Saturday, December 03, 2011

The Vatican and the New World Order


Thursday, November 17, 2011

“Europe, the Holy Father recalled, had had its eras of greatness when a common faith had animated the hearts of its peoples. Europe, he urged, could have its geopolitical greatness again, refurbished and burnished anew, if it could create a new heart. Europe, he intimated, could again forge a supernal, common and binding faith.

"Inwardly, the [six foreign] ministers winced. Pius [XII] had pointed to the greatest difficulty facing the EEC [European Economic Community] upon the day of its birth [March 25, 1957]. Beneath his words lay the warning that neither democratic socialism nor capitalist democracy nor the prospect of the good life nor a mystic 'Europa' of the humanists could provide the engine to drive their dream [for a new world order based on a unified Europe]. Practically speaking, their new Europe lacked a glowing center, a superior force or principle to bind it together and drive it forward. Practically speaking, their Europe lacked what this Pope had. Lacked what he was."
- Malachi Martin, Windswept House[1]

Unfolding Biblical Eschatology*
The Bible paints quite a clear picture of the major events that precede the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. While many of the smaller details may be difficult to interpret, the major events concerning the world’s religious, economic and political future are evident in Revelation, chapters 13, 17 and 18.

The False Prophet
A world religious figure will rise to prominence. He unites all the world’s religions into one universal religion. This religious leader looks like a man of God. He performs miracles and even looks similar to Jesus Christ (Revelation 13:11; 5:6). But, he receives his power from the Antichrist and, ultimately from Satan. He is known as the False Prophet (Revelation 19:20).

The Beast or Antichrist
A second figure comes on the scene. Whereas the first world leader is religious and unites all people under a single world religion, the second man is political and unites the world’s people under a single world government. We commonly know him as the Antichrist. The Antichrist does not only unite the world under one political system, but he establishes a single world monetary system which abolishes all private or individual business transactions that are not part of the global system (Revelation 13:17).

Strange Bedfellows
The relationship between the False Prophet and the Antichrist is an interesting one. The Antichrist (political) empowers the False Prophet (religious). But ultimately the False Prophet causes the whole world to worship the Antichrist (Revelation 13:12). The False Prophet also encourages the people of the world to subscribe to the world financial and economic system and to receive the mark of the Beast (Antichrist) which gives them access to the financial system. Thus the global economy, political authority and religion become intertwined. This all happens in the name of a unity which sounds good but is not. It is a bad unity because it is man-centered and is a unity that plots against the Lord and His Anointed. As the Psalmist asks, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Psalm 2:1-6)

How do we move from a world of separate economies, religions and governments to a single planetary system? This will not happen by military might, but as individual governments cede their sovereignty to become part of a one-world government. Three factors will dictate this to happen:
First, world citizens will seek peace from terrorism through unity.
Second, the nations will be deceived into believing that the Antichrist holds the key to the world’s prosperity, that he will solve the world’s political and financial woes. And
Third, this unity will happen because of God’s plan: “For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).

The G20 Summit
Practically, the world’s leaders will realize that their individual economies are so intertwined and the only way to solve the ever-increasing financial crises is to bring all the separate economies under one roof. Those informed regarding world affairs will recognize there exists an ever-increasing number of influential leaders who have begun to promote the idea of a global economy. The most significant of these is the G20 which in recent years has made several statements advocating such a global economy.


The Vatican
But the most startling statements were recently made in a 41 page “note” by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, published in several languages on October 24, 2011. Speaking for Pope Ratzinger, the Council’s document is filled with legal verbiage and complicated language, but is an amazing document to read. It is amazing because almost word-for-word, it bears upon the prophecies of Revelation 13, 17 and 18, and places Rome at the center of the prophetic drama![2]

The first half of the note deals with background and related philosophical issues. But the second half (points 3 and 4) calls for a single world government (point 3) and for a single world financial system (point 4)! Had we not read and studied the document, we would not have believed the statements made in it. We hope in the following few lines to summarize these points.[3]

A Call for a Single World Government
The document quotes several recent Popes to show how support for a single world ruler is very much part of the precedent and philosophy of Rome. For instance, John XXIII (1881-1963) “...also expressed the hope that one day ‘a true world political authority’ would be created.” In the document’s context, this means that John XXIII wanted to see a single world government. The document continues to state that today this teaching (of a single world government) is “even more vital and worthy of urgent implementation”

The Council continues to say that the current Pope (Benedict XVI, 1927- ) also expressed the need to “create a world political authority.” In the same paragraph the Council lists all the reasons why a single world government is desirable, things like peace and security, disarmament and arms control, the protection of human rights, the protection of the environment, the management of the world economy, the “universal common good,” [emphasis added] the protection of weaker nations from the power of stronger nations, etc.

John XXIII is further quoted as saying that in order for such a world government to be effective “it should be endowed with structures and adequate, effective mechanisms equal to its mission.” Simply stated, this means that unlike a United Nations type organization possessing little ability to enforce its will upon the community of nations, the new political structure needs to be government with “teeth” and real authority over the world’s peoples. The document concedes that the United Nations is the agency to bring this world government about, but at the same time, it needs to be a real government unlike the current UN which functions as a large committee.

They continue to say that such an Authority must have “global reach,” not by “force, coercion and violence but should be the outcome of free and shared agreement....” Revelation 17:17 says that the world’s nations will willingly hand over all their authority to the Antichrist. Note the Council's use of the word “Authority” with a capital letter. This is their term for what the Bible calls the Antichrist. Variously, the Council employs the terms “Authority,” “world Authority,” “world public Authority” and “global Authority,” always with a capital “A”. Revelation 13 and 17 speaks seven times about the Antichrist having “authority”.

The document speaks about the need for all nations to be part of this system and that none should be excluded: “…the world Authority should consistently involve all peoples....” Revelation 13:7 says: “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.” The note says that policies must be binding on all and that the Authority should have “universal jurisdiction.”

A Call for a One World Financial System
In the fourth section that deals with a global economy they say there is a need for “...the commitment to create some form of global monetary management” and “one can see an emerging requirement for a body that will carry out the functions of a kind of “central world bank” that regulates the flow and system of monetary exchanges....” They then speak of the need for such a world economy to be under the control of the world government. Revelation 13:16-17 says that the False Prophet “causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” In this document, The Vatican pledges its commitment for planetary financial control, calling for the fulfillment of this prophecy to the letter!

A One World Religion
Before continuing with the closing comments of this document, note that Revelation 17:5 refers to “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots.” In the past, many have believed that this unequivocally references the Church of Rome (the mother of harlots) and that the “daughter harlots” are the rest of the false religions. Many have believed that Babylon is not necessarily a reference to Rome alone, but to all forms of false religion. However, this document is causing many to reconsider their view.[4] Had we not verified that this document indeed was produced in the Vatican at the very highest levels, we might have discounted it as a fake. It seems simply too surreal that the note calls for the implementation of prophecy in such minute detail. We must assume that the Pontifical Council knows what Revelation teaches on this subject, and yet is willing to identify itself intimately with the False Prophet, the Great Harlot and Babylon the Great.[5]

May we also remind you that the tower of Babel was man’s attempt at “global” unification centered on man, and against God, and that the Lord was so displeased that He made them speak different languages that caused division and the scattering of mankind. God is all for unity, but it has to be a godly unity centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. God is against unity that has man as the focus, especially when that unity is used to oppose God as they did at Babel and as they will in the last days. Babel is the Hebrew name for Babylon—they are the same place, but more than that, Babylon is a philosophy and a spirit. The Babylon(s) of Revelation 17 and 18 are a revival of the Babel of Genesis 11, and represent the same anti-God and man-centered philosophy. Both are the pinnacle of all anti-God and Antichrist structures (puns intended).

Conclusion
The Vatican document concludes with the following lesson: Referring to Genesis 11, they spin the tower of Babel to mean that diversity (as opposed to unity) is as a result of selfishness and leads to division. It further states that Babel is a warning of what happens when we don’t stick together and when nations choose to separate. The document very clearly calls for mankind to reverse the effects of Babel and to return to the process of building a unifying (and God-defying) structure. To sum up, they are literally calling for the rebuilding of Babylon, not of physical Babylon in modern day Iraq, but a political, financial, and spiritual Babylon pictured and prophesied of in Revelation 17 and 18!

Quoting the final sentence of the document verbatim: “Only a spirit of concord that rises above divisions and conflicts will allow humanity to be authentically one family and to conceive of a new world with the creation of a world public Authority at the service of the common good.”[Emphasis added]

The goal this document calls for is not a pipe dream. It will come to pass, precisely as the Bible has predicted and exactly as they are envisioning it. Keep in mind that Rome is not isolated from the rest of the world’s religions.[6]

All this indicates that the end is closer than we like to think, and that everything is ready for the fulfillment of the final end-time prophecies. “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her (Babylon), my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues’.” (Revelation 18:4).

“And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’. . . The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore”
(Revelation 18:2, 9-11)


*This article was a joint project of the Discernment Research Group, and is based primarily on an original article by Pastor Anton Bosch, "Vatican Fulfills Prophecy," issued November 14, 2011. This article is included in the context of an ongoing article series on eschatological doctrinal aberrations.

Endnotes:
1. Malachi Martin, Windswept House, (Main Street Book, 1996), p. 2, describing a 1957 meeting with the Pontiff and the six Foreign Ministers who were "partners in the creation of a new Europe" signing "the treaties of Rome... to create the European Economic Community" (p. 1). The statements in brackets are our own for purposes of clarity. This quotation is interesting for several reasons, including the behind-the-scenes-history, but also to illustrate the point that in order to achieve a new world order there must be a global religion to bind people to its unified vision and purpose. Martin's book is a frightful look at a false church arising.
2.The full text can be read on the official site of Vatican Radio: http://www.news.va/en/news/full-text-note-on-financial-reform-from-the-pontif
3. We have paraphrased their statements simply to strip the text of verbiage and make it more accessible to readers who are not lawyers or theologians. We have endeavored to not alter or exaggerate anything they have said.
4. A fascinating history of Rome's ecumenical activities engaging all the world's religions, from the perspective of an orthodox Catholic who opposed this, can be found in Malachi Martin's book The Jesuits (Simon & Schuster, 1987).
5. No small wonder, then, when the "apostles" of the New Apostolic Reformation are boldly calling for a global church order that sits atop seven mountains, in a literal fulfillment of Revelation 17:9: "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth."
6. In The Berean Call of November 2011, Dave Hunt provides detailed evidence that many influential evangelical leaders in America support and endorse Rome, its leaders and its agenda.


posted by Discernment Research Group @ 11/17/2011 02:52:00 PM



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For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink;..


Romans 14

1Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

2For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

3Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

4Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

5One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

6He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

7For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

8For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

9For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

10But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

11For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

12So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

13Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

14I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

15But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

16Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

18For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

19Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

20For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.

21It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

22Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

23And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Global Meltdown Series Part 1-3 Economic Crisis and financial Collapse

"Recorded early in the year 2009".



Uploaded by on Apr 23, 2011

Emiliano Richards: Global Meltdown Series Part 1-3 Economic Crisis and financial Collapse. New World Order
http://www.freemediaministry.org/


Global Meltdown Series Part 4&5 Economic Crisis and financial Collapse



Uploaded by on Apr 23, 2011

Global Meltdown Series Part 4-5 Economic crisis and financial collapse
http://www.freemediaministry.org/

Friday, December 02, 2011

Approaching Islam in the Light of Ignatian Spiritual Exercises


November 29th, 2011 | Author: Kaitlyn McCarthy

How do Jesuits approach Islam and Muslims in the various contexts of countries and works? How do the Spiritual Exercises guide our perception and action within the Christian-Muslim relationship and what can we learn in listening to Muslim spiritual experience?

These were some of the main questions asked in the international meeting “Jesuits Among Muslims” which took place in Rome, hosted by the Gregorian University. 37 Jesuits from five continents participated in the meeting, highlighted by the visits of Father General and Cardinal Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council of Interreligious Dialogue.

American Jesuit, Father Patrick Ryan’s paper “Looking at Islam with Ignatian eyes – Reading Ignatius with Muslim Eyes” opened this circle of reflection on Jesuit foundations, followed by a fruitful discussion about “Ignatian Discernment: Relevant for our Modus Procedendi with Muslims Today.”

“Certain images and themes in the spirituality of Ignatius have a certain parallelism with themes in Islamic spirituality, without suggesting any derivation of either from the other; the similarity between the Quranic motif of the fall of Iblis (the Devil) for refusing to bow before Adam and the medieval Christian sense that the sin of the angels was their rejection of the planned Incarnation as the background for Spiritual Exercises # 50 (the sin of the angels); the centrality of election in the spirituality of Ignatius and the similarities with and differences from Islamic istikhara ; imagery from military life in both Muslim mystical jihad al-akbar (“the greater jihad”) and the Crusade/Reconquista imagery in some of Ignatius’ most famous writings,” commented Fr. Ryan.

The meeting aimed on the one hand to a reflection on the shared spiritual-theological basis underlying and inspiring all the very different apostolic engagement of Jesuits which reaches from the courageous pastoral presence in difficult situations as in Algeria or Pakistan to the scholarly reflection on the Arab-Christian heritage in Beirut (Universite Saint Joseph) and Rome (Jesuits at the Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies, others at the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies).


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Seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal



1I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,

3Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

4But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

5Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

6And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.



Romans 11:1-6.


The Signal for Fleeing


It is no time now for God's people to be fixing their affections or laying up their treasure in the world. The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath, will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains. And now, instead of seeking expensive dwellings here, we should be preparing to move to a better country, even a heavenly. Instead of spending our means in self-gratification, we should be studying to economize.-- Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 464, 465. (1885)

PW - Interfaith Dialogue





Uploaded by on Dec 2, 2011

This week on Perspectives: The Weekly Edition, Pedro Guevara Mann speaks with Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Senior Rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation , Rev. Dr. Karen A. Hamilton, General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches and Rev. Damian MacPherson, SA, director of the Office of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of Toronto, about the challenges and opportunities of interfaith dialogue.


U.K. Drops Anti-Catholic Rule of Succession




JAMES KELLY 12/01/2011

Recently, the British government did away with its more than 300-year-old law that stated that a member of the royal family would lose his place in the line of succession if he married a Catholic. From our Dec. 4 issue.


Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/#ixzz1fQiMozB2

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Rules for Radicals


In 1971, Saul Alinsky wrote an entertaining classic on grassroots organizing titled Rules for Radicals. Those who prefer cooperative tactics describe the book as out-of-date. Nevertheless, it provides some of the best advice on confrontational tactics. Alinsky begins this way:
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
His “rules” derive from many successful campaigns where he helped poor people fighting power and privilege

For Alinsky, organizing is the process of highlighting what is wrong and convincing people they can actually do something about it. The two are linked. If people feel they don’t have the power to change a bad situation, they stop thinking about it.

According to Alinsky, the organizer — especially a paid organizer from outside — must first overcome suspicion and establish credibility. Next the organizer must begin the task of agitating: rubbing resentments, fanning hostilities, and searching out controversy. This is necessary to get people to participate. An organizer has to attack apathy and disturb the prevailing patterns of complacent community life where people have simply come to accept a bad situation. Alinsky would say, “The first step in community organization is community disorganization.”

Through a process combining hope and resentment, the organizer tries to create a “mass army” that brings in as many recruits as possible from local organizations, churches, services groups, labor unions, corner gangs, and individuals.

Alinsky provides a collection of rules to guide the process. But he emphasizes these rules must be translated into real-life tactics that are fluid and responsive to the situation at hand.

Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.

Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.

Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”

Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”




Explosions rocking Tehran spark warning of 'big event'





GLOBAL INSECURITY


Suspicions grow that Iranian blast targeted Khamenei


Posted: November 28, 2011
8:44 pm Eastern

By Reza Kahlili
© 2011 WND

Editor's Note: The writer is the author of"A Time to Betray,"a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Two massive blasts on Nov. 12 that hit near Tehran, the Iranian capital, and rocked the city may have been an attempt to assassinate the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been scheduled to be there at the time of the explosions, sources suggest.

Now the question is whether the Iranians will retaliate.

At the time of the explosions, Iranians found themselves wondering if Israel had attacked. The International Atomic Energy Agency's recent report on Iran's nuclear weapons program and the warnings of military action by Israeli officials have alarmed Iranians about the possibility of war.

The simultaneous explosions, which hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' base 28 miles west of Tehran, not only shook the surrounding area but were heard and felt throughout Tehran, even breaking car and building windows.

Read more:Explosions rocking Tehran spark warning of 'big event'http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=372341#ixzz1fLUolnaG



A Deadly U.S. Attack on Pakistani Soil

Security Weekly

By Nate Hughes | December 1, 2011

In the early hours of Nov. 26 on the Afghan-Pakistani border, what was almost certainly a flight of U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and an AC-130 gunship killed some two dozen Pakistani servicemen at two border outposts inside Pakistan. Details remain scarce, conflicting and disputed, but the incident was known to have taken place near the border of the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar and the Mohmand agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The death toll inflicted by the United States against Pakistani servicemen is unprecedented, and while U.S. commanders and NATO leaders have expressed regret over the incident, the reaction from Pakistan has been severe.

Claims and Interests

The initial Pakistani narrative of the incident describes an unprovoked and aggressive attack on well-established outposts more than a mile inside Pakistani territory — outposts known to the Americans and ones that representatives of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had visited in the past. The attack supposedly lasted for some two hours despite distressed communications from the outpost to the Pakistani military’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi. Read more »



Judaizing The US Church


Photo (Courtesy) http://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2010/04/messianic-jews-and-mysticism.html


By Harmony Grant
4-16-8

The Jewish Forward's recent "most read" article worries that evangelicals might be stealing from the Jews. But it is Christians who should really be worried.

The article describes a Passover banquet in Alabama where 1,300 Christians gathered for unleavened bread and bitter herbs and donated more than $10,000 to the Jewish Federation. A local rabbi complains, "It is a total taking over and arrogation to themselves of the entire concept of the Seder. It's totally Christological."

Evangelical Christians' support of Israel is essential to the Jewish state. The powerful Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations even publicly supports Rev. John Hagee-Israel-firster extraordinaire; they recently wrote the NY Times to defend him as Israel's "true friend". Binyamin Netanyahu-Israel's ninth prime minister, an extremist who resigned as finance minister in 2005 to protest withdrawal from Gaza-said Christian Zionists are Israel's best friends in the world! In a recent poll, a whopping 82 percent of evangelicals agreed that Christians are morally obligated to support the Jewish state. In his New Testament letters, the apostle Paul repelled attempts by Jews to impose on the early church the rites and legalisms of Old Testament law. He furiously rebuked the apostle Peter for bending to Judaizing influences; he said Peter "stood condemned." (Gal. 2:11) As evangelicals today fall even deeper into this unbiblical love affair, they are increasingly eager to participate in Jewish rites, own Jewish trinkets, and learn about Jewish culture.

Who is really damaged by this Christian appropriation? Jews are not becoming more Christian. Christians are becoming more Jewish! Jews are not donating money for Christian evangelism or even allowing it in their country)! It is Christians who finance a religion dedicated to opposing their own. And their gift of millions of dollars to Israel is flatly contrary to Scripture. Christians are instructed to give their tithes and offerings to the "household of faith," i.e., many Christian charities and relief organizations that help further the gospel message. (Gal. 6:10) Judaism and the state of Israel are emphatically not of the household of faith. Israel's "anti-missionary law" mandates a five-year prison sentence for any evangelical who gives to an Israeli a "material inducement" (Bible tract or even a cup of coffee) that might help persuade him to become a Christian!

Christianity Today should be debating the Alabama Passover, not the Jewish Forward. Christian pastors should speak up about the Talmud's anti-Christ vitriol, persecution of Christians by Israel, oppression of Christian evangelism by Jews in Israel and the US-and gravely warn against the Judaization of the American church. We should be asking, "Is this good for the church?" as the Forward and others constantly debate what is good for the Jews. But we don't. These debates never happen.

The Seattle Times published an opinion piece titled, "Passover seders are out of place in churches." Very true. But it was written by Rabbi Mark Glickman, not a Christian pastor as it should have been.

In Ohio, Catholic high school students took a field trip to a Jewish synagogue where the principal of religious education told them: "Judaism is the base of all Christian religion. It's good to know where you come from." That's interesting; I thought Christ was the base of all Christian religion. The "debt" Christians owe to Jews is increasingly taught by evangelicals wanting to stimulate support of Israel and ride the wave of Hebrewness. This movement is so intense the UK Guardian says, "From the mobilising might of CUFI and televangelists, to Jerusalem marches and the 65 million copy-selling Left Behind series, to be an American evangelical has become synonymous with fanatically pro-Israel politics." And the only concerned people getting any real air time about this areJews, the ones worried about compromising and collaborating with possibly "anti-Semitic" Christians.

It's deeply troubling that Jews, not Christians, worry about the Judaization of the church. This demonstrates the incredible deception of the evangelical community, which is so much less wary than the Jewish community even though this alliance is currently only a threat to Christians. Jews remain adamantly, consciously, and militantly opposed to Christian evangelism and theology-leery even to accept evangelicals' strong political and financial support. Meanwhile, evangelicals are so blind to the theological enmity between themselves and Talmudic Judaism that they rush headlong to support, defend, and now absorb Jewish identity and actions.

In his Seattle opinion piece, Rabbi Glickman makes a point that should shock many evangelicals. He says that "to be perfectly honest - the Seder [ritual feast held on first and second nights of eight-day passover] developed, in part, as an anti-Christian polemic - a "slam" on the then-new and growing religion called Christianity. Such religious critique is all but absent from contemporary Seders, but the anti-Christian roots of the event are unmistakable. A church Seder is thus a Christian event rooted in anti-Christianity." Basically-Christians who participate in the Seder are participating in an event directed against their own existence!

Glickman's admission is astonishing on many levels. First, it demonstrates Jews' safety and power in American society, that a rabbi could publicly admit the anti-Christianity of a yearly Jewish event. Second, it highlights a fact that Israel-first Christians refuse to face: Judaism opposes the recognition of Christ as God incarnate, Savior of mankind. For two millennia, it has been self-defined by opposing the explosion of Christian faith. Christians today can't participate in Judaism without opposing their own community and Lord. They can't support Israel without supporting Israeli persecution of Christians and Christian evangelism.

Besides that, the Judaization of the church corrupts and corrodes Christian theology. It's gotten so bad that a bunch of evangelical leaders recently took out a big NY Times ad just to remind people that Christians have to spread the faith (a major thing Jesus told us to do) and to evangelize Jews along with everyone else. This responded to a growing heresy that Jews have a separate covenant with God and don't need faith in Christ or need Christian evangelism. The Times ad expressed kindergarten Christianity-a basic element of our identity that is subverted by our growing obsession with Jewish identity.

Jews have long recognized that assimilation into Gentile culture posed a greater threat to world Jewry than physical persecution. It is long past time for Christians to recognize the threat of losing their unique identity as followers of Jesus and His earth-shaking message. St. Paul knew that the rites and observances of the Mosaic/rabbinic law would entangle the infant church, drawing Christians into their spell of legalism. He knew legalism would drive out the empowering liberating New Testament message of justification by faith alone.

How should believers respond to increasing efforts to incorporate Judaic elements in Christian theology and worship? Such "Judaizers" should be rebuked and repulsed, not embraced.


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Israel's And Judaism's Feasts: Should Christians Keep Them?


Published: January 19, 2011

There has been a recent trend, by some pro-Judaism church leaders, to implement the ceremonies and feasts of Judaism within Christianity. To begin with, they seem to intentionally forget that the offering of animal sacrifices was an integral part of all of these ceremonies and feasts. If they are right in saying that we need to be keeping these "old covenant" events, then we also need to be offering the animal sacrifices that were at the very heart of these ceremonies and feasts.


Read more

Modern Judaizers?


Photo (Courtesy) http://www.texemarrs.com/022005/judaizers_need_light_of_truth.htm


December 31st, 2010 · Nicholas T. Batzig


It appears that, more than ever before, we desperately need to answer the question, “What does Modern Judaizing look like?” The Judaizers were, of course, those false brethren who secretly came into the newly found church to spy out the freedom that Christians had in Christ. We don’t have people creeping into our churches insisting that we need Christ plus circumcision to be saved. We laugh at even the idea that such nonsense could happen in our Reformed churches. So, can we simply wipe our brows with a sigh of relief and go forward knowing that we are not susceptible to such perversion of the Gospel? Are we only to see in the doctrine of Mormons and the JW’s a false Gospel and another Jesus? How are we to apply the teaching of Galatians to our own lives? Is it to be found in certain ecclesiastical settings in which doctrinal distinctions are taken seriously by men who profess to believe them (as some have suggested here and here)? How are we to understand in a careful manner a modern application of the problem of the Judaizers?

The book of Galatians is one of the most important, and yet, most difficult, books in the Bible. The glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone is expounded and defended throughout, on acc0unt of the legalism of the Judaizers aimed at the Gospel that Paul preached. One of the difficulties that the interpreter of Scripture is faced with is making a modern day application that is consistent with historical uniqueness of the Judaizing heresy. Paul, at the beginning of this book, explains to the church that if anyone comes preaching a different Jesus, or another Gospel, they should be accursed to the deepest part of Hell. It was not simply about being cut off from the covenant community (i.e. the social and ecclesiastical dimensions of justification) that Paul saw under attack, it was the soteriological dimension that was at stake–the question of how a man or woman was accepted as righteous by God. Paul had strenuously maintained that it was all based on the Person and finished work of Christ. It was not anything done in us or by us that caused our acceptance with God. Christ was made a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham (i.e. justification and the reception of the Spirit) might be ours by faith alone in Christ Jesus. The insistance that one needed to be circumcised in addition to trusting in Christ was to intimate that Christ did not provided a full and free salvation apart from anything we do. Paul ties the whole thing together at the end of Galatians when he explained that the Judaizers were seeking to avaoid persecution for the cross of Christ, and were wanting to boast in the flesh (human accomplishments). Very basically, it appears that the basic error of the Judaizers was not adding circumcision to the New Covenant people of Christ–it was in adding anything the finished work of Jesus for salvation.

J. Gresham Machen, in his Notes on Galatians, drew out, so very nicely, a careful application of the principle argument of Galatians to the church today when he wrote:

The particular form of merit which they induced men to seek was the mertit of keeping the Law of Moses, particularly the cermonial law. At first sight, that fact might seem to destroy the usefulness of the epistle for the present day; for we of today are in no danger in desiring to keep Jewish fasts and feasts. But a little consideration will show that that is not at all the case. The really essential thing about the Judaizers’ contention was not found in those particular “works of the law” that they urged upon the Galatians as being one of the grounds of salvation, but in the fact that the urged any works at all. The really serious error into which they fell was not that they carried the ceremonial law over into the new dispensation, whither God did not intend it to be carried, but that they preached a religion of human merit as over against a religion of divine grace.

So the error of the Judaizers is a very modern error indeed, as well as a very ancient error. It is found in the modern church wherever men seek salvation by “surrender” instead of by faith, or by their own character instead of by the imputed righteousness of Christ, or by “making Christ master in the life” instead of by trusting in His redeeming blood. In particular, it is found wherever men say that “the real essentials” of Christianity are love, justice, mercy, and other virtues, as contrasted with the great doctrines of God’s word. These are all just different ways of exalting the merit of man over against the cross of Christ; they are all of them attacks upon the very heart and core of the Christian religion. And, against all of them the mighty polemic of this epistle to the Galatians is turned. 1



1. Skilton, John H. ed. Machen’s Notes on Galatians (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publications, 1977) p. 10

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97 mph! Santa Ana winds knock out power, down trees in LA

Mark J. Terrill / AP
Los Angeles City firefighters look over a eucalyptus tree that fell on a house and knocked down power lines, Wednesday.


By Ashley Gordon, nbclosangeles.com


Updated at 6:00 a.m. ET

Power outages and downed trees were reported in several regions of Los Angeles County Wednesday night due to strong winds, NBC LA reported.

A major change in the weather pattern is expected to bring powerful gusts of up to 85 miles per hour and possible hurricane force winds into the Los Angeles region for two days.

The National Weather Service issued warnings that the high winds and low humidy could cause wildfires.

On Wednesday night, a wind gust of 97 mph was recorded at Whitaker Peak in Los Angeles County, according to the weather service.

Los Angeles International Airport was affected with power going in and out at the airport Wednesday.

Some containers and equipment that were unsecured rolled onto runways, LAX spokesperson Nancy Castles told KCAL9.

Castles was told by the Federal Aviation Administration that the some arrival flights would be delayed for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Some flights, including three international flights, were diverted to other airports.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said about 20 diverted flights were sent to Ontario Intgernational Airport in Riverside County Wednesday because of severe crosswinds and two runways were closed due to strewn debris.

Marina Peninsula and beach areas of Venice suffered power outages as well, some of which have since been restored.

Several areas incurred damage from fallen trees.

A large Eucalyptus tree fell on a power line and a house in Beverly Hills, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

In addition, traffic was backed up through most of Marina del Rey along westbound Admiralty Way because of downed trees.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for Wednesday night through to late Friday afternoon over Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Watch NBCLosAngeles.com forecast video

The wind was forecasted to be so powerful, it could be “the strongest offshore wind event we have seen in the past few years,” according to an advisory by the National Weather Service.

Fears of a possible brush fire guided the decision to suspend the Metro Green Line service between the Redondo Beach and El Segundo stations, according to Metro.

“Residents in the warning area are advised to take precautions now before the winds reach their peak,” the NWS said. “Close all windows and secure all outdoor objects such as lawn furniture.”

For the latest weather conditions, click here.

The Santa Ana winds are generated during cooler months when westward flowing currents reach fierce speeds as they squeeze through mountain ranges of Southern California, lowering humidity and making vegetation susceptible to fire.



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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Teach All Nations



Teach All Nations. The gospel commission as recorded in Matthew was given not only to the disciples of Christ who were then living, but to all who should afterward receive him. Upon every one who accepts him as personal Saviour is placed the burden of proclaiming the gospel message. Will the church today refuse to recognize its obligation to do the work so plainly outlined in the words; “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Were it not for the promise of Christ’s presence, we might well draw back. But he says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

This work is not to be confined to a few. The proclamation of the gospel is not to be limited to one city or one state. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

God is in earnest with his people. He calls upon them to overcome the spirit of covetousness. We must be careful not to tie up the Lord’s means by establishing institutions larger than is consistent with the plan of God. It is his purpose that facilities should be provided for the advancement of his work in all parts of the world. Large sums of money are not to be invested in one or two places. The erection of many buildings in one place reveals a selfish outlay of means. Thus the money brought into the treasury by the liberality of God’s people is absorbed in one place by those having charge of the work in that place. When men are freed from selfishness, they will not make such earnest efforts to grasp all that they possibly can for the place in which they are most interested. They will be willing to sacrifice their ambitions in order that other places may receive a share of the means available for the advancement of God’s work.

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Spalding and Magan Collection, p.342-343
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Strong Minds and Weak Stomachs.



From B. 44, 1903 (P)

It is well for Brother and Sister A and Brother and Sister B to have strong minds. Each is to maintain his individuality. Each is to preserve an individuality that will not be submerged in the individuality of another. No human being is to be the shadow of another human being. But God's servants are to labor together in a unity that blends mind with mind. Do you think that this unity can exist among the workers in the sanitarium unless you all take a judicious, sanctified position? "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." Are you willing to make sacrifices to answer this prayer? Or will you, because there is a difference of opinion regarding certain articles of food that one or the other thinks should not or should not be set on the table, or regarding the hours for meals, will you say that you can not work together? Is this Bible sanctification?. . .

My brother, a firm will is a good thing when it is sanctified. But I know, from the light God has given me, that you and your wife need to yoke up with Christ, and to learn that in some respects your ideas and plans and methods would be improved if modified. The Sanitarium has been established that all classes may be reached with the truth. I ask you and Brother and Sister B to do all in your power to bring into the sanitariums the unity for which Christ prayed. Reveal His love. Let the truth rule in the heart, and you will be one with Christ in God.You say that you are dyspeptics. Is it not possible that your plan of eating may not be the best? I am instructed to say that you need to change in some things, else you will injure your digestive powers. I do not say what you shall or shall not eat. But if, while eating the things you choose, you have dyspepsia, I think you ought to make a decided change. . . .

If I were a dyspeptic, I should make changes in my diet until I knew for a certainty that I was eating the food that my stomach could best care for. A craving for certain things may need to be brought into subjection. Self is rebellious, and must be strictly disciplined. Be regular in your habits of eating, and be sure not to overburden the stomach by eating too many kinds of food at one time. Stop eating before you feel entirely satisfied. The stomach is the most abused organ of the whole body. It is often wearied by the effort to take care of food that should not be eaten at the same time. A disturbance is created by the kinds of food brought together. Soon there is an all-gone feeling, and many think that this is hunger. But it is not. The trouble is that the stomach has too much to do. Let it be given less to do, and it will recover its healthy tone. The simpler the food eaten, and the fewer the kinds, the easier is the stomach's work.The same rule of eating can not be made for all. I make it a rule never to eat custards; forwhen I eat them, they always make a disturbance in my stomach. But there are those in my family who suffer no inconvenience from eating custards, and because I can not eat them, I do not say that they ought not to eat them. We must each experiment and know for ourselves what is best for us to eat. We may have to abstain from many things that others can eat without inconvenience. . . .

Half-hearted Christians are worse than infidels; for their deceptive words and non-committal position may lead many astray. The infidel shows his colors. The luke-warm Christian deceives both parties. He is neither a good worldling nor a good Christian. Satan uses him to do a work that no one else can do.



Spalding Magan Collection, E. G. White, pp. 259,260.

New evangelization top concern for Canadian bishops


CCCB president Archbishop Richard Smith, who spent more than two weeks in Rome in November, accompanied by CCCB vice-president Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher with Pope Benedict XVI.- Servizio Fotografico, L’Osservatore Romano



Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News


OTTAWA - The importance of the new evangelization and the deep sense of communion between the Church in Canada and the Holy See are two themes that emerged from a recent visit to Rome by a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“It is fair to say concern for the new evangelization pervades everything,” said CCCB president Archbishop Richard Smith, who spent more than two weeks in Rome in November, accompanied by CCCB vice-president Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher and CCCB General Secretary Msgr. Patrick Powers.


The highlight was the visit with the Holy Father, he said.

“We really felt ourselves blessed, because of the obvious demands on his time,” said Smith, archbishop of Edmonton.

The Canadian delegation presented the Pope with a specially bound edition of the new English translation of the Roman Missal, a CCCB publication about the new St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton and a Salt + Light TV documentary about the seminary.

Smith said they found in the Pope “an immediate warm welcome and an incredibly attentive listener.”

“With everything going on in his life, you still feel like you’re the only person in the world when you are speaking with him,” Smith said, noting he had experienced this in previous meetings with Pope Benedict as well.

The Holy Father really seemed to appreciate the new Missal and “took his time leafing through it with obvious interest,” Smith said.

“It was a great blessing and privilege to be able to participate in what was an historic moment for Canada,” he said.

The events surrounding the new Missal fell into the new evangelization theme.

“Because the liturgy is the heart of our life, really in its essence, it is evangelization par excellence, the beauty and mystery of the Eucharist is really at the heart of the new evangelization,” Smith said.

The delegation also met with Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, the prefect of the new Council for the Promoting New Evangelization, a dicastery set up a little over a year ago.

“That gave us a chance to see what they’re doing and to say just that, yes, this requires the urgency, it requires a specific council,” Smith said.

When meeting with the Pontifical Council for the Family the CCCB delegation presented parts of the new national plan for life and family, “to let them know where we’re going to be moving in the country.”

This Canadian initiative was “framed within the new evangelization, to help our people embrace a new gift of life, and the call to be speaking out in celebration of it and in defence of it,” he said.

Powers arranged 34 meetings with various dicasteries or groups, including meetings with Cardinal William Levada at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Cardinal Marc Ouellet at the Congregation for Bishops. It was “to bring the various dicasteries up to date on what’s happening in Canada, and also to hear from them their initiatives and their visions, finding ways to collaborate with one another and support one another,” said Smith.

Though the discussions remain confidential and specific to the congregation or group, Smith said the doors were “open wide” and Canadian concerns were listened to attentively.

“Not every episcopal conference does this, I understand,” he said, noting that the United States conference does visits like this as do a few others.

These annual visits by the CCCB have been taking place for a number of years now.

“This particular year was the first visit for the new team,” Smith said, noting he had been twice before as vice president.

The bishops did not have much time to relax and spend time apart visiting friends or taking in the sights.

“Every day we would need to debrief from the meetings of the day and to prepare ourselves for the next meeting,” he said.










World economy on the brink: Spain and Italy key

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/21/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)


Prime ministers of both countries must act quickly and decisively to save the world economy.

To a very large degree, the fate of the world's economy is now in the hands of the Spanish and Italian governments. This realization comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) has stepped in to buy debt from both countries in an effort to bring down interest rates.


Only swift and decisive action can save the euro zone.


BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (Catholic Online) - Last week, Italy hit a financial barrier as its interest rates continue to climb. The European Central Bank came to the rescue, and purchased a portion of that country's debt effectively bringing down interest rates. On Thursday, the ECB did the same thing for Spain.

It is becoming clear to investors and economists however, that the intervention of the ECB will not be enough to save the European economy over the long haul. Instead, significant reforms will be necessary in both countries.

Among the reforms being called for by investors are, allowing the ECB to buy trillions of dollars in troubled sovereign debt, which will reduce the borrowing costs for both countries, and for those countries to adopt significant economic reforms.

The ECB purchase of sovereign debt strongly suggests that investors are shying away from both Spanish and Italian debt as an option. With investors shying away, neither country is able to borrow money at reasonable rates which they can realistically repay. Because most countries operate over budget, they are dependent on reasonable borrowing costs to fund day-to-day operations.

The European Central Bank's decision to purchase some of the sovereign debt in those countries is a strong indicator that they are teetering on the brink.

The news for Spain is particularly bleak. With 21 percent unemployment, the country's economy is forecast to shrink for at least the first six months of 2012. However, it's believed that Spain will elect a conservative prime minister on Sunday which will oust the Socialist government. A conservative can bring hope to a country where labor unions wield broad influence. Because the Spanish conservative party is reasonably distanced from the labor unions, it will become easier for the Spanish government to adopt critical economic reforms that can help the economy grow.
The new Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti who just replaced Silvio Berlusconi, is also expected to implement sweeping economic reforms. It is an expectation -- doing less could mean ruin for that country.

And the time is right for change, as both leaders are new and will likely enjoy their greatest degree of support at the start of their administrations. This is a key time to act, particularly since some reforms will be unpopular. If either leader waits too long, economic vagaries and declining popularity could shut the window of opportunity rather quickly.

If those windows close, both economies could fail and they will find themselves beyond the reach of help. If that happens, it will send shockwaves around the world and could spark recession even in healthy economies. Given this, investors and people the world over are looking to Spain and Italy to resolve their economic problems, before time runs out.

Central Banks Take Coordinated Action

By JON HILSENRATH, WILLIAM LAUNDER and JEFFREY SPARSHOTT

WASHINGTON — The world's major central banks launched a joint action to provide cheap, emergency U.S. dollar loans to banks in Europe and elsewhere, a sign of growing alarm among policy makers about stresses in Europe and in the global financial system.

The Fed, ECB and other central banks took coordinated action to support the global financial system as Europe's rolling debt crisis continues to trouble markets. Vincent Cignarell

The coordinated action doesn't directly address Europe's government-debt and budget woes. Instead, it is aimed at alleviating the impact of those troubles on global markets. Moreover, it raises the prospect of other steps by central bankers to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

"The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity," said a statement issued by the six central banks—the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank.

Global equity markets rose sharply Wednesday in response to the show of action by central banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322 points, or 2.8%, to 11877 in morning trading, and the Standard & Poor's 500 jumped 32 points, or 2.7%, to 1227. The Nasdaq Composite gained 69 points, or 2.8%, to 2584. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 2.9%, while the German DAX surged 4.3% and France's CAC-40 increased 3.6%. Gold and oil prices rose and the dollar weakened.

WSJ's Charles Forelle reports several of the world's central banks joined forces to make it easier for European banks to access U.S. dollars. AP Photo.
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The promise of cheaper funding from central banks sparked sharp rises in European bank shares and a tightening in credit spreads. Bank shares had been down Wednesday before the announcement, and the cost of insuring European bank bonds against default had soared in recent days. Early in the European afternoon, shares in Barclays PLC, Deutsche Bank AG and Société Générale SA were all up around 6.5%. The Stoxx 600 European banking index was up 4.2%.

U.S. dollar swap lines, as they are known, were launched during the 2008 crisis as the U.S. mortgage crisis spread around the globe. Under the program, the Fed makes dollars available to other central banks, which in turn make the dollars available to banks under their jurisdiction.

The central banks' action on Wednesday effectively made these loans cheaper, lowering their cost by half a percentage point.

Central banks from developed nations took coordinated action to shore up the global financial system. Dow Jones's Geoffrey Smith argues that this kind of joint action only takes places when there are serious problems.

Chinese authorities, in a move that appeared to be separate and uncoordinated, also sought to ease lending conditions by reducing the amount of reserves that Chinese banks need to hold with their central bank.

Global investors have become worried about the health of European banks because of their exposure to European government debt. Because of those worries, euro-zone banks are also facing increasingly strained access to dollars. European banks need the U.S. currency to fund loans they have extended to U.S. companies and consumers, to finance U.S. dollar-denominated securities they hold and to pay their own dollar-denominated loans, such as those on money-market funds.

Some central bankers sought to use the move to put additional pressure on Europeans for more aggressive action in their own right.

"The European debt problem can't be solved by liquidity provisions alone," Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said at a hastily arranged news conference. "The step is meant to buy time for European countries to proceed with their fiscal and economic reform."

European Union finance ministers agreed to boost the European Financial Stability Facility but not by as much as expected. Terry Roth and Katie Martin discuss whether this will reassure markets or if more is needed to prevent pressure on the euro?

Berenberg economist Christian Schulz said the move was largely a symbolic gesture aimed at restoring calm.

"With today's action, central banks signal that they are aware of the issue and prepared to act. As always in market panics with central bank action, the signal is more important than the actual size of the action," Mr. Schulz said.

Global central banks have taken coordinated action before. In March, they intervened jointly in currency markets to tamp down the rise in the yen following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In October 2008, leading central banks cut interest rates simultaneously to alleviate the shock to the financial system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Over three years of crisis fighting, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the world's other leading central bankers have developed much closer ties. In addition to instituting measures to stem the crisis, they have worked closely together in rewriting financial regulatory rules in the wake of the crisis. The new head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, has been part of this inner circle of central bankers for some time as head of the Financial Stability Board.

It is unclear whether the latest steps marked a prelude to bolder joint action by global central banks to ease financial strains and rev up economic growth.

After resisting calls to save the euro zone, the ECB may be changing its tune, and move towards more decisive action, Simon Nixon reports on Markets Hub.

Several Fed officials have made clear they are open to launching a new round of bond buying, known as quantitative easing, to bring down long-term U.S. interest rates. But they have reservations about whether such a program would be effective.

For now, Wednesday's action looks like a limited move to address a discrete problem. Dollar funding costs for European financial firms have shot up in recent weeks, a signal that Europe's woes could be spreading globally. The new program could alleviate those costs.

The rest of the world hasn't been taking the Fed up on its offer of dollar loans recently. As of Nov. 23, non-U.S. central banks had tapped the Fed for $2.4 billion of U.S. dollar loans. During the financial crisis in 2008, they tapped the Fed for $580 billion.

Under the program, the Fed makes dollars available to the ECB, which in turn lends the money to European banks. Still, market observers say foreign banks are often reluctant to use the facility because it can create the impression among their peers that they are financially strained.

"That facility was a pressure release and how far that release was tapped was closely watched to indicate how much pressure there was in the rest of the market," said Chris Clark, strategist at interbank broker ICAP. "Now that valve has been loosened somewhat we're going to see more people turning up, which is not an indication of more pressure but just that actually it makes more sense for more people to go there. We were already expecting see a fairly increased use of the facility and now we can expect even more."

The Fed faces a risk of political blowback at home for the move. Republicans in particular have attacked the Fed for making dollars available to foreign banks. Fed officials say they don't face much risk with this facility because the dollars are going to other central banks, and not directly to European banks.

The Fed sought to stress that U.S. banks aren't facing funding problems. But it also said that it was prepared to provide liquidity if needed "to support financial stability."

During the financial crisis, the Fed designed many short-term programs to support commercial-paper markets, money-market funds, investment banks and other corners of the financial system when panic led to shortages of short-term dollar funding in the U.S.

Some of the Fed's powers were restrained by the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul. For instance, it can't bail out individual banks. But it still has leeway to provide short-term credit broadly to markets if needed.

"At present, there is no need to offer liquidity in nondomestic currencies other than the U.S. dollar, but the central banks judge it prudent to make the necessary arrangements so that liquidity support operations could be put into place quickly should the need arise," the Fed said.

Write to Jon Hilsenrath at jon.hilsenrath@wsj.com, William Launder at william.launder@dowjones.com and Jeffrey Sparshott at jeffrey.sparshott@dowjones.com




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Report: Federal Reserve lent banks nearly $8 trillion during 2007-2009 crises

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/30/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)


Loan allowed banks to keep paying executives millions of dollars

Throughout the 2007 - 2009 financial crises, major American banks assured the public that everything was fine - while at the same time approaching the Federal Reserve to borrow $7.77 trillion. That mount was many more times higher than the TARP bailout. The loan allowed the banks to continue to pay out exorbitant fees - and many fear yet another crisis is on the way.






The Fed contends that the biggest financial institutions in the country were too big to fail. That phrase has become a bone of contention among lawmakers. They argue that a 'too big to fail' bank is one that's too big to exist.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A report in Bloomberg Markets says that the magnitude of the government's assistance to struggling banks allowed them to grow even bigger and continue paying executives billions in compensation.

A win in court against a group representing the banks and a FOIA request filed by Bloomberg revealed the extent of the central bank's largesse - as well as the $13 billion in profits banks earned from those bailouts.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, also known as "the big six," accounted for $4.8 billion of that total, nearly a quarter of their net income during that time.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

The narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

Until recently, those trillions were a deeply-buried secret. The highest-ranking Fed officials didn't know about the enormity of the handouts. Then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Gary H. Stern "wasn't aware of the magnitude." Unnamed sources say that even top aides to Treasury Department head Henry Paulson were denied information.

The "big six" received a total $160 billion in TARP funds. As much as $460 billion was lent from the Fed, raising the question as to how and why this nearly $8 trillion in loans, guarantees and limits remained under wraps for so long.

According to the reserve, the massive scale of banks' borrowing had to be kept secret to avoid spooking investors. They feared that if the magnitude of the borrowed funds would create a panic, or bank runs that would have had even more devastating consequences on the already battered economy.

The Fed contends that the biggest financial institutions in the country were too big to fail. That phrase has become a bone of contention among lawmakers. They argue that a "too big to fail" bank is one that's too big to exist.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown sponsored a bill last year that would cap a bank's non-deposit liabilities at 2 percent of gross domestic product, and crack down on workarounds banks currently use to bypass a 1994 law that prohibits any one bank from holding more than 10 percent of all deposits in the country.

Blogosphere under attack as election looms


11/30/2011 10:56
RUSSIA


by Nina Achmatova

The blogging platform LiveJournal has suffered yet another hacker attack less than a week from elections. This is the main platform in Russia for the free circulation of ideas and dissident voices.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Russian blogosphere is once again under attack with one week to the parliamentary elections, while the Internet continues to be the only true space for voices of dissent. According to Ria Novosti, the blogging platform LiveJournal (LJ), which publishes some of the most influential and followed Russian blogs, suffered another heavy attack (DDoS acronym for denial of service) last November 28th after those already registered in April and July this year. SUP Mtdia, the agency that runs the service, confirmed the incident which blocked access to the site for several hours.

Rustam Adagamov, one of the most famous Zh Zh bloggers (as Russian Live Journal is known, taken from its Cyrillic initials) sees the attack as an attempt to muzzle the Internet less than a week before elections for the Duma, the Lower House of Parliament.

During the April attacks, the UAS requested the authorities to prosecute the hackers responsible. Even President Dmitri Medvedev, who loves social networks, demanded justice. But nothing has happened since then.

ZhZh publishes six of the seven of the most influential blogs in Russia. And the most embarrassing for the Kremlin. According to rankings compiled by Globalvoiceonline.org, the most popular is Alexei Navalny, renamed the Russian Julian Assange for having revealed, with documented proof, numerous cases of corruption in public administration. It is he who coined Putin’s United Russia as the "party of thieves and swindlers", once favored in the polls, but now seeing a sharp decline in support after years above the 60% threshold.

Twitter to YouTube, Vkontakte (the Russian Facebook) RuNet, the network that writes in Cyrillic, are all now full of parody and satire against the Putin-Medvedev tandem. Forbidden on TV and newspapers, popular discontent has found an outlet on the web which is reflected in a hemorrhage of consensus never before experienced by United Russia. The ruling party could lose two-thirds majority of seats in the Duma at the December 4 elections in favor of the communists and nationalists. According to sociologists a new public perception has converged on the web and in the future it will increasingly impact on national policy. The Federal Agency for the media believes that 24% of Russians now access information exclusively through the internet. "Almost a quarter of citizens is a very significant number for a country like Russia," said the director of the Agency, Mikhail Seslavinsky.

And the figure is expected to grow according to a study by Comscore, Russia is the first country in Europe for number of Internet users (50.8 million). A fact that Putin, who termed online content "pornography", will have to take into account.

Relic to promote motherhood in Russia



Uploaded by on Nov 12, 2011

A sacred relic, believed by some Orthodox Christians to be the belt of the Virgin Mary, is drawing thousands of Russian pilgrims in search of a cure for a myriad of ailments including infertility. But the treasure -- a 2,000 year old cincture woven from camel fur - is also having political resonance.Russian leaders have called the country's shrinking population a matter of national security and now the influential Orthodox church has joined the fight.It wants to take the relic to pregnancy centres to discourage women from having abortions and save mother Russia by promoting motherhood.Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from Samara.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011