Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Influence of Rome

Sunday, March 07, 2010
THE INFLUENCE OF ROME


Cardinal Newman, who loved Father Ambrose St John.


Pope Benedict's brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, has denied knowing about child abuse cases during his time as leader of Germany's famous boys' choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen.

Former choirboys came forward to say they had been abused during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mgr Ratzinger led the choir from 1964 to 1994. (Pope's brother denies knowledge of sexual abuse in choir he led)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecY79W6DPDs&feature=player_embeddedhttp://



On 4 March 2010, the Guardian reported that the Vatican has been hit by a gay sex scandal

Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29 year-old chorister, has been sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for Angelo Balducci, a papal gentleman-in-waiting.

Balducci was caught by police on a wiretap.

Balducci was allegedly negotiating with Ehiem over the physical details of men he wanted procured.

A large number of men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood.

According to a report by the police, "he availed himself of the intercession of two individuals who, it is maintained, may form part of an organised network, especially active in [Rome], of exploiters or at least facilitators of male prostitution."

Transcripts suggest that among those Ehiem procured for Balducci were "two black Cuban lads", a former male model from Naples, and a rugby player from Rome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcO7UEf0IJ8&feature=player_embeddedhttp://




The child sexual abuse scandal in Germany's Catholic Church continues to spread as a spokesperson has confirmed abuse at Regensburg’s cathedral school, which has a famous boys' choir, the Domspatzen.

Dozens of Catholics in the Netherlands have recently reported sexual abuses by priests, encouraged by coverage of similar cases in Ireland and Germany.

Clerical Whispers lists some Roman Catholic Church sex scandals

AUSTRIA - 1995 - The archbishop of Vienna was forced to retire after allegations that he had molested a schoolboy.

- July 2004 - The Austrian News magazine Profil had pictures of priests kissing and groping seminarians studying for the priesthood.

FRANCE - March 2000 - A court sentenced Abbot Jean-Lucien Maurel to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing three boys.

POLAND - March 2002 - Archbishop Juliusz Paetz quit following accusations of sexually molesting young priests.

UNITED STATES - February 2004 - A total of 10,667 individuals accused priests of child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002.


Pope Julius III appointed a teenage boy as his first cardinal.

This boy was Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte.

Julius had picked up Innocenzo on the streets of Parma when Innocenzo was aged 15 and a beggar boy. [1].

The Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo slept with the pope. (Pope Julius III )

Julius allowed Innocenzo to become richer than the Medicis.

Reportedly, Julius made love with 'cardinals, pages and young men he fancied'. (Paul's Gay Stamps: "Out of The Closet" The Renaissance Julius III)

Julius loved banquets, theatre, hunting and the Villa Giulia where artwork depicts putti playing with one another's genitals. ( Image:Satirello che ne masturba un altro - Roma, Museo di Villa ...)

Julius gave his support to Michelangelo and to Palestrina.

Julius III and Innocenzo are buried in the del Monte chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome.

Other famous gay popes included, reportedly, Pope Benedict IX, Pope John XII, Pope Leo X, Pope Paul II, Pope Sixtus IV....


The Warren Cup, portraying a man and youth


Eros and Silenus

The Romans were bisexual.

Cato the Censor complained about 200 B.C.E. that a handsome slave boy cost as much as a farm.
Handsome slave boys were much in demand.

Of Julius Caesar, Suetonius wrote:

"When Thermus sent Caesar to Bithnyia, he wasted so much time at King Nicomedes' court that a homosexual relationship between them was suspected, and suspicion gave way to scandal when, soon after his return to headquarters, he returned to Bithynia: ostensibly collecting a debt incurred there by one of his freedmen." (The Twelve Caesars, Book 2, Pengiun Classics version).

Suetonius describes ten of the twelve emperors that he writes of as being bisexual.

Hadrian loved Antinous, a young ex-slave who was famous for his beauty. In 134 A.D. Antinuous died at the age of 21 under mysterious circumstances.

The 58-year-old Hadrian was so upset over Antinuous' death that he declared him a god, built a temple for him, and named an Egyptian city after him.

According to http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide03/part10.html :

Tiberius, who spends most of the later years of his reign as emperor – from AD 26 to 37 – on the island of Capri, is said to have a special penchant for his spintriae (groups of young boys), with whom he surrounds himself and indulges in all manner of promiscuous behaviour.

The walls of his bedrooms at Capri are reported to be decorated with various sexual acts and positions 'in case a performer should need an illustration of what [is] required'...

Nero's reported sexual activities range from being seduced by his mother Agrippina to forcing his unwanted attentions on married women and boys.

Famously, he takes two homosexual lovers, Pythagoras and Sporus, in 'marriage'.

Nero is said to behave as the wife to Pythagoras and husband to Sporus, whom he has had castrated.

Taken together with his 'artistic' performances when he will often take on a female part and dress accordingly, Nero's behaviour scandalises Rome and plays an important part in his downfall.

Commodus emperor from AD 180 to 192, is said to have a harem of 300 girls and the same number of boys and to put on great orgies.

But for sheer shock value, none can compare with the Syrian, Elagabalus, emperor from 218 to 222, who believes himself to be a living god.

Elagabalus is remarkable not only for being only 14 years old when he becomes absolute ruler of the Roman empire but also for his sexual activities while holding that office... shocking in the eyes of respectable Roman society is his 'marriage' to a slave named Hierocles.

Elagabalus likes nothing better than to dress as a woman and go around with his 'husband', who is even encouraged to beat the emperor as if he is his real wife.

Sometimes Elagabalus plays out scenes in which Hierocles finds him with another man and punishes him for his 'infidelity'.

At http://www.glbtq.com/literature/roman_lit.html

Louis Crompton wrote:

The Romans condoned sex with captured or purchased slaves of either sex.

Since slaves formed a large part of the population in late republican and imperial times, young male bedmates were available in abundance and freely enjoyed without censure....

Homoerotic poems are part of the repertory of nearly all the major Latin love poets...

Virgil, as the author of Rome's national epic the Aeneid, ranks as Rome's greatest poet.

He is of importance for the gay literary heritage for two reasons. He wrote the most famous of Latin homoerotic poems (his second, or Corydon, eclogue) and he also made a serious attempt to introduce the heroic tradition of Greek love into Latin literature...

For Ovid, however, stories of the loves of the gods for beautiful boys were simply raw material to be exploited poetically.

As a result, Ovid was the main source for such myths in the middle ages, when he became, somewhat surprisingly, the favorite poet of Christian Europe, much admired and widely quoted and imitated in what has been called "the Age of Ovid."

...Not all the homoerotic stories of the Metamorphosis are in book ten. Book three tells the tale of Narcissus. In Ovid's version, Narcissus is loved by girls and boys, but it is specifically a boy he scorns who sets the curse on him; he falls fatally in love with another "lovely boy" when he sees his image reflected in a pool.

Eugene Rice , at http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/rome_ancient.html, wrote :

The Epicurean poet Lucretius (94-55 B.C.E.) took it to be a self-evident law of nature that attractive adolescent males, before they grew up and began to be desired by women, should be desired by men....

The sex of one's partner could be a matter of surprising indifference.

Horace, who never married, "burned with desire, sometimes for tender boys, sometimes for girls."

Martial writes, in the (fictive) first person singular, of penetrating males anally, penetrating females vaginally and anally, and being fellated by both male and female partners.

What mattered ... was role, age, and status.

The freeborn adult Roman who liked to copulate with males penetrated slave boys, eunuchs, and male prostitutes with as little reproach as he penetrated his female slaves, his female concubine, or female prostitutes.

In contrast, seducing a puer praetextatus, a freeborn male Roman who had not yet put on the toga virilis (this rite of passage happened at about age fifteen), was a serious offense; and fathers tried hard to protect the pudicitia (sexual modesty, chastity) of their sons. No easy task: "A handsome son," notes Juvenal, "keeps his parents in constant fear and misery, so rarely do pudicitia and good looks go together."

Nor did citizens who valued their reputations have sex with each other. For a free adult male to be penetrated anally or orally by another free adult male, by a freedman, by a boy, by a male prostitute, or by a slave was a disgrace.

Roman male homosexuality was predominantly a form of pederasty that did not exclude relationships with women and was governed by a firm distinction of role that stigmatized adult male passivity as servile and effeminate.

The contrast between Roman and Greek homosexuality is most striking in how the two societies tried to regulate the sexual relations of adult citizens and freeborn boys.

In Athens, ideally, both parties were freeborn and social equals; the tie between them was consensual; and (in some instances) educational as well as sexual.

At Rome, the typical same-sex relationship was between a citizen (active) and his adolescent slave (passive)....

Firmicus, like Ptolemy before him, recognizes all the commoner inflections of sexual taste. For example: "If Mercury and Venus are in conjunction in the 19th degree of Aries, they make the natives impure of mouth" (inpuros ore=fellators).

Saturn in aspect with Venus in any way "will make the natives molles, cinaedos, men who give themselves to slavish acts."

It is the celestial ambient that produces professional and amateur prostitutes, even lesbian prostitutes (mulieres vero viragines meretrices).

But what is most useful for us to retain from the ancient theorists is a renewed sense of the range of sexual categories available to Romans, of the elasticity and variety their sexual tastes, and of the candor with which they report and picture their sexual acts.


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Posted by Anon at 6:30 AM
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Source: http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2010/03/influence-of-rome.html.

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Trading Truth for a "Social Gospel"


Treason in the Church:Trading Truth for a "Social Gospel"by Berit Kjos - September 2006
Part 1: Real Conspiracies -- Past and Present
Part 3: Transforming the World by Subverting the Church



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Treason: ".../the act or attempted act of working for the enemies of the state/... betrayal of trust; disloyalty...." Webster Dictionary
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"Some even believe we [the Rockefellers] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure--one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."[1] David Rockefeller's Memoirs

"Rockefeller... provided support to about 220 churches and missionary organizations of his own denomination [Baptist] as well as to about 80 institutions of other denominations; to more than 160 social welfare and moral reform organizations and institutions; and to more than 100 schools and universities."[2] Rockefeller archives

"...we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting..." Ephesians 4:14-15


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Infiltration and deception have been tools of conspirators through the ages, and the Church has been a primary target! After all, God warns us that "the whole world is under the sway of the evil one." (1 John 5:19) One of his most effective schemes is to redefine God's Word and divert Christians from His unchanging Truth to man's shifting ideals.

For example, God calls us to serve the poor and fills our hearts with love for the needy. That's why His true followers around the world have willingly given their lives to share His truth and love in perilous places. But today's world-centered church illustrates a different kind of service. Designed to please man rather than God, it trains its servers to hide the "offensive" truths of the gospel.

Like Rick Warren, it uses the Bible to validate its purposes but emphasizes organizational behavior rather than Biblical beliefs -- in short, deeds instead of creeds.[3] Behind its noble appearance hides a postmodern version of the century-old "Christian Socialism."

The Social Gospel and the Councils of Churches
Called "Father of the Social Gospel," Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), grew up in a German Lutheran immigrant family in New York. He studied theology at the University of Rochester, one of hundreds of educational and "Christian" institutions funded by John D. Rockefeller. After pastoring a Baptist Church among poor immigrants in New York City for a few years, he joined the faculty at Rochester Theological Seminary -- also funded by Rockefeller. In 1902 he became its Professor of Church History.

From this prominent platform, he wrote books such as "Christianizing the Social Order" and "A Theology for the Social Gospel."[4] Steeped in "higher criticism" and socialist ideology, he taught what many considered a more relevant and compassionate gospel. As a result, he "changed both the emphases and the direction of American Protestantism."[5]

Rauschenbusch introduced Jesus "not as one who would come to save sinners from their sins but as one who had a 'social passion' for society."[6] He and his comrades established the "Brotherhood of the Kingdom," which unified like-minded church leaders under a common socialist quest for an earthly "Kingdom of God."

Their plan would have fit our times! It called for political reform, ecumenical unity, "social justice" (ending poverty), and global peace. To justify its place in "Christian" theology, words like redemption and regeneration were redefined to fit their socialist ideals.[7]

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Popular church leaders use the same strategy today! Pastor Brian McLaren's recent book, The Secret Message of Jesus, twists God's Word into an endorsement of an earthly, interfaith Kingdom.[8] Likewise, Tony Campolo's hope of earthly perfection mocks the Biblical promise of eternal life:

"The gospel is not about... pie-in-the-sky when they die.... It is imperative that the up and coming generation recognize that the biblical Jesus was committed to the realization of a new social order in this world.... Becoming a Christian, therefore, is a call to social action."[9]

In 1907, Rauschenbusch met with the leaders of Fabian socialism in England, Sidney Webb and Beatrice Potter Webb. Unlike impatient Marxist revolutionaries, the methodical Fabians emphasized peaceful transformation through propaganda and infiltration of universities, seminaries and churches.

Through the years, this socialist movement grew to include Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells (who wrote Open Conspiracy), playwright George Bernard Shaw, Sinclair Lewis, Theosophical leader Annie Besant, and the Communist leader Harry Dexter White who worked with Alger Hiss to establish the United Nations.[10] It spread through Western nations -- thanks, in part, to liberal churches that preached its message as if backed by the authority of God.

As you saw in Part 1, the Rockefellers and other powerful "change agents" fueled this movement. Their funding would sway universities, seminaries, and churches from coast to coast. It supported psycho-social research through Hitler's eugenics program, through London's Tavistock Institute, and through various American Universities and institutions. This new "science" would raise propaganda, persuasion, and mind control to ever more sophisticated levels.

With Rockefeller support, Rauschenbusch and his Fabian protégé Rev. Harry Ward helped establish the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) in 1908.[11] Rev. Ward, through his Soviet connections and influential positions, would become the main source of Communist infiltration into the FCC (later renamed NCC, National Council of Churches), Christian seminaries, and compassionate unsuspecting pastors and congregations across the country. Hard to believe? Then look at the evidence below.

Communist Infiltration

The following testimonies were given under oath before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the U.S. House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, in July, 1953.[12] Robert Kunzig, chief counsel for the committee, asked the questions. Manning Johnson, formerly a top member of the Communist Party, answered this particular set of questions.

Page 2266, Congressional Record.

KUNZIG: "...the name Harry Ward has appeared in so many of these various organizations and groups. It seems as if there is almost an interlacing tie-up... through various sects and denominations. Have you any comment to make on this situation?

JOHNSON: "Yes, I have. Dr. Harry F. Ward, for many years, has been the chief architect for Communist infiltration and subversion in the religious field.

According to this Congressional Report, Harry Ward also taught "Christian ethics" at Union Theological Seminary [funded by the Rockefellers], presided over the Federal Council of Churches, chaired the American Civil Liberties Union, and worked with the Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A. and the Interchurch World Movement.[13]

Page 2170.

JOHNSON: "I would first like to read to you what William Z. Foster [General Secretary of the Communist Party USA] has to say on this matter."

'Communists must ever be keen to cultivate the democratic spirit of mutual tolerance among the religious sects.... A still greater lesson for us to learn, however, is how to work freely with religious strata for the accomplishment of democratic mass objectives....

'A very serious mistake of the American left wing during many years... has been its attempt arbitrarily to wave aside religious sentiments among the masses. Reactionary forces [mainly concerned Christians] have already known how to take advantage of this shortsighted sectarian error.... 'In recent years, however, the Communist Party, with its policy of ‘the outstretched hand,’ has done much to overcome the harmful left-wing narrowness of former years and to develop a more healthy cooperation with the religious masses....'”

KUNZIG: "Was deceit a major policy of Communist propaganda and activity?"

Mr. JOHNSON: "Yes, it was. They made fine gestures and honeyed words to the church people which could be well likened unto the song of the fabled sea nymphs luring millions to moral decay, spiritual death, and spiritual slavery....."

Pages 2201 and 2202.

JOHNSON: "The Methodist Federation for Social Service or the Methodist Federation for Social Action, headed by the Rev. Harry F. Ward, whom I have already identified as a Party member, was invaluable to the Communist Party... because through it the Party was able to get contacts with thousands of ministers all over the country.

"...quite a few ministers, for example, participated in the united front known as the American League Against War and Fascism.... In fact, they were so deeply involved through Harry F. Ward that they became the spokesmen -- the advocates, the builders, and the leaders of this most important Communist front that engaged in everything from simple assault on a government to espionage, sabotage and the overthrow of the Government...."

Page 2228. Part of Manning Johnson's testimony was an article in the Daily Worker (5-7-53). This "Exhibit No. 21" reports on a dinner held in Dr. Ward's honor. Notice the name of Corliss Lamont who was introduced in Part 1 of this series:

"...New World Review, a progressive monthly devoted to circulating the truth about the Socialist and People’s Democracies abroad... brought out several hundred friends and former students of Dr. Ward, and some of those who knew him well, like... Corliss Lamont [the communist son of Thomas Lamont, the head of the J. P. Morgan banking conglomerate]... told the others of how Dr. Ward’s teachings enriched them personally and how his tremendous work for brotherhood, peace, and justice has influenced the nation."

Page 2278.

KUNZIG: "...could you give us a summary of the overall manner in which the Communists have attempted to infiltrate and poison the religious organizations of America wherever possible?"

JOHNSON: "Once the tactic of infiltrating religious organizations was set by the Kremlin, the actual mechanics of implementing the 'new line' was a question of following the... church movement in Russia, where the Communists discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through infiltration of the church by Communist agents operating within the church itself.

"...the infiltration tactic in this country would have to adapt itself to American conditions.... In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available it would be necessary to concentrate Communist agents in the seminaries and divinity schools. The practical conclusion drawn by the Red leaders was that these institutions would make it possible for a small Communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen....

"...the idea was to divert the emphasis of clerical thinking from the spiritual to the material.... Instead of emphasis towards the spiritual and matters of the soul, the new and heavy emphasis was to deal with those matters which, in the main, led toward the Communist program of “immediate demands” [or "felt needs"]....

Does the last point sound familiar? It should to those who are concerned about the worldwide Purpose-Driven movement. For Rick Warren prompted that same shift from "the spiritual" to "the material." As he told thousands of pastors around the world through his "Ministry Toolbox" (link is now broken) the focus of his ministry has shifted from from faith in God's Word to service to the world:

"The first Reformation clarified what we believe. This reformation is all about how we act and operate in the world. It involves the key components of purpose, decentralization, lay mobilization, use of technology, and continuous learning. Churches that change are thriving and growing more effective. Churches that refuse to change will miss the reformation, and are dying."[14] Rick Warren

Not true! God's uncompromising and eternal Church can never die! As Jesus, the head of His Church, told His disciples before His crucifixion, "My kingdom is not of this world." Nor are His followers "of the world!" Yet, He sends us "into the world" so that we, "speaking the truth in love,"[15] may demonstrate His truth and love (not man's pragmatic ideals) to all who will hear.

"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.... Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." John 17:14,17


Read responses to this article here: Transformation of the church and world


In Part 3, we will compare the strategies of the socialist/Communist infiltrators with the new transformational strategies used by trained facilitator/leaders within the Church Growth and Purpose-Driven movements.
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Notes:
1. http://archive.rockefeller.edu/collections/family/jdrsr/cc/
2. David Rockefeller, Memoirs (Random House, New York, 2002) Chapter 27, pages 404 and 405.
3. "Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan and UN Goals - Part 2" at www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/peace-un-2.htm and Part 3 at www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/peace-un-3.htm
4. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2006, Columbia University Press. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0841217.html
5. Dr. A.W. Beaven, former president of the Federal Council of Churches. Quoted by Edgar C Bundy, page 99. Reference below:
6. Edgar C Bundy, Collectivism in the Churches: A documented account of the political activities of the Federal, National, and World Councils of Churches (Wheaton, Illinois: Church League of America, 1957), page 97.
7. Ibid.
8. www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/kingdom-world.htm
9. Tony Campolo, "Reflections on Youth Ministry in a Global Context," National Council of Churches, "Poverty March 2002." www.ncccusa.org/poverty/sermon-campolo.html
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society
11. Bundy, page 97.12. The Congressional Record on Investigation of Communist Activities in the New York City Area (Parts 6-8). Hearing Before The Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, First Session, July 7 and 8, and July 13 and 14, 1953.Documented by Edgar Bundy in Collectivism in the Churches, Chapter 2: "Collaborators with Communism."
13. Bundy, page 131.
14. Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox, Issue #89, 2-12-03 at www.pastors.com/RWMT/?ID=89 (link is now broken). See the introductory quotes at Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan and UN Goals
15.John 18:36; John 17:16, 18; Ephesians 4:15.

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P.S. The many hotlinks in the article were disabled for simplicity's sake.
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THE HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND SABBATH KEEPERS

REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY


Have you ever thought about your family tree, and the people in your family who lived before you and how you were related to them? It is an interesting project to undertake and sometimes brings some family surprises.

There are family trees in the Christian religion too.
The family begins with the Apostles and the very beginnings of the Christian era. In Revelation this period is shown as a white horse symbolising purity. It was an active church and in the time of Paul had already gone to the then-known world with its missionary activities, teaching the Gospel of Christ and keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, as has already been shown.
In the time of Constantine, another line, which had been growing and developing for about a hundred years, branched off to form another line of Christianity. This line observed Sunday as a sacred day and its beginning was marked with the first laws to make Sunday special - with civil laws being used to enforce Sunday as a religious day. This now is the better-known Christian line and is unwittingly considered by many to be the authentic path of Christianity because of its line of succession. This branch, the Papacy, continued intact until the Reformation, when it developed further branches. The Reformers, Luther, Karlstadt, Zwingli and others looked at the papal line and saw the corruption and false practices that had developed within it. They were mainly concerned to reform the Papal church from within but, for a variety of reasons, Protestantism grew from the Reform movement. The interesting fact, however, is that Sunday still remained unchallenged as the sacred day, even though the reformers claimed to follow the Bible and the Bible only. The Catholic Church has never been able to understand this.


A pamphlet containing a series of articles written by the Roman church last century very strongly challenges the integrity of Protestantism when they claim to follow the Bible only, and not the edicts and tradition of the Papacy. Today it does not matter which church or fellowship one examines but it will be found that they almost all maintain Sunday as a sacred day.

If we go back to look at apostolic times again, it is clear from the facts in previous pages that the primitive Christian.
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5.6 magnitude quake strikes Cuba


28 mins ago

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Guantanamo, Cuba, on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
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The quake was centered 27 miles southwest of Guantanamo and had a depth of 14 miles, the USGS said.
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The United States has a naval base at Guantanamo Bay that includes a prison housing 188 detainees. There was no immediate word on damages.
(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Eric Beech)
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Apologies aren't enough!


Sorry?
Too, little, too late!

Ratzinger says sorry.

People lose their jobs for using language that is politically incorrect. Folks are sued for slander and defamation of character. Others, are jailed for hate speech; And, after a never ending stream of little boys and girls systematically (decades of incidents) abused and assaulted within this organization; All we get are just three words? I am sorry.

Isn't it incredible that this same man who was elected mini-god on earth just five years ago, can now claim his organization messed up? No, wait! The catholic church is the apple of his eye (so 'they' claim); something as atrocious as this couldn't have happened in it? Now the one they used to call 'god's Rottweiler', has to hide his tail between his tunic?

It's amazing how this bishop of rome can express sorrow for the dastardly deeds that his bachelor monastic clergy customarily commits with impunity around the world; It's as is they have diplomatic impunity for sodomizing and raping children? While he constantly tries to call for a New World Order "with teeth", founded on compassion for the less fortunate of mankind? Yet, his troops rape and molest little boys and girls by the thousands. Still this previous 'prefect' of the congregation of the doctrine of the faith (a.k.a. The holy Inquisitor) attempts to soothe the pain of Irish victims, their mothers and fathers, and other relatives of those that were brutalized when they were just children? This has to be the greatest case of hypocrisy in history, if I may say so. Mister Rottweiler "with teeth", the global sacrosanct living divinity's deeds don't jibe with his profession. After heading the Inquisition since the early 1980's as the henchman for the cult; And now having been at the top of the echelon for 5 years; He claims he's sorry, now? He never knew? The screams and pain never reached him until now? Phooey!

Ratzinger and his boys will get away with this horrendous scandal like Michael Jackson and Roman Polanski. It seems as if child sexual abuse pays for the wealthy and well connected; While the average peon gets life for "child porn". Still, he will compose and issue voluminous edicts, and bulls such as "Caritas in Veritate" in spite of his complicity in such atrocious crimes as the ones that were perpetrated on these little helpless (then) children. How hypocritical can you be? Worse still are the ones that condone and support this satanic hierarchy and their stranglehold of the world's financial sector: Or, promote its claim to be the representatives of God on earth, which allows them to perpetrate all types of dictatorial controls on humanity as a whole. They claim the privilege of kings, even in the land of the Pilgrims.
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My sympathies for the victims of the catholic church's sexual brutality of children in Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, and everywhere else where wolves in sheep's clothing have been allowed to prey on innocent children. The Lord judges and condems these monsters; He will punish them severely, very soon.
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If you have children? Home school them! Whatever you do don't allow these beasts access to your little ones.

Arsenio.

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Matthew 18:6
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Pope tells Irish sex abuse victims "truly sorry"

Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY
Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:41am EDT

Related News
Excerpts from pope letter on child abuse in Ireland

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict apologized on Saturday to victims of child sex abuse by clergy in Ireland and ordered an official inquiry there to try to stem a scandal gripping the Catholic Church which has swept across Europe.

World

The pope's moves over abuse at Irish dioceses and seminaries were the most concrete steps taken since a wave of cases hit Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands but were met with deep disappointment by the victims in Ireland.

In a letter addressed to the people, bishops, priests and victims of child sex abuse in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, the pope did not make specific reference to Churches in other countries, particularly the pope's native Germany.

"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry ... I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel," he said in the unprecedented letter on abuse by Irish clergy, adding:

"I can only share in the dismay and sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way the Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them."

But the pope failed to address widespread calls in Ireland for a radical restructuring of the church there, nor did he say that bishops implicated in the scandal should resign.

Irish victims expressed their deep disappointment.

"We feel the letter falls far short of addressing the concerns of the victims," Maeve Lewis of the group One in Four told Reuters. She said it focused too narrowly on Irish priests without recognizing the responsibility of the Vatican.

"There is nothing in this letter to suggest that any new vision of leadership in the Catholic church exists," she said, adding it should have addressed the fate of head of the church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, whose resignation they want.

In a speech after mass on Saturday in Armagh, Northern Ireland, Brady did not refer to resigning. "I welcome this letter," Brady said.

The pope announced what is known as an "apostolic visitation" of "certain" dioceses, seminaries and religious orders in Ireland.

An apostolic visitation is an inquiry in which inspectors meet bishops, seminary or convent directors and local church officials to review the way matters were handled in the past, to suggest changes and decide possible disciplinary action.

"GRAVE ERRORS OF JUDGMENT"

Benedict singled out Irish bishops for criticism of their handling of abuse cases in the past.

"It must be admitted that grave errors of judgment were made and failures of leadership occurred. All this has seriously undermined your credibility and effectiveness," he said.

He added: "Only decisive action carried out with complete honesty and transparency will restore the respect and goodwill of the Irish people toward the Church to which we have consecrated our lives," he said.

The letter, the first papal document devoted exclusively to pedophilia, follows a damning Irish government report on widespread child abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese.

The Murphy Report, published in November, said the church in Ireland had "obsessively" concealed child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, and operated a policy of "don't ask, don't tell."

In recent weeks, the Vatican has tried to contain damage as the string of scandals over sexual abuse of children by priests spread across Europe.

The latest scandal in Germany is especially sensitive for German-born Benedict, Munich's bishop from 1977 to 1981.

With public opinion in Germany enraged as more cases emerged, the vice president of the Bundestag lower house, Wolfgang Thierse, called for him to apologize on behalf of those responsible.

Last week the head of Germany's Catholic Church apologized to victims of child abuse by priests when he came to Rome for a visit that was transformed into a crisis management meeting.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops' Conference, briefed Benedict about the situation in Germany, where more than 100 reports have emerged of abuse at Catholic institutions, including one linked to the prestigious Regensburg choir run by the pope's brother from 1964 to 1994.

(Additional reporting by Andras Gergely in Dublin and Tom Heneghan in Paris, editing by Peter Millership)

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The glory of the LORD shall be thy reward


Isaiah 58


1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
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2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.

9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:

11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.


King James Version (KJV)
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Public Domain

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Unwavering Faith


Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. James 1:6.


Prayer and faith are closely allied, and they need to be studied together. In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that everyone who would make his life-work a success must understand. Christ says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24. He makes it plain that our asking must be according to God's will; we must ask for the things that He has promised, and whatever we receive must be used in doing His will. The conditions met, the promise is unequivocal.

For the pardon of sin, for the Holy Spirit, for a Christlike temper, for wisdom and strength to do His work, for any gift He has promised, we may ask; then we are to believe that we receive, and return thanks to God that we have received. We need look for no outward evidence of the blessing. The gift is in the promise, and we may go about our work assured that what God has promised He is able to perform, and that the gift, which we already possess, will be realized when we need it most.

To live thus by the word of God means the surrender to Him of the whole life. There will be felt a continual sense of need and dependence, a drawing out of the heart after God. Prayer is a necessity; for it is the life of the soul. Family prayer, public prayer, have their place; but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul life. . . .

An intensity such as never before was seen is taking possession of the world. In amusement, in money-making, in the contest for power, in the very struggle for existence, there is a terrible force that engrosses body and mind and soul. In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. "Be still, and know that I am God." . . .

Not a pause for a moment in His presence, but personal contact with Christ, to sit down in companionship with Him-- this is our need.
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Maranatha, E. G. White, p.87.
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Friday, March 19, 2010

The Children of Abraham


The Pharisees had declared themselves the children of Abraham. Jesus told them that this claim could be established only by doing the works of Abraham. The true children of Abraham would live, as he did, a life of obedience to God. They would not try to kill One who was speaking the truth that was given Him from God. In plotting against Christ, the rabbis were not doing the works of Abraham. A mere lineal descent from Abraham was of no value. Without a spiritual connection with him, which would be manifested in possessing the same spirit, and doing the same works, they were not his children.

This principle bears with equal weight upon a question that has long agitated the Christian world,--the question of apostolic succession. Descent from Abraham was proved, not by name and lineage, but by likeness of character. So the apostolic succession rests not upon the transmission of ecclesiastical authority, but upon spiritual relationship. A life actuated by the apostles' spirit, the belief and teaching of the truth they taught, this is the true evidence of apostolic succession. This is what constitutes men the successors of the first teachers of the gospel. {DA 467.1}

Jesus denied that the Jews were children of Abraham. He said, "Ye do the deeds of your father." In mockery they answered, "We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." These words, in allusion to the circumstances of His birth, were intended as a thrust against Christ in the presence of those who were beginning to believe on Him. Jesus gave no heed to the base insinuation, but said, "If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God."

Their works testified of their relationship to him who was a liar and a murderer. "Ye are of your father the devil," said Jesus, "and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. . . . Because I say the truth, ye believe Me not." John 8:44, 45, R. V. The fact that Jesus spoke the truth, and that with certainty, was why He was not received by the Jewish leaders. It was the truth that offended these self-righteous men. The truth exposed the fallacy of error; it condemned their teaching and practice, and it was unwelcome. They would rather close their eyes to the truth than humble themselves to confess that they had been in error. They did not love the truth. They did not desire it, even though it was truth.


The Desire of Ages (1898), E. g. White, pp.466, 467.
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"I am the light of the world"


"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." {DA 463.1}

When He spoke these words, Jesus was in the court of the temple specially connected with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles. In the center of this court rose two lofty standards, supporting lampstands of great size. After the evening sacrifice, all the lamps were kindled, shedding their light over Jerusalem. This ceremony was in commemoration of the pillar of light that guided Israel in the desert, and was also regarded as pointing to the coming of the Messiah. At evening when the lamps were lighted, the court was a scene of great rejoicing. Gray-haired men, the priests of the temple and the rulers of the people, united in the festive dances to the sound of instrumental music and the chants of the Levites. {DA 463.2}

In the illumination of Jerusalem, the people expressed their hope of the Messiah's coming to shed His light upon Israel. But to Jesus the scene had a wider meaning. As the radiant lamps of the temple lighted up all about them, so Christ, the source of spiritual light, illumines the darkness of the world. Yet the symbol was imperfect. That great light which His own hand had set in the heavens was a truer representation of the glory of His mission. {DA 463.3}

It was morning; the sun had just risen above the Mount of Olives, and its rays fell with dazzling brightness on the marble palaces, and lighted up the gold of the temple walls, when Jesus, pointing to it, said, "I am the light of the world."


By one who listened to these words, they were long afterward re-echoed in that sublime passage, "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 1:4, 5, R. V., 9. And long after Jesus had ascended to heaven, Peter also, writing under the illumination of the divine Spirit, recalled the symbol Christ had used: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.

In the manifestation of God to His people, light had ever been a symbol of His presence. At the creative word in the beginning, light had shone out of darkness. Light had been enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, leading the vast armies of Israel. Light blazed with awful grandeur about the Lord on Mount Sinai. Light rested over the mercy seat in the tabernacle. Light filled the temple of Solomon at its dedication. Light shone on the hills of Bethlehem when the angels brought the message of redemption to the watching shepherds.


God is light; and in the words, "I am the light of the world," Christ declared His oneness with God, and His relation to the whole human family. It was He who at the beginning had caused "the light to shine out of darkness." 2 Cor. 4:6. He is the light of sun and moon and star. He was the spiritual light that in symbol and type and prophecy had shone upon Israel. But not to the Jewish nation alone was the light given. As the sunbeams penetrate to the remotest corners of the earth, so does the light of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon every soul.

"That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intellect and wonderful research, men whose utterances have stimulated thought, and opened to view vast fields of knowledge; and these men have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race. But there is One who stands higher than they. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John 1:12, 18. We can trace the line of the world's great teachers as far back as human records extend; but the Light was before them. As the moon and the stars of the solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teaching is true, do the world's great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Every gem of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world. In these days we hear much about "higher education." The true "higher education" is that imparted by Him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." Col. 2:3; John 1:4. "He that followeth Me," said Jesus, "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

The Desire of Ages (1898), E. G. White, pp.463-465.
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Pelosi: Today We Pray To St. Joseph The Worker For This "Life-Affirming Legislation"

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Nancy Pelosi -- Pray To St. Joseph ?



(Update) Nancy Pelosi alluding to ST. JOSEPH during the legislation effort.
N. B. I searched for the actual video of her celebratory appeal for the saint's blessing just after the legislation passed and could only find this...


Where's this supposed Separation of Church and State Principle in this matter?
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St. Joseph, Who? Oh, this is an Italian thing, now? Maddona!


Will Nancy Pelosi rush off to rendezvous with the holy father once she achieves her villainous goal? As she did when they approved the last Machiavellian measure?

This has got to awaken (to the facts) some of the people that still believe that the vatican lead New World Order is not the driving force behind this latest subversive attack on this Constitutional Republic.

Can't people understand when we're being hornswaggled, hoodwinked, shanghaied, and bamboozled? The point is that 2,000 + pages of new legislation has got to contain a whole bunch of fine print. Instead of government by consent, we're seeing government by coercion; This is not representative government, or representing the constituency.




Meanwhile, the Rabble-Rouser in Chief

Who hollers "We need Courage", cancels his trip to Indonesia (another one of his hometowns), so he can ensure that the deed is consummated. Novus Ordo Seclorum is Latin folks! This is a resurgance of Middle Ages catholic tyranny in the land of the free and home of the brave. Doesn't the hollering and shouting sound familiar?


Il Ducce is back!

Next, you'll see weekly Sunday Masses attended by the president and the congress just like in the old country there.

Happy days are here again...la la la la la la, la la, la la...


Arsenio.
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Pedophile Priests Protected Not Only By Church But Also By Police!

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Modern versus postmodern Adventism: The ultimate divide?

2005 » June



Reinder Bruinsma, Ph.D., is the retired president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Netherlands, Huis ter Heide, Netherlands.


When did modernism give way to postmodernism? It is impossible to pinpoint the beginning and the end of any era in a precise manner. Just as it was not immediately clear when the "Middle Ages" ended and the "modern" period began, so it is with the far-reaching transitions and thought trends of our time. Only the perspective of history can provide a reasonably clear picture of such mega trends. So the fuller picture of what is now happening to our world will become clear only gradually, but that something is happening and that the world is in major transition is beyond any doubt.

Modernity
When we use the word "modern" or its derivatives to refer to the period that followed the Middle Ages, we do so in a particular way. It is a label for the Enlightenment Project that got underway when people began to think differently, as the Cartesian approach to philosophy began to sink in.

Descartes' famous dictum "I think therefore I am" became the foundation for a new way of looking at humans and God. The autonomous human, endowed with reason, and soon also fortified by the new scientific method that was developed by Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton, became the measure of all things.

The human was going to solve the world's problems. God was at a distance, while the recently discovered laws of nature kept the uni verse going in an orderly manner. The future would be marked by continuous progress, as the enormous resources of this planet were increasingly exploited to human benefit.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, the Enlightenment Project was beginning to run out of steam, as Friedrich Nietschze and Sigmund Freud came on the scene. New philosophical approaches that focused on language and the interpretation of texts began to blossom. They began to deliver a message of relativism, uncertainty, and even pessimism. The Holocaust, if anything, made it impossible for life to continue as before.

Philosophers in Europe and in the United States began to emphasize that the time of such grand narratives as Marxism, Communism, and Christianity had been eclipsed. They declared that there were no longer any all-encompassing schemes that offer a comprehensive explanation of life. Instead, they said, there are only fragmented and contradictory smaller stories of individuals and groups in all their diversity. All is difference, they pro claimed. And all judgment needs to be deferred! There are no absolutes; Truth has been replaced by truths.

From the 1970s onward the term postmodernism came into use to describe the changes that became more and more apparent in the arts and in architecture, and then also in philosophy and even theology. Today the term has become a catch-all label that can be attached to almost anything.

But though, admittedly, the term is imprecise and postmodernity means different things to different people, it cannot be denied that something is going on, particularly in the Western world. The Enlightenment era has come, or is rapidly coming, to an end, and we participate, whether we want to or not, in a momentous process of change.

The postmodern person
What is a postmodern person? What does he or she think? What do they do? Where are they to be found?

There is no shortage of books that list the main characteristics of the postmodern man and woman. Most authors will indicate that there is a superficial kind of postmodernism, which is almost synonymous with consumerism and hedonism, and which allows its adherents to live most of their lives in a virtual world.

But there is more to it than that, and in most cases this description would be unfair.

Rather than describing the average postmodern person as a gadget-happy, amusement-seeking, shallow individual, metaphors like nomad or flaneur might be more apt. It should also be said that there is often an interesting mix of modernity and postmodernity in one person.

Below are some of the most notice able characteristics of the postmodern approach to life.

These are given in an abbreviated, summary form, and the list is by no means exhaustive, even though it is helpful in understanding or recognizing postmodern trends.

1. The postmodern person does not believe that everything will become better and better. The idea of progress is largely abandoned. Science is not seen to be the unconditional blessing it once was thought to be.

2. There are no absolutes. We all have our own private truths. Communities and cultures have their own language games. What they talk about and believe in does not necessarily relate to any one particular reality. Everything is subjective, relative, uncertain, contingent, and ambiguous.

3. The metanarratives (grand stories) and the grand ideals have disappeared.

4. Postmodern people like a juxta position of incompatible elements. In art we find a great interest in collation, mixing of artistic styles, a blurring of the lines between real life and fiction, the real and the virtual.

5. Scientists are becoming more modest in their claims and confess that they often see what they want to see, and that many of the so-called foundations of science may not be so certain after all.

6. People know they live in a global village. The computer a symbol of postmodernity gives them instant access to the world. Yet, at the same time, global strategies and alliances are under suspicion and there is a strong interest in regional and local issues.

7. The postmodern person has a strong dislike for religious institutions but is open to spirituality. In fact, some advocate a re-enchantment of the world. Mystery is OK. The nonrational, new age-type approach to the questions of life is popular.

The impact of postmodernism
Once we become aware of the main characteristics of the postmodern mindset, we see the impact of post modern thinking everywhere. Look at some recent buildings in western cities: no longer the modem boxlike monotonous structures of concrete, steel, and glass. Ornamentation is coming back and styles from different periods are combined, so that post modern buildings can tell their own story.

It is easy to detect the postmodern trends in many recent novels that blend stories from different periods; in films that leave a person wondering where the historical ends and the fiction begins. This is seen, for example in the "infotainment" and "docusoaps" of the latest television productions.

We also find postmodern ambiguity in the political arena, as, for instance, in parts of Europe where a majority of the people support the idea of a European unity but at the same time will do anything to protect a local dialect.

Further, one quickly detects the postmodern approach of many Western people to religion and to the church. Religion is in, but the institutional church is out. Experience and emotion are OK, but doctrines are considered largely irrelevant. Absolute, propositional truth is replaced by what works for me, and there are as many legitimate ways to interpret the Bible as there are readers.

Christianity is one religious option among a series of world religions all are equally valid, historically and culturally conditioned responses of the human self to the "Beyond." Sin has been reduced to a sense of regret that things have not gone as expected, with little or no place for something like atonement, where Someone steps in on my behalf.

More often than not, those who do turn toward Christianity want to pick and choose as to which teachings they are willing to accept, and will often be reluctant when it comes to manifesting full and permanent commitment.

Postmodernity and the Adventist Church
The postmodernism wave has not bypassed the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many of the issues and concerns, particularly in the Western sectors of the church, are directly related to postmodern influences.

Clearly, for a growing number of Adventist believers in the West the metanarrative of Adventism as a worldwide, divinely ordained movement, united by one theology and one organizational model, with uni form programs and resources, has outlived its sell-by date. More and more church members tend to think and act locally. They have little or no interest in the church's hierarchy and are suspicious of centralized institutional structures.

Many are increasingly weary of doctrinal fine print and establish their own truth, largely, but not exclusively, within the framework of Adventist tradition. They tend to regard Adventism as one option among other options and are not so sure that their traditions are the one and only true church.

Worship styles have significantly changed, with an increasing emphasis on experience, and on contemporary music, drama, and informal small group meetings. Traditional church discipline has lost much of its corrective power, and an increasing amount of spiritual cross-border shopping takes place.

It has often justifiably, I think been noted that Adventism has an underdeveloped ecclesiology. This fact will increasingly haunt us, as this happens to be the arena where many of the postmodern questions of our church members are asked. What is the church? Is it the church universal! Is it the visible, historic, institutional church, or the invisible church of all ages? Or is it a small remnant, with a message that changes in emphasis and focus as one Christian era gives way to the next?

All these questions are directly related to our Adventist identity. Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church the only true church and are all other Christian organizations to be labeled as Babylon? Or is Adventism simply one option beside a whole gamut of other Christian options, which may be just as valid? Or perhaps Adventism, it may be thought, represents something special, an option that offers a series of insights not readily available else where?

The question for some influenced by postmodernism may be, Does Adventism possess the absolute truth in all areas of theology, or should we be a little more modest and claim at most that our church makes a significant contribution to the rich diversity of Christianity?

There is much confusion and dis agreement about the answers to be given, and the response one gives is largely determined by whether one is a modern or postmodern Adventist!

The modern versus the postmodern Adventist
Categorizing people is dangerous. Most people simply do not fit neatly into any one category. This is also true when we try to separate modern from postmodern Adventists. So, we must remember that the profiles given below are inexact and are, at least to some extent, caricatures. But, nonetheless, they are basically true in outline.

The modern Adventists are in the majority, and will be for some time to come. They are found wherever there are Seventh-day Adventists. They are the traditional Adventists, mostly conservative in their beliefs and in the way they view their church and the surrounding world.

They believe in the grand story (the "metanarrative") of Adventism as God's "remnant church," with its worldwide mission mandate, called forth by God at the appointed time and assured of its ultimate success.

Modern Adventists believe in absolutes. They dislike questions that may undermine the certainties of the believers. They defend the historical positions of the church with regard to doctrine, organizational structure, worship, and ethics. They welcome a strong emphasis on eschatology and are staunchly anti-ecumenical. They hold a very "high" view of inspiration, both with regard to the Bible and Ellen G. White. They are strong on policy and on the church manual. They want their church to remain united and believe that this unity is fostered by uniform programs and a solid central system of governance.

But postmodern Adventists are a growing minority, in particular in Western countries: the United States and large parts of Europe and Australia, with smaller groups in other parts of the world. They tend to be well educated and tend to be in more affluent areas. They do not have the same interest in the metanarrative of Adventism as their "modern" brothers and sisters.

Their focus is much more regional or local. They are often suspicious of the church's hierarchy and, as previously mentioned, are simply not interested in the upper layers of the church's organizational structure. They are weary of ecclesial authority and do not unduly worry about church discipline, policy, or the church manual.

They tend to allow for diversity in doctrine, and want to pick and choose which of the 27 fundamental beliefs of the Church they will embrace. Their religion is much less rational than traditional Adventism. Experience, celebration, praise, and Holy Spirit are the catchwords for the way many of them want to "do" church.

They are open to outside influences, even tend to engage in some cross-border shopping, for they usually view other, in particular evangelical, Christians in a much more positive light than modern Adventists do. The postmodern Adventist will often tend to postpone or have reservations about making a total commitment to the church and its message.

Challenges
Postmodernism in and outside the church confronts the church with a set of tremendous challenges. How does the church stay together when people operate on sharply differing premises and no longer see eye to eye regarding the identity and mission of the church? How do Church leaders relate to those who have different ideas about the importance of doctrine as such, and with regard to particular fundamental beliefs? How will the institutional church worldwide be affected by the growing disinterest in the church's organizational structure and global programs among a relatively affluent segment of the church?

Must these trends be judiciously welcomed, or must they be strongly rejected and fought tooth and nail? Or is there some middle road?

I would suggest that we should not come to hasty conclusions. Both modernism and postmodernism have facets that are in tension with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The old question of the relationship between culture and gospel has reappeared in a new garb. It is, of course, important that the gospel address the issues raised by postmodern people and that those who proclaim the gospel are sensitive to the ways in which people think, feel, and react.

At the same time, every culture including postmodernism must be judged by the biblical gospel. We need not and we must not uncritically accept the pluralism and relativism of postmodernity. The claim that all "grand stories" have been eclipsed cannot deter us from proclaiming the metanarrative of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Postmodernity has facets that dangerously undermine the core of the biblical message and the certainty of salvation, but it also offers great opportunities. Because of the basic attitudes that are part and parcel of postmodernity, once again it is all right to talk about religion. There is a new thirst for spirituality and are markable openness to the supernatural. There is more willingness than in recent decades to listen to the small stories of those who have encountered Jesus Christ.

A crucial question is, How can modern and postmodern Adventists stay together, dialogue together and grow together, and worry together about the essential content of the biblical message rather than about the cultural forms in which the gospel message is preached and in which the institutional church operates? Will church leadership allow for such dialogue, or even encourage it? Or will it try to protect its "modern" achievements at any cost?

The Truth is only in Christ Jesus. But could it be that there are modern as well as postmodern truths that may help us to discover ever more of the Truth? Only as we learn to listen to one another, as we understand that we live in a time of transition (or is it the time of the end?), and as we continue to seek answers that are relevant to our contemporaries through an open-minded and Spirit-directed reading of the revealed Word only then, I believe, will we be able to nurture our modern or postmodern soul, build the church we love, and dis cover ways of reaching out to both the modern and the postmodern men and women around us.

Many of us differentiate between conservative and liberal Adventists. That may, however, turn out not to be the most significant classification. Modern versus postmodern may well be the most challenging division among us.

May God make us wise and deter mined to stay together, as He shows us the way to create reliable bridges across this new and challenging divide.
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P.S. Bolds and Highlights added..
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Naked Truth




The truth and nothing but the truth is very unpopular. Jesus says, I am the truth and if they persecute Me, they will persecute you also. Ever wondered why? Sin is the cause! The apostle Paul as a Pharisee had not known sin even though they were very very strict in everything they did. He learned what sin was by the Ten Commandments (Romans 7:7).

"All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2.Tim.3:12). Notice that it is godly living that provokes the wrath and anger of the ungodly. But what about the State Churches when they persecute? Jesus and His apostles were all persecuted by the State Church! We are to obey civil Authority in all secular matters to keep law and order and followers of Jesus Christ love to do just that. But never when a religious law is concerned. Let me illustrate.
Jesus died for our sins, which are a violation of God's Ten Commands (by the law is the knowledge of sin Rom.3:20), Protestant leader Dr.Martin Luther , Theologian at the Univ. of Wittenburg, Germany in 1521 AD protested against the wicked Sales of indulgences into sin, i.e. we allow you to sin if you are financial.

Luther then went on exposing the errors. Together with many other Protestant Reformers they made the Word of our God the only source of truth! What we can't understand is, Lutherans combined again with Rome to persecute the truth on the only biblical form of Baptism as practiced by the Baptist Churches and how Jesus gave us the example. Rome killed with cruel torture while the Protestant Lutherans were more humane with drowning the Protestant Baptists. Sprinkling babies is very unbiblical.

The Bible speaks of a time when the Churches would no longer endure the truth and would turn to fables ( 2.Tim.4:2-4 ) and they would also turn the truth into a lie ( 2.Thess.2:11). For hundreds of years, Protestant Reformers all over the World tried in vain to reform the fallen Motherchurch of Rome.

This falling away was prophesied by the Apostle Paul and happened when the Bishop of Rome was placed on the throne of Caesar. Truth was then adulterated with Paganism and the Ten Commandments changed beyond recognition. Anyone who tried to cling to the truth was terribly butchered and murdered by the Church.

Protestantism did not recover all lost truth and errors of Rome! United on the I.D. of the Anti-Christ, namely papal Rome and the Gospel of righteousness by faith in the atoning blood of God's son Jesus Christ alone without works, was certainly the major progress. but where did they got stumped in the end?

Cunning Demons (see 1.Tim4:1-4) help seducing papal Rome with doctrines of Demons! Jesuit priests interpreted the two great prophetic books of Daniel and the Revelation in such a way to make it believable as early as the 1600's . But God had sealed the book of Daniel until knowledge and travel would be on the increase (Dan.8:26; 12:4) Large sections of the Protestant churches have fallen for this.

The unsealing!
It came with the beginning of scientific and industrial knowledge in the 1800's known now as the great Advent Awakening. The Protestant Baptist Preacher William Miller in America and Edward Irvine in Scotland and England, Bengel in Germany, and Wolff in Asia , independent of each other unlocked the Bible's longest time prophecy of the 2300 days of years found in Daniel 8:14

In Rome's counter-Reformation theology of Daniel, they contradict our Lord who said that the Anti-Christ was still future of his time (see Matthew 24::15 cf.Dan8:13) and say that it was Antiochus Epiphanes II which lived before the time of Christ.

Rome took the liberty to divide the prophecy in Daniel 9 and the many new Bible Translators also have taken the liberty to alter the original 2300 days of years by halving the number to 1150 days. Roman translation even has 2400 days.

I use to work in Canberra Hospital where I daily met with Pastors, Priests and all kind of Clergymen of both Catholic and Protestants. I tried to understand the last book of the Bible. But they all expressed unconcern and I wondered why! I had been brought up in the biggest Christian Church and thought that 800 Millions could not be wrong! But what a rude awakening!
The Vatican Council II allowed me to fellowship with Protestants for the first time. With many other Catholics we started to doubt the infallibility claim of the Pope.

I became baptized into the Church of Christ when shortly after I met a Protestant Seventh Day Adventist Pastor who could explain the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ with ease. Those who rejected the Lord's interpretation of Daniel and the Revelation among Protestants in the 1800's have now the version of Rome only.

God calls all Christians that sleep with dirty politics whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, the daughters of the great Mother Whore (see Revel.17) , which commits adultery with the great man of the earth.
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Source: http://www.come2jesus.info/nakedtruth.htm
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