Friday, July 03, 2009

Frontline - Secret History of the Credit Card (2004)

Frontline - Secret History of the Credit Card (2004)

Frontline - Secret History of the Credit Card (2004) - 56:08 -
Aug 8, 2007 PBS -

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/



The average American family today carries 10 credit cards. Credit card debt and personal bankruptcies are now at an all time high. With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. FRONTLINE examines how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so lucrative, and so powerful. If copyright becomes an issue on this video upload, it will be deleted immediately.

http://



Thursday, July 02, 2009

The New Holy Roman Empire · July 01, 2009


The New Holy Roman Empire · July 01, 2009
Dear Friends,

Thank you for joining us again this month. Keep the Faith is dedicated to helping you see the signs of the times as they unfold in our own day. Your prayers and support mean much to us. As we near the end of time, I pray that you and your family are continually kept faithful to the Lord by his power.

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A few months ago you received a sermon on Hus the Bohemian Heretic. Many of our subscribers have expressed their deep appreciation for that message. We hope we can send more messages like that in the future. But we still have a few copies of the wonderful little book called Hus the Heretic, by Poggius the Papist. If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, this is a good time to do so while supplies last. You may have ordered the book, but you would like more copies to give to relatives and friends. You are welcome to order them in quantity. They are just $12 each, postage included to U.S. addresses. $17 USD to non-U.S. addresses. Bulk orders should enquire the cost of postage. And lastly, may God bless you today as you listen to this important message for our times.

Something very intriguing is going on in Europe. It’s prophetic. Pope Benedict is trying to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. Our long term Keep the Faith listeners have known about this for some time. Yet connecting the dots is not always as easy to do. However, prophecy helps us cut through the fog and get to the real issue. In the last couple of years there have been a number of important developments that tell us that the pope is moving steadily, firmly and determinedly forward and pressuring the nations to accept the Vatican as the cultural and religious authority in Europe.

Let us open our Bibles to Revelation 17. Listen to the words of the prophet John.

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.” What are the waters in Bible prophecy? I’ll read it to you from verse 15. “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” So this evil woman controls and manipulates millions, and perhaps billions of people.

The Bible tells us in verse 2 that this whore is the same power found in Revelation 18. Listen. “…With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Revelation 18:9 tells us that the kings of the earth commit fornication with the beast. Therefore the beast and the whore are the same power. In Bible prophecy a woman represents a church. This whore in Revelation 17 is an immoral woman or an immoral church. A whore then, represents a church in apostasy. If ever there was an apostate church it is the Roman Catholic Church. Interestingly, the Roman Catholic leaders refer to their church as “she” or “her.” But it is the fornication that interests us. These kings of the earth are committing a form of spiritual apostasy as they unite with the Catholic Church in their many and varied projects. The ultimate purpose of this collaboration is the persecution of God’s true people who keep all of His commandments in the moral law.

So this power has a dual nature. On one hand, in Revelation 13 & 18, it is represented as a beast power, which is the prophetic term for a nation state or civil power. This we know as the nation state of the Holy See. On the other hand this power is also represented in spiritual terms as a wicked woman or an apostate church. There is no other power on earth that can fit this dual nature of a combined civil and religious power than the Roman Catholic Church. She may try to escape this scriptural spotlight, but she is the only legitimate possibility.

I shall continue reading about this perverse prophetic woman from verse 3 to 6: “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

What a description! Again the Bible depicts to the very detail, the way in which the papacy conducts herself both with the nations of the earth and with the rest of the religious world. In the name of love, peace and unity, this power persecutes God’s saints, or those that keep His commandments. She has blood on her hands. Before the close of probation she will again rise to power and persecute all of God’s faithful people who refuse to practice her substitutions for the grace of God. Just read Revelation 13.

The Church boasts more than a billion members, some in almost, if not every nation on earth. She has formal diplomatic relations with 177 nations now, and is continually building her power and influence in every region of the globe. Yet Rome has no tanks, no aircraft, no standing army, no traditional weapons of human warfare. But her spiritual power is enormous. And millions upon millions are being deceived. Revelation 13 tells us that she will gain control of the whole world, for all the world “wonders” after the beast in verse four. And verse 8 sweepingly tells us that: “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.”

But in order to be able to bring the whole world under her soon-coming one-world religion, she has to regain power that she lost. She has to control or “sit” on many “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” in order be in a position to persecute those that don’t go along with her religion. This she is working on diligently. But this is why Revelation 14 tells us in verse 6 that the everlasting gospel must go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. So a great conflict is coming between God’s last day church and the whore and all her agencies. One is going to preach the fullness of the everlasting gospel, and the other is going to try to prevent it. In other words everyone who is being wooed by Rome must also be wooed by the everlasting gospel given by the very ones that Rome wants to destroy.

The battle lines are being drawn right now. Unfortunately many of God’s people are spiritually sound asleep. They have no idea about the powerful and destructive spiritual tsunami that is rapidly approaching them.

In recent times, particularly under the Bush administration, the United States came more solidly under the considerable influence of Rome. Bush fostered Rome’s power in the United States and elsewhere. But there is another geopolitical field we must watch. The Holy See is working very hard to regain spiritual control of Europe.

Listen to this statement from the pen of God’s last day messenger. It is found in Great Controversy, page 616. “Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.”

This tells us very clearly that in the old world, or Europe, Romanism will reassert her power. It was the Holy See that controlled the so-called united Europe during the Middle Ages. But now once again Rome intends to take the spiritual control of Europe to herself. In order to do this and fulfill the prophecies that we have just read, Rome must be able to manipulate the economy and the politics of Europe. She is working on this persistently.

But before we go on, let me remind you of the three-legged stool. In order for Rome to fulfill verse 8 of Revelation 13, which says that “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,” and implement a one world religion, Rome must be successful in controlling world politics and the global economy. In other words, politics must be put under the control of world elites, or rulers who are committing “fornication” with her by helping to unite church and state, and the economy must be put under the control of central bankers, who are in league with Rome and getting rich by it. These two legs are being constructed right now. Incidentally the centralized control of the economy will speed up the centralization of world politics.

God richly blessed the United States as a protestant nation, and made it great, greater than all other nations. Other nations did not make major steps without reference to the U.S. government and it’s geopolitical influence for many, many years. The economy of the world essentially revolved around the United States dollar. Strategically, Rome must bring protestant United States to her knees or else she will not succeed in resurrecting the Holy Roman Empire in Europe. She cannot do this militarily. It has to be done by cooperation in sabotage. Piece by piece, bit by bit, the United States’ economic and political advantages must be removed. This is happening very effectively through the gradual globalization of trade, commerce, politics, and the economy through the UN and its related international institutions.

In other words, the economy has to be brought low. Rome has the cooperation of the merchants who are the central bankers of the world. They believe in one world government as we pointed out last month. The economy is being put into the hands of global bodies who claim to represent all the nations of the world. But in reality they are making themselves rich, according to Revelation, by being in league with the Holy See. The Vatican can control them.

The third leg, or one world religion, is also being steadily worked on quietly, and stealthily. And it takes a prophetic eye to see it. We don’t know how long it will take. That is up to the angels of heaven under God’s direction. For God is in control of all these things. Nothing will happen faster than God permits. But it is important to watch these developments, because in them we can see what is going on behind the prophetic curtain and see the struggle going on between good and evil.

There are many ways that Rome works, but I want you to think about some of the developments in recent years. For instance, 1989 was the beginning of the end for Eastern European communism. In recent times however, Russia has been reinserting herself into global politics and trying to control as much of her former republics as she can including the Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states. However, Eastern Europe, has mostly gravitated to the West, and many of these former Eastern bloc nations have become part of the European Union. This was necessary so that Rome could reinsert herself into European politics more effectively and over a larger number of people. One of the key states that has helped Rome tremendously is Poland which is perhaps 90% or more Roman Catholic. When Poland became part of the European Union, her citizens could then easily move to Western Europe and take up residence and work. This would bring many Roman Catholics into Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, and other places that were once strong protestant countries. This has helped to neuter European Protestantism.

At the same time there has been a great influx of Muslims into the European Union. In recent years, France has seen the turmoil from Muslims whose culture doesn’t mix well, if at all, in Western Europe. Europeans are nervous about this influx of Muslims. Rome is also concerned about her influence in the countries where Islam is the strongest and is therefore sending lots of Catholic immigrants to those countries to offset the Muslim influence. Meanwhile she talks nicely to Muslim leaders.

All of this is part of the process of resurrecting the Holy Roman Empire once again, and because of the huge influx of Muslims into the European Union, there is an urgency to it. That is why the Vatican urgently wants the European Union to recognize Christianity as the historical and cultural religion of Europe officially and legally. In 2007, while Germany held the EU’s rotating presidency, Chancellor, Angela Merkel was actively involved in the process of re-establishing the old Holy Roman Empire. She and her compatriots organized a big public party in Berlin. It was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, signed by Europe’s leaders in Rome in 1957.

The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community. Despite denials that the EEC would ever become a political union, this was exactly what was intended and what is now nearly accomplished. But the intention went far beyond the economic and political integration of Europe. In fact, the intention was and is to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire and complete the religious integration of Europe as well. The EEC eventually became the European Community, and then changed again into the European Union. Now the finishing touches are being put on the political agreements that will give the European Union some sort of constitution and a strong central government which would then have complete control of all the nations of Europe. The next step will be to change the Union once again, this time into a religious union, completing reconstruction of the Holy Roman Empire.

Rome wants this because if she can be seen as the center of Europe’s culture, she can more effectively resurrect her historic relationships with the nations of Europe and become the political and economic manager of Europe as well as the religious center. Her goal however goes beyond Europe. The Holy See is aiming to at least powerfully influence the politics, economy and religion of the whole world. But though she is working on all fronts, she knows that she cannot achieve her ultimate goal of the worship of the whole world, without first regaining control of Europe. In order to justify herself in this quest, she continually proclaims her right to be the cultural foundation of Europe.

The public party in Berlin was held on Sunday, March 25, 2007. But at the same time the leaders of the European Union were also gathered in the Berlin Museum to sign the Berlin Declaration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, and to commit themselves to continuing the process of complete European integration.

The declaration was originally intended to include a statement saying that the European Union’s historical religion was Christianity, thus giving Rome the legal status she wanted. But political issues made that impossible.

After secret consultations in Rome between the pope and the leader of European Parliament, Hans Gert Pöttering, both of them German, Benedict published a strongly worded letter to the European bishops accusing the leaders of Europe of committing a form of apostasy for their opposition to legally recognizing Christianity as the cultural center of Europe. For more detail and documentation on these events ask for our sermon entitled Germany Infuriates the Pope. Or you can go online to our website and down load the MP3 or the text of that sermon.

But Pope Benedict isn’t finished attempting to restore the deep historical involvement of the Catholic Church in Europe’s politics. You may remember that Benedict visited France in September of 2008. This visit was very significant. The New York Times asked a question in an article on September 20 of that year; “Is the Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe, or a still-mighty power, wielding its influence on European law through friendly center–right governments? That question,” wrote the author, “has been building momentum throughout Pope Benedict XVI’s three-year-old papacy, [and] came mightily to the fore in his recent trip to France.” Though “no one, probably not even the Vatican, expects Europe to become newly devout any time soon…” continued the Times article, “this pope is looking to reconquer Europe, if not in numbers, then at the political table.” In other words, Benedict XVI is attempting to place the Vatican at the center of European politics.

Benedict officially traveled to France for the 150th anniversary of the day when a peasant girl said she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. 250,000 people came out to hear the pope conduct a Mass. But the trip had far greater ambitions in mind.

NY Times Article

When the pope goes on a personal crusade to “reconquer Europe” we should be very mindful of the prophecy that says that “all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:4. We should also remember that his Church in the Old World has to develop in tandem with its power in the new.

Europe is rather tumultuous at the moment because of the difficulties of political integration, energy crises, immigration and the economic recession. Rome presents herself as a stable, consistent voice calling Europe back to its ancient religious and political moorings, the Catholic Church. The Pope’s visit to France last September was very significant for France and for the rest of Europe. The papal visit to France was so important that, like President Bush in April, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, a Roman Catholic, met the pope at the airport, and then escorted him the Élysée Palace.

Inquirer Article

Keep God Foundation Article

While Senator Barack Obama was touting change on the American presidential campaign trail, the Pope and the French president were privately discussing change in France; the most important change since the French Revolution; a change in church-state relations. France has very strict separation of church and state. It is called laïcité which comes from a 1905 French law establishing the secularism of the French nation. It is something of a sacred cow of French culture; untouchable and uncompromisable in French politics. Secularism, said Henri Astier writing for the BBC, “is the closest thing the French have to a state religion.”

BBC News Article

The comments by Benedict and Sarkozy clearly pointed to a change in laïcité. Sarkozy said it would be “madness” to “deprive ourselves” of religion and repeated his call for a “positive secularism” in France, meaning that religion should be allowed to play a greater role in government for the improvement of society. This is exactly what Rome wants. The closer the Vatican can come to the centers of power in France, the more likely she can control or manipulate the nation in her interests, in the name of improving society of course.

“At this moment in history,” said the pope, “when cultures continue to cross paths more frequently, I am firmly convinced that a new reflection on the true meaning and importance of ‘laïcité’ (or secularism) is now necessary.”

Benedict and Sarkozy are attempting to reshape French thinking toward this law. Significantly, Sarkozy said; “We don’t put anyone above anyone else, but we accept our Christian roots.” Accepting the Christian roots of France however, does in fact place Rome in a favored position, though not yet legally. Sarkozy isn’t meeting with the religious leaders of any other church or religion. Rome knows that eventually if France can officially or legally recognize her Christian roots, she will have a legal means of placing herself above other religions. While this has not happened yet, it appears to be President Sarkozy’s intention to at least acknowledge it officially.

Keep in mind that it was the Franc king Clovis I who in 496 A.D. became the first Catholic monarch in Europe by his baptism. When he defeated the Visigoths in 507 and 508 by driving them south of the Pyrenees mountains and united the Franks under his rulership, Clovis’ kingdom became the undisputed superpower of Europe at that time. He was celebrated as the first Catholic monarch of the empire and was known as “His Most Christian Majesty” (meaning Catholic Majesty of course). He then came to the assistance of the emperor Justinian in subjugating the whole Roman Empire under the pope and the papacy. France itself became known as the “eldest daughter of the Church.” France gave up on religion all together at the time of the French Revolution because of the tyranny that Rome exercised over her. But in 1996 Pope John Paul II made a trip to France to commemorate the 1500 year anniversary of the baptism of Clovis and symbolically claim the ancient patrimony of France for the Catholic Church.

Catholicism in France

Catholic Herald Article

Now more than 1500 years after the baptism of Clovis, these events may well be the first steps in moving France away from its secularism and closer to the Catholic Church. The ultimate goal is to once again bring France under the control of Rome. Right now, Rome has the willing help of the center-right government of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The main theme of Benedict XVI’s trip was that France needs to rethink and restructure its church-state relationships. The pope called for a new role for religion in building an “ethical” society. In essence the pope is demanding that France redefine secularism to allow a place for religion and morality to help it come to a just society, at least as the Holy See defines it.

Benedict XVI’s remarks at the Élysée Palace

Historically, the Papacy used the heads of state of the various nations of Europe for her own ends. She would ally with one and spurn another and keep them all coming to her for support. The nations would be played off one against another with the pope as the peacemaker. This placed Rome in the position to be the overall manager of Europe in the Middle Ages. This same process is now stealthily happening in Europe once again.

Here is how. Germany and France are the two largest and most powerful rival nations in the European Union which they both helped to create and mature. They are jockeying for power, even as they work together to build the European Union and resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. France needs Rome to strengthen it in its competition with Germany for power. Sarkozy wants political strength for France in the European Union. He knows that cooperation with Rome will greatly increase French standing. At the same time, the Pope knows that if France is allied with the Papacy, then she will also have Germany at her door seeking similar support for her projects. For now however, the Pope is essentially telling France that the only way in which France will succeed in its quest to become more influential in Europe, she has to become more friendly to the Papacy. Sarkozy knows this.

Benedict XVI is now working to restore the same principles that she used anciently to control Europe and she is deftly, and with finesse using France to do it. Everywhere Rome can, she is attempting to break down the wall of separation between church and state.

But there is something more going on that is very intriguing. The New Statesman published an article about this idea of “positive secularism.” Let me read a couple of paragraphs from this article. “According to the political scientist Caroline Fourest, author of a recent book on the Catholic Church, the sympathy between the Pope and the French president shouldn’t be surprising. Their ‘new idea’ is a Trojan horse. The term “positive secularism” was actually coined in 2005 by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, whose views have inspired two of President Sarkozy’s close aides and speechwriters…”

“So what we have witnessed.” Continued the article, “is Nicolas Sarkozy pretending to have an idea that [actually] originated at the Vatican, while the Pope, its delighted author, sits back and waits for the president to implement “his” idea. A few days ago, in an interview with the Catholic French daily La Croix, Benedict’s private secretary clearly stated that the Holy Father expected the president of France to diligently transform this idea into acts…”

This idea of “positive secularism” is sneaky. It is a way to break down that wall of separation between church and state. Is it possible that Ratzinger was preparing to undermine the government of France and perhaps other secular governments in western Europe all the way back when he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Perhaps we will soon see something of a Catholic revival in France, particularly at the political level.

Positive Secularism

This is not the first time that a president has plagiarized a pope. After being tutored by many Catholic advisors and two popes President Bush frequently quoted John Paul II using the phrase “culture of life” to bolster his arguments. When Benedict XVI visited the United States in April of 2008, President Bush gave him a warm welcome speech in which he quoted the pope by saying; “we need your message to reject this dictatorship of relativism.” This term “dictatorship of relativism” was coined by Cardinal Ratzinger himself at the funeral of John Paul II. Nicolas Sarkozy is doing exactly what President Bush had done.

Pew Forum Article

Friends, this tells us a lot about what is going on behind the scenes in the friendly relationship between presidents and popes. Ratzinger dropped seeds in the minds of Bush and Sarkozy who then took them as their own. Bush then used his to promote the papal social agenda in the United States. Sarkozy used his to help reshape the thinking in France about secularism.

Moreover, don’t think that the pope’s words to France are falling on deaf ears throughout the rest of Europe. The New York Times article said; “Benedict’s insistence that religion and politics be ‘open’ to each other… sends a direct message: the church doesn’t want European law to be at odds with church teaching, and he wants Catholics to make some noise about it.”

“The Vatican… is concerned about ‘a progressive secularization of European institutions’ that are ‘heavily influenced by the French model.’” Benedict’s message in France was designed to speak to all secularized governments and the EU institutions as well. Benedict is masterfully bringing France into the Vatican orbit and is angling for the rest of Europe to do the same thing. “‘…There are laws in Europe that the Vatican would like to change,’ said John L. Allen Jr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter. Benedict’s remarks in France were ‘not an apolitical reflection,’ he said.” In other words, Benedict is trying to restructure European politics to fit the old model of the Holy Roman Empire.

NY Times Article

Friends, nothing is more prophetically significant than a Europe steered by the Vatican. This has tremendous implications for the people of God in the last generation. Prophecy is going to be fulfilled to the very detail. An ambitious papacy is on the move, and it behooves the people of God to pay attention.

While all this political stuff is going on in France, there is another dimension that we need to understand. The economic balance in Europe is being restructured to suit certain dominant powers who will ultimately give their power and strength to the beast or the Holy See. Listen to what Revelation 17:13 says about the kings of the earth. Speaking of the ten kings of the earth it says; “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” In other words, the ten kingdoms, of which Europe is one, are going to support Rome by using their power and authority to enforce her dictates. It will not be a long time, but it will be a potent time. They will use their political power to put enormous pressure on God’s people.

At the same time that Sarkozy was glowing over his recent successful visit with Benedict, he along with Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain and Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany were working to bring the world economy under the control of global and international bodies. In last month’s sermon called Economic Turmoil to Economic Takeover, we pointed out that these leaders, with the help of other nations are radically restructuring global banking and finance. By centralizing the economy under the control of fewer people, and with Europe having much more say, this could well place the Holy See in a position to guide the global economy. Remember, the ambitions of the Holy See are to manage more than just the old empire. The Papacy is seeking to be queen of the whole world.

There is yet another level of development in Europe however, that needs our attention. Germany is rising to become the main powerhouse of European economics and politics. When divided, this was impossible. But now, with Germany reunited, the nation has begun to manifest strong and powerful sway over the direction of the European Union.

When Russia invaded Georgia last year, most of the European states suspended relations with Moscow under pressure from the United States; but not Germany. Instead, Germany acted approvingly. When other nations in Europe go one direction, Germany often goes the other. Stratfor, a strategic forecasting group, wrote in its analysis of the invasion of Georgia that “sources in Moscow have said that [President] Medvedev has offered Merkel a security pact for their two countries.” Moscow knows that Germany is dependent on Russia for energy in the form of oil and gas. Moscow apparently also knows that if it can make a pact with Germany, the rest of Europe will be friendly too. This should not go unnoticed.

And sure enough, last November (2008), in the French city of Nice, a huge change took place in the attitude of EU nations. “EU leaders and Russian President Medvedev agreed to new talks… about political and economic partnership between Moscow and Europe. There was even talk of a “pan-European security pact,” wrote Spiegel Online.

So what happened? Moscow invaded Georgia on a flimsy excuse. Germany acted approvingly while other European nations suspended relations with Moscow. Then when the other nations of Europe realized that Germany was not going along with them, they changed course and went along with Germany and mended fences very quickly with an unrepentant Russia. In other words, Germany emerged during this political tussle as the dictator of EU foreign policy. Germany saw its opportunity to flex its muscles with the rest of Europe. And the other 26 nations of the EU were quick to come into line. They are learning that unless EU policies are backed by Germany, they are weak and unenforceable. The significance of this is that the rest of Europe now understands who is in charge. And the Vatican is positioned to take advantage of Germany’s emerging role. If the Vatican can control Germany, just like in the Middle Ages, she will control Europe. That may be why we have a German pope right now.

Moreover, this narrows the playing field significantly in Europe. Now Rome only has to deal with France and Germany for the most part, and use their rivalry to strengthen herself, and the rest of the European Union will be hers too. Meanwhile, as we have noted, both Germany and France are trying to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. One was the power center of the religious break with Rome during the Protestant Reformation, and the other was the power center of the political break with Rome during the French Revolution.

Spiegel Online

Note: For the original source article from Stratfor, in Google.com, search for “Stratfor Germany Merkel’s Choice and the Future of Europe.” It was published August 20, 2008.

But there is more. The economic crisis has been another opportunity for Germany to flex its muscles. When the other nations of Europe and the European central bank were promoting an American-style bailout and stimulus package for the whole of Europe, Germany refused to go along with it. In fact, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel “lambasted the bailout mentality gripping western leaders and lauded financial discipline, balanced budgets and the ethic of thrift…” “We have to have the courage to swim against the tide,” Merkel said.

Also Germany’s finance minister Peer Steinbrück threw a match into the tinder in an interview with Newsweek by criticizing Britain’s VAT tax cut, and the EU’s plan for spending its way out of the economic crisis. In other words, when most of the rest of Europe had decided that the best way to handle the economic crisis was through huge deficit spending, Germany, the largest economy, and the nation that would bear the greatest share of the cost, balked. This unsettled some of Europe’s leaders and analysts. The Daily Telegraph wrote that these developments placed Germany out of step with the rest of Europe and were a “dictatorial turn in Berlin’s EU strategy.” A New York Times columnist wrote that “you can’t have a coordinated European effort if Europe’s biggest economy not only refuses to go along, but heaps scorn on its neighbors’ attempts to contain the crisis.”

Washington Times

Newsweek Article

Telegraph News Article

New York Times News Article

The New York Times wrote that “Germany has taken a different path.” The question is why? The reason lies in the understanding that a reunited Germany is aiming to become the political and economic power of Europe.

To understand this better, let us take a brief look at history. The Holy Roman Empire was dominated politically by Germany’s princes under the manipulation of the pope for centuries. The Reformation in Germany created an upheaval that reverberated throughout the Empire. Germany was key to papal tyranny. Without Germany, it was only a matter of time until Rome would lose its sway over the rest of Europe. That demise was completed in 1798 with the “deadly wound” inflicted by Napoleon through his general Berthier. But after World War II, Germany was broken in half and for more than 50 years was very weak. Rome knew that the only hope for a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire included a reunited and powerful Germany. That is why European communism had to go. For the Holy Roman Empire to rise again, Germany, now the biggest economy, and arguably the most politically powerful of all European nations, has to take the reins again.

Finally, we are beginning to see the outlines of the soon resurrected Holy Roman Empire. With Germany in the lead as it was in the Middle Ages, the key leaders of Europe are working to place the pope on the throne of the European Union.

New York Times Article

So let us see if we can summarize what we have said. In the project to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire, there are a number of key factors that are now in play. A reunited Germany must rise to political and economic prominence for there to be a papal resurrection to power. That is now happening. Secondly, there must be at least one competing power so that Rome has a means of keeping herself in the middle of the power struggle and can play one side against the other. France has this role just like in the Middle Ages. These developments show us that the three-legged stool has two of its legs, the political and economic structures, now almost in place. The next step is to construct the third leg.

And this is already happening too. We have already mentioned how Rome is manipulating France to change the relationship between church and state. This is essential because France was once the foundation of Roman Catholic Europe, but it also became the foundation of European secularism. Without a change in France, a change in the rest of Europe is impossible.

But there is a more open and blatant effort on the part of Rome to resurrect the principles of the Holy Roman Empire and to construct the third leg of the three-legged stool.

At the very beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI visited the Eucharistic Congress in Bari, Italy in 2005. In continuity with his predecessor John Paul II, he emphasized Sunday worship as central to human existence.

He said “the intention of this Eucharistic Congress… was once again to present Sunday as the ‘weekly Easter,’ an expression of the identity of the Christian community and the centre of its life and mission. The chosen theme of the congress was ‘Without Sunday we cannot live.’

Speech in Bari

When Benedict XVI travelled to Austria in September of 2007 ostensibly to visit the shrine at Mariazell, he gave a speech in which he encouraged Austria to protect Sunday as a day of rest as an example to all of Europe. “Without Sunday [worship] we cannot live!” he declared before a crowd of nearly 40,000. “Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul.” While saying that Sunday worship is a necessity, the pope also called on the Catholic nation to revive its Catholic heritage. “Much of what Austria is and possesses,” he said, “it owes to the Christian faith and its beneficial effects on individual men and women… An Austria without a vibrant Christian faith would no longer be Austria,” he said. Of course by using the term “Christian” Benedict means Catholic.

But speaking more broadly for all of Europe, Benedict said “Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots.” Think carefully about this. These words should help us see that the pope views the Christian community and the European Union as one and the same. It should also help us see that Benedict’s intention is to establish Sunday as a day of rest for all of Europe. The trip to Austria may well have been the signal to begin the papal push for Sunday laws in Europe in 2008.

Speech in Austria

Additional Information

In late 2008, the European Parliament updated its Working Time Directive. This is the law that controls how many hours of work per week that people in the EU are permitted to be employed. It also determines minimum time off from work, among other things.

The Vatican linked up with the ecumenical Protestant Church in Germany, Trade Unions and others to pressure Parliament to enact a phrase in the Working Time Directive that said that time off from work “shall in principle include Sunday.” But several Members of the European Parliament blocked it from debate. They may well have perceived that Rome was attempting to resurrect her power.

“Piotr Mazurkiewicz, secretary general of the Brussels-based Bishop’s Conferences of the European Communities (COMECE) expressed disappointment that a debate on the protection of Sunday had not taken place…” wrote TheParliament.com.

“…The failure to put this amendment to the vote incensed Mazurkiewicz. He said the protection of Sunday “is a cornerstone of the European social model and an issue of central importance for workers and their families.” That’s powerful. The bishops were doing their best to get Sunday rest as part of European law.

Listen to this statement from God’s last day messenger. It is found in Great Controversy, page 579. “The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion is still far from being destroyed.” Prophecy foretells a restoration of her power in Revelation 13:3. Let us refresh our minds. “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast.” …In both the Old and the New World,” the author continued, “the papacy will receive homage in the honor paid to the Sunday institution, that rests solely upon the authority of the Roman Church.”

It should also be noted that trade unions will play a role in preparing for the last great crisis. God’s messenger says that “trade unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.” That is from Manuscript Releases, volume 4, page 88.

Sunday laws come in at least four phases. First, there is the Sunday closing laws in which shops and industries are closed. The second phase is Sunday rest laws in which people are required to not work, except in essential services such as in hospitals, and in the lines of transportation. That is why the proposed language for the EU Working Time Directive used the term “in principle.” Also in this second phase is included laws that prevent people from doing many activities that are considered to be work such as mowing the lawn, or fixing the porch on the house, or other types of labor.

The third phase is Sunday worship laws requiring church attendance and worship on Sunday. And the fourth phase is the forbidding of worship and the requiring of work on God’s seventh-day Sabbath.

Most of Europe already has phase one; Sunday closing laws. Croatia recently harmonized its laws with the rest of Europe, and beginning January 1, 2009 closes shops on Sunday. The news reports said Croatia’s parliament passed this law in a concession to the Roman Catholic Church. Obviously the Church put a lot of pressure on Croatia’s parliament.

Notice that the attempt to influence the Working Time Directive was not just to get stores to close on Sunday like in Croatia, but to require rest from labor. That is phase two. If a centralized European government becomes so strong that it can make a specific day of rest for all of Europe, we will have come to a time when the prophecy of Revelation 13 will be nearly fulfilled. When a secular power is able to enforce Sunday rest on behalf of the Roman Church, Europe will have resurrected the Holy Roman Empire.

If the Church should be able to get the European Parliament to implement a Sunday law, it will also be a way of legalizing the Roman Catholic Church. Rome has had great difficulty inserting a clause in the European Union’s constitutional documents identifying Christianity as the foundation of European culture and society. But there are other ways to accomplish the same thing. If Rome can persuade the European Parliament to establish Sunday rest laws in a concession to her, it will legitimize Rome’s pre-eminent position as the guide for Europe’s soul. Rome can then claim its historical role as the center of European life and culture.

TheParliament.com Article Catholic

Communication Network Article Benedict XVI

“Speech in Austria”: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20070909_wien_en.html

Bnet’s Law Report

‘USA Today News Article on Croatia

ABC News Article

Rome failed in the first attempt to get parliament to implement a Sunday rest law. But the mobilization to get Sunday laws enacted in Europe continued. On February 2, 2009 a declaration using identical language proposed for the Working Time Directive was introduced into Parliament. If signed by more than 50% of the Members of the European Parliament then it would be officially adopted and would be sent to the member states requesting that they harmonize their laws with the declaration. A declaration does not need to be debated, and has 90 days to get the signatures before it lapses. Rome was making another attempt at Sunday laws. If she cannot get an EU law for all of Europe, she has the personnel and resources to pressure each member state to implement them. An adopted declaration would help her in this tremendously.

When the 90 days were up, of the 785 members of Parliament, fortunately only 261 had signed the document, only 33%, so the declaration lapsed. But you can be sure that Rome will not stop there. She will continue to work for Sunday rest because it is part of her unchangeable principles. Perhaps we can see the angels holding back the winds of strife in setting the limits on Rome’s power, at least for now.

Source

Also, in late 2008 another important event took place. The Pope divorced the Papacy from Italian law. He issued a papal decree initiating a new process. Beginning January 1, 2009 the Vatican no longer automatically adopts Italian law. Instead the Vatican will examine each law and adopt only those that are acceptable to the Vatican. The Vatican is also going to examine treaties in the same manner. The reason is ostensibly because the laws of Europe are increasingly at odds with Vatican principles such as same-sex marriage and euthanasia.

Since the Lateran Treaty of 1929 which gave the Vatican its independence as a state, “Italian laws are automatically incorporated into the Vatican legal code,” wrote the TimesOnline. “Marco Politi, a leading Vatican expert, said the true cause of Vatican alarm was not only ‘liberal’ Italian laws on divorce and abortion, but also a ‘trend in European legislation’ which ‘sooner or later’ could lead to the introduction of laws in Italy relaxing the ban on euthanasia or sanctioning ‘civil unions’ between homosexuals.”

But there is a larger issue. By this new step the pope is publically distancing the Catholic Church from national and supranational laws. Once the Holy See gains universal power or influence, it will be a natural step, in due time, for Rome to set herself as judge over the laws they enact, resurrecting the old principle of the Middle Ages in which Rome dictates what laws the nations can impose and which they cannot. Without this step of independence, Rome can never take that one. If she is not a sovereign over herself, she will never be sovereign over other nations.

Europe better take notice noted Marco Politi. The EU lawmakers will have to face an increasingly independent Holy See. EU leaders, who are trying to establish the Holy See as the cultural center of Europe in EU legislation will no doubt pay increasingly closer attention to Papal decisions concerning Italian laws as well as its own.

Reuters News Article

Times Online Article

Melbourne Age News Article

Zenit News Article

BBC News Article

My friends, God is merciful. He gives us time. But we need to watch these amazing developments in Europe. The Pope and the Papacy are determined to be recognized as the foundation of European culture. They are patient, but persistent. As we near the end, the Vatican will be given more freedom to work her will. We must watch and be ready for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

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Source: http://www.ktfministry.org/sermons/476/the-new-holy-roman-empire

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Note: Link are disabled: Titles in between paragraphs are links; To see them please visit the link above.

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Love, lies and press conferences




Love, lies and press conferences

July 2, 9:49 AM

While most Americans are still cringing at South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's oversharing and the ad nauseam coverage of tan lines and soulmates, another tale of infidelity and lies seems to have finally reached critical mass. Unlike Sanford, he mainstream media (MSM) has never made a secret of their own obsessive love. In articles written in the superfluous style of Sanford's emails to his Argentinian mistress, the MSM's devotion to and dalliances with Obama have been public and embarrassing.

Sanford, taking another stab at political suicide, reported to the AP that he had “crossed the line,” but not "the ultimate line," with other women. Sanford left many wondering about his definition of “crossing the line.” Thankfully at least
two members of the MSM now understand their status as the mistress in the Obama affair:
“Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.

'Nixon didn’t try to do that,' Thomas said. 'They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

'What the hell do they think we are, puppets?' Thomas said. 'They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Puppets? No. Willing participants in an effort to lie to and mislead the American people? Yes.

In articles too numerous to detail, the media approach of the Nixon era has been replaced with sound bite journalism, pre-packaged statements and fawning coverage. Gone are the Woodwards and Bernsteins who would have cried foul at the obvious “
straw men” placed in town hall meetings and press events, or the skillful dodging of hard questions by the adminstration. Either way, the MSM's betrayal of the American public and their journalistic ethics is complete and unrepentant.Thomas goes on to say, in what appears to be utter disgust:
“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences. It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame."
In a comment on the
article, poster "surewewill" stated:
"I suppose the spin the Obama White House will put on this will be similar to the description of the IG that was dismissed because he was 'confused, incoherent, etc.' and therefore received a no confidence vote. Obviously Ms. Thomas' line of questioning will be attributed to her 'advanced' age, approaching senility, time to retire, yada.

Gibbs' manner in press conferences have been colored with the quiet arrogance and dismissive manner of his boss. Like the President, he considers himself above the average person. Increasingly the Administration is developing a mistrust of the media which is gradually seeing the man and not the charismatic candidate. The tough questions are avoided and only pre-approved, prepackaged questions are allowed to give the appearance they have it all under control. IMHO."

Speculation abounds on Twitter that the MSM has now taken on the role of the jilted and bitter ex-lover, but some have also taken to calling them the “State Run Media” or SRM. The tiff that the Media is having with Obama is really about credibility. Apparently, the losses of readers and ad sales have caused some newspapers and networks to reevaluate the benefits of this relationship. The administration can feed pro-Obama news to the media as long as it does not appear to. The media is not ready for this relationship to go prime time, that is, not until the Fairness Doctrine and possible bailouts have been secured.




Related:


CBS' Chip Reid, Gibbs Spar Over "Town Hall"
CBS News - Brian Montopoli - ‎11 hours ago‎
This is just media/Obama manipulation trying to look like a town hall meeting. by rocknroll33 July 2, 2009 10:50 AM PDT Yes! Great point! Awesome point! ...
Video: AP's Jennifer Loven on Obama Interview The Associated Press
Helen Thomas: Obama “controlling the press” College News
Obama's Town Hall sham Atlanta Journal Constitution
Associated Content - CNSNews.com
all 306 news articles »
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Obama's town hall more Pravda than Americana
Examiner.com - ‎14 hours ago‎
But if an exchange between Chip Reid, Helen Thomas and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday is any indication, the playground might be getting ...
Video: AP Interview: Obama on Affirmative Action The Associated Press
Morning Bell: Obama's Choreographed Town Hall Heritage.org
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The Skies are Friendlier These Days for Congress
FOXNews - Bret Baier - ‎1 hour ago‎
Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas has lashed out at what she sees as an unprecedented effort by the Obama administration to control the media. ...

Helen Thomas Shocked By Obama Healthcare Press Op

Helen Thomas Shocked By Obama Healthcare Press Op
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2009 by Connie T.

If you don't know her name, you certainly know her face...Helen Thomas has covered every President since JFK as a member of the American media. She asks the hard questions, the often unpopular questions. She was a tough criticizer of George W. Bush and once famously stated "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for President, I'll kill myself." But she's certainly not putting on kitten gloves for Barack Obama's administration, either.

At Obama's latest Town Hall meeting, questions were allowed to be submitted for the President from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. President Obama answered seven questions: four of them were selected by staff from groups that support Obama's health care proposal, including Service Employees International Union and Health Care for America Now.

That certainly didn't get by Helen. See her response and CBS correspondent Chip Reid's in the video below, in the White House press room with Robert Gibbs yesterday.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh5vzOAEQ-A&feature=player_embeddedhttp://
www.youtube.com/v/fh5vzOAEQ-A&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">


"Nixon didn't try to do that," Helen Thomas said in a subsequent interview by CNSNews.com. "They couldn't control [the media]. They didn't try. What the hell do they think we are, puppets?...They are our public servants. We pay them.

"When you call the reporter the night before, you know damn well what they are going to ask." There's been "managed news" before, she pointed out, but for a town hall meeting? "It's blatant," she continued. They don't give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame."

She's 89 years old and still sharp as a tack! Go Helen!
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Source:
http://www.connietalk.com/helen_thomas_calls_press_op_shameful_070209.html
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Florida Residents Protest Atheist Billboard

Florida Residents Protest Atheist Billboard

CBNNews.com

Thursday, July 02, 2009



'>http://



Christians in Florida are protesting a billboard put up by the Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists group.

The Fort Lauderdale billboard reads, "Being a good person doesn't require God," and, "Don't believe in God? You're not alone."

Several residents want the billboard taken down because they say it doesn't fit with the beliefs of most people in the community.

"Every day it's something going on. Kids out here are killing each other. Kids out here are using drugs Who else are they going to believe in?" community activist Essie Reed charged.

Atheist Ken Loukinen believes the billboard does no harm.

"We didn't want to incense anybody or put a derogatory statement in there," he said. "[The first statement] is to the public to let them know that atheists can be good, moral people and the second part of the message is to other free-thinkers in Broward County or in the area that may see this, that there is an organization that supports them."

The billboard is expected to be up for the next month.




Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2009/July/Florida-Residents-Protest-Atheist-Billboard/
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Fingers pointed at Yemenia Airways after Airbus crash


Tuesday 30 June 2009

Relatives of passengers aboard Yemenia Airways flight IY 626 which crashed en route to the Comoros from Paris on Monday have criticised the airline for having a poor safety record. Out of 153 on board, a 14-year-old was rescued alive.


Tuesday 30 June 2009 By (text) / (video)

Paris airport emergency number for families of passengers: +33.(0)1.48.64.59.59 Yemenia Airways's call centre in Sanaa: +967.1.250.800/ emergency number: +967.1.250.833


A Yemenia Airbus 310-300 with 153 people on board crashed into the sea late Monday night while approaching the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros. A 14-year-old girl is the sole survivor so far, according to the local Red Cross and rescuers.

Earlier reports had suggested the survivor was a five-year-old child.

Three bodies have been recovered, while the location of up to a hundred others has been identified by search and rescue personnel, according to authorities.

There were up to 66 French nationals on Yemenia flight IY 626, which originated from Paris. French authorities have also dispatched two airplanes and a ship from the Reunion islands to aid the search.

Contact with the flight was lost at 1:51 am local time (GMT+2), when the plane appears to have pulled off from its final approach to land for a second try. According to a senior Yemeni aviation official, Mohammad Abdel Kader, “the weather conditions were bad, with winds gusting up to 61 knots”.

Flight plan of Yemeni Airbus A310-300 that crashed off the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on June 30 at around 1am Paris time
The Yemenia flight took off from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, subsequently making stopovers in Marseilles and Djibouti, with a change of aircraft in Sanaa. The 143 passengers on board included nationals from France, Canada, Comoros, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Yemen.


Questions on safety record

The airport authorities cite bad weather at the time of the accident, and Yemenia’s deputy director assured FRANCE 24 that "the plane had taken off without any technical problem."

But the crashed aircraft had been cited for technical faults earlier, according to France’s transport minister Dominique Bussereau, and “banned” from French airspace. It was also an aircraft that did not belong to Yemenia, but it was owned by another company, the lessor International Lease Finance Corp.

"The Airbus A310 in question was checked in 2007 by the DGCA [France’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation], and they noticed a certain number of faults. The unit has since not reappeared in our country," Bussereau told TV channel I-Tele.

Relatives of passengers at the Charles de Gaulle airport also told FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg that the plane from Sanaa to Moroni was usually “in very poor condition” and badly maintained.

Also at the airport were activists from a group called "SOS voyage aux Comores" (SOS Comoros Travel) who said that they had already protested against conditions on the flights earlier.

"Flights between Sanaa and Moroni are carried out by cowboy operators," spokesman Farid Soilihi told AFP. "They treat people like cattle, they pile them in, they don't respect timetables, there are always technical problems."

Airbus and France’s Office of Investigations and Analysis (BEA) will be sending teams to the region to investigate the accident.

The European Commissioner for Transport, Antonio Tajani, has said that it would contact Yemenia to inquire on its safety record, and would also propose a “global blacklist” along the lines of EU’s current blacklist of banned airlines.
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Prophets Denounced



Micah 3

1And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

2Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

5Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

6Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

7Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

8But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

10They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

12Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Role of bishop of Rome key to Catholic-Orthodox progress, pope says

POPE-ORTHODOX Jun-29-2009 (460 words) xxxi

Role of bishop of Rome key to Catholic-Orthodox progress, pope says

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A common understanding of the role the bishop of Rome played in the united Christianity of the first millennium is essential for resolving the question of the primacy of the pope in a united church, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope met June 27 with Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Bishop Athenagoras of Sinope, who serves as the assistant metropolitan of Belgium, and Deacon Ioakim Billis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The three Greek Orthodox represented Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the evening prayer service closing the year of St. Paul June 28 and at the pope's Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.

Meeting the delegation privately before the festivities began, the pope said the year of St. Paul was a year "of prayer, of reflection and of exchanging gestures of communion between Rome and Constantinople."

The pope said the joint activities were the best way to honor St. Paul, who urged Christians "'to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace,' teaching us that there is 'only one body and one spirit.'"

The participation of the Orthodox delegation in the late-June liturgies "reminds us of our common commitment to the search for full communion," Pope Benedict said.

"You already know this, but I am pleased to confirm today that the Catholic Church intends to contribute in every way to making it possible to re-establish full communion in response to Christ's will for his disciples," he said.

Pope Benedict said the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission would meet in October in Cyprus "to face a theme crucial for relations between the East and West, that is the 'role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of the church in the first millennium.'"

Ecumenical experts believe agreement on how the pope, the bishop of Rome, exercised his ministry before Christianity split into East and West is essential for discovering the way the papacy could be exercised in the church if Catholics and Orthodox successfully reunite.

"I want the participants in the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue to know that my prayers accompany them and that this dialogue has the complete support of the Catholic Church," Pope Benedict told the Orthodox delegation.

"With all my heart, I hope that the misunderstandings and tensions encountered by the Orthodox delegates during the last plenary session of the commission have been overcome in fraternal love so that this dialogue will be more broadly representative of Orthodoxy," the pope said.

At the last plenary gathering, held in Italy in 2007, the Russian Orthodox delegation walked out to protest the presence of a delegation from the Estonian Orthodox Church, recognized as autonomous by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but not by the Russian Orthodox Church.

END



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Economic Turmoil to Economic Takeover


Sermons
Economic Turmoil to Economic Takeover · June 01, 2009
Dear Friends,

Thank you for joining us this month. We at Keep the Faith Ministry are very thankful for your prayers and support. It means so much to us and to the Lord when you support the presentation of truth. Thank you for listening. May God help you as you plan for the future in light of the issues that face God’s people in these last days. We truly live in amazing times.

I want to again urge you to check out our website on a frequent basis so that you can read up on the most recent information concerning current prophetic developments. Moreover, I urge you to tell your friends about their very own free subscription to our monthly sermons on CD that is just waiting for them. Many people are just discovering the wealth of information contained in the little CD preachers from Keep the Faith.

Before we go to our study of prophecy this month, we need to understand that Jesus is looking after His church. He is looking after His faithful people. The good news is that if you are following His counsel and you have a daily walk with the Lord, you can be sure that Psalm 91:1, the heavenly 911 will be your sure and certain safety. You will be under the shadow of the Almighty.

I have said it before; because the global economic crisis continues to deepen and broaden and is affecting every nation on the globe we are going to see a dramatic change in the way the world functions economically. With the huge banks and multinational companies on life-support, forces are now coming into play that will overturn the existing order. There is nothing you can do about the changes except to prepare for it by following God’s counsel. The world as we know it presently is going to end. No, I’m not referring to the second coming. That is going to end the world too, and permanently, but that is later. Right now, the world as you know it is going to end. There is going to be a systematic and systemic change in the way the economy works.

I want to advise you that the things you will hear in this month’s message are not only real, but they are imminent. You need to prepare your hearts for the coming dramatic changes in your lifestyle and way of doing business. Now is the time to make your calling and election sure. Remember that the greatest conflict that has ever engulfed the world and consequently God’s people is soon to come. But first world economies must be brought under control by a few key people and institutions. This sermon is unusually documented. You’ll find that documentation on our website. Click on the sermons link, then click on this sermon and as you scroll down the text you’ll see the links at appropriate places throughout it.

Isaiah chapter 2:20 tells us that those that have made money their idol will cast it aside as worthless. “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats…”

Furthermore, Revelation 18:15 says that the merchants of the earth, that is; the central bankers and those who control economies, are made rich by their cooperation with the Holy See. They are bold and corrupt. I have never in my lifetime seen such boldness among the merchants of the earth, as those dealing with the economic crisis. They boldly play with your money and spend your future. They boldly give billions of dollars to failing companies whose leaders were boldly taking advantage of circumstances and human nature by making risky loans and investments. Now they are getting their pockets lined with more money by government bailouts at taxpayers expense. They channel some of those bailouts into bonuses for themselves. Also, one company buys out another, and the resulting consolidation puts more power and control in the hands of fewer and fewer people, all in the name of solving the economic crisis on your behalf.

Moreover, governments, particularly the U.S. government, but also Iceland, and many European governments have been systematically nationalizing banks and major industries so that more power is centralized again.

Look at what Isaiah 23:8 says about the papacy and these bankers. “Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes [that’s Rome’s priestly bankers], whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? [That’s the global central bankers and economists].” I bet some of us never thought that this could be referring to those that control and manipulate earthly finance.

Rome’s merchants, my friends, are priests, or princes of the church who are in league with those same merchants who are the honored central bankers of the earth, like Henry Paulson, and now Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. Yes, they have fallen upon some criticism in recent times, but they are still honored and given almost free reign over the economy. But they are the front line. They are supposed to get criticism. There are others behind them, such as the Rothchilds, Rockefellers, and others who are immune to it, but have a lot of say about how things turn out.

Isaiah 47:15 again speaks of Rome when she is destroyed; “thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.”

Revelation 18:15 says something similar; “the merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment…” They won’t help Rome when God finally undoes all that Rome has tried to do.

Now I’m going to read to you a most powerful statement from the Spirit of Prophecy that brings us up close and personal. It’s from Evangelism, page 62 and 63. Ellen White is addressing the stinginess of God’s people concerning the work of God, but she makes a startling prediction that is now in the process of being fulfilled. Listen to it carefully.

“Men will invest in patent rights and meet with heavy losses, and it is taken as a matter of course. But in the work and cause of God, men are afraid to venture. Money seems to them to be a dead loss that does not bring immediate returns when invested in the work of saving souls.” Now here comes the startling part: “The very means that is now so sparingly invested in the cause of God, and that is selfishly retained, will in a little while be cast with all idols to the moles and to the bats. Money will soon depreciate in value very suddenly when the reality of eternal scenes opens to the senses of man.”

I’m going to make a prediction that I am now confident is close to being reality. Some aspects of this I have been very skeptical about until recently, but not anymore. I have come to this conclusion after reading widely concerning the ongoing financial crisis and the actions of world leaders concerning the solution. Here is my heart pounding prediction. We are at the end, or nearly so, of the western economy as we know it. Moreover, the financial restructuring that is going on globally is going to change your life drastically. It will be forced on you whether you like it or not. Listen carefully. We are likely going to see a rapid devaluation of western currencies, just as God’s messenger predicted, and the revaluation of assets, or rather the re-inflation of assets under a new regionalized set of currencies. Let me say that again in a different way. We are going to see the devaluation of money, then a change in currency (which will make most people poorer) then a revaluation of tangible assets like real estate, so that those who have money to invest, or the rich, can make themselves richer by buying them cheaply before they are re-inflated. This has happened before in many countries, but it is now going to happen on a very broad scale among western countries, especially in the northern hemisphere. This is not about solving your economic problems. It is about consolidating power and money.

Just listen to the breathtaking statements of world leaders, the “kings of the earth,” and the bankers, or the “merchants of the earth.” After the Group of 20 (or the G20) economic summit in London in April, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain announced that the ‘old Washington consensus’ had come to an end. “I think a new world order is emerging with the foundation of a new progressive era of international cooperation.” he said.

In other words, Gordon Brown is saying that from now on Washington will no longer be able to use the U.S. dollar to dictate to the world what is going to happen in world economy. Instead the economy is going to be globalized and controlled by internationalists.

Among the ominous decisions that came out of the G20 meeting is included a “common approach to managing ‘toxic assets’ [which is the term they use for bad investments], radical reform of the banking system, [and] new regulatory systems…” wrote the Melbourne Age. What do they mean by the “radical reform of the banking system?”

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France said that “since Bretton Woods, the world has been living on… [an] Anglo-Saxon model,” meaning American and British of course. “It’s not my place to criticise it,” he said, “it has its advantages – clearly, today, a page has been turned.”

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor said: “[The G20 meeting] is a victory for global co-operation… The things that got us into this crisis are not allowed to be repeated…”

Merkel is talking about the way that the U.S. banks and Wall Street worked together to create a global economic bubble especially in real estate. Essentially banks all over the world were loaning money to finance gambling on Wall Street and other stock markets and in the real estate market. Banks worldwide and stock markets followed the U.S. example and now they are also following the economic fallout in the U.S too.

Global Cash
MSNBC News Article
Summit Outcomes

But Sarkozy, Merkel and Brown were essentially repeating what they had said a few months before. In November, Sarkozy declared, “We must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods…” and “we want to change the rules of the game,” while Merkel believes that the global financial markets need a “new constitution” to govern them.

Bloomberg News Article

Gordon Brown said we need a “new Bretton Woods,” “a new global order” and a “global new deal” to address the economic crisis. “We face a choice,” he said. “We could allow this crisis to start a retreat from globalization… or we could view the threats and challenges we face today as the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order – and our task now is nothing less than making the transition through a new internationalism to the benefits of an expanding global society.

Gordon Brown and the Financial
Brown’s Economic Policy
Aljazeera Source
Brown’s Call
Bretton Woods Source
Washington Post Article

Before we go any further we need to understand what these world leaders mean when they talk about another Bretton Woods. Bretton Woods is the town in the U.S. state of New Hampshire where an important economic meeting took place at the Mount Washington Hotel back in July of 1944.

After World War I considerable global financial instability arose because most nations were now off the gold standard. Nations could now create money out of thin air without any gold backing. Consequently they could inflate or contract their economies by controlling the money supply. This led to tremendous volatility and a global recession in between the two World Wars.

Toward the end of World War II, financial elites of the 44 allied countries gathered in New Hampshire for one of the most significant meetings the world had ever seen up to that time. Officially called the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, it is now remembered as Bretton Woods. The job of this elite group of financial gurus and national delegations was to create a mechanism to minimize currency instability and fight recession. Never before had international monetary cooperation been attempted on a permanent institutional basis. Their agenda included the creation of a global currency, and an international monetary fund to regulate it (known today as the IMF), a global body to regulate trade (which eventually became the World Trade Organization), and an international bank to provide loans to needy countries (which eventually became the World Bank).

All of the attendees were in agreement that an international overhaul of the global financial system was needed, and that it should be under some kind of government controls. Interestingly this was going on at the same time that a new political order was arising through the United Nations. In essence they hammered out a new system of global economy that laid the foundations of the financial order that persisted until the early 1970s when a financial crisis led to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.

Up to the time of Bretton Woods, the British Pound was the major currency because Britain had been the sole global superpower. The Bretton Woods agreements provided that each country peg its currency to gold. But almost all the nations were not on a gold standard. Since the United States was the only nation that still had gold backing its currency, the U.S. dollar became an almost ideal substitute for gold and achieved great credibility. The Bretton Woods agreements resulted in the U.S. dollar becoming the currency to which all other currencies were, in practicality, pegged. As a result, the United States in essence became the money manager of the world and could manipulate it to its own advantage. That is why there is a strong feeling among world leaders that the system needs to change. They don’t like being at the mercy of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The signers of the Bretton Woods agreements were essentially the architects of the way the global financial system has worked more or less for the last 60 years. The financial crisis in the 1970s destabilized the Bretton Woods agreements when the United States left the gold standard and no longer backed its dollars with the precious metal. However, because the U.S. dollar was still the main reserve currency, the U.S. was positioned to continue dictating monetary policy on a global scale through the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve used the respect and confidence in the dollar to manage, or rather manipulate the global economy. When the U.S. loosened things up, so did the rest of the world. When the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy, so did the other nations more or less.

FOREX History
Time Article
Article on Bretton
Bretton Woods Project
Bretton Woods Agreement
Bretton Woods System

Now that is all changing. The economic crisis that has been fostered by the loose monetary policy of the Federal Reserve has spread around the world in wave after wave of bankrupt banks and financing corporations, faltering industry and commerce and teetering governments. Germany’s Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, likened it to a “poisonous oil spill,” and said that “the global financial system will become multipolar.” That means that it won’t be dominated by the U.S. dollar. The call for another Bretton Woods is nothing short of a global attempt to radically restructure the way the world does business and wrest the financial power from the United States and put it in the hands of internationalist bodies, essentially globalizing banking and finances. This does not threaten the Federal Reserve. It is not accountable to the political system of United States. The Fed itself is led by internationalists who want globalization of banking and finance, and is no doubt working to bring about the new global financial structure.

Bloomberg Article

Now for more statements of world leaders. At the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland in February, Russia’s Prime Minister Putin said that “Excessive dependence on a single reserve currency,” meaning the U.S. dollar, “is dangerous for the global economy.” Putin also suggested that the International Monetary Fund should issue the reserve currency rather than allowing one country’s currency to be the international reserve currency.

Source Article

Josef Ackerman, the Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank, and the chairman of the Institute of International Finance, said about the G20 London meeting in April that the “benefits of a global financial system is absolutely key” to global recovery and stability. “To retreat from [the] global approach would in my view” he said “be a step in the wrong direction, even if understandable from the point of view of national governments and taxpayers.” In other words, he was saying that it doesn’t matter what taxpayers think, or the national interests of individual nations. Globalism is now going to bring the world economy under its control. Keep in mind the reasons why globalists want this. It will help them globalize politics easier. But there is an even more important reason prophetically speaking. Without globalized economics and politics, there can never be globalized religion.

Furthermore Ackerman said “If we go back to a bank-based approach – traditional, old-fashioned lending – that would require much more capital, which is clearly not available, and would have a very negative impact on global growth,” he said. In other words, traditional banking is now likely to change as a new global system emerges.

Alistair Darling, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, even went so far as to say that governments should not “waste time talking about [their] constitutions.” In other words, nations will be pressured to join and cooperate with the global financial coalition no matter what their constitutions say about independence. As more money and power is in the control of fewer hands, nations will lose much of their sovereignty. The result will be that these global bankers will be able to reach down past national boundaries right down into your life, which is going to be more controlled than ever. Your government will not protect you from them.

News Source
London Summit Article

The week before the G20 summit in London, China, which had kept a low profile during the crisis up to that time “dropped a bombshell,” wrote the Financial Times. Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the central bank, in an essay in The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, publically called for a replacement for the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. “Mr. Zhou argued,” said the Financial Times, “that the costs of maintaining the current system in which the [U.S.] dollar dominates, surpassed the benefits… The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and [a] fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States,” he said, as he warned of the threat of a “financial tsunami” and the need for a new global currency system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.”

FT News Source
WSJ Article

Mr. Zhou’s argument is that because the U.S. dollar has been the world’s reserve currency, other nations parked a lot of money in U.S. funds [China having the most], thereby financing the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, was able to pursue an irresponsible policy of keeping interest rates too low and thereby inflating the housing bubble. This also increased other nation’s vulnerability to an economic downturn in the U.S. By moving away from the dollar as the reserve currency, Mr. Zhou suggested that it would stabilize world economy.
Mr. Zhou is advocating that the International Monetary Fund should expand its use of SDRs, or “Special Drawing Rights.” SDRs [which are essentially] a synthetic or artificial currency issued by the International Monetary Fund, were created by the IMF in the 1960s as a means of providing the nations of the world with an independent reserve currency, but it was never really used that way because the dollar was so respected. SDRs have merely been an accounting tool the IMF uses to keep track of its loans to various nations.

Governor of the People
PBC Article
WSJ Article

Not surprisingly even the United Nations is getting in on the wave of official enthusiasm for a globalized economy. In March a special UN Commission recommended that the dollar be replaced as the world’s reserve currency.

UN Article
FT Article
Another FT Article

The UK Telegraph reported on a communiqué published after the April G20 meeting in London. “A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders, amounts to revolution in the global financial order,” the Telegraph said. “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,” the communiqué said.

The Telegraph continued; “in effect, the G20 leaders have activated the IMF’s power to create money” in it’s attempt to stem the crisis. “In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play,” said the Telegraph. “It is outside the control of any sovereign body… There is now a world currency in waiting. In time, SDRs are likely [to] evolve into a parking place for the foreign holdings of central banks, led by the People’s Bank of China…”

Just before the G7 meeting in Washington last November, Gordon Brown gave a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations. He said “I have no doubt that out of the discussions we are having… we’ll have an international financial monetary fund that looks more like an independent central bank.” In other words, the G7 is working on adjusting the IMF so that it functions like a global independent central bank complete with power to create money.

Brown CFR Speech
A Global Currency
G20 Communiqué

The implications of this are powerful. Imagine a world currency that replaces your Pounds, Euros or Dollars of whatever variety. This in effect would centralize control of all the world money under a small body of people that have no accountability other than to themselves.

Do you think Ellen White was talking about something like this when she said: “In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business…” That’s Selected Messages, Volume 2, page 142.

If ever there would be a giant monopoly, it would be a world currency. If ever there were a grasping for all the means in certain lines of business like banking and finance, this would be it. And through the financial system everything else is controlled; every industrial steel manufacturer, every car manufacturer, every airline, every food processor, every farm, every pharmaceutical company, every hospital… You name it, it is about to come under the full control of a few global bankers and world money managers. But look what it is doing. According to God’s messenger to the remnant, it is wrapping these men and millions of people in the folds of the enemy.

Frankly, I’m not yet convinced that a single world currency is going to happen very soon, at least not a currency that you and I would use in our day to day business. But there are secret meetings going on behind the scenes that are framing the new economic world order right now into regional currencies. I suspect from what I have read that there is going to be three to six regional currencies pegged to the new global shadow currency, or the “synthetic currency known as SDRs at the IMF. You won’t use the SDRs in your daily transactions at the grocery store, but they will control everything behind the scenes through the policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other global institutions. We get little glimpses of what is being planned by paying attention to the language of those on the inside; those who are the architects of the new economic order.

For a good overview, research resources and source material here

Perhaps the most pointed statement came from Ewald Nowotny, a European Central Bank council member, who added a shocking revelation to the idea of moving away from the “centrality of the U.S. dollar.” He revealed that the U.S., Europe, and Asia are developing a “tri-polar global currency system” to replace the current dollar-centric reserve structure. “What I see” he said, “is a system where we have more centers of gravity…”

Bloomberg News Article

Think about what he said very carefully. What is a “tri-polar global currency system?” This was actually a patently clear statement of what is going on behind the scenes in those secret meetings. The United States, Europe, and Asia are secretly developing a three-currency system to replace the current U.S. dollar that countries keep as reserves. ”What he said was that behind closed doors, and in the backrooms of the leading economic powers of the world, and perhaps in and around these G group meetings in Davos, Washington, Rome and London, there are negotiations going on to radically revise the economic system of the entire world. This cannot be good for your pocketbook. Replacing currencies has always been at the expense of the average citizen by giving him less buying power in the exchange. While helping governments pay their debt at a significant discount because of the deflation. Therefore it is always in a government’s interest to deflate a currency value because it helps cover excessive government spending.

Ewald Nowotny said, along with quite a number of others, that the [U.S.] dollar will lose its position as the world’s reserve currency. He also said that the three currencies will be coordinated so that world economy will be balanced by “three centers of gravity” in the U.S., Europe and Asia, though he did not think that the exchange rates would be fixed. Perhaps I should warn you that this means that your cash will be of little good to you soon. It will be replaced and you will be less wealthy. This would be the time to get your money into God’s work and to make sure that most of what is left is tied up in real assets like your home.

No doubt much of this had already been hammered out long before the G20 summit in London. There have been many “G-meetings” to strategize and set the course for globalizing earthly finances. Once the Group of seven, or the seven largest economies known as the G7, met in Washington DC in October, 2008 to create a roadmap, they followed with a G20 meeting of the 20 largest economies of the world in Washington again, to get their cooperation. Then, as you would expect, the G7 or the seven leading merchants of the earth, gathered in Rome in mid-February 2009 to plan for the London G20 summit in April.

I wonder why they met in Rome besides to plan for the upcoming meeting in London. Perhaps they needed to bring the Vatican up do date on the planning and explain what they doing and seek advice. We don’t know for sure, but the Bible tells us that these merchants are in league with Holy See in their economic dealings. Zenit reported that the Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertoni sent a message to the G7 while in Rome urging them to put “the person before profit” and respect the rights of workers. No doubt these leaders are in contact with the Vatican on a regular basis. Incidentally, the Rome meeting was also attended by leaders of trade organizations, the World Bank, the IMF and Russia as observers.

February 13th
Zenit News Article


The Vatican had already been involved in the process. On February 19, Gordon Brown, Britain’s Prime Minister and the host of the upcoming London summit, flew to Rome and met with Benedict XVI to discuss with him the economic crisis and their plans for globalizing it. No doubt the Vatican is very interested in this process for its own reasons. The prophetic meeting with the pope is the fourth of a British Prime Minister in six years, and was in conjunction with Mr. Brown’s meeting with Silvio Berlusconi, the chairman of the G7 at the time. Brown accompanied his visit with an invitation for Benedict to visit the UK. Papal cooperation in the economic solution is so important that the UK Telegraph said that the Prime Minister was going to Benedict to “seek divine guidance as he presses ahead with efforts to tackle the economic crisis.”

Following their meeting in Rome, Benedict and Brown exchanged letters in which they affirmed their commitment to wealth redistribution in order to help the poorest countries among other things. Then just before the London summit, on March 31, Brown “preached” a sermon on the morality of the economy at St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London before 2000 people. Never before had a Prime Minister spoken in historic St. Paul’s. Brown quoted scripture and used religious terms in calling for a new world order based on moral and ethical principles. Echoing Benedict’s emphasis on the dignity of the person, he emphasized that “market forces should be replaced by those of the ‘heart.’” He was joined by his Roman Catholic counterpart Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, for a public discussion moderated by the Anglican bishop of London.

UK Politics
Catholic News Article
Brown meets with Pope
Brown’s Politics
Brown Discusses Economic Crisis
The New World Order Sermon
Zenit Article
Pope’s Letter to Brown
Brown’s Letter of Response
Speech at St. Paul’s

The Bible tells us that the leaders in this economic process are working with Rome and other churches to accomplish their purposes. They know that in a time when people are upset by a crisis, success of their plans can only come if they cooperate with religious powers led by Rome because Rome has enormous social and economic influence. That is one of the reasons they have meetings in Rome and private meetings with the pontiff. They know that if they talk in moral and religious terms, religious people are more likely to support their centralization of power. They know that if they help Rome, Rome will help them.

There were other planning meetings to prepare for the G20 summit in London, such as a G20 meeting in Berlin in late February and the ASEAN group, or the nations of Southeast Asia who met at the end of February to discuss the upcoming summit. By the time the London meeting began, the plans for economic globalization would have been quite mature and well communicated. After the London meeting, in which the nations agreed to have their economies overseen by the IMF there was planned a summit for the Asian nations, the intent of which would have been to bring all the Asian nations into harmony with the new economic order. But the ASEAN economic summit in Thailand was disrupted by protesters forcing the attendees to flee the meeting place. Perhaps the angels were holding back the process and thereby the winds of strife.

London Summit Article
Brown and the Pope

Globalizing the economy and banking while regionalizing currency into three major areas is not an easy task and no doubt will take many more meetings. But the fundamental principles are probably already in place and will just take time to work themselves out. You and I will see dramatic changes over the next few years in which this new globalized administration will regulate everything from banking policies to accounting standards, and even executive compensation. In the long run the new globalization of the economy will certainly shift wealth away from developed nations to developing ones. It is all spelled out in the communiqué from the G20 meeting. You can read it by going to our website and clicking on the appropriate link in the text of this sermon. Forget about banking secrecy. Tax havens will disappear. Every banking transaction will be transparent. Every transaction can potentially be controlled.

Friends, to put this prophetically, if there is going to be a global no-buy-no-sell law, as predicted in Revelation 13:16, there has to be transparency of all transactions. Terrorism first and now the economic crisis are the justifications for establishing a system that will eventually be used to enforce universal Sunday worship laws by preventing those that do not participate in them from buying or selling.

Canada’s Finances
The American Economy
Another Canadian News Article
February 13th
London Summit Article
Communiqué
My friends, this is, in essence, the final, or near final centralization of the global economy in the hands of the bankers and global merchants. The bottom line is that the current economic crisis is being used as a means of taking economic power away from the United States and handing it to international bodies that would then manage it for all people of the world in classic socialistic globalism. Of course, the United States has not been a sterling example of fiscal responsibility, and now has no defense. But with the dismal track record of the UN, the World Bank and other international bodies to adequately manage political issues, what makes them think that similar international bodies controlling the whole world economy will be devoid of political agendas or vested interests?

Let us put this into the prophetic context again. Revelation 18 tells us that the merchants of the earth are working closely together with the Holy See to make themselves rich, while at the same time making Rome more powerful. There is no doubt in my mind that the new centralized economy and currencies will benefit Rome and these world economic controllers. While they tout the need for this new system because of the economic crisis, and to help poor nations, they are the very ones that to a large degree have created the crisis by loosening standards and oversight so that banks and other financial institutions in the western world could take advantage of human nature.

Remember that the love of money is the root of all evil. The economic crisis is largely the result of human nature’s ability to make use of an opportunity for personal enrichment at the expense of others. When this is done on a global scale, it ultimately leads to a global instability and an international economic crisis much like we have seen over the last couple of years.

Listen to this statement from the UK Telegraph: “The real sticking point of the new system is the set of ‘new rules aimed at avoiding excessive leverage [or debt], and forcing banks to put more money aside during good times,” said the Telegraph. “This is more or less what the authorities agreed after the Depression. [But] complacency chipped away at the rules as the decades passed. It is the human condition, and we can’t change that.”

So it is no surprise that given a loose environment for profiteering, human nature will exploit the opportunities leading to a cycle of risky investments, bubbles and then contractions in the economy. But the common solution presented for all these “crises” is more centralization of control, more globalism, more internationalism. Eventually the whole mess will be considered to be a moral crisis that only religious and moral austerity can resolve.

Listen to what the Vatican is saying about the economic crisis. “The current economic crisis,” said Pope Benedict XVI, “shows the importance of building our lives on the firm foundation of the Word.” Given Rome’s definition of the firm foundation of the word, which means papal interpretation of the word, or in more precise terms, papal pronouncements and canon law, Rome is patently attempting to put her own moral spin on the crisis and its solutions.

Concerning the UN sponsored Doha economic conference for financing developing nations, November 20 – December 2, 2008, in which representatives of 160 nations were present, the “Bishop of Rome praised the identification of ‘helpful criteria for directing the governance of the economic system and helping those who are most in need…’” wrote Zenit a Vatican news agency. “On a deeper level, bolstering the economy demands rebuilding confidence,” the pope said. “This goal will only be reached by implementing an ethics based on the innate dignity of the human person.’”

Zenit Article
Another Article from Zenit
Global Policy
UN Website
Christian Aid Press Releases

What Benedict is saying is that solutions to the economic problems of this world involve moral principles which Rome continues to position herself to define. But the following statement is the clearest concerning Rome’s support for a new system of economic governance. “The roots of the economic crisis point to the need for a new international structure, say [the] bishops of Latin America… Globalization, should abide by ethics, placing everything at the service of the human person created in the image and likeness of God.” This statement is a thinly veiled attempt to suggest that the Catholic Church should be recognized as the moral authority by which the ethics of the global economic system should operate.

Zenit News Article

So Rome is calling for a change in the global economic order too. But Rome wants more than just a new monetary system. Why would the Holy See want to see a new world order of economics? The Bible tells us that Rome is master of the economy. She gets these merchants of the earth involved with her behind the scenes. Rome is very shy about openly discussing her economic relationships. She will openly discuss her ecumenical relationships and many of her political relationships to some extent, but her economic relationships are a matter left largely to the imagination. But the Bible tells us clearly that in order for the Holy See to have a strong political power, she must of necessity have an economic influence that assists her in this.

Rome urges that religious principles should motivate world economy and politics. Since the economy is what often manipulates politics, she wants more say in economic matters. Her goal is to have the most influence possible on global economy, politics, governments, and the vast millions of citizens. When control of the economy is centralized into a few hands, it is so much easier for Rome to manipulate it, particularly when she has many of her own “merchants” in the seats of power. So the Papacy has an interest in restructuring the economic system. Perhaps she is in the middle of the negotiations. The kings of the earth, and the merchants of the earth give her what she wants, and she gives them what they want. She gets greater power and they get greater wealth.

Think about this in terms of prophecy again. Religion is the third leg of the three-legged stool of prophetic globalism. Once the political world is globalized (and it is well down that road already), and once the economic world is globalized (and this is now being formulated), you can expect that the next frontier of globalization will be religion (and that too has already started through the ecumenical movement). Furthermore, since the economy has become global and political, it is no surprise to students of prophecy that religion will also become political on a global scale. The universal no-buy-no-sell laws to enforce global worship laws cannot happen until every leg of the three-legged stool is in place. There must be economic consolidation on a global scale. That is now in process.

Listen to this statement from the pen of God’s messenger, Ellen White about the wickedness of the world. It is from Testimonies for the Church, Volume 7, page 141. “This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

Friends, the universal substitution is not yet in place, but the restructure of the economy is rapidly moving us in that direction.

Money is the medium by which people provide the daily necessities of life. Most people work to earn money so that they can provide for their families. But money is the fruit of our labor, which God has given us the ability to earn and use wisely for His cause. It is God’s, and we are the stewards.

My friends, we must now have our priorities straight. Money is to be used to provide our daily necessities and support the spread of the truth. It is not to be hoarded or used in a selfish way. When you are reduced to the barter system because you are faithful to the Lord, you won’t need your money. You need skills to minister to others. If you know how to help people by giving them a hydrotherapy treatment or a massage, they will give you food to eat. Medical missionary work is one of the very last things that can be done to win souls under the pressure of the Sunday laws that are coming upon this world once economic consolidation and control has been fully implemented. But it may well be the means by which God supports His faithful people.

People will eventually see the worthlessness of pursing economic priorities before spiritual things. Either you develop the right priorities now, or you will have them work against you in the future. It is better to be faithful to God now in all things and avoid his wrath in the day of wrath.

Listen carefully to what the apostle James has to say in chapter 5:1-3. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days…” Verse 5 says: “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter…”

My friends, have you been wanton? Has money been your chief motive? Has it become your idol? God has a solution for the idolatry of money and wealth. He has given us the privilege of returning tithe and offerings. Returning tithe to the Lord’s work is the way we show God that we acknowledge His sovereignty over our lives. Offerings show God how much we love Him.

As the global economic system is revised, as currencies are consolidated, as assets are devalued and then re-inflated; and finally as we near the close of probation, James gives us very pertinent counsel in verse 7 and 8 of chapter 5. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

To establish your hearts means that you have settled the matter of worldliness, materialism and selfishness in your life. You are precious to Jesus, and He wants to have you as part of the precious fruit of the earth. The really good news is that Jesus is near to coming again. Now is the time to align yourself with the precious principles of heaven and turn from the corrupt principles of this world.




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