symbol for the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry see Scottish Rite link

The picture above, being a statue of the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry's Double Headed Eagle, was actually released by Robert Schuller's own ministry. It was sent to people who pledged $600 or more to his program 'Churches Uniting in Global Mission' and was shown in the Hour of Power News Extra edition. It claimed this program included churches of all denominations and referred to the program as "this networking". I would appreciate getting my hands on a better image of this eagle and also Masonic handshake pictures of Illuminati. Please email to cultbusters@softhome.net with more information. This is the way Masons communicate to others about their membership through symbols and I believe this is what Schuller is doing.



QUOTATIONS BY ROBERT SCHULLER

Compiled by Jim Fox 07-13-92

Note: This file is still being worked on, the Biblical refutations to
Robert Schuller's statements are still in the process of being worked on.
I would urge any of you who read this file in this preliminary stage to
search the Scriptures as the Bereans in Acts 17:11 did.


1. Explains Philippians 2:7,8

"Jesus knew his worth, his success fed his self-esteem.... He suffered
the cross to sanctify his self-esteem. And he bore the cross to
sanctify your self-esteem. And the cross will sanctify the ego trip!"
(Living Positively One Day at a Time, p.201)

2. "A person is in hell when he has lost his self-esteem."
(Self-Esteem, The New Reformation, pp.14-15)

3. Obviously he does not accept 1 Timothy 1:15, Luke 5:32

"I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ that and
under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to
human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism
enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of
attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition."
(Time, March 18, 1985)

4. "I discovered the reality of that dynamic dimension in prayer that
comes through visualizing..... Don't try to understand it. Just start
to enjoy it! It's true. It works. I tried it." (The Fourth Dimension,
Foreword)

5. "Now-Believe and You Will Achieve" (Tough Times Never Last, But Tough
People DO, p. 161)

6. "You don't know what power you have within you!... You make the world
into anything you choose. Yes, you can make your world into whatever
you want it to be." (Possibility Thinking: Goals, Amway Corporation
cassette tape)

7. "A variety of approaches to meditation...is employed by many different
religions as well as by various non-religious mind- control systems. In
all forms... TM, Zen Buddhism, or Yoga or... mediation... of
Judaeo-Christian tradition... the meditator endeavors to overcome the
distractions of the conscious mind...."

"It is important to remember that meditation in any form is the
harnessing, by human means, of God's divine laws.... We are endowed
with a great many powers and forces that we do not yet fully
understand."

"The most effective mantras employ the "M" sound. You can get the feel
of it by repeating the words, "I am, I am," many times over....
Transendental Meditation or TM... is not a religion nor is it
necessarily anti-Christian." (Peace of Mind Through Possibility
Thinking, pp. 131-32)

8. Robert Schuller was addressing a group of Unity ministers and ministers
in training, at the Unity School of Christianity (a Mind-science cult).

Schuller was asked, "Dr. Schuller, we hear a lot of talk these days
about the New Age, the Age of Aquarius, the type of New Age thinking
that we are involved in with Holistic healing and various other things
that are part of what is called the New Age. Will you describe the
role of what you might consider the New Age minister in the '80s and
beyond?"

Schuller replied, "Well, I think it depends upon where you're working.
I believe that the responsibility in this Age is to "positivize"
religion. Now this probably doesn't have much bearing to you people,
being Unity people, you're positive. But I talk a great deal to groups
that are not positive... even to what we would call Fundamentalists who
deal constantly with words like sin, salvation, repentance, guilt, that
sort of thing."

"So when I'm dealing with these people... what we have to do is
positivize the words that have classically only had a negative
interpretation." (from an address at Unity Village, Unity tape)

9. Schuller declares that this new reformation requires that a new
interpretation of the cross is needed.

"The classical interpretation of this teaching of Christ on 'bearing
our cross' desperately needs reformation...."

"The cross Christ calls us to bear will be offered as a dream... an
inspiring idea that would incarnate itself in a form of ministry that
helps the self-esteem-impoverished persons to discover their self-worth
through salvation and subsequent social service in our Savior's
name..."

"So the proclamation of possibility thinking is the positive
proclamation of the cross!..."

"Christ was the world's greatest possibility thinker. Do we dare follow
him?" (Self-Esteem, pp. 22, 117-19)

10. "If the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed as a theology of
self-esteem, imagine the health this could generate in society!"
(Self-Esteem, p. 47)

11. "Are we aware that theology has failed to accommodate and apply proven
insights in human behavior as revealed by twentieth- century
psychologists?" (Self-Esteem, p. 27)

12. "Self-love is a crowning sense of self-worth. It is an ennobling
emotion of self-respect... an abiding faith in yourself. It is sincere
belief in yourself."

"It comes through self-discovery, self-discipline, self- forgiveness
and self-acceptance. It produces self-reliance, self- confidence and
an inner security, calm as the night." (Self-Love, The Dynamic Force
of Success, p. 32)

13. Schuller describes a basic defect in modern Christianity.

"What is that basic flaw? I believe is it the failure to proclaim the
gospel in a way that can satisfy every person's deepest need - one's
spiritual hunger for glory. Rather than glorify God's highest creation
- the human being - Christian liturgies,, hymns, prayers, and
scriptural interpretations have often insensitively and destructively
offended the dignity of the person..." (Self-Esteem, p. 31)

14. "Where the sixteenth-century Reformation returned our focus to sacred
Scriptures as the only infallible rule for faith and practice, the new
reformation will return our focus to the sacred right of every person
to self-esteem!" (Self-Esteem, p. 38)

15. "Real self-esteem is real humility. Healthy pride and honest humility
are the same human qualities - just different sides of the same coin.
We all welcome affirmation and resent being insulted." (Self-Esteem,
p. 174)

16. Schuller has decided that pride is this great thing that we all need
to strive for. However God lead Israel through the wilderness in order
to humble them and break them of their pride (Deut 8:2).

"A neurotic fear of pride has motivated the church too long.... In my
lecture to thousands of ordained clergy of the widest cross section of
historic Christianity, I have found it necessary to tell my
colleagues:"

"Dare to be a possibility thinker! Do not fear pride; the easiest job
God has is to humble us. God's almost impossible task is to keep us
believing every hour of the day how great we are as his sons and
daughters on planet earth."

"Don't worry about humility. The easiest job God has to do is to keep
you an me humble. God's biggest job is to get us to believe that we
are somebody and that we really can do something...."

"Remember, 'If your pride is rooted in your divine call, your humility
is assured. The Cross will sanctify your ego trip.'... For the Cross
protected our Lord's perfect self-esteem from turning into sinful
pride." (Self-Esteem, p. 57, 74)

17. "Are we to believe that self-denial means the denial of personal
pleasure, desire, fulfillment, prosperity? For too long religious
leaders have suggested this with tragic results...."

"Such attitudes are dangerous distortions and destructive mis-
interpretations of scattered Bible verses grossly misread by
negative-thinking Bible readers who project their own negative
self-image onto the pages of Holy Scripture...."

"By self-denial Christ does not mean the rejection of that positive
emotion we call self-esteem - the joy of experiencing my
self-worth...." (Self-Esteem, p.113-15)

18. Since self-esteem is of all importance with Schuller, he tries to draw
the conclusion that an object is worth what the price with which it
was bought, in our case since Christ died for us on the cross, we now
are of infinite value.


"I must be of infinite value in God's sight" (Self-Esteem, p. 74)

"In his crucifixion, Christ has placed unlimited value on the human
soul." (Self-Esteem, p. 102)

19. We now have a new definition of the atonement!

"If the deepest curse of sin is what it does to our self-esteem, then
the atoning power of the Cross is what it does to redeem our discarded
self-worth." (Self-Esteem, p. 101)

20. "I may not deserve it [salvation] but I am worth it so don't say that
I am unworthy." (Self-Esteem, p. 74)

21. No one is an unworthy sinner according to Schuller, see Luke 15:21 and
Romans 3:23 to see if this is true.

"The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say, 'I am
unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at
my worst.'"

"For once a person believes he is an 'unworthy sinner,' it is doubtful
if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus
Christ." (Self-Esteem, p. 98)





Source: http://www.geocities.com/endtimedeception/robert.htm1

THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL

Colossians 1

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

6Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

7As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

8Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

DROP IN JOBS ADDS TO GRIM ECONOMIC VIEW

Sharp Drop in Jobs Adds to Grim Economic Picture

Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times
The Labor Department estimated that the nation lost 63,000 jobs in February, sending many to job fairs like this one in Seattle.
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Published: March 8, 2008

WASHINGTON — The worst fears of consumers, investors and Washington officials were confirmed on Friday, as deepening paralysis on Wall Street collided with stark new evidence of falling employment and a likely recession.

In a report that was far worse than most analysts had expected, the Labor Department estimated that the nation lost 63,000 jobs in February. It was the second consecutive monthly decline, and the third straight drop for private-sector jobs.

Even before the bad news on jobs emerged, the Federal Reserve was already racing to ease the latest crisis in the credit markets, where seemingly rock-solid companies have been caught short because the markets are devaluing the collateral they had posted to back billions of dollars in loans. Much of that collateral consists of mortgages.

In a surprise announcement early Friday, the Federal Reserve said it would inject about $200 billion into the nation’s banking system this month — with more to come after that — by offering banks one-month loans at low rates and in return letting them pledge mortgage-backed bonds and even riskier assets as collateral.

Though monthly payroll data are notoriously volatile and subject to revision, the jobs report was so bleak that many of the few remaining optimists on Wall Street threw in the towel and conceded that the United States was already in a recession.

“Godot has arrived,” wrote Edward Yardeni, who had been one of Wall Street’s most relentlessly upbeat forecasters. “I’ve been rooting for the muddling through scenario. However, the credit crisis continues to worsen and has become a full-blown credit crunch, which is depressing the real economy.”

The convulsions in the credit markets were spurred in part when Thornburg Mortgage, one of the nation’s biggest independent mortgage lenders, and Carlyle Capital, the offspring of one of the country’s largest private equity firms, failed to meet demands by lenders to post more cash or pledge other assets, also known as margin calls, on debts that had been backed by packages of mortgages.

Fed officials said Friday that they were not pumping money into the system in response to the poor jobs data but rather to the growing unwillingness or inability of investors to finance even routine business deals. Fed officials have long feared that anxiety about credit losses would create a “negative feedback loop,” or self-perpetuating spiral of rising unemployment, more home foreclosures and yet more credit losses.

“You have big credit losses that make it harder to get new credit, which means the economy starts to slow down and foreclosures go up,” said Nigel Gault, a senior economist at Global Insight, a forecasting firm. “Then you get even bigger credit losses, which makes banks even less willing to lend and you keep spiraling down.”

The Fed’s problem is that its main weapons against a downturn — lower interest rates and easier money — are ill suited to a crisis that stems from collapsing confidence about credit quality.

Even though the central bank sharply cut short-term interest rates twice in January and clearly signaled that it would cut them again on March 18, rates for home mortgages have risen and rates for many forms of commercial loans have jumped sharply.

“There has been a tug of war under way between deteriorating credit conditions and monetary policy,” wrote Laurence H. Meyer, a former Fed governor and now a forecaster at Macroeconomic Advisers. As a result, he said, credit conditions have remained almost as tight as ever.

The darkening economic outlook, coming just nine months before presidential elections, puts enormous pressure on President Bush and could pose a problem for Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Typically, the party in power has not been able to hold onto the White House when the economy is in a recession in an election year.

President Bush, in a hastily arranged appearance before television cameras on Friday afternoon, acknowledged that the economy had slowed but predicted that it would get a lift this summer from the $168 billion stimulus package of tax rebates and temporary tax cuts that Congress recently passed.

“Losing a job is painful, and I know Americans are concerned about the economy,” Mr. Bush said.

“The good news is, we anticipated this and took decisive action to bolster the economy, by passing a growth package that will put money into the hands of American workers and businesses.”

Edward P. Lazear, chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the White House had downgraded its earlier forecasts but still believed that the tax rebates of up to $1,200 for many families will help the economy escape a recession.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/business/08econ.html

HOME-SCHOOLERS 'IN SHOCK' OVER RULING

Home-schoolers 'in shock' over court ruling

By Amy Fagan
March 8, 2008

National and California home-schooling advocates are banding together to fight a state court ruling they say could essentially outlaw the practice of allowing parents to teach their children at home.


The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and the Home School Association of California (HSC) say the court decision, which said home-schooling parents must have a valid state teaching license and they have no constitutional right to home-school, takes aim at the education programs many families use to get exemption from the public school system.


"We're kind of in shock," said Mike Smith, HSLDA president.


The Los Angeles-based case began when the county petitioned to have two home-schooled children enrolled in public or private school after an older sibling accused the father of abuse. A lower state court ruled against that idea, citing a constitutional right held by parents to educate their children at home. The appeals court disagreed and reversed that ruling.


"California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to educate their children in their own home," said the Feb. 28 ruling by the California Appellate Court for the second district.


"It's clear to us that enrollment and attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor children," it stated, laying out the few exceptions to that rule, including if the child is enrolled in and attends a private full-time day school or if the child is tutored by a person holding a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught.


The court said none of these exemptions apply to the case, in which the mother did not hold a teaching credential but taught her children at home through an extension, or independent study program, of Sunland Christian School, where the children were officially enrolled. The court said that setup doesn't qualify as private school attendance or a credentialed tutor under state law.


But Mr. Smith said for years, California parents have been allowed to home-school their children under the private school exemption, either by establishing themselves as small private schools or using an extension program or independent study program of an existing private school.



The court ruling threatens these setups, he said, and could be used to require parents to get credentials. If it stands, Mr. Smith estimates it would only allow 10 percent of the current California home-schooling families to continue.

HSC estimates there are between 60,000 to 200,000 school-age children being home-schooled in California.


To earn a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, an individual must complete a bachelor's degree and take multiple exams.


Fred Glass, spokesman for the California Federation of Teachers, said requiring a child's teacher to hold a state teaching credential is hardly a bad thing.


"It's a matter of holding the standards high enough to ensure that children get a decent education," he said. A credential doesn't guarantee that, he said, but "it's probably the best measure we have."


The California Department of Education is still reviewing the ruling, said department spokeswoman Pam Slater. "We don't know its reach," she said.


Mr. Smith said no other states are attempting a similar move on home-schooling, but he said if the California ruling stands, other states may try to mimic it. State laws on home-schooling vary, though all allow it to some degree.


HSLDA lists six states as "high regulation" states that make it difficult for home-school parents, by requiring them to send the government notification or test scores, or other requirements. Mr. Smith said the court ruling would make California the worst.


According to the HSC, the family in this case "was not the one we would have picked for a home-school test case." Still, the organization insisted the court got it wrong, and the decision, "means that all educational alternatives could be construed as illegal, from home-schooling to distance learning to [independent study programs]."


Debbie Schwarzer, an HSC volunteer, noted that the ruling could also be interpreted more narrowly, to apply only to the family in question, or to home-school families operating under an independent study program like Sunland Christian's.


"Absolute confusion," she said of the ruling. "None of us know."


Mr. Smith said that as far as the credentialling issue goes, a credential doesn't guarantee a better education. He said his group compared a group of home-schooling children whose parents had varying levels of education from high school only to a state teaching credential and found there was no appreciable difference in how they scored.


"Teacher certification doesn't guarantee anything," he said.

Source: http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/NATION/708448406/0/FRONTPAGE

SETTLING CRISIS MAKES WINNERS OF ANDES

Settling of Crisis Makes Winners of Andes Nations, While Rebels Lose Ground

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: March 9, 2008

After leaders in the Andes tiptoed from the edge of war to bear hugs and oaths of brotherhood, Latin America was trying to sort out the winners and losers in the region’s worst diplomatic dispute in years.


Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, right, settled their dispute but still emerged sullied.

A day after the crisis was resolved at a summit meeting in the Dominican Republic on Friday, it was already clear that nearly all of the players lost something. The leaders of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela traded charges that muddied each of them. Colombia and its ally, the United States, found themselves isolated in the region.

And Latin America’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, lost two senior commanders in a week, the latest in a string of tactical and strategic defeats.

But the biggest winner appears to have been the region itself, which resolved its own dispute without outside help and without violence.

The crisis began when Colombian security forces hunted down and killed Raúl Reyes, the FARC’s second-in-command, and 23 others in a raid last weekend on the guerrillas’ camp in Ecuador. Venezuela and Ecuador assailed Colombia as having violated Ecuador’s sovereignty, cut diplomatic ties and sent troops to the Colombian border in a show of force, effectively defending the FARC’s nebulous operations in their countries.

Colombia insists it has the right to attack its enemies, but the military response by its neighbors — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela vowed war if Colombia pursued its fight with the FARC into Venezuela — could allow the FARC to operate with more freedom outside Colombia.

Still, that victory may be small consolation for the FARC, whose very presence in neighboring countries is a reflection of its loss of strength within Colombia, as a brutally successful counterinsurgency has driven it out of territory it once controlled.

Reports emerged on Friday of yet another senior commander of the FARC who had been killed. No cross-border raid was involved. A deserter simply brought the guerrilla’s severed right hand as proof that he had killed his own commander.

The killing of the guerrilla, Manuel Jesus Muñoz, who went by the nom de guerre Ivan Ríos, was extraordinarily macabre even in the annals of Colombia’s four-decade war. Mr. Muñoz, a member of the FARC’s guiding secretariat, was the fifth senior member of group killed in the past year.

Colombia’s government contends that the FARC, which finances itself through cocaine trafficking and abductions for ransom, has seen its ranks fall from 16,000 members at the start of the decade, when the guerrillas had advanced close to the capital, Bogotá, to between 6,000 and 8,000 now.

For Colombia, too, the results were mixed. It found itself diplomatically isolated in the region, its tactics rebuked and President Álvaro Uribe under siege as a too-willing ally of the United States.

The raid was one of the most controversial chapters of Plan Colombia, the American program that has disbursed more than $5 billion in aid to Colombia since the late 1990s. And in carrying out the operation without getting Ecuador’s permission beforehand, Mr. Uribe took a page from the Bush administration’s playbook.

The predawn operation bears remarkable similarities to one carried out in late January by the United States in Pakistan. In that case, the Central Intelligence Agency used a Predator drone aircraft to drop missiles, killing Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior commander of Al Qaeda who had hidden from American officials for years.

Both operations used local informants to track the men down. Both operations were carried out in foreign countries without getting permission beforehand. Both were tactical victories, killing enemies classified as terrorists.

But in killing Mr. Reyes in Ecuador, Mr. Uribe may have misjudged the reaction that would follow. A firestorm of criticism was directed at Colombia, a nation increasingly viewed as a redoubt of loyalty to the United States in a region chafing at Washington’s waning influence.

“The Bush doctrine openly rejects nonintervention in other nations’ affairs, something that runs counter to the ideal of sovereignty that is so precious in Latin America,” said Greg Grandin, a professor of Latin American history at New York University.

The methods employed by Mr. Uribe, whose father was believed to have been killed by guerrillas in the early 1980s, may be hard to swallow in a region that has largely seen its other cold war-era insurgencies vanquished. On Thursday, Nicaragua joined the fray on the side of Venezuela and Ecuador. But the wrath of Colombia’s neighbors is a price Mr. Uribe seems content to pay.

Despite Colombia’s insistence that it acted alone, speculation persists as to whether the technological prowess of the United States was involved in the hunt for Mr. Reyes.

Mr. Chávez emphatically denied reports last week that he had placed a call to Mr. Reyes’s satellite phone; such a call might have allowed intelligence agencies to track the guerrilla down in Sucumbíos, an Amazonian province in Ecuador’s northern frontier.

In their war of words, Mr. Uribe accused his counterparts in Ecuador and Venezuela of having financial ties to the FARC, a group resembling a criminal syndicate that dresses up its actions in leftist rhetoric.

And the presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela reminded Latin America of the ties between many of Mr. Uribe’s top supporters in Colombia and the paramilitary death squads that have evolved into nothing less than criminal syndicates trafficking in cocaine.

Cocaine, guns, private armies and guerrillas remain the ingredients of Colombia’s war even as the last element is being visibly pushed into the porous border regions of the country’s neighors.

In the end, Latin America eased its own crisis. But the celebratory behavior of its leaders in the Dominican Republic belies the tension that persists around a war without closure. Just because the FARC is weakened does not mean it will wither away.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/world/americas/09colombia.html?ref=world

LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

About the Hosts

Lifestyle Magazine has an excellent group of hosts, co-hosts and special guests who appear regularly on the show. You can read their biographies below.

Clifton Davis

Clifton Davis is an actor, singer, composer, lecturer, producer and minister, who has shared his unique gifts with audiences around the world for more than 25 years. Clifton is probably best known for his 5-year run as Reverend Rueben Gregory on the popular NBC television series, "Amen". Recently, he has been a guest star on such shows as "The Jamie Foxx Show", "Living Single", "Malcolm & Eddie", "Party of Five," and "The Sentinel".

His other television credits include starring in "The Melba Moore & Clifton Davis Show" and "That?s My Mama." Clifton has appeared in several productions on Broadway, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical in 1972 as one of the stars of Broadway?s hit musical, "Two Gentlemen of Verona." As a composer, Clifton received a Grammy nomination for his hit song, "Never Can Say Goodbye", and has performed in concert around the world.

Tami McGrew


Tami McGrew is the Senior Pastor of the Riverside California Community Seventh-day Adventist Church, and is a graduate of Loma Linda University in California. Prior to coming to Riverside, Tami served as pastor for Women's Ministries, Young Adult Ministries, and Small Group Ministries at the Azure Hills Church in Grand Terrace, California. Tami is a gifted communicator whose messages have informed and inspired audiences everywhere.

Pastor Tami seeks to bring a fresh perspective on the spiritual journey to her pulpit each week. She is especially known for her ability to help you laugh while taking scripture very seriously. She is married to David, an Ophthalmologist, and is the mother of two teen-age daughters. She is a "marginal water skier, worse golfer, and average stationary bike rider". Tami's pastor background and her Bachelor's degree in Nursing help give her the compassion necessary to relate to the guests and the subject matter on each Lifestyle Magazine.

Dan Matthews


Senior Anchorman for Lifestyle Magazine, Dan served as executive director for the Faith For Today ministry for 19 years, until his retirement on September 1, 1999. Today he continues to represent Faith For Today as Speaker Emeritus while still occasionally hosting the organization?s flagship program, Lifestyle Magazine, which is available to over 92 million households throughout the US, Canada, and over 140 countries around the world.

Before coming to Faith For Today, Matthews served as pastor and public relations administrator in the Pacific Northwest, as well as in Virginia and Washington, D. C. He holds a Master of Arts degree from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Dan and his wife Betsy have three sons and reside in Thousand Oaks, California. Matthews has been named president of HisKids, Incorporated, headquartered in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and Branson, Missouri. HisKids, Inc. is a ministry that targets the children?s market with quality alternative entertainment.

Patty Cabrera


As a bi-lingual recording artist of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, Patty Cabrera uses her unique and energetic Latin/pop sound, coupled with her unapologizing Christian message to create the freshest new sound in Christian music. Patty has been in the top ten contemporary Christian music charts, and hopes her crossover style of music can reach young listeners in all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Patty doesn't limit her outreach to singing only.

She is frequently a featured speaker for ministry outreach meetings designed for youth and young adults. Currently Patty is working on a master's degree in religion. As one of the hosts, Patty brings an exciting edge to Lifestyle Magazine.

NATIONWIDE
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)Wed-9:30 am PST & Mon-12:30 am PST
Hope ChannelSun - Thu at 8:30 PM PT
Hope ChannelMon - Fri at 9:30 AM PT

Source: http://www.lifestyle.org/hosts.php

P.S. Red letters and Bolds added for emphasis. Blogman.

ELIAN GONZALEZ'S 'LIBERATION' REMEMBERED

(Photo) http://www.athousandandone.com/photos/0/448a07d7cb24f_s.jpg

The Clinton-Reno repatriation and reunification efforts by force.

Saturday, April 22, 2000

(Photo): http://www.familyrightsassociation.com/educate/reno/elian_snatching.jpg

(Photo) http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/gonzalez_aunt000404.jpg

This 'retrieval' (liberation) was followed by negotiations in an arranged compound in Washington D.C. where Elian's father was re-united with his 'abducted' (refugee) son. Thanks to the efforts of the Clinton Administration under the leadership of the attorney general Janet Reno, in conjunction with the Cuban government, Elian was safely returned to his father's waiting arms, right here in Washington. He was then flown back home to his homeland, the republic of Cuba.

Again, thanks to the efficacious Clinton Administration, Elian can fully develop in his homeland-securely, where he belongs.

Thank you, Janet Reno, and Bill Clinton!

Arsenio.

TEMPERANCE BEGINS AT HOME

Temperance Begins at Home

In a January 3, 1873, vision, she was shown that temperance movements were limited in their effectiveness because they restricted their warfare against intemperance to the use of alcoholic beverages. She wrote: “Intemperance is increasing everywhere, notwithstanding the earnest efforts made during the past year to stay its progress. I was shown that the giant power of intemperance will not be controlled by any such efforts as have been made. The work of temperance must begin in our families, at our tables.”24

Further, she wrote: “Intemperance commences at our tables. The appetite is indulged until its indulgence becomes second nature. By the use of tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco, and this encourages the appetite for liquors.”25

But intemperance is not only a matter of food and drink, it includes “excessive indulgence in eating, drinking, sleeping, or seeing.”26 Intemperance in certain dress habits is to be overcome.27 Intemperance in overwork, in study, in seeking riches, is to be avoided.28

The only cure for intemperance is to regain self-control. Often Ellen White emphasized the principle that “passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of reason, sanctified by divine grace, is to bear sway in our lives.”29

She pointed out that when physical habits are not right, “our mental and moral powers cannot be strong.”30

She saw the direct connection between self-control and character development, between self-control in all areas of life and preparation for the coming of the Lord: “The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character.”31

The challenge of self-control in every area of life is for all Christians, especially those who are proclaiming the “everlasting gospel” in the last days: “To make plain natural law, and urge the obedience of it, is the work that accompanies the third angel’s message to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.”32


Source: http://whiteestate.org/books/mol/Chapt31.html

THE MESSIAH IS FORETOLD (LAMB OF GOD)

Isaiah 53

1Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

WATCHMEN ON THE WALLS OF ZION

WATCHMEN ON THE WALLS OF ZION

Watchmen on the walls of Zion, what, O tell us, of the night?
Is the day-star now arising? Will the morn soon greet our sight?
O’er your vision shine there now some rays of light?
O’er your vision shine there now some rays of light?

Tell, O tell us, are the landmarks on our voyage all passèd by?
Are we nearing now the haven? Can we e’en the land descry?
Do we truly see the heavenly kingdom nigh?
Do we truly see the heavenly kingdom nigh?

Light is beaming, day is coming! Let us sound aloud the cry;
We behold the day-star rising, pure and bright in yonder sky!
Saints, be joyful; your redemption draweth nigh;
Saints, be joyful; your redemption draweth nigh.

We have found the chart and compass, and are sure the land is near;
Onward, onward we are hasting; soon the haven will appear;
Let your voices sound aloud your holy cheer;
Let your voices sound aloud your holy cheer.

Words: Anonymous.

Music: Zion,
Thom­as Hast­ings, 1830
(MI­DI, score).


SUNDAY-KEEPING ADVENTIST CHURCHES

PART OF THE LIBERAL PLAN FOR OUR DENOMINATION -

Sunday-keeping Adventist Churches

- ARE YOU READY TO GO ALONG WITH IT?

In the 1960s, our people were shocked to read, in the latest issue of the National Geographic, that our churches in Tonga (earlier called the Friendly Islands) were keeping the Bible Sabbath on Sunday.

"Tongans are scrupulous observers of the Wesleyan Sabbath, and it is possible to be arrested for fishing on Sunday. Even the Seventh-day Adventists, who elsewhere take Saturday as their Sabbath, here observe the Sabbath on Sunday. The local Adventist pastor explained his church's stand to me.
" 'When God made the world, He made the day go from west to east,' he said. 'On the map, the so-called Date Line actually makes a jog to the east here. We maintain that what is called Sunday in Tonga is actually Saturday, since we are really on the eastern side of the Date Line [if it ran in a straight line]."-Luis Marden, "The Friendly Isles of Tonga," National Geographic, March 1968, p. 358.

Obviously, this is a rationalization, since the magazine article mentions that those who work on Sunday (and catching fish is about the only work available) will be arrested by the Methodist-controlled government. So, amid a population of nearly 80,000 people on 35 inhabited islands, our Tongan Adventists work six days a week and rest on the Methodist holy day.

That is very convenient till the National Sunday Law arrives. And it will be very convenient afterward.

We have other church members who wish they lived that close to the International Dateline, so they, too, could become Adventist Sundaykeepers.

OUR SPECIAL SEPARATING WALL

How do liberal Adventists differ from other Protestants in America? Not much, and each year the differences lessen still further.

They both eat meat, drink coffee, and are saved by grace apart from obedience to the law of God. They play golf, eat the same junk food, watch movies and the same sporting events. Many of them drink wine and eat at restaurants on Sabbath.

But there is still that one barrier dividing the two,-and it is a wall which many of our liberals would like to tear down. Part of that wall (the necessity of obedience to the law of God) is now gone, but part still remains (the Sabbath church service).

It was God's plan that His holy commandments were to be a "wall of protection" around us (1 BC 1105). The Sabbath is a "separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers" (EW 33). The church is God's vineyard, "hedged about by the precepts of His law . . Obedience to these principles was to be their protection" (COL 287). Sabbath worship would not bar evangelism, but would keep His people from assimilating to the world.

The liberals among us are trying to break down that wall. Although they have personally discarded obedience to the Ten Commandments as of any consequence, they are still saddled with Sabbath church services. If there was but some way that one remaining hurdle could be overcome, they would be welcomed by Evangelicals and the unchurched would find our church services more inviting.

Think not that this problem is being ignored. Not only our liberals, but some of our church leaders wish they could figure out ways to bring in non-Adventists in droves into our congregations.

The Celebration churches, with their lack of standards, were started in the late 1980s to increase attendance. Standards had been another hindrance to baptisms. In the mid-1990s, the church planting project began with the same objective in mind: Devise a worship meeting format which worldlings would want to attend; that was the challenge.

SEARCHING FOR A WAY

TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE

In the back of one of Samuele Bacchiocchi's books, he mentions that the Roman Catholic Church, also concerned about how to increase attendance at weekend mass, was tinkering with the idea of Saturday evening services. An increasing number of Catholics were using Sunday as a holiday to watch football games or go somewhere. So why not get the faithful to attend Saturday night mass?

In order to bring in extra money, the Vatican was willing to hold weekend worship services on the night it thought was the sixth day of the week (although it is actually the beginning of the first). Rome was willing to sacrifice attendance on Sunday, if it could increase the inflow of donations into church coffers. Money and popularity are powerful incentives, not only to politicians but also to many religious organizations.

It was obvious to some of our leaders that the biggest hurdle was our Sabbath morning church services. Worldlings want to attend jazzed-up, exciting meetings; and they do not want them on Saturday morning. Church-going Protestants want worship services on Sunday; and non-churchgoers want the meetings at night or late in the afternoon, before they head off for the evening's frolic.

Roman politicians learned that lesson centuries ago. Give the people bread and circuses at a convenient time, and they will come.

OUR LAS VEGAS SUNDAY CHURCH

"Adventist Sunday Church" was the name emblazoned on the headline of the February 2000 issue of the Pacific Union Recorder. The lead article was all about a new Adventist congregation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Church leaders were proud of their accomplishment and wanted the more than 200,000 Adventists in the Union to know about it.

Was this Pacific Union Recorder article talking about a church service or an evangelistic effort? The article said it was merely an evangelistic effort. But five facts loudly declared it to be a new type of Sunday morning worship service:

• First, in the bold title, the Recorder called it an "Adventist Sunday Church."

• Second, the subtitle stated "Reaching the Unchurched in Las Vegas"; that is, providing a church for the unchurched.

• Third, the name of the congregation (which is still in operation) had a churchy name: "Higher Ground Community Church";-so prospective visitors would think it was a non-denominational community church. When they walked in the door, that is what they were given-a church service, but more exciting than most.

• Fourth, the advertising flyers, mailed out by the thousands, referred to it as a church. "Is this your idea of church?" "It's for people who have given up on the traditional church."

Fifth, it was an ongoing church service, Sunday morning after Sunday morning, month after month. It did not just continue for a few weeks, as evangelistic efforts do. Those Sunday worship services continue to be held today.

The Recorder article said that Adventists are inviting non-Adventists to attend their "Sunday services." Amazing. Do our leaders really think it is possible to use Sunday worship services to teach the necessity of Sabbath worship services?

Our largest Union paper had published an article on it, praising the activity and recommending it to other local congregations in Pacific Union Conference territory (seven conferences in five states, plus several western Pacific islands) as something good for them to also begin doing.

Like so many other of our "new-modeled churches," this Sundaykeeping congregation had repudiated the name, "Seventh-day Adventist." Their church sign said they are the "Higher Ground Community Church." Our leaders will sue faithful believers who put "Seventh-day Adventist Church" on their meetinghouses while they themselves are ashamed to use the name.

But the Recorder article told us more:

• In its flyers, this new congregation declared that attending regular church services is like "a sentence to prison."

The Sunday worship service has a song service with drums and mike-amplified guitars, followed by a sermon.

• This strange "Adventist Sunday Church" is another sampler of the "church planting program," which our North American Division is urging our people to conduct in every conference in America.

The credo of these "planting programs" is "anything goes," as long as it brings outsiders into our churches. We live at a time when far too much is going: our standards, beliefs, and even the Bible Sabbath. (See our book, The Truth about Church Planting, 44 pp. 81/2 x 11, $3.50 + $2.50.) We are no longer on the Scripture standard; we are now on the gold standard.

In exchange, those who are coming are non-Adventists who never wanted our standards or teachings to begin with. They come for the coffee, rolls, and loud electrified music.

The Recorder article also mentioned that, at that time, Andrews University was also using a Sunday morning worship service to train our young ministers, so they can hold Sunday worship services when they go out into the field.

The Recorder article was obviously printed to get our members, throughout part of the nation, comfortable with the idea of Adventist Sunday church services.

Our members in Las Vegas will be ready when the National Sunday Law is enforced. They are already worshiping on Sunday.

THE RIVERSIDE SUNDAY CHURCH

Our Riverside, California, Church was searching for a way to increase its membership. Located near Loma Linda and La Sierra, the area does not lack for Seventh-day Adventists. But attendance at the Riverside Church had been dropping for several years, until it had gotten down to eighty members.

So last fall, Tami McGrew, senior pastor of the Riverside Church, drove down the street to the Southeastern Conference Office (which is also in Riverside) and asked for a grant of money to "try new things as an experiment." It was agreed that most anything could be done that would bring non-Adventists through the doors.

With a sizeable part of the money, Tami (a woman) bought all the band instruments, guitars, drum sets, electronic devices, and powerful amplification equipment needed for rip-roaring church services.

Next, she changed the name of the church. What was needed was a nice, groovy name that would appeal to the unbeats. It is now called the Riverside Community Church.Com.

At this juncture, Tami had herself all the trappings for a wayout meetinghouse. But there was still that Saturday morning hangup.

So Tami came up with the idea of two church services, one on Sabbath morning at the usual time, for the old-time deadbeats in the church, and a second at 5 p.m. each afternoon. This, of course, would mean that part of each year, the second church service would be held on Sunday.

Now, please understand: No attempt has been made to call this second service "an evangelistic effort," as Las Vegas tried to do. This is a full-blown Seventh-day Adventist weekly worship service held late on every Saturday afternoon. In winter, it is a Sunday service.

Tami's church will also be ready when the National Sunday Law comes. Just close down the morning service or switch it to Sunday morning. She is ready; and, we will learn below, she fearlessly defends her decision.

A friend in Central California Conference, who attended one of her 5 o'clock services, said Tami walked onto the stage and up to the pulpit wearing jeans. When asked why, Tami said they helped the audience feel comfortable. The organ had been closed down, the band was in full sway, and coffee and doughnuts were among the treats.

My friend up north also spoke of a woman who, after attending one time, said she would never return. When asked why, she said she was unexpectedly hit in the side of her head with a beach ball! She said they were throwing them around the church, as a way "to loosen up the audience." Welcome to the new Adventism.

A SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

Yes, Sunday worship services are all right; at least that is what our liberals are deciding. And, in order to convince staid church members, they are developing a logical set of beliefs to defend their position.

I call it "desperation theology." It is the same kind of mixed-up thinking you will find in the books written by our liberals, defending "women's rights" to be pastors and church leaders. Although called "Biblical theology," it is nothing but a stack of flimsy excuses.

These people are desperately in search of reasons to defend what they want to do. I am sure you are well-acquainted with the vacuous excuses offered by Protestant pastors, in defense of Sundaykeeping. Well, our liberals are also using similar twisted arguments.

If you speak with Tami, she will be quite willing to explain to you, as she has to others, why she holds Adventist worship services on Sunday.

Tami considers it "legalistic" to limit the hours within which the weekly worship service can be performed to a certain time, or a certain day, of the week. Tami says church services should be held when the maximum amount of people will come, whenever that may be. The day of the week, she says, on which the church service is held on is not important. If there are primarily Muslims living in the area, hold it on Friday. If the objective is to reach Protestants, hold it on Sunday.

She says the fourth commandment does not specify the hour or day on which the church service should be held, so it can be held at any time on any day of the week. (In reply, as with the other commandments, the fourth commandment only provide a very brief statement. Additional details are given elsewhere in the Bible.)

As Tami sees it, the Israelites in the wilderness did not go to the tabernacle for church services. Instead, they stayed home in their tents and rested on that day. Attending church service has nothing to do with "keeping the Sabbath day holy." (But we are presented with clear-cut examples of Sabbath church attendance in the life of Christ and in the book of Acts.)

In Tami's thinking, the Sabbath symbolizes a rest from "works." Resting in bed or sitting under a tree is Sabbathkeeping. But going to church, singing, and going through the other motions involved in church attendance is not.

The Sabbath truth should not be mentioned in the church services, only in evangelistic meetings. Therefore Tami says she never mentions the Sabbath at her 5 p.m. meetings for non-Adventists. (In this way, non-believers have absolutely no idea she is an Adventist minister or they have entered an Adventist church! The sign in front merely calls it a "community church." Historically, the only reason for our people to hold special Sunday meetings, to which all are invited, was when evangelistic meetings were conducted. Yet Tami says it would be wrong for her to mention doctrines in her Sunday church services-so they are clearly not evangelistic meetings!

Two important points:

First, Tami's radical views about the Sabbath must surely be accepted by the conference office (The Riverside Church is the "conference church"; for it is in the same town as the conference office). The self-proclaimed "theologians" at Loma Linda and La Sierra must fully agree. -Otherwise, she would quickly be brought into line or fired. It must be that her views are solidly supported by church leaders.

Second, we have here a much more involved philosophy of thinking than I believe Tami McGrew was able to develop by herself! I see her ideas as part of a carefully thought-out theological defense, devised by theologians at Loma Linda and La Sierra, in support of a plan which many of our liberals are going to try to put into action as soon as it is feasible. They want to gradually move our churches in North America over to Sunday worship services.

Why is there such a frenzied determination to increase church attendance, even though it costs us our doctrinal beliefs? Unfortunately, the answer is money.

I assure you that if Tami's project meets with success, Sunday worship services will be started in other areas, first in Southeastern California Conference and then elsewhere. The ultimate objective is for Seventh-day Adventist pastors to be able to switch over, whenever they desire, to full-blown Sunday worship services.

You thought you were getting ready for the National Sunday Law. Our liberals are getting ready for it too!

If they succeed, Sabbathkeeping will die out from among us. This is because the church service is the heart of the weekly cycle for believers. Change it to Sunday, and we have become Sundaykeepers!

Tami said that both Adventists and non-Adventists are now attending her afternoon service. She is meeting with some success.

Her father, Ted Tessner, former liberal pastor of the Claremont Church in San Diego, has come up to strengthen her efforts. He is now associate pastor at Riverside and also enjoys the full support of the conference office.

Perhaps he helps her scrounge through the toy stores, searching for new gimmicks with which to enchant the folk who come to the 5 o'clock worship services. Perhaps they will start buying magician's stage tricks next, start a lending library in Harry Potter books, and install video game machines and Coke dispensers in the foyer. The sky is the limit, because the conference fully backs her project. Anything goes, if it pertains to standards and doctrines. Anything can be brought in, if it excites worldlings or is approved by Sundaykeepers.

What identifies a church as being part of the "Babylon" mentioned by the third angel of Revelation 14?

"After the warning against the worship of the beast and his image the prophecy declares: 'Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.' Since those who keep God's commandments are thus placed in contrast with those that worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, it follows that the keeping of God's law, on the one hand, and its violation, on the other, will make the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast."-Great Controversy, 445-446.

It is true that both Sundaykeeping and the natural immortality of the soul are two special teachings of Babylon. But the Sabbath/Sunday issue will be the special test in the Final Crisis, separating those who receive the mark from those who receive the seal.

What does it mean "to keep Sunday"? It means Sunday church service worship (even though Tami coyly says that church services do not constitute an act of worship)! We must not let it happen!

The Spirit of Prophecy has said that, when the Sunday Law crisis hits, we can evangelize on Sunday or quietly stay in our homes on that day. But we cannot participate in Sunday worship meetings! To do so would be to bow to the image on the plains of Dura. -And Tami wants to do more than attend Sunday services, she wants to pastor them!

When the Sunday Law crisis hits, willingness to attend Sunday worship services will be the point on which large numbers of our people will go out from among us and be lost.

Here are several Spirit of Prophecy passages to look up. Each one deals with Sunday observance:

It is a virtual recognition of the fundamental principles of Romanism (5T 712). The papacy will receive honor in the homage paid in doing it (GC 579).

It will be the worship of the beast and his image (GC 449; TM 133) and will fulfill Revelation 13:11-16 (GC 578-579), because it is the mark of the authority of Rome (Ev 234) and honors the pope above God (GC 449). It is the mark of the beast (7 BC, 976-980; Ev 234-235; GC 449; 8T 117; TM 133).

It is a plain contradiction of God's law, for those who do it after light has come (6T 193), because it is a homage paid to Rome (GC 449). For those who do so, knowing they should not do so, it is idolatry (FE 287). It is a recognition of the cornerstone principles of Romanism (5T 712), an act of homage to the papacy (SR 383), and allegiance to a power opposed to God (GC 605).

Its enforcement [by a Sunday Law] will be a sign that the end is near and that God's forbearance has been reached (5T 451). Men in responsible positions will urge it upon the people (ChS 155).

Vance Ferrell

Source: http://omega77.tripod.com/sunkeepsda.htm