Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Statement of the Holy See to the United Nations


Statement by H.E. Archbishop Celestino Migliore
Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See

Economic and Social Council
42nd session of the Commission on Population and Development

On Item 4:
Contribution of the Programme of Action of the
International Conference on Population and Development
to the internationally agreed development goals,
including the Millennium Development Goals

New York, 1 April 2009






Madam Chair,

My delegation takes this opportunity to express its best wishes to you and the Bureau for a productive session and looks forward to working with the membership to find means to ensure that the MDGs continue to receive the proper focus and commitment.

In reading the preparatory documents for this session of the Commission one cannot help but get the impression that populations are seen as the hindrance to greater social and economic development rather than vital contributors to the success of the Millennium Development Goals and greater sustainable development. Along with the preparatory statements by some NGOs, this literature gives the impression that the very institution which launched the MDGs fifteen years ago is giving priority to population control and getting the poor to accept these arrangements rather than primarily focusing upon its commitments to addressing education, basic health care, access to water, sanitation and employment.

Prior to the International Conference on Population and Development, many demographic experts and politicians warned that an increasing world population would create an overwhelming burden upon the world with dire possible consequences including food shortages, mass starvation, environmental destruction and resource driven conflict. Now, fifteen years later, the population growth has begun to slow, food production continues to rise to the point where it is capable of supporting a larger global population and is even being diverted to the production of fuel. It is almost ironic that environmental destruction is perpetrated primarily by States with lower growth rates and that developed countries are supporting population growth at home while simultaneously working to reduce it in developing countries.

Further, the increased birth rates in Africa over the last decades have been identified by experts as lowering the elderly dependency ratio and presenting the population with a plentiful workforce capable of providing the Continent with an unprecedented advantage in economic terms over regions whose ageing populations show growing economic challenges. To capitalize on this opportunity, for Africa and ultimately for the whole world, greater commitment must be made to provide economic assistance and investment in human capital and infrastructure to support economic growth. Consequently, additional funding programs which focus upon lowering population growth rather than fostering an environment for development will slow, not expedite, the achievement of the MDGs.

The stabilization of population and the need to foster development are serious issues. The Holy See continues to believe that the proper focus for addressing global development should primarily be on programmes and values which support personal and social development. Access to education, economic opportunity, political stability, basic health care and support for the family must remain the basis for achieving the MDGs. These priorities throughout history have provided the platform for economic and social growth and accompanying increase in responsible parenthood.

The Holy See’s offices and members of faith communities continue to serve at the front-line for addressing greater global poverty, human rights and development. Through its continued presence and emphasis on providing quality and affordable education, health care, access to food and respect for all human rights, the Holy See and its various organizations show that care for the poor, along with overall poverty reduction, serves as a model for a human centered approach to development.

My delegation reaffirms its reservations made at the Cairo and Beijing Conferences as well as its consistent affirmation that abortion is not a legitimate form of sexual and reproductive health, rights or services. Likewise, it hopes that international organizations and policymakers maintain or, where necessary, redirect public efforts towards the human centered approach to achieving the MDGs.

Thank you, Madam Chair.




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Related: Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, in an address delivered to the 62nd session of the U.N. General Assembly, 4 April 2008.
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The Hillary-Bill Hillies Show (K and K Episode)







Monday, August 03, 2009

THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE BIBLE


By Bill Sizemore

August 2, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

There is little doubt that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event in the Bible.

In one three day period, Jesus made it possible for sinful man to be restored to God and for all believers to have a promise of a bodily resurrection and eternal life. Sin was dealt with and death was defeated. Nothing else compares to that.

But what is the second most important event in the Bible?

Just reading that question has probably caused several thoughts to spring to your mind. You might be thinking, the week of creation or perhaps the fall of Adam in the garden, or perhaps the virgin birth.

Sure, all of these are important, pivotal events. The week of creation demonstrated the awesome omnipotence of God. The fall of man in the garden was the tragic event that necessitated the virgin birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, maybe second place ought to go to the fall of Adam, but I am going to suggest something else.

Admittedly, the question posed here is a foolish one. After all, who cares about the ranking of biblical events? But the question got you thinking, didn’t it? It at least made you wonder what this writer was going to posit was the second most important event in scripture. So without further adieu, here it is:

I suggest that the second most important event in the Bible and in fact all of human history, above the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, and the splitting of the atom - was the flood of Noah.

Think about it for a moment. Approximately 1,650 years after creation, God sent a flood so catastrophic, that out of the tens of millions of people then living on the planet and out of the countless millions of air breathing animals walking on the face of the earth, the only ones left alive were Noah, his wife and their three sons and their wives, and of course the animals that were on board the ark.

Out of the tens of millions of humans on the planet, only eight were spared.

What if God did the same thing today? Somewhere in the neighborhood of six billion people would perish. Everyone not on board God’s new “ark” would be lost.

And who are all of those people who would not survive the judgment of God? Well, that’s the scary part. Most of the people in the world today would not make it. Lots more will be saved than were in Noah’s day. We know that, because in the Book of Revelation there are at least ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands worshipping before God’s throne. But out of the billions who have ever lived, including those on the earth today, that’s not so many.

Now, let’s talk about those who don’t make it. What will the vast majority of mankind be doing when the end comes? The Bible answers that question, at least in a general sense.

According to Jesus, if I understand His words, those billions of people will be doing normal stuff. Jesus says they will be doing things like eating and drinking and marrying.

Why would Jesus mention marrying? Well, weddings imply things like romance and dating and talking about how many kids you are going to have. Weddings imply making plans for a new house and new furniture and deciding what kind of dishes and cookware you will have.

What’s wrong with such things? Nothing. Well, unless you are making all of these plans for the future at a time when there isn’t going to be a future, at a time when God is about to judge the whole world for sin and unbelief.

The fact that people will be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage right up to the end means they are oblivious to the reality that there is a righteous, holy God and that He is about to judge all of humanity for their sin and unbelief, just as He did in the days of Noah.


It means they are ignoring God and ignoring the condition of their souls.

The flood of Noah’s day was so powerful that the whole earth, even the hills and mountains were completely inundated with water. This was not just a local flood centered around a part of the Middle East, as some have suggested. Why would God have had Noah spend a hundred years building an ark, if all Noah and the local animals had to do was hike for a few weeks until they crossed the nearest mountain range and be safe?

While it is true that the geological and fossil records of Noah’s flood provide us with the answers to many of the more difficult questions about “beginnings” with which modern science continues to struggle, the flood of Noah’s day also tells us something very important about the nature of God.

The flood tells us that God is so serious about sin and unbelief that He is willing and able to pull the plug on a whole world full of sinful men. The flood of Noah tells us that God is willing to judge the entire human race and to do so catastrophically.

The flood also tells us that God does not consider all humanity to be His “children,” as many believe. (We are not all God’s children. Biblically, we become God’s children only when we are born again and place our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. People believe otherwise at their peril.)

The flood tells us that those who ignore His warnings and reject His truth will see an end to God’s mercy and patience. The clock will strike midnight and it will be over. The Bible says that when the rains began to fall on Noah’s world, it was God himself who closed the door of the ark.

The Apostle Peter warned us that in the last days scoffers would choose to deny or ignore the fact that the flood of Noah occurred and even mock the return of Jesus, saying “Where is the promise of his coming?” (II Peter 3)

If you read this passage carefully, you get the impression that in the end times people will be saying, “Jesus is not coming back. Everything will go on tomorrow just as it always has and the same natural processes will be at work tomorrow as today. Nothing supernatural is going to happen. Some almighty God isn’t going to do come down from Heaven and judge us.”

Willful ignorance is a pretty scary concept. A person can be willfully ignorant simply by ignoring a fact or by being too busy with less important things to give a more important truth due consideration.

Peter goes on to explain that like Noah’s world the current world is also awaiting its day of judgment, only this time the judgment will not be by a flood of water. The apostle wrote 2,000 years ago that in the end the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with a fervent heat and be burned up.

Two thousand years have passed since the Apostle Peter wrote those words. Two thousand years seems like a long time, but the apostle explained that to God it is only a couple of days for, “to Him a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day.”

This kind of time frame may be difficult for people who only live for eighty years to comprehend, but God’s willingness to wait long periods of time before judging should not come as a surprise to Bible scholars. The following examples illustrate God’s timeframe:

God told Eve way back in the Garden of Eden that the “seed of the woman” would bruise the serpent’s head. That seed, however, was not born until 4,000 years later. God’s promise was fulfilled, but not for four millennia.

Here’s another example of God’s timing: God told Abraham that He would give the Promised Land to Abraham’s descendants, but that they would not actually possess the land until 400 years had passed. To put that number into perspective, go back four hundred years in American history and consider what it was like here in the year 1609.

It’s worth noting that the reason God gave Abraham for the 400 year wait was that the current inhabitants of Palestine were not yet wicked enough for them to be judged and their land taken from them. Their “cup of iniquity” was not yet full, but God knew that four centuries later, it would be.

When God told Noah to build the ark, He wasn’t actually going to send the flood for another hundred years. God had already pronounced judgment on the inhabitants of the earth, but that judgment was not going to fall until a full century later.

The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, says that God would send a prophet before the day of the Lord. After Malachi spoke, four centuries passed with no further word from God. Then, when it was time, Jesus was born and history was forever changed.

Think about that. Four centuries of silence passed. No word from God. No prophecies. No reminders. God waited. It seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then suddenly, the day came. The thing God said would happen, happened. It always does.

As in Noah’s day, when the end comes to this world, people will be busy building houses, starting new businesses, and worrying about which team will win the Super Bowl or the World Series. They will be planning hunting trips and family vacations. They will be planning for the future as if they were going to have one.

And then the end will come.

When the world is falling apart around you; when spiritual and moral collapse are evident everywhere you look; when you routinely hear people mocking God and cursing His name and committing the grossest of sins with no shame; but you continue living as if your sin and that of your fellow man are never going to be judged; then you are living as the human race was living right up to the day Noah’s ark was finally finished and the rain began to fall.

That’s a pretty sobering thought. It’s like the rich man Jesus spoke of, a man who had such a prosperous year that he told his servants to tear down all of his barns and build bigger ones to hold all of his riches. Then that night God required that he give account for his soul.

At that moment, none of his riches did him any good. He had made lots of money but neglected his soul. For him, judgment came in one night, just when he thought he was at the top of his game.

The Bible says that in the midst of an evil generation Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah built the ark as an act of obedience to God and as an act of faith. In so doing, he and his household were saved from a flood that killed everyone else on earth.

You may deny that fact if you wish, but God really did this thing. The flood He sent was catastrophic beyond imagination. The God who had created the world wiped out most of what He had created because He saw that His creation had become corrupt and full of violence. (Genesis 6)

The Apostle Paul wrote in the Book of Romans regarding how God exhibits both divine mercy and divine judgment, “Behold the goodness and severity of God.” For believers and unbelievers alike, that is a concept worth noting.

God is for sure good, gracious, and longsuffering, but to those who reject Him, for those who reject the sacrifice of His Son, there is an end to His mercy. It is at that end that men behold the severity of God. One day, everything seems as it was the day before, but suddenly the clock runs out and the end comes.

In the Bible, this happened many times.

As we have seen, there was an end for the entire world when the flood of Noah came. There was an end for the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah when fire from Heaven utterly destroyed them for their debauchery. There was an end for the inhabitants of Palestine in Joshua’s day when God ordered seven Canaanite nations totally annihilated.

There was an end for Israel and Judah when God gave those rebellious nations over to the cruel Assyrians and the Babylonians, severely judging His own people for their disobedience and unbelief.

And later, after Israel had been restored back to their land, the Jews rejected their Messiah, and were judged again, this time even more severely. After a terrible siege lasting more than three years, God gave Jerusalem over to the Roman general Titus in 70 A.D. More than a million Jews died in that siege and the city and the temple were utterly destroyed, just as Jesus said would happen.

As with all these historic instances, so will it be on the last day.

Those who have anchored their faith in Jesus Christ, God’s final ark, and have believed in their hearts and confessed with their mouth that He is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead, those people will be spared from the judgment to come and will inherit eternal life.

Everyone else will continue eating and drinking and planning weddings, vacations and Super Bowl parties and buying stocks and bonds right up to the end.


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TOP 120 CITIES AT RISK FOR A TERRORIST ATTACK

DEYO NOTE: This list is not tied to military bases. Target factors could include population density, landmark-cultural-heritage centers, proximity to nuclear plants or NBC waste sites, its importance as a shipping / trucking route/port, type of industry performed in the area, dams, communications hubs and other critical infrastructure sites, plus a variety of other considerations not included here.

This list is to open people's eyes, make people aware. Just because one lives in a city other than NYC, Washington DC or L.A. does not guarantee immunity from terrorism.

Do you live in a SAFE PLACE?

We can help you prepare for hard times.Let us show you how!



Source: Combating Terrorism: Opportunities to Improve Domestic Preparedness Program Focus and Efficiency, Nov. 1998
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Source: http://standeyo.com/News_Files/NBC/Top_120_Cities.html

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Brasher: House bill's land use unsettles farming, food costs


by PHILIP BRASHER • pbrasher@dmreg.com • August 2, 2009


Washington, D.C. - Forget the food-vs.-fuel debate for a while. The new issue is carbon vs. food.

How this debate plays out could go a long way to deciding the fate of the Obama administration's effort to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The debate over a House-passed climate bill has focused on how much it will raise energy costs, including the cost of farming. When the Senate returns this fall to write its version of the bill, attention will turn to the impact on food prices.


This became clear at the Senate Agriculture Committee's first hearing on the climate issue. Senators from both parties demanded to know what impact a cap-and-trade system would have on land use and food costs. Economists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working to learn the answers.

The issue is simple: A cap-and-trade program, such as the one approved by the House, would allow utilities and other polluters to comply with caps on greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing credits from landowners who plant trees on their property.

The question is how much land that's now in crops or pasture is likely to be converted to forests.

Quite a bit, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis of the House-passed bill. The analysis predicted there would be less cropland as a result of the bill because acreage would be converted to trees to earn carbon credits.

Reducing the amount of available cropland likely would raise the price of commodities such as corn and soybeans, increasing feed costs and eventually food prices.

Estimate of affected acres
But the environmental analysis, based on work done at Texas A&M University, didn't say how land conversion would take place, and agency administrator Lisa Jackson, hasn't clarified the issue.

She told the Senate committee she had no idea how many acres of cropland would be affected.

Enter the American Farm Bureau Federation. The group, which flatly opposes the cap-and-trade program, came up with an estimate that 40 million acres could be lost to agricultural production. Some 320 million acres nationwide were planted to crops this year.

Senate Republicans seized on the Farm Bureau figures and used it to attack the House bill.

But Farm Bureau economists said the number is at best a guess. The number is based on the environmental agency estimate of the amount of emissions reduction that would be achieved through agriculture and forestry under the House's cap-and-trade program.

However, most of the emission reduction in the early years would come through improvements in managing existing forests - not through planting trees on land that's now in grass or crops.

Vilsack weighs in
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the lost acreage, however much it is, isn't likely to be good cropland, and farmers can make up for it with higher yielding crop varieties and more efficient feed use.

"I'm not willing to concede that (cap-and-trade) will necessarily result in an acre-for-acre reduction" in cropland, Vilsack said.

But without more economic analysis, Vilsack is trying to sell the climate bill on a "hope and a prayer," said Sen. Mike Johanns, a Nebraska Republican and former agriculture secretary.

A leading farm-state Democrat, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, told Vilsack and Jackson she needs to know more about the potential impact of the legislation on food prices.

In a first step to getting the answer, Agriculture Department economists huddled for two days recently with counterparts at Texas A&M who developed the environmental agency's analysis.

The issues the Agriculture Department economists have to sort through are complex and not unrelated to the food-vs.-fuel issue.

Biofuels mandates, for example, encourage crop residue to be used for ethanol, not left in the soil where the plant carbon can reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and earn carbon credits.

Mandates for energy
Then there's the issue of a new mandate for renewable electricity. Will that encourage land to be converted from food crops to switchgrass to fuel power plants?

If so, that could mean higher food prices, too.

The economists' goal is to come up with estimates of how much cropland and acreage will be converted to trees, not just nationwide but by region and commodity.

"If you can start doing that on a regional basis and commodity basis, you can get a little more complete story," said Joe Glauber, the Agriculture Department's chief economist.



President Obama Texts Africans: Follow Hillary!


President Obama Texts Africans: Follow Hillary!
August 03, 2009 12:34 PM

ABC News’ Dana Hughes in Nairobi reports:

Ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's seven-nation trip to Africa this week, the Obama administration is texting all Africans (or non-Africans in Africa, like this reporter) who sent a question or comment during last month’s Ghana visit.

This time the administration isn’t asking to hear from Africans, but wants them to follow Hillary's trip on America.gov, Facebook, and Twitter using the searchable term #HillaryAfrica.

Thousands of Africans sent in questions before, during and after President Obama’s speech in Ghana. The president answered selected questions chosen from various African journalists in a podcast shortly after returning to Washington, D.C., but as an immediate response, anyone who registered received highlights of the speech, and will continue to receive updates from the administration.

The latest text message urged Africans to take note of Hillary’s trip. The text begins: “Following Obama’s historic trip, Sec. Clinton visits Africa.”

The text messages are part of the Obama administration’s push for using technology to reach global audiences, especially in Africa. Before the Ghana speech, the administration set up the text messaging service in both English and French, providing short codes for the sub-continent’s most populous countries. It worked; nearly every African country was represented in the responses. Here, text messaging is the cheapest and easiest form of communication. Telephone land-lines are expensive, internet connectivity is spotty outside of metropolitan areas, but cell phones can be found in even the most remote villages.

“I think that the enthusiasm of Africans, especially young people, to use technology to engage with us shows the very potential and promise of the continent that the president stressed in his speech,” Judith Michale, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told reporters last month.

"Africans are as technologically capable and eager for connections with the world as any people on Earth,” Michale said.

-- Dana Hughes



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Think Again: Africa's Crisis

As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Africa, the continent is in far better shape than most experts think.

BY CHARLES KENNY JULY 31, 2009



SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images



"Conditions in Africa Are Medieval."



Not in the slightest. It's true that some countries in the region are as poor as England under William the Conqueror, but that doesn't mean Africa's on the verge of doomsday. How many serfs had a cellphone? More than 63 million Nigerians do. Millions travel on buses and trucks across the continent each year, even if the average African road is still fairly bumpy. The list of modern technologies now ubiquitous in the region also includes cement, corrugated iron, steel wire, piping, plastic sheeting and containers, synthetic and cheap cotton clothing, rubber-soled shoes, bicycles, butane, paraffin candles, pens, paper, books, radios, televisions, vaccines, antibiotics, and bed nets.

The spread of these technologies has helped expand economies, improve quality of life, and extend health. About 10 percent of infants die in their first year of life in Africa -- still shockingly high, but considerably lower than the European average less than 100 years ago, let alone 800 years past. And about two thirds of Africans are literate -- a level achieved in Spain only in the 1920s.





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Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/31/think_again_africas_crisis

7th Congress of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni/ae


Bujumbura


20097th Congress of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni/ae

« WITNESSES TO HOPE »


Jesuit Alumni/ae, for a better Africa : What have we done? What are we doing? What must we do?


From 22 to 27 July 2009
At the Lycée-Collège du Saint-Esprit
Bujumbura-BURUNDI

Pre-Congress programme for Young Alumni/ae from 15 to 22 July 2009



Organised by Burundi Association of Jesuit Alumni/ae (ABAJ) with the assistance of Alumni/ae of the Democratic Republic of Congo and of Rwanda

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Pneumonic plague reported in remote western China

Three deaths and several illnesses are attributed to the disease. Health officials close access to Ziketan, a town of 10,000 in Qinghai province that is mostly populated by Tibetans.

By Barbara Demick and Joshua Frank
10:15 AM PDT, August 3, 2009

Reporting from Beijing -- Chinese health officials have cordoned off a remote western town after three deaths caused by the rare but deadly pneumonic plague.

The victims all lived in Ziketan, a town of 10,000 in Qinghai province that is mostly populated by Tibetans.


The first victim was a 32-year-old herdsman who died Thursday, four days after falling ill with a fever and cough. State radio reported that the man contracted the illness from his dog, which apparently was infected after being bitten by a flea. The herdsman's 37-year-old neighbor died Sunday and a 64-year-old man died today.

Another nine people were reported to be ill or under observation, one of them in critical condition, at the Tibetan Hospital of Xinghai county.

"Experts continue to carry out disinfecting and pest control work and are tracing people in contact with victims for quarantine purposes," the New China News Agency reported today.


Pneumonic plague is the even deadlier relative of the notorious bubonic plague, which killed millions in Europe in the Middle Ages. Spread person to person through the air, it usually kills all its victims unless they are treated with antibiotics.

In recent years, there have been sporadic outbreaks of the pneumonic plague, most of them in Africa. The few cases in China have been mostly in Tibetan areas in the west.

"In the 1980s, there were a series of plagues in Tibet, but recently not so many," said Tseten Dargye, a physician in Dawu, another Tibetan town in Qinghai province. He said the disease was spread by ticks living on marmots, which are indigenous to the mountainous Tibetan region.

Zhang Changmin, a driver from Qinghai, said that all roads in and out of Ziketan had been closed off since last week to prevent the spread of the disease.

So far the disease does not appear to be causing the panic brought on by the far less deadly swine flu, the threat of which has prompted Chinese authorities to put thousands of people into quarantine, among them U.S. tourists.

Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in China, said today that Ziketan's remote location and the low population density reduces the threat of the disease spreading.

"At this point I don't think there's a reason to be alarmed," she said. "Authorities seem to have taken the right measures."

According to Tan, this is the first time the Chinese government has officially notified the WHO of cases of pneumonic plague. But she noted there have been sporadic reports of the disease in the country before.

There had been two other cases in Qinghai in recent years, once in 2001 and again in 2004. Last year, pneumonic plague killed a couple in Tibet, according to the Ministry of Health.

barbara.demick@latimes.com


Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-china-plague4-2009aug04,0,3851857.story

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Sotomayor confirmation Expected, but Health Care Must Wait


August 3, 2009, 7:47 am

Sotomayor Confirmation Expected, but Health Care Must Wait
By David M. Herszenhorn


The Senate will close out a tumultuous work period this week by debating and voting on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

For weeks, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, had insisted that the Senate would meet President Obama’s deadline and pass major health care legislation before the August recess.

But with the Finance Committee, led by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, still trying to develop a compromise health care measure, Mr. Reid had no choice but to accept the missed deadline.

The Senate is also expected to debate an extension of the popular cash-for-clunkers program. The House approved an additional $2 billion to continue the program, which offers vouchers of up to $4,500 to people who trade older cars for more fuel-efficient models. The original $1 billion authorized by Congress was gobbled up much faster than expected, raising questions about whether the program might have to be suspended.

On Thursday, Mr. Reid, clearly frustrated by the Senate’s inability to complete the health care legislation, lashed out at reporters, accusing the press corps of setting the August deadline for completion of the bill.

“I think that you folks have created the deadlines,” he said. “We haven’t. The president three weeks ago in his weekly address said that we’re going to have health care reform by the end of the year. And that’s our goal, and that is what we’re going to do.” He added: “That is a deadline you created. We haven’t created it.”

But Mr. Obama had insisted for weeks that the House and Senate each pass a version of the health care bill. And Mr. Reid’s comments were quite the turnabout from July 14, when he, at a news conference in the Capitol, declared that the bill would be done before the Senate departed for the summer recess.

“Before we leave here, we’re going to do our very best to have a good strong run on DOD,” he said, referring to the annual defense authorization bill. “We’re going to complete the legislation we have dealing with health care. And we’re going to — we’re going to confirm Sonia Sotomayor.”

In the end, it seems, Mr. Reid will have to settle for two out of three. The defense bill was approved on July 23.

And if all goes as planned, Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed before the Senate adjourns at the end of the week. While more than 20 Republican senators have said they will oppose her nomination, the Democratic majority supports her and at least six Republicans have said they will vote to confirm her as well.

Senators in both parties will be strategizing this week about the health care debate, which will move out of Washington as all sides begin an intensive lobbying push that will last throughout the recess.

The Senate is also expected to work on the annual agriculture spending bill, and lawmakers could take up a measure to create a nonprofit corporation to promote tourism in the United States. An earlier effort to pass that bill stalled in June.

In the meantime, the Finance Committee, including a bipartisan team of six negotiators, is expected to continue working on the health care legislation this week. Mr. Baucus, the committee chairman, has told colleagues that he will give the bipartisan group until Sept. 15 to reach a deal, or he will press ahead for action by the full committee.

Some Democrats, including administration officials, are hinting that Democrats are prepared to push ahead without Republican support if necessary. ”You want to do this with as broad a base of consensus as possible,” the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner said on ABC’s “This Week with George Staphanopoulos.”

“But people on the Hill are going to have to make that choice,” Mr. Geithner said. “Do they want to help shape this and be part of it or do they want this country, the United States of America, to go another several decades without doing what every other serious country has done, which is to give their citizens access to basic quality of care?”

Some Democrats are already thinking about how they might pursue the health care legislation using a hardball parliamentary budget tactic known as reconciliation. But whether the Democrats will try to navigate that tough road will not be determined until after Labor Day, at which point lawmakers will have gotten an earful from constituents and their views on the health care bill may have shifted.

The House has already adjourned.


Source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/sotomayor-confirmation-expected-but-health-care-must-wait/?hp


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Rangel blames Blue Dog Democrats for cost of health care plan


Staff Reporter

Posted August 3, 2009 9:37 AM


Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is pushing back against efforts by conservative Democrats to limit health care reform.
Rangel, the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, is supporting efforts to include a government or public option for consumers to choose from in selecting their health care. Americans are entitled to an alternative, and that's the public option," Rangel said. "I don't think there's anything for the private sector to be afraid of."
But some conservative Democrats and Republicans oppose the plan because they don't want to hurt the private insurance industry.
Rangel argued on Sunday that so-called Blue Dog Democrats have undermined efforts to control the cost of the proposed reform bill, according to Politico.com. The Harlem Democrat complained that Blue Dogs have added measures that will prevent the government insurance plan from competing effectively against private insurers.
"What the Blue Dogs have done is just increase the cost in terms of negotiating," Rangel said on "Fox News Sunday."
Rangel's concerns echo the sentiments of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. "Even as they complain about the plan's cost, the Blue Dogs are making demands that would greatly increase that cost," Krugman wrote in his New York Times column last week.
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P.S. Blue Dog, Blue Dog?
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Who are these people, and why are they getting so much airplay?
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I mean, forgive me for digressing. But, what are the "core" values of these Blue Dogs?
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The "key" to what is at stake with the globalized government man-dated health care is that the state will control people's lives literally!
The good doctor, bad doctor treatment, ring any one's bell?
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So, what's your "take" on these Blue Dogs and their espoused cause? You know.
.
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*Popular expressions and cliches used ad nauseam; you know!
.
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Who are the current Blue Dogs?

Blue Dog Leadership Team

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip

Blue Dog Members

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)


http://www.house.gov/melancon/BlueDogs/Member%20Page.html

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Working the Cities From Outposts


Working the Cities From Outposts


As far as possible, our institutions should be located away from the cities. We must have workers for these institutions, and if they are located in the city, that means that families of our people must settle near them. But it is not God's will that His people shall settle in the cities, where there is constant turmoil and confusion. Their children should be spared this; for the whole system is demoralized by the hurry and rush and noise. The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle358on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities is my message. {2SM 357.4}

The truth must be spoken, whether men will hear, or whether men will forbear. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination. {2SM 358.1}

The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, "Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God's people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth."-- Letter 182, 1902. {2SM 358.2}


A Call to Country Living

[APPEAREDIN COUNTRY LIVING. FOR APPLICATION OFPRINCIPLES HERE SET FORTH TO INSTITUTIONALLOCATION, SEE TESTIMONIES, VOLUME 7,PAGES 80 TO 89; MEDICAL MINISTRY, PAGES308, 309; EVANGELISM, PAGES 76 TO 78.]

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Follow The Economic Failures To Fix The Mess


Follow The Economic Failures To Fix The Mess
Posted: August 1 2009


More pressure on the dollar, weaker and weaker treasury auctions, large majority in favor of auditing the Fed, electric car from China to hit US next year, Wall Street resists increased transparency even now, Higher prices for oil eventually
On Wednesday the Treasury’s five-year auction yield was 2.69% with 21.15% allotted at the high and bid to cover was 1.92 to 1. The average of the past ten auctions has been 2.20%. Indirect, central bank participation was 35.7% versus an average of 36.8%. Overall that was weak demand. Do not forget the Treasury has to raise $2 trillion by 9/30/09.

The result of these mediocre to poor auctions has to be more pressure on the dollar, as budget deficits continue to widen.

Mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks, driven by a drop in demand for refinancing loans. Both purchase and refi loans fell 6.3%.

This is an early appraisal of the Chinese visit to Washington. There is no question the Chinese have the Illuminists stymied. The big question is has China demanded the rest of our high technology expertise that Bill Clinton was unable to deliver to them? Or have they pledged government properties to the Chinese?

Unadjusted yoy labor Department jobless claims are up 35%.

Commercial paper outstanding fell by $27.6 billion to $1.066 trillion outstanding from $1.093 trillion the prior week. In August it was $2.2 trillion. Asset backed CP outstanding rose $900 million to $437.8 billion, after falling $4.6 billion the prior week.

The Treasury’s borrowing needs have been exploding and the auctions are getting progressively weaker. This presents a serious problem for the dollar. Once 78 on the USDX is broken the index should freefall. We expect the government will staunchly defend 78, but will lose the battle probably in October or at least by the end of the year. As a result you will see more bonds being issued in foreign currencies such as the yen, yuan and euro bonds. Wal-Mart just issued $1 billion in Samarai bonds in yen. Issuance of foreign currency denominated bonds by corporations and eventually by the US Treasury will signal that the day of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency will be coming to an end. Lenders will want to get repaid in a currency they know will have future value. This kind of issuance puts more and more pressure on the dollar. Issuance of bonds in a foreign currency will be a clarion call that dollar hegemony is ending. The result will be other currencies will gain in strength versus the dollar, but the flip side is that they are all fiat currencies and all will fall versus gold.

As we view the sham hearings of the CFTC and position limits on oil in particular, we are reminded that the hearings are a political cover for higher prices. Constituents are complaining of higher gasoline prices and government is more than willing to respond. What the insiders behind the scenes want to do is suppress oil prices not only to assuage the citizens, but also to keep gold from rising as oil rises. Today suppressing oil prices is truly an awesome task given the composition of sources of supply and demand. Exploration is at a low and that can only eventually bring higher prices.

The unemployment rate climbed in all of the U.S.'s biggest urban areas during June, and 18 places had joblessness of at least 15%.

"For the sixth consecutive month, all 372 metropolitan areas had over-the-year unemployment rate increases," the Labor Department said in its report Wednesday.

The numbers in the department's Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment report are not seasonally adjusted.

The report said 144 metro areas reported jobless rates of at least 10%, up from six areas a year prior.

El Centro, Calif., had the largest jobless rate from June 2008, at 27.5%. Yuma, Ariz., was second with 23.1%. The lowest rate was in Bismarck, N.D., at 3.8%.

So much for the ongoing secrecy of the nation’s independent central banking system. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public.

Just nine percent (9%) of adults think that’s a bad idea and oppose it. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure. Over half the members of the House now support a bill giving the Government Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency, the authorization to audit the books of the Federal Reserve Board.

Support for the bill has grown now that the Obama administration is proposing to give the Fed greater economic regulatory powers. The Fed, which sets U.S. monetary policy, was created as an independent agency to keep it free of politically-motivated interference.

The United States has signed an agreement to forgive nearly $30 million in Indonesian debt in return for the large Southeast Asian country agreeing to protect forests on Sumatra Island. The deal is the largest debt-for-nature swap the U.S. government has organized so far under the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation Act and its first such deal with Indonesia - one of the fastest deforestation rates in the world. VOA reports:


A tree is felled in the forests of Indonesia. A country which loses an area the size of Switzerland each year to logging. Indonesia's massive deforestation rate makes it the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide behind the United States and China. Deforestation also affects the country's wildlife. These forests are home to some of the world's most endangered species including endangered tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutan. In a new deal, the U.S. has agreed to trade $30 million in debt repayments for increased conservation of their habitat.

Coda Automotive said former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will serve as an adviser to the start-up electric-car maker on partnerships in China.

Paulson has "deep, personal relationships in China and unique insights into the country and its people," the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company said in a statement.

Coda also said Paulson invested in the company earlier this year, without giving details.

Coda plans to deliver its first model, a sedan, next year. The company, which began operating in June, intends to make and distribute electric vehicles and battery systems for transportation use.

Paulson, 63, was Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush, and his department in December allowed GM Corp. and Chrysler LLC to receive an initial $13.4 billion in funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

General Electric Co., Harley-Davidson Inc. and manufacturers with finance businesses should be allowed to keep them under a revision of rules to govern banking, US Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said in an interview.

Companies that already have finance arms or industrial loan businesses known as ILCs can keep them without having to be subject to Federal Reserve oversight of their manufacturing operations, Frank said.

GE said it has been "very active" in opposing any rules that might force it to split off its GE Capital finance unit, which has $557 billion in assets.

Economic crisis, and a crisis for economics - Following its failure to fix the current mess, economics has tumbled into a full-blown existential crisis. The fall has been something to behold. Not so long ago, the discipline seemed omnipotent: if you wanted to fix anything from environmental ruin to welfare policy, there was only one solution: call in an economist.

But late last year, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chief and high priest of capitalism, was forced to admit in a Congressional hearing that he had "found a flaw" in the foundations of his economic understanding. Nice euphemism. And at the weekend, a panel of leading economists wrote to the Queen trying to explain why they got it wrong. If there were such a thing as a car-crash letter, this was surely it.

The world's financial system lies in ruins, as do the fiscal balances of almost every major Western nation, after having to bail out their banks and splash billions of dollars of rescue money into the broader economy. Everyone is suffering, as unemployment climbs, house prices fall, and companies rack up losses or even face collapse. Yet the economists have still failed to find their form again.

At a time when the financial industry’s credibility is at an all-time low, you would think Wall Street’s finest would break their necks providing transparency.

Not so. Stock analysts continue to promote corporate earnings lies, insisting that net income isn’t really what investors need to know.

Instead, their earnings estimates ignore often huge expenditures that can’t help but affect a company’s health.

In mid-June, respondents were evenly divided when asked whether they thought Mr. Obama's health plan was a good or bad idea. In the new poll, conducted July 24-27, 42% called it a bad idea while 36% said it was a good idea. Among those with private insurance, the proportion calling the plan a bad idea rose to 47% from 37%.

Thomas V. Cash, a well-known fraud expert based in Miami, has stepped down from his job with consulting company Kroll Inc. amid the hubbub over his connection to accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford, sources told The Post.

A company spokesman confirmed that Cash left the company late last week, but declined to elaborate. Messages left at Cash's Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home weren't immediately returned.

A former high-ranking official with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Cash has been at the center of allegations that Kroll lost investors millions of dollars by serving conflicting masters.

Cash, based in Miami, gave investor clients the green light to invest with Stanford. However, he failed to disclose that the company, through Cash, had once been "hired and paid" to consult for Stanford, according to a lawsuit filed by Electri International, a foundation for electrical workers that lost $6.3 million with Stanford.

"Defendant Kroll never disclosed Mr. Cash's connection with Mr. Stanford and the obvious conflict that his relationship presented," according to the suit, which was filed in Florida state court.

Electri said it paid $15,000 to Kroll, which prides itself on being a private eye for businesses and investors, to conduct due diligence on Stanford and issue a report.

But among the red flags that Electri claims Kroll failed to mention was a $20,000 penalty levied against Stanford by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the brokerage industry's self-policing group.

Electri also claims that Kroll's report also failed to mention a 2006 lawsuit filed by a former Stanford employee "alleging that Stanford ran a Ponzi scheme." Several arbitration claims against Stanford and one of his companies were also missing from the report, according to the complaint.

A recent profile of Cash on Kroll's Web site, which has since been removed, refers to the 68-year-old as "an expert in a variety of investigative and intelligence services." It also lists among his credentials that he's chairman of the Fraud Prevention Committee for the Florida International Bankers Association.

Indeed, Cash is so well connected in Florida crime-fighting circles that a judge assigned to the Electri case had to recuse himself because he "has been a personal friend" of Cash's "for many years."

Stanford, who was knighted in Antigua and is referred to as Sir Allen, is awaiting trial behind bars in Texas.

Manufacturing activity in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's district was largely flat in July, according to data released by the bank on Thursday.

The bank's production index moved to 2 in July from 9 in June and from -3 in May, in a month-over-month comparison. From a year ago, the July production index deteriorated to -50 from -44 in June.

The index covering production expectations six months from now fell to 10 in July after jumping to 13 in June from 1 in May.

Index readings below zero denote contraction and describe the breadth of the retreat.

The July employment index dropped, to -13 from -10 in June. In March, the employment index hit a historic low of -41. From a year ago, the index dropped to -57 from -54.

The prices paid index ticked up to -6 from -8, while the prices received index decreased to -17 in July from -14 in June. On a year-ago comparison, the prices paid index fell to -27 in July from -20 in June, and the prices received index worsened to -24 from -11.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for state jobless benefits rose last week, but they remain below peak levels reached in the spring.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 25,000 to 584,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ended July 25, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. The four-week average of new claims, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, fell by 8,250 to 559,000, the lowest level since January 24.

The tally of continuing claims -- those drawn by workers for more than one week -- fell by 54,000 during the week ended July 18 to 6,197,000 the lowest level since April 11.



Source: http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Follow_The_Economic_Failures_To_Fix_The_Mess

The Secret Behind Secret Societies

by Walter Veith
Total Onslaught
The Secret Behind Secret Societies ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1NdVL74LEQ&feature=player_embeddedhttp://

Saturday, August 01, 2009

From Sabbath TO Sunday!


This is a publication of the: Church of God Evangelistic Association/Newswatch Magazine PO Box 36 Waxahachie, TX 75168 Editor: David J. Smith Phone: 972-937-2227

From Sabbath TO Sunday!


Dr. E. T. Hiscox, author of the Baptist Manual, wrote the following which was taken from a photostatic copy of a notarized statement by Dr. Hiscox: “There WAS and IS a command to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was NOT Sunday. It will however be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath WAS TRANSFERRED from the Seventh to the First day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament - absolutely not. There is NO scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the Seventh to the First day of the week…

“I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussion is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history.

“To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ discussion with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, NEVER alluded to any transference of the day; also that during forty days of His resurrec-tion life, NO such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach the subject.

“Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of Paganism, and christened with the name of the SUN-GOD, then adopted and sanctified by the Papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestism.”

Does Dr. Hiscox have a legitimate argument concerning NO authority to change the Sabbath to Sunday from Jesus, the Bible, or the original disciples? Let’s investigate and BE HONEST.

FOURTH COMMANDMENT
“Remember the sabbath day, to KEEP it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day IS the sabbath of the Lord thy God:…For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and RESTED the SEVENTH DAY: wherefore the Lord BLESSED the sabbath day, and HALLOWED it” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Search the Scriptures
Can You Find:

1. One Biblical text that says the Sabbath (seventh day) was ever changed from

the seventh to the first day of the week?

One text where the first day of the week (Sunday) is EVER called a holy day?

One text where we are told to keep the first day of the week?

One text that says that Jesus ever kept the first day (Sunday)?

One text where the first day is ever given a sacred name?

One text that tells us to keep the first day in honor of the Resurrection of

Christ?

One text that affirms that any of the apostles ever kept the first day as the Sabbath?

One text from any apostolic writings that authorizes Sunday observance as the Sabbath of God?

One text where it says it was for the Church to observe, or to meet on, the first

day of the week?

One text where we are told not to work on the first day of the week?

One text where any blessings are promised for observing Sunday?

One text where punishment is threatened for working on Sunday?

One text that says the seventh day is not now God’s Sabbath day?

One text where the apostles ever taught their converts to keep the first day of

the week as a Sabbath?

One text that says the seventh day Sabbath is abolished?

One text where the first day is ever called the Lord’s day?

One text where the first day was ever appointed to be kept as the Lord’s

Day?

18. One text that says that the Father or the Son rested on the first day of the

week?

One text that says that the first day of the week was ever sanctified and hallowed as a day of rest?

One text that says that Jesus, Paul or any other of the apostles taught anyone

to observe the first day of the week as the Sab-bath?

21. One text that calls the seventh day the “Jewish Sabbath” or one text that calls

From Sabbath to Sunday  Sunday the “Christian Sabbath”?

One text authorizing anyone to set aside God’s Sabbath and observe any other day?

One text telling you WHEN to keep the Sabbath other than Lev. 23:32 “from even,” ending one day to, “even” ending the next day? The word “even” is #6153 in the Strong’s Concordance of the Hebrew language and means “to grow dusty”, and is from the root word #6150 meaning “dusk.” As the sun sets on the horizon until the first stars appear, this is WHEN you START to keep the Sabbath. THIS

IS THE BIBLICAL TIME TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH. As the sixth day ends at sunset on Friday, the Sabbath BEGINS. At sunset ending Saturday, the Sabbath ends.

WHEN WAS THE SABBATH CREATED?
We must let the Bible be our guide in all matters of doctrine. God created the earth in six literal days. THEN: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and ALL the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God BLESSED the seventh day, and SANCTIFIED it: BECAUSE that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen. 1:31; 2:1-3).

There were only TWO people alive when God rested -Adam and his wife Eve, who was made from Adam’s rib. We find that the Eternal Creator set aside from creation the seventh day and SANCTIFIED AND BLESSED IT.

The word sanctified is #6942 in the Strong’s Concordance of the Hebrew language. It means “to pronounce CLEAN. “So God pronounced the SEVENTH DAY clean to worship Him upon.”

Who Created the Sabbath?
Referring to Israel when they were delivered from Egyptian bondage, 1 Cor. 10:1-4 reads: “…And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that went with them (margin): and THAT Rock WAS CHRIST.”

In John 1:1-3 we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was WITH God, and the Word WAS God. The same was in the beginning with God. ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” V. 14, “…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”

It was Jesus Christ our Saviour that MADE the Sabbath. Mk. 2:27-28: “And he (Jesus) said unto them, The Sabbath was MADE for man…Therefore the Son of Man (Jesus) is Lord of the Sabbath.” Col. 1:16-17, “For by HIM (Jesus) WERE ALL THINGS CREATED,…ALL things were CREATED by him:…And

SABBATH LOST AS A LAW
Joseph, Jacob’s (Israel’s) youngest son, was sold by his brothers into Egypt. God was preparing the way to show His glory and power as a physical type of a spiritual lesson. All 75 members of the family went in Egypt. Finally to become slaves, as a physical type of our becoming slaves to Satan’s system of sin. They were subject to forced labor 7 days a week. Therefore they lost track of the seventh day Sabbath. Let’s pick up the story after deliverance had been completed.

SABBATH REVEALED AS A LAW
The children of Israel had left Egypt but had NOT YET come to Mt. Si-nai. The Covenant had NOT YET been proposed. Now the amazing set of circumstances. In verse 4 the Lord (Jesus Christ) said He would work a great miracle. He would give them bread from heaven. Jesus told them through Moses to gather a certain rate of manna each day. Never to save any over night during the first 6 days. WHY? Same verse. “…that I (Jesus) may PROVE them, whether they will walk in My LAW, OR NOT.” WHAT DID PICKING UPMANNAATA CERTAIN RATE FOR 6 DAYS HAVE TO DO WITH GOD’S LAW? If they kept any manna over night, worms would breed and spoil it. It would stink (v. 19 and 20).

After some experienced disbelief and found worms and stench, God told them that on the sixth day they were to gather TWICE as much. This was to be kept over to eat on the Sabbath. GOD WOULD NOT SEND MANNA ON THE SABBATH. V. 22-23 says, “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered TWICE as much bread.…And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord said, Tomorrow IS the rest of the HOLY Sabbath unto the Lord:…”

When they kept it overnight for the Sabbath, did it stink and breed worms? V. 24: “And they laid it up till the morning (Sabbath), as Moses bade: and it DID NOT STINK, neither was there any worm therein.”

GOD WAS RESTORING THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS SABBATH. Moses instructed the people concerning the Sabbath Day. V. 25-26: “And Moses said, Eat that today; for TODAY IS A SABBATH UNTO THE LORD:

today you shall NOT find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the

seventh day, which IS THE SABBATH, in it there shall be NONE.”

Some still did not believe. They went out on the Sabbath to gather and found NONE. V. 28 “And the Lord (Jesus Christ) said unto Moses, How long REFUSE you (plural) to KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS and MY LAWS?”

Think WHAT God was doing! He gave manna year after year until they actually crossed over the River Jordan (Joshua 5:10-12). Yet the manna started before they came to Mt. Sinai. This means that for nearly 40 years God showed WHICH DAY was the TRUE Sabbath.

PERPETUAL COVENANT
One of the most important questions to confront mankind is HOW LONG WAS THE SABBATH TO EXIST FOR US TO KEEP? The truth can be unraveled and understood. Let’s begin!

Ex. 31:12-17: “But as for you [Moses], speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a SIGN between me and you throughout your generations, that you may KNOW that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you.…For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, HOLY to the Lord [Jesus Christ];…So the sons of Israel shall OBSERVE the sabbath to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a PERPETUAL COVENANT. It is a SIGN between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

The word perpetual comes from the Hebrew word “olam.” The literal translation means “time out of mind.” In other words, the human mind could not comprehend a time when the sabbath was not to be kept.

The Lord [Jesus Christ] was serious about His PERFECT law being a perpetual covenant. It is SIN to break it, just like it is SIN to kill. Both are taken from the same law (James 2:8-12). “He [the Lord] hath remembered his COVENANT for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And CONFIRMED the same [covenant] for a LAW, and to Israel for an EVERLASTING COVENANT” (Ps. 105:7-10). Jesus gave the Sabbath as part of His EVERLASTING COVENANT.

Notice WHY Jesus came and died. 1) To forgive sins; “To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, AND 2) to remember his HOLY Covenant

-PERPETUAL COVENANT; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham” (Lk. 1:72-73). Jesus came to FORGIVE sins, re-member His covenant - NOT CHANGE IT! The New Covenant has better PROMISES - eternal life - NOT better and different laws (Heb. 8:6-12). Read it all.

Rom. 15:8 says “that Jesus Christ was a minister OF THE CIRCUMCISION [Israelites] for the TRUTH of God, TO CONFIRM THE PROMISES MADE UNTO THE FATHERS:” He didn’t come to start a new religion, rather CONFIRM that the covenant still existed. Now He would forgive PAST violations [Rom. 3:24] and offer ETERNAL LIFE IN THE FUTURE FOR OBEDIENCE. This is BETTER PROMISES for obedience. Heb. 13:20-21 states that “…our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the [shed] blood OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT, make you PERFECT in every good work to DO his will…” He came to FORGIVE our breaking the covenant. Now we can obey FROM THE HEART. When we slip and disobey, Jesus pleads our case before the Father (1 Jn. 2:1-2). We NO LONGER disobey when we have a knowledge of the covenant. Only out of weakness of the flesh would we disobey after accepting the shed blood of Jesus. Part of that EVERLASTING COVENANT

Israel Failed - Results?
God brought Israel out of Egyptian BONDAGE as a type of bringing US OUT OF BONDAGE TO SIN AND DEATH. Notice the account!

“Wherefore I [Lord Jesus Christ: 1 Cor. 10:1-4 ] caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them MY statutes, and shewed them MY judgements, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them MY [Jesus Christs’] sabbaths, to be a SIGN between me and them, that they might KNOW that I am the Lord that SANCTIFY them. [Sign in Heb.: beacon, flag, EVIDENCE]. But the house of Israel REBELLED against me in the wilderness:… MY sabbaths they greatly POLLUTED: THEN I SAID, I WOULD POUR OUT MY FURY UPON THEM IN THE WILDERNESS, TO CONSUME THEM… Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I WOULD NOT BRING them into the land which I had given them… BECAUSE they despised my judgements, and walked NOT in my statutes, but polluted MY sabbaths: for THEIR HEART went after their idols” (Ezek. 20:1-16). God would NOT let Israel go into the land of promise because of SIN - and one of the MAJOR infractions was breaking the Sabbath, which was evidence He was their God.

HAS JESUS CHANGED?
Men and churches have tried to create doctrines based upon one scripture or a part of the scripture to justify their beliefs. God’s word stands by itself. God does NOT change His moral concepts.

“Jesus Christ the SAME yesterday [Old Testament times], and today [New Testament times], and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).

Since Jesus does NOT change His approach toward sin, does He punish nations and individuals alike for Sabbath breaking TODAY as He did in Old Testament times? Remember, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for OUR LEARNING…” (Rom. 15:4).

NEW TESTAMENT WARNING
An inspired saint wrote a long letter to Hebrew Christians residing in Jerusalem concerning their soon destruction of the Temple and the end of national life as they knew it. He admonished them NOT to give up God’s way just because of the Temple being destroyed.

“Wherefore as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden NOT your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation IN THE WILDERNESS: When your fathers TEMPTED me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do ALWAYS ERR in their heart; and they have NOT KNOWN MY WAYS. So I [Jesus] sware in my wrath, They shall NOT ENTER INTO MY REST. TAKE HEED, brethren [Christians], LEST THERE BE IN ANY OF YOU AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, in departing from the living God [through disobedi-ence]… So we see that THEY COULD NOT enter BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF. Let US [Christians] therefore FEAR lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to COME SHORT of it.… For he spake in a cer-tain place of the SEVENTH DAY on this wise, And God did rest the SEVENTH DAY from all his works… Seeing therefore it REMAINETH that some must ENTER therein [to the Sabbath], and they to whom it was first preached entered not in BECAUSE of UNBELIEF [Greek: disobedience]: There remaineth therefore a KEEPING OF A SABBATH to the people of God [The Greek word for REST in the King James Version is #4520 in the Strong’s Concordance, Sabbatismos, meaning the weekly REPOSE as a TYPE of God’s future rest in His kingdom, and comes from the root word #4521 Sabbaton, identical to the Hebrew #7676 meaning: THE SABBATH]. For he [any Christian] that is ENTERED INTO THAT [Sabbath] REST, he also HATH CEASED FROM HIS OWN WORK, AS GOD DID FROM HIS. Let us labour therefore to enter into that [Sabbath] rest, LEST ANY MAN FALL AFTER THE SAME EXAMPLE OF DISOBEDIENCE” (Heb. 3:7-4:11).

How plain! God warns Christians NOT to break His Sabbath as ancient Israel did and LOST OUT on the promised land [a type of the coming kingdom of God].

Was It - OR - Is It The Jewish Sabbath
Jesus said “The Sabbath was MADE for MAN [Greek meaning, mankind], Therefore the Son of man IS Lord of the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27-28). The Sabbath was MADE during creation week, nearly 2,000 years before there was, what people term as Jews, trodding on the earth. We have seen God REgave it to Israel when they came out of Egypt.

You cannot find the word Jew [meaning Judite or Judean] in the Bible until 2 Kings 16:5-6 where Israel is at war with the Jews! “Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz [king of Judah], but could not overcome him… and DRAVE THE JEWS from Elath… and dwelt there unto this day.” HOW CAN THIS BE? CHURCHES TEACH THAT JEWS ARE ALL ISRAELITES! That is NOT true at all.

Turn NOW and read 1 Kings 11. It describes how God divided the twelve tribes into separate nations. The Northern Ten Tribes became known as the House of Israel, and the Two Southern Tribes became known as the House of Judah, nicknamed Jews. Judah was only ONE tribe out of twelve, with Benjamin making two tribes.

The Encyclopedia Britannica states concerning the weekly cycle of seven days: “The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions [movements of the sun and moon].… It [seven day cycle] has been employed from time IMMEMORIAL in almost all eastern countries; and as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss as Delambre remarks, to assign it an ORIGIN having much semblance of probability” (Theodosius, 4th Century A.D., recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Edition, Vol. 4, P. 664, under the title WEEK).

The seven day weekly cycle, ending with the Sabbath is as old as creation. It NEVER has been - NOR - NEVER will be Jewish. IT IS FOR MANKIND AS JESUS SAID.

JESUS KEPT THE COMMANDMENTS INCLUDING THE SABBATH
Jesus was the Lord of the Old Testament that pronounced the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath, with His own mouth, so Israel would fear Him always. Hebrews 13:8 said He does NOT change.

Jesus stated with His own mouth, while in the flesh, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do NOT think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I came NOT to abolish, but to fulfill [live it as an example for us to follow]. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Who ever then annuls ONE of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:17-19).

Jesus stated clearly the law would be in effect UNTIL heaven and earth perish. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET.

Jesus kept the Feasts [Jn. 7:37-39] and Sabbath. He GAVE it at creation. “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read” (Lk. 4:16).

EARLY CHURCH AND THE SABBATH
Many Christians think that the apostles worshipped on the first day of the week [Sunday] instead of the Sabbath. Even though the Bible makes NO SUCH REFERENCE, rather it repeatedly shows they came together on the sabbath day as the Israelites did.

“But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down” (Acts 13:14).

“And as Paul and Barnabus were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath” (Acts 13:42).

“And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God” (Acts 13:44).

Notice, Gentiles as well as scattered Israelites known as Judeans [nicknamed Jews] were keeping the Sabbath day! Paul waited until the NEXT Sabbath to teach them, instead of the next day, Sunday. Paul would have invited the people to join him in Sunday worship if he was teaching such, but he did not. Rather:

“And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled” (Acts 16:13). So we see that Paul did not always meet with Jews on the Sabbath, but other nationalities who were believers or someone to start a conversation with to share the truth.

Paul made it a custom to teach in the synagogue on the Sabbath. “And according to Paul’s CUSTOM, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2).

Twenty years AFTER Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul and the disciples were still keeping the Sabbath, WHICH is the FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

To be exact, Paul taught for 78 consecutive Sabbaths in one city. He NEVER even hinted at switching from the Sabbath to Sunday.

“And he [Paul] was reasoning in the synagogue EVERY Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews AND Greeks. And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:4,11).

PROPHECY AND THE MIDDLE AGES
God started a prophecy during the days of Daniel’s captivity by the Babylonians. Daniel chapter 2 is one such utterance. We will focus in on Daniel 7. “These great beasts [governments], which are FOUR ARE FOUR KINGS, which shall arise out of the earth” (V. 17).

Those FOUR governments that were to arise would begin with Babylon. “This is the DREAM; and… the INTERPRETATION…” (Dan. 2:36). “Thou, [Nebuchadnezzar] O king,… art this head of gold” (V. 37-38).

Babylon, starting with King Nebuchadnezzar, ruled the civilized world from 605-538 BC. They were supplanted by the Medo-Persian Empire which ruled from 538-331 BC. Under Alexander the Great, Greece absorbed the known world from 331-168 BC for world rule as the THIRD kingdom. Finally, the mightiest of all four emerged to rule from 168 BC - 476 AD, Rome.

Horns grow out of the head of animals. This beast [government] was to have TEN HORNS growing out of it. When the Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, TEN divisions resulted. It was assaulted by barbarians for many years until the Empire finally collapsed: the TEN divisions WITH ten kings resulted.

From the book, The Divine Program of the World’s History, by H. Grattan Guenness, P. 318-321, we read: “The historian Machiavelli, without the slightest reference to this prophecy, gives the following list of the nations which occupied the territory of the Western Empire at the time of the fall of Romulus Augustus (476 AD), the last emperor of Rome: the Lombards, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Heruli, the Suevi, the Huns, and the Saxons: ten in all.

“And the division is as apparent NOW as ever. Plainly and palpably inscribed on the map of Europe this day, it confronts the skeptic with its silent but conclusive testimony to the FULFILLMENT of this great prophecy. Who can alter or add to this tenfold list of the kingdoms now occupying the sphere of old Rome? Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, England, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal - ten, and NO more; ten, and NO less.”

Why would I mention these 4 kingdoms, and the breakdown of Rome into Ten kingdoms while writing concerning the Sabbath? Let’s see the connection!

THE “BEAST” and the “LITTLE HORN”
After the collapse of Rome and the emergence of the Ten kingdoms, notice WHAT else would happen!

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a FOURTH BEAST [Rome], dreadful and terrible… it was diverse [different] from all the beasts that were before it; and it had TEN HORNS. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up AMONG THEM another LITTLE HORN, before whom there were THREE OF THE FIRST HORNS [3 of the 10 kingdoms after Rome’s fall] plucked up by the roots:… in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking GREAT THINGS (Dan. 7:7-8).

V. 25 says concerning this “little horn” - “And he shall speak great words AGAINST the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS: and they [saints] shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Three and ½ times is 1260 days. In Bible prophecy a day represents a year many times. In this case it does. See Ezek. 4:6 and Num. 14:34.

The Papacy was established in 538 AD, after the Emperor of Rome decreed that the Bishop of Rome should become the head over ALL churches on the earth. From 538 AD, the Papacy ruled for EXACTLY 1260 years until 1798 AD. Something unheard of happened. The Pope was taken prisoner by General Berthier of Napoleon’s army. The captured Pope was taken to France and put in prison where he died. THUS ENDED THE 1260 YEARS OF THE PROPHESIED RULE OF THIS SYSTEM. What did the Popes, as absolute dictator over ALL churches, do during this 1260 years of rule?

“The Pope HAS POWER TO CHANGE TIMES, TO ABROGATE LAWS, and to DISPENSE with all things, even the PRECEPTS of Christ” (Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop). Incredible!!!

Bible Readings for the Home, (Washington: Review & Herald Pub. Asso., 1942), P. 221, says “Although the ten commandments, are found in the Roman Catholic Versions of the Scriptures, yet the faithful [Catholics] are instructed from the catechisms of the church, and NOT DIRECTLY from the Bible. As it appears in these [catechisms], the law of God has been CHANGED and virtually RE-ENACTED BY THE Papacy.

“The second commandment, which forbids the making of, and bowing down to images, is OMITTED in Catholic catechisms, and the tenth, which forbids coveting, is DIVIDED into two.” The second Council of Nicea in 787 AD was called to establish image worship in the Catholic church. This council is recorded in Ecclesiastical Annals, by Baronius, Vol. 9, P. 391-407 (Antwerp, 1612); and Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church From the
Original T. Clark ed, 1896), Vol. 5, P. 260-304, 342-372. But WHAT other part of God’s law did the Roman Empire and the Papacy change during this 1260 years of iron grip rule over the civilized world?

From A DOCTRINAL CATECHISM, by Stephen Keenan, P., 174: “Question - Have you any other way of proving that the church [Roman Catholic] has POWER to institute festivals of precept? “Answer -Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, she could not have SUBSTITUTED the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday,

the SEVENTH DAY, a CHANGE for which there is NO scriptural authority.” They admit that they CHANGED God’s seventh day to man’s first day. From THE CONVERT’S CATECHISM OF CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, P. 50, third edition: “Question -Which is the Sabbath day? Answer

-Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question - WHY DO WE OBSERVE SUNDAY INSTEAD OF SATURDAY? Answer - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday BECAUSE the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (AD 364), TRANSFERRED THE SOLEMNITY FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY.”

Cardinal Gibbons, in Faith of Our Fathers, P. 111, states: “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will NOT FIND a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The scriptures ENFORCE the religious observance of SATURDAY, a day which we NEVER sanctify.” Can you talk back to that frank admission?

In the Council of Trent (1545 AD) the Catholic Church leaders ruled that “tradition” is of GREATER AUTHORITY than the Bible. Jesus said, “But in VAIN do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9).

The Edict of March 7, 321 AD Corpus Juris Civilis Cod., lib 3, tit. 12, lex. 3 states: “Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades REST ON THE VENERABLE DAY OF THE SUN.” The pagan festival finally came to be regarded as the “Lord’s Day” by Pope Sylvester in 314-337 AD, and the church leaders pronounced the Biblical Sabbath a relic of the Jews, and those who honored it in obedience to the fourth commandment of God, were pronounced to be “accursed.”

The FIRST SUNDAY LAW is recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica, ninth edition, article “Sunday.” “The earliest recognition of the observation of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 AD enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday [venerabili die Solis], with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.”

The Latin original is in the Codes Justiniani (Codes of Justinian), lib. 3, title 12, lex. 3. The law is given in Latin and in English in Philip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, 3d period, chapter 7, sec. 75, Pg. 380, footnote

1. The Codes of Justinian were also printed in Albert Henry Newman’s A Manual of Church History, (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1933), rev. ed., Vol. 1 P. 305-307, AND in Leroy E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington D.C.: Review & Herald Publishing Asso., 1950), Vol. 1, P. 376-381.

Remember, after Constantine started the changing process, the “Little Horn” came up in 538 AD. Through the centuries the Catholic Church has made unbelievable statements. “The Pope has POWER to CHANGE times, to ABROGATE laws, and to DISPENSE with all things, EVEN the precepts of Christ.” “The Pope has authority and OFTEN exercised it, to dispense with the COMMAND of Christ” (Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop. Cap. “The Pope can MODIFY divine law” (Ferraris’ Ecclesiastical Dictionary).

The Bible Forbidden
A ruling was handed down at the Council of Toulouse which stated: “We PROHIBIT laymen possessing copies of the Old and New Testament… We FORBID them most severely to have the above books in the popular vernacular [language]” “The lords of the districts shall carefully SEEK OUT the HERETICS in dwellings, hovels, and forests, and even their underground retreats shall be entirely wiped out” (Concil Tolosanum, Pope Gregory IX, Anno. Chr. 1229).

The Council of Tarragona ruled: “NO ONE may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after the promulgation of this decree, so that they MAY BE BURNED” (D. Lortsch, Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, P. 14).

The Popes even classified Bible Societies with Communism. On December 8, 1866, Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical Quanta Cura issued the following statement: “Socialism, Communism, clandestine societies, Bible societies …pests of this sort must be DESTROYED by ALL means.”

Why keep the Bible out of the peoples hands? Simple! If the lay members read the Bible, they would discover the awful truth about their spiritual DICTATORS. THEY CHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO A LIE (2 Thes. 2:113).

And finally, concerning the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD and its decisions: “The seventh day Sabbath was solemnized by Christ, the apostles, and primitive Christians till the Laodicean Council did, in a manner, quite ABOLISH the observance of it. The Council of Laodicea [AD 364] first settled the observance of the ‘Lord’s Day.’” (See Prynne’s Dissertation On The Lord’s Day Sabbath, P. 163).

What Modern Ministers Admit
Episcopal: “The Bible commandment says on the seventh day thou shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday” (Phillip Carrington, quoted in Toronto Daily Star, October 26, 1949, Anglican archbishop of Quebec, spoke the above in a message on this subject delivered to a packed assembly of clergymen. It was widely reported at the time in the news media).

Anglican: “And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are NOWHERE commanded to keep the first day. The REASON WHY we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things -NOT BECAUSE THE BIBLE, but because the [Catholic] church, has enjoined [commanded] it.” (Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. 1, P. 334,336.)

Dwight L. Moody: “I honestly believe that this commandment [the Sabbath] is JUST AS BINDING TODAY as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated [abolished], but they have NEVER been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did NOTHING to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its TRUE place.

“The [Seventh-day] Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force EVER since. This fourth commandment [Ex. 20:8-11] BEGINS with the word ‘REMEMBER’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will ADMIT that the other nine are STILL binding?” (Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, 1898, P. 46-47. He was the most famous evangelist of his time, and founder of the Moody Bible Institute).

Church of England: “Take which you will, either the ‘fathers’ of the moderns, and we shall find NO Lord’s Day instituted by any apostolic mandate, no sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week.” (Dr. Peter Heylyn of the Church of England, quoted in History of the Sabbath, Part 2, chapter 1, page 410).

American Congregationalists: “The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively SUBSTITUTED the first day FOR the seventh is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament” (Dr. Lyman Abbott, in the Christian Union, June 26, 1890).

Disciples of Christ: “If it [the Sabbath Day] yet exist, let us observe it… And if it does not exist, let us abandon a mock observance of another day for it. ‘But,’ say some, ‘it was changed from the seventh to the first day.’ Where? when? and by whom? NO, it NEVER was changed, nor could it be, UNLESS creation was to be gone through again: for the REASON ASSIGNED must be changed before the observance or respect to the reason, can be changed. It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the ‘change of the sabbath’ from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio. I think his name is ‘Doctor Antichrist.’” (Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824, Vol. 1, No. 7). Methodist: “It is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for NO SUCH PURPOSE. Those who believe that Jesus changed the sabbath base it on a SUPPOSITION” (Amos Binney, Theological Compendium, 1902 edition, P. 180-181,171, Methodist minister and presiding elder, whose Compendium was published for forty years in many languages, also wrote a Methodist New Testament Commentary).

Lutheran: “They [the Catholics] allege the change of the Sabbath into the Lord’s day, as it seemeth, to the Decalogue [Ten Commandments]; and they have NO example more than their mouths than the change of the Sabbath. They will needs have the Church’s power to be very great, because it hath DISPENSED with a precept of the Decalogue.” (The Augsburg Confession, 1530 AD [Lutheran], part 2, art. 7, in Philip Schaff, the Creeds of Christendom, fourth edition, Vol. 3, P. 64. This important statement was made by the Lutherans and written by Melanchthon, only thirteen years after Luther nailed his theses to the door and began the Reformation).

Congregationalist: “The Christian Sabbath [Sunday] IS NOT in the Scripture, and was NOT by the primitive [early Christian] church called the Sabbath” (Timothy Dwight, Theology, sermon 107, 1818 ed., Vol. IV, P. 49. Dwight was President of Yale University from 1795-1817).

Episcopalian: “We have made the change FROM the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy, catholic, apostolic church of Christ” (Episopalian Bishop Symour, Why We Keep Sunday).

Catholic Church: “The Catholic Church …by virtue of her divine mission, CHANGED THE DAY from Saturday to Sunday” (The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893. The Mirror, a Baltimore based weekly, was the official organ for Cardinal Gibbons).

Catholic Church: “If we consulted the Bible ONLY, we should STILL have to keep holy the Sabbath, that is, SATURDAY” (John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, 1936 edition, vol, 1, P. 51).

Catholic Church: “Some of the truths that have been handed down to us by tradition and are NOT recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, are the following: That there are just seven sacraments; that there is a purgatory; that, in the new law [the Catholic law], Sunday should be kept holy INSTEAD of the Sabbath; that infants should be baptized, and that there are precisely seventy-two books in the Bible [66 which are inspired, plus six apocryphal books accepted by Rome]” (Francis J. Butler, Holy Family Catechism No. 3, P. 63. Butler was a Catholic priest of Boston and an author of a series of catechisms).

Catholic Church: “Question - How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy-days? Answer - By the VERY ACT of CHANGING the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of [by observing it]; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church” (Priest Henry Tuberville, An Abridgement of the Christian Doctrine, P. 58. In 1833, Tuberville received a papal approbation, a special approval, on this book).

Catholic Church: “Protestants …accept Sunday RATHER THAN Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church MADE THE CHANGE…But the Protestant mind does NOT seem to realize that in ACCEPTING the Bible, in observing the Sunday, they are accepting the AUTHORITY of the spokesman for the church, the Pope” (Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5, 1950. This is one of the largest U.S. Roman Catholic magazines).

Catholic Church: “The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he IS Jesus Christ Himself, HIDDEN UNDER VEIL OF FLESH” (The Catholic National, July 1895). No wonder the Catholics accept the change of the Sabbath to Sunday! They think of the Pope as Christ Himself in making the change. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE POPE IS GOD? THEN WHY CONTINUE KEEPING THE POPE’S DAY?

Catholic Church: “It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has TRANSFERRED this rest to Sunday… Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants IS AN HOMAGE THEY PAY, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church” (Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, 1868, P. 213. L. G. Segur was a French Catholic prelate and apologist, and later a diplomatic and judicial official at Rome).

Catholic Church: “For ages all Christian nations looked to the Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states ENFORCED BY LAW HER ORDINANCES as to worship and cessation of labor on Sunday. PROTESTANISM, IN DISCARDING THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH, HAS NO GOOD REASON FOR ITS SUNDAY THEORY, AND OUGHT LOGICALLY, TO KEEP SATURDAY AS THE SABBATH. The State in passing laws for the due Sanctification of Sunday, is UNWITTINGLY acknowledging the authority of the Catholic Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions. The Sunday as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God is purely a CREATION OF THE Catholic Church” (John Gilmary Shea, in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883, P. 139).

CONCLUSION

The Sabbath has been kept by God’s people from creation onward, was codified in the Ten Commandments, kept by Jesus, kept by the apostolic church, and to be kept in these last days before Jesus’ return and will be kept during the millennium [1000 year reign of Jesus].

Keeping God’s Sabbath is an inescapable duty of Godly people today, just as it has always been.

We may be blessed of God if we follow Jesus’ exhortation in Matt. 4:4 to “live…by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

May God bless you in your effort to understand His will for His people today.


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