Thursday, December 19, 2013

CHRISTMAS AND ITS PAGAN ROOTS






EvenAtTheDoors


Published on Dec 4, 2013


Today Christians debate over nearly EVERYTHING rather than going directly to the word of God. What is the pre-Christian celebration called the 'Natalie Invitus Solis', that was kept in the occult world, which Christians have stolen and have called Christmas about? Can we really distinguish between what is Christianity and what is paganism? This in-depth study will settle this issue once and for all. It will upset and agitate but the truth is meant to set us free.
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Jesuit operations







In general it can be said that the Jesuits are mainly involved in:



- Miseducation

This is their main avenue for - initial and sustained - political control!

Through the socially, historically, and scientifically flawed education of millions youngsters and adults. In addition, being able to observe and direct the professional path of the brightest students can help to further their own neurotic agenda, or at least not obstruct it.

Consciousness-influencing (aka 'mind-control') through cultural and behavioral consensus-trance shaping is their sacred and secret "Soul science", their "Devince science of Governing", the "Matrix of mental control" which has been developed by the neurotic priesthood and implemented via their masonic networks for thousands of years.

Can enough individuals break that 'magic' trance spell to stop the mass neurosis of humanity which puts us into a world of tragedy and pain?

Sciences (and university research funding) for the purpose of socio-psychological control

Subjects: politics/civics/law, military science, sociology/media, healthcare/psychiatry, 'Romanized' history, astronomy, pseudo philosophy about: culture, science, civics, ethics, morality and religion.

Prominent elite schools:


Stonyhurst College (UK, 1593, alumni)


Georgetown University (US, 1634/1789, alumni)


Fordham University (US, 1841, alumni)


Fairfield University (US, 1942, alumni)
* International Visitor Leadership Program (US, 1946/1961, alumni)

In 1940 Nelson Rockefeller (Knight of Malta) was named Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (the pre-cursor to the IVLP program). [13]

"More than 200 current and former Heads of State, 1,500 cabinet-level ministers, and many other distinguished world leaders in government and the private sector have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program." [14]



- Religious perversions and propaganda

Cult promotion: Catholicism (and its variations and infiltrations), Freemasonry, Satanism, Mysticism, NewAge-ism, Ufology & Aliens (mainly used for disinfo and distraction, but sometimes for the cover up of advanced energy/military research). Cult and disinfo promotion is also done using popularized films, books, websites and events related to these topics.

Catholic ecumenism through the Mennonite World Conference (1925, Switzerland, see also: [15]), World Jewish Congress (1936, Switzerland, see also: [16], [17]), World Council of Churches (1937, 340 churches), Lutheran World Federation (1947, 140 churches), Conference of European Churches (1959, 125 churches) meetings, World Alliance of Reformed Churches (1970, 214 churches), World Methodist Council (1881).



- Political and judicial meddling


Tactics:

Hegelian dialectic deception politics, by creating/infiltrating/controlling multiple sides to further their own agenda ("thesis + antithesis -> synthesis").


Some examples:


  • # Left v. Right political dogma: Democrats v. Republicans, Liberals v. Conservatives, Labour v. Tories, etc. This is the political duopoly trap, where the voting outcome can only swing in two main directions. Any emerging of true political opposition is deflected and extinguished by temporary controlled opposition spin-off's from the main parties and media blackouts and/or smear campaigns.
  • # The present focus of many media corporations on "Muslim terror threats", especially after the mass trauma psyop of 9-11, is part of their strategy of tension, to divide groups by fear and polarize people's frustration and anger towards this synthesized enemy or its controlled opposition, instead of the real fascistic threat from the secretive power structures.
  • # The artificial global food price crisis versus the centralization of food management structures (examples: Codex Alimentarius UN agenda, Genetically modified food controversies - such as the resistance to correct labeling and nutrient reductions compared to natural whole foods.)
  • # Non-Aligned Movement promoted as a 'force against' the United Nations. 
Misleading people using casuistry.

  • Masonic-insider promotion, infiltration, bribing, threats and assassinations.
  • If the Catholic missions, the Jesuit miseducation and socio-political infiltration strategies do not work in a society, a covert - and later an overt - war-by-proxy is created to achieve their neurotic goals (see also the "Social perversions" point below).

Using the many Concordats that have been signed with 'sovereign' nations, to give the Vatican institution special privileges.

Socialist-fascist supranational union projects (see also: Continental unions):

Central American Union (1991, "Central American Integration System")

European Union (1993) (Euro currency), EU institutions and EU projects.
# The EU has its origins in the European Movement (1947), which was founded by Knight of Malta Joseph Retinger, who also founded the Bilderberg Group (1954).

African Union (2002)

Asian Union (2002, "Asia Cooperation Dialogue")

Pacific Union (proposed in 2003)

South American Union (proposed in 2004, signed in 2008)

North American Union (proposed in ?, Amero currency)
# "The NACC (2006) is a largely secretive advisory council to the SPP (2005) consisting of representatives from 30 North American corporations selected by the Chambers of Commerce in the three nations." [20]

Mediterranean Union (proposed in 2007)

The Vatican City microstate is a member of: ITU (telecommunication), CEPT (telecommunication), Eutelsat (satellite communication), Intelsat (satellite communication), UPU (international mail) and the International Grains Council.

The Holy See (Vatican organization) participates as an observer in: African Union, Arab League, Council of Europe, OAS (35 states of the Americas), IOM (migration), and in the United Nations (1942) and its many agencies:


FAO (food and agriculture),

ILO (labour),

UNCTAD (trade and investment),

UNEP (environment),

UNESCO (education, science, and culture),

UN-HABITAT (human settlements),

UNHCR (refugees),

UNIDO (industry),

UNWTO (tourism),

WFP (food programs),

WHO (healthcare),

WIPO (patents, copyrights and trademarks).

It participates as a guest in NAM (?), and as a full member in IAEA (nuclear energy), OPCW (chemical weapons), OSCE (international 'security', 3.500+ staff).

Other UN agencies:

ECOSOC (economy),

UNFPA (population and reproduction),

UNODC (drugs control),

UNDPI (public information)

See also:
Codex Alimentarius

United Nations

Lucis Trust


"In an executive order March 7 2007 President George W. Bush granted diplomatic immunity and privileges to the members of the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. Diplomatic immunity ensures safe passage for diplomats outside their home country. They are not subject to lawsuits or prosecution under the laws of the host country." [22]

"Gordon Brown has discussed a shake-up of a structure created in 1945 to reflect the world’s new challenges and power bases during his four-day trip to China and India. Last night, British sources revealed “intense discussions” on UN reform were under way and Mr Brown raised it whenever he met another world leader.... Mr Brown will unveil a proposal for the UN to spend £100m a year on setting up a “rapid reaction force” to stop “failed states” sliding back into chaos after a peace deal has been reached. Civilians such as police, administrators, judges and lawyers would work alongside military peace-keepers." [23]

"Fraud and corruption have been rampant at the U.N.’s multi billion-dollar procurement division for years. The world body’s own watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, has documented some of the illegal activities in reports that reveal how nearly one-third of the procurement contracts involve waste, corruption and other irregularities. Americans should be concerned because the United States annually gives the U.N. $5.3 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars. The funding continues even though the organization, founded six decades ago to maintain international peace and security, has failed miserably and is best known for its severe mismanagement and corruption." [24]



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Methodist Pastor Defrocked Over Gay Marriage Service



By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: December 19, 2013




The United Methodist Church on Thursday defrocked a Pennsylvania pastor who officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding six years ago and refused to agree not to perform other gay marriages.




Matt Rourke/Associated Press

The Rev. Frank Schaefer and his wife Brigitte on Thursday left a meeting with officials of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church in Lebanon, Pa.





The pastor, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, who had been at the Zion United Methodist Church of Ionain Lebanon, Pa., told church officials that he was unable to follow the denomination’s code of laws because it discriminated against gays and lesbians. Church doctrine forbids same-sex marriage and the ordination of homosexuals, and teaches that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

Bishop Peggy Johnson, who leads nearly 900 United Methodist churches in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that Mr. Schaefer had been defrocked.

“He no longer holds the ministerial office in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference by virtue of his decision,” Bishop Johnson said in the statement, according to Reuters. “Rev. Schaefer met with the board of ordained ministry today and declared that he is not willing or able to uphold the laws of the Book of Discipline in its entirety in the future as required by the trial court’s verdict.”

“When asked to surrender his credentials as required by the verdict, he refused to do so,” the statement added. “Therefore, because of his decision, the board was compelled by the jury’s decision to deem his credentials surrendered.”

In 2007, Mr. Schaefer performed a wedding for his son in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal.
A member of Mr. Schaefer’s congregation later reported the wedding to church authorities, and the pastor was found guilty last month of violating church law and given a 30-day suspension.

Mr. Schaefer had until Thursday to agree to abide by the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the church’s rules and doctrine.

Mr. Schaefer could not be reached for comment Thursday, but at a news conference in Philadelphia earlier this week, he said: “I cannot uphold those discriminatory laws and the language in the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline that is hurtful and harmful to our homosexual brothers and sisters in the church.”

In a note posted on her blog this week, Bishop Johnson acknowledged that portions of the Book of Discipline were biased.

“Several statements in our Book of Discipline are discriminatory (forbidding ordination of homosexual persons, forbidding the performing of same-gender marriages and considering the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching),” she wrote.

Those prohibitions, Bishop Johnson continued, taken together with the church’s message of inclusion, “has led to confusion by many from the outside of the church wondering how we can talk out of two sides of our mouth.”

She assured readers however, that “our L.G.B.T. sisters and brothers are of sacred worth regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”


Laurie Goodstein contributed reporting.


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Has the Fed been fueling bubbles? You be the judge



Some say the Fed-engineered rates have produced an economic sugar high that risks triggering a crash akin to the tech-stock swoon in 2000 and the housing bust in 2006.


By JOSH BOAK, AP Economics Writer 12/19/13 10:28 am :: Last updated: 12/19/13 10:28 am


The Federal Reserve’s super-low interest-rate policies have inflated a slew of dangerous asset bubbles. Or so critics say.

They say stocks are at unsustainable prices. California homes are fetching frothy sums. Same with farmland, Bitcoins and rare Scotch.




Under Chairman Ben Bernanke, the Fed has aggressively bought bonds to try to cut borrowing rates and accelerate spending, investing and hiring. Its supporters say low rates have helped nourish the still-modest economic rebound.

Yet some say the Fed-engineered rates have produced an economic sugar high that risks triggering a crash akin to the tech-stock swoon in 2000 and the housing bust in 2006.

STOCKS

The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has jumped about 26 percent since the Fed announced a year ago that it would buy $85 billion in bonds each month. And since the Fed’s first round of bond buying at the end of 2008, stocks have soared 124 percent. Stocks outside the United States have also surged as other central banks have followed the Fed with their own low-rate policies. Germany’s DAX is up 20 percent, Japan’s Nikkei index 46 percent.

Why it’s a bubble:

By artificially depressing bond yields, the Fed has led more investors to shift money into stocks. Such a flood of cash can swell share prices without regard to corporate earnings. Once the Fed unwinds its support, many investors could abandon stocks and send shares tumbling. “I am most worried about the boom in the U.S. stock market” because of its disconnect from a “weak and vulnerable” economy, Robert Shiller, the Nobel Prize-winning Yale economist, told the German magazine Der Spiegel a few weeks ago. Shiller knows a bubble when he sees one. He accurately warned of both the tech and housing bubbles before they burst.

Why it isn’t:

One key measure assesses stock prices relative to corporate profits. A healthy price-earnings ratio is around 15 — or $15 a share for each dollar of profit. The current P/E ratio is about 18.4, slightly above average but probably no cause to panic. Janet Yellen, nominated to succeed Bernanke, said last month: “If you look at traditional valuation measures … you would not see stock prices in territory that suggests bubble-like conditions.”

HOUSING

The last housing bubble ignited the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. Home prices became inflated in part from an influx of cash and low rates driven by the Fed and other central banks. And in recent months, prices have again soared in some hot U.S. markets.

Why it’s a bubble:

It depends on location, location, location. All-cash sales, low rates and tight supplies have lifted prices in areas like New York City and Washington, D.C. Fitch Ratings estimated in November that a worrisome 17 percent of the U.S. home market is overvalued, a risk because much of the buying is tied to investments and house-flipping. Coastal California is “approaching bubble-year peaks,” with Bay Area prices nearing the “environment in 2003,” Fitch said. Some leading forecasters have also warned of bubbles in London and areas of Canada and Norway. New York University economist Nouriel Roubini worries about bubbles in Switzerland, France, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Israel and Brazil. These countries have accelerating prices, rising price-to-income ratios and huge proportions of mortgage debt as a share of total household debt.

Why it isn’t:

At least in the United States, some safety valves are in place that didn’t exist during the previous housing bubble, Roubini wrote this month. Lending standards are tighter. Banks are cushioned from possible losses from greater capital in reserve. And homeowners have more home equity this time.

FARMLAND

Over the past five years, the cost of Iowa farmland has rocketed 118 percent to $8,400 an acre, according to the Agriculture Department. Prices have more than doubled, too, in Kansas, Nebraska and North Dakota. The prices recall a 1970s-era boom. That ended with a bust that put many family farms into foreclosure, leading musicians such as Willie Nelson to start the Farm Aid benefit concerts.

Why it’s a bubble:

The Fed’s low-rate policies have encouraged farmers to expand their holdings over the past five years. Ethanol subsidies led them to plant more corn as prices for that crop rose during the past three years. “The bubble has been climbing,” said Dan Muhlbauer, a grain farmer who’s also a Democratic representative in the Iowa House. One ominous sign: The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed cutting ethanol blending requirements.

Why it isn’t:

Unlike during the 1970s bubble, farmers haven’t become “over-leveraged” with debt, Esther George, president of the Kansas City Fed, noted last summer. The percentage of farmers’ assets financed with borrowed money has dropped from 22 percent in 1985 to less than 11 percent. This decline in debt should protect many farmers if the value of cropland plunges.

BITCOIN

Critics fear that the Fed’s low rates are undermining the dollar’s value. For some, the hot new choice is an Internet-based currency called Bitcoin. Because there’s a finite supply of 21 million Bitcoins, devotees say the currency will continue to appreciate. The value of a Bitcoin relative to the U.S. dollar has surged at an average pace of 292 percent a year, according to a Bank of America analysis.

Why it’s a bubble:

Prices are insanely volatile. They jumped 50 percent on Nov. 18 after regulators signaled that digital currencies could be acceptable. They plunged 30 percent on Dec. 5 after China’s central bank banned Bitcoins as currency, according to the online exchange Mt.Gox. And the volatility suggests that Bitcoins are highly speculative. Bank of America said this month that Bitcoin is “at risk” of bubble status.

Why it isn’t:

Bitcoin may become a useful commodity in the future economy. Its digital nature could make it easier for immigrants to send money back home. It could charge lower transaction fees than credit cards, saving retailers money. Eli Dourado, an economics research fellow at George Mason University, says bubbles occur when assets are priced above their fundamental value, “but we don’t know the fundamental value of a Bitcoin yet.”


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But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men


Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

John 2:23-25 
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Jettison NSA phone database, panel to tell Obama



Ending the NSA's massive phone database is just one recommendation in a report from the White House's surveillance review panel that is set to be released today, reports The Washington Post.




by Carrie Mihalcik

December 18, 2013 11:52 AM PST



(Credit: NSA)

A report from the White House surveillance review board, which is set to be released later today, recommends the US National Security Agency end its surveillance program that collects virtually all Americans' phone records, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Ending the NSA's massive phone database is just one of "a set of sweeping technical reforms" aimed at restoring public confidence in US surveillance programs, reported the Post, citing "individuals briefed" on the report from the five-member Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies.

Instead of the NSA holding onto phone records, phone companies or a third party would keep track of that data, reported the Post. Previous reports have suggested this would effectively end the NSA's controversial bulk collection of data because the agency would have to meet a higher stand of proof to get information from phone companies. NSA officials have said this would hamper their speed and effectiveness because it would require searching multiple, separate databases.

The panel also recommended barring the NSA from several practices, including asking companies for "backdoor" access to encrypted communication and "undermining global encryption standards," according to the Post's sources.

Related posts

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The review panel also suggested putting a different agency in charge of the government's classified computer systems, reported the Post, in order to "separate a clearly defensive mission from the offensive side of [the] NSA."

The panel, which was appointed by President Obama in the wake of disclosures made this summer by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, submitted more than 40 recommendations to the president on Friday. The White House had originally intended to release the report in January along with the president's decisions on how to respond. However, Press Secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said they would be releasing the report early.

"While we had intended to release the review group's full report in January, given inaccurate and incomplete reports in the press about the report's content, we felt that it was important to let people see the full report to draw their own conclusions," said Carney, according to The Hill.

The review board's report is set to be released as pressure to reform NSA surveillance programs appear to be coming to a head. Just Monday, a federal judge issued a preliminary ruling that the NSA's bulk collection of US citizens' phone records could violate the Fourth Amendment. Tech executives -- including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and others -- also visited Obama this week and urged him to "move aggressively" on NSA reforms.


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Obama to send openly gay delegates to Russia





President Barack Obama embraces tennis icon Billie Jean King after presenting her with the Medal of Freedom at the White House on Aug. 12, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty


12/18/13 12:45 PM—Updated 12/18/13 01:39 PM


facebook twitter By Traci G. Lee



Two openly gay athletes will be a part of the U.S. Olympic delegation attending the Sochi Olympics in February, President Obama announced Tuesday.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King and women’s ice hockey player Caitlin Cahow will join a delegation selected by the president to represent the White House during the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. Obama will not be attending.

King, 70, is a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and has won 39 Grand Slam titles. Although she was never an Olympian herself, King coached U.S. Olympic tennis squads. She was also the first major female athlete to come out as a lesbian in 1981.

“I am equally proud to stand with the members of the LGBT community in support of all athletes who will be competing in Sochi and I hope these Olympic Games will indeed be a watershed moment for the universal acceptance of all people,” King said in a statement Tuesday.

The delegations will be led by former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano and deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and will include former Olympians Brian Boitano, Bonnie Blair, and Eric Heiden. Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, and Robert Nabors, the president’s deputy chief of staff for policy, will also be a part of the delegation.

The announcement suggests the White House is sending a subtle message to the world about Russia’s controversial “anti-propaganda” law that targets the country’s LGBT community, and that has led human rights groups to denounce the United States’ participation in the Olympic games.

However, the president refused to boycott the games. Speaking at a news conference in August, he said, “I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics. We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed.”

French President Francois Hollande and German President Joachim Gauck said earlier this month they will not attend the games, though neither have confirmed their decisions were due to Russia’s anti-LGBT laws.



The Rachel Maddow Show, 12/17/13, 10:39 PM ET
US to send openly gay delegates to Olympics




But as Rachel Maddow pointed out on MSNBC Tuesday night, leaders of the U.S. delegation in year’s past have included high-profile political figures – an indication that the president was sending a message with his selection to Vladimir Putin.

“The combination of having openly gay people in the delegation and pointedly not sending any high-ranking, high-profile people from our government–it does seem, at least, like a particularly satisfying snub,” Maddow said.

In a statement Wednesday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest rejected the suggestion that Obama’s announcement implied a boycott of the games. “While the President’s schedule doesn’t allow him to travel to Sochi, in his stead, the President has asked a high-level delegation… to represent the United States Government at the opening ceremonies.”



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Vladimir Putin claims Russia is moral compass of the world


Vladimir Putin asserts in his annual state of the nation address that Russia takes a morally superior world-view to the West and defended its Conservatives values



The move appears to be a push by the Kremlin to consolidate state media resources at a time of increasing online criticism of Vladimir Putin's 13 years of rule Photo: RIA NOVOSTI/REUTERS





By Damien McElroy

5:27PM GMT 12 Dec 2013




Vladimir Putin sought to cast Russia as the moral arbiter of the world on Thursday, as he hit out at America’s “non-traditional values” and its influence across the world.


In an annual state of the nation address, the 61-year-old Russian president said his country did not aspire to be “some kind of superpower”.


“We do not infringe on anyone’s interests, we do not force our patronage on anyone, or try to teach anyone how to live,” he said.


His comments amounted to an oblique rebuttal to the growing international movement against Russia’s restrictive laws on homosexuality. Support for a boycott of Russia in the run up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games has widened with celebrities announcing they will not perform in Russia. Others including Joachim Gauck, the German president, have declined invitations for the event.


Mr Putin defended his government’s increasingly conservative values and decried the “review of norms of morality” in the West and elsewhere.


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Pussy Riot: doing time, one stitch at a time RBTH


“This destruction of traditional values from above not only entails negative consequences for society, but is also inherently anti-democratic because it is based on an abstract notion and runs counter to the will of the majority of people,” Mr Putin said, adding there could be no benefit for society for treating “good and evil” equally.

In his 70-minute televised speech from an ornate Kremlin hall, Mr Putin said traditional family values where a bulwark against “so-called tolerance – genderless and infertile.”

Critics of the speech were quick to point that post-Soviet Russia has seen a deep and damaging decline in its birth rates to among the lowest of any developed nation.

While the speech did not contain a widely-trailed push to eliminate local mayors, one of the few power centres outside the Kremlin’s control, Mr Putin did appear to signal a push against oligarchs dominance of the economy.

The Russian leader attacked the prevalence of offshore companies in the economy, claiming the use of such vehicles was hampering growth.

“The main reasons for a slowdown in economic growth are internal, not external,” he said. “We must establish more stability and a good investment climate.”

Half of the $50 billion (£30 billion) that Russian companies invest abroad every year is sent to offshore jurisdictions, which Putin described as the “transfer of capitals that should be working in Russia.”

“You want to have offshores? Fine. You want to have benefits, support and to make profit by operating in Russia? Then do register in the Russian jurisdiction.”

However his wake-up call on the economy was criticised by Alexei Kudrin, a former close associate and Russia’s finance minister until 2011. The much-respected technocrat said the government was incapable of meaningful reforms.

“It’s a shame that so little has been done,” Mr Kudrin said after the speech. “The president’s proposals for reactivating the economy are a tactical response to the problem. We need a strategic plan to get out of stagnation.”

The Russian leader has had notable foreign policy success in 2013, forging a deal on Syria’s chemical weapons with the US and helping force Iran to the nuclear negotiating table. But internally the impression has grown that his regime is increasingly fragile.

Stefan Meister, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Mr Putin had lost room for political maneourve as he entered his presidential third term since 2000. “He has isolated himself from the proactive part of society and the elite,” he said. “He has surrounded himself with hardliners from the security service who promote Russia’s “modernisation” through the country’s military-industrial complex.”

Mr Putin also revived the Kremlin’s warnings again American plans for anti-missile shields and the dangers of reducing to nothing the post-Cold War strategic balance.

“Nobody should have any illusion about the possibility of gaining military superiority over Russia,” he said. “We will never allow this to happen. Russia will respond to all these challenges, political and military.”

An earlier version of this article said Sir Elton John was boycotting Russia but in fact he has made clear in statements at his website www.ejaf.com and elsewhere that he believes it is important not to isolate Russian people because of the actions of their government.



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Roman Catholic Dialogue with the Seventh-day Adventists



Dialogue with the Seventh-day Adventists represents one of the Catholic Church's newest ecumenical initiatives. The Seventh-day Adventists do not hold memberships in any major ecumenical bodies but do maintain relationships with the Lutheran World Federation, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and World Evangelical Alliance. Initial consultations in Geneva from 2001-2003 concentrated on divergent Sabbath/Sunday practices and the theological consequences of different methods of biblical interpretation. Since then no additional formal dialogue initiatives have been launched.

TAGSCatholic, ecumenical, evangelical


 
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) has been the locus of ecumenical activity within the Roman Catholic Church. The PCPCU encourages ecumenical activity among other Catholic bodies and coordinates dialogue with other... 
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'Good Morning America' Meets Pope Francis At The Vatican (VIDEO)



The Huffington Post | Posted: 12/18/2013 11:56 am EST

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

"Good Morning America" anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott were live at the Vatican in Rome Wednesday morning to greet Pope Francis.

A huge crowd filled St. Peter's Square to see the Pope, who dedicated his weekly address to the importance of serving the poor. Roberts and Elliot marveled at the effect he had on visitors and the way he carried himself.

"I told him that I was from America and he said, 'Please pray for me,'" Roberts recounted. "The pope asking, 'Please pray for me,' was quite a moment."

"When he came near us and we had a chance to meet with him, we really were filled with a moment of reverence," Elliot also said. "There was a moment of calm and peace that surrounds him-- it was remarkable." "The way that he spends time with people and the expression on his face is something that will stay with us," Roberts added.

 
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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

NPR/Kaiser/Harvard School of Public Health Survey Project



NPR/Kaiser/Harvard School of Public Health Survey Project



About the Partnership:

The NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Survey Project is a joint partnership whose goal is to better understand public opinion on a range of health-related issues facing the nation. Representatives of the three organizations work together to select topics, develop the survey questionnaire and analyze the results, with NPR maintaining editorial control over all its broadcasts on the surveys.



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Two White and Two Black

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Pope Emeritus Ratzinger and Pope Bergoglio;
Jesuit Superior General Alfonso Nicolas Pachon and Peter Hans Kolvenbach (retired).


'Our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government'





By the decree of enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.


Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 451. {ChS 160.4}
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Federal judge rules against NSA spying



Kevin Johnson and Richard Wolf, USA TODAY 9:48 p.m. EST December 16, 2013

Decision by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon is the first of several expected over the next few months and is certain to be appealed.



(Photo: Patrick Semansky, AP)

Story Highlights

  • The ruling is the first of several that are likely in the coming months on the scope of NSA's surveillance program
  • The Department of Justice says it is reviewing the decision
  • NSA Director Keith Alexander: "There isn't a better way'' to help defend the country from potential terror threats



WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program that collects millions of Americans' telephone records may be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled in a lawsuit brought by conservative activist Larry Klayman that the legal challenge to the massive surveillance program — disclosed in full earlier this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — would likely succeed.

Leon, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction against the program but suspended the order to allow an appeal by the Justice Department, which said it was reviewing the decision.

The ruling is the first of several that are likely in the coming months as federal judges from New York to California review complaints from liberals and conservatives alike about the scope of the NSA's snooping. Leon's acknowledgment that the case is sure to be appealed is an indication that those appeals might wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

STORY: Snowden says ruling vindicates leak of NSA files

WHITE HOUSE: No amnesty for Snowden

OBAMA: To meet with tech execs to talk NSA, health care

"The court concludes that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the government's bulk collection and querying of phone record metadata, that they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourth Amendment claim (of unlawful search and seizure), and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent…relief,'' Leon wrote.

And in perhaps the most definitive assessment of the program's effectiveness, Leon said the government "does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack.''

"Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation — most notably the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics — I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism,'' the judge said.

The government has publicly asserted that the NSA's surveillance programs have assisted in averting dozens of terrorist threats, but Leon said "no proof of that has been put before me.'' He said the government could have requested permission to offer such evidence in a closed hearing, "but it chose not to do so.''

Snowden, in a statement published first by The New York Times, said he believed that the "mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts.''

"Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans' rights. It is the first of many," said the former contractor, who was granted limited asylum in Russia to avoid espionage-related charges in the U.S.

Klayman, a former Reagan administration official who heads the conservative watchdog group Freedom Watch, heralded the judge for "standing in the breach for the American people."

"Judge Leon is a hero," Klayman said. "This is the first time in my experience that any judge has stuck his neck out, and he did what's right. Let's hope other judges will follow suit and take an example from Judge Leon, because the American people have felt defenseless."

Leon's decision comes less than a week after NSA Director Keith Alexander told a Senate committee that "there isn't a better way'' to help defend the country from potential terrorist threats than the ongoing sweep of telephone records.

"There is no other way to connect the dots,'' Alexander told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a renewed defense of NSA surveillance programs. "We cannot go back to a pre-9/11 moment.''

Alexander noted that the national security threat had been mounting in recent months, referring in particular to the "crisis" in the Middle East. "Taking these programs off the table is not the thing to do,'' he said.

Of all of Snowden's disclosures, details about the vast phone record program has driven a six-month debate on Capitol Hill and across the country about the scope of the government's surveillance operations. That debate has produced a wave of proposed legislation to limit or eliminate parts of the government's surveillance apparatus.

"Because we can do something, it doesn't really make sense to do it,'' Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Alexander last week, adding that aspects of the bulk collection programs are "beyond extraordinary in the U.S.''

During oral arguments in the Klayman case last month, the former Reagan administration lawyer who leads the advocacy group Freedom Watch called the judge "the last guard ... the last sentry to the tyranny in this country."

MORE:: Coverage of oral arguments in the case

Justice Department lawyer James Gilligan argued that Klayman lacked standing to bring the case because he could not prove the NSA examined his phone or Internet records.



Conservative activist Larry Klayman brought the legal challenge to the NSA massive surveillance program.(Photo: Hillery Smith Garrison, AP)

Gilligan also said Leon could not review the statutory authority granted by Congress under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — only the secret courts and the Supreme Court have that power. Leon did not rule on the congressional authorization, only on Fourth Amendment grounds.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley heard a separate case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that also sought a preliminary injunction against the telephone surveillance program. The ACLU case, based on First and Fourth Amendment protections of speech and privacy, contends that the USA Patriot Act does not authorize such widespread spying.

Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director who argued that case in court, hailed Monday's ruling. "This is a strongly worded and carefully reasoned decision that ultimately concludes, absolutely correctly, that the NSA's call-tracking program can't be squared with the Constitution," Jaffer said.

"We hope that Judge Leon's careful decision will inform the larger debate about the proper scope of government surveillance powers. It should certainly inform the debate in Congress about the reforms necessary to bring the NSA's surveillance activities back in line with the Constitution."

A third case denied last month by the Supreme Court was brought directly there by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. While the target in the other cases is the government, EPIC went after the top-secret FISA court that authorized the surveillance of Verizon phone records under FISA.

In all the cases, the Justice Department argued that the challengers lack standing to bring the lawsuits because they were not directly involved or cannot prove their records were examined.

However, the department has been notifying criminal defendants in separate cases when the terrorism-related charges against them stem from the warrantless surveillance program. That makes the prospect of a future Supreme Court case more likely.

The solicitor general's briefs also defend the surveillance on national security grounds. Its Supreme Court brief says the program "authorizes the production of business records where there are 'reasonable grounds to believe' that the records are 'relevant' to an authorized and properly predicated ongoing FBI investigation of specific terrorist organizations."

Amnesty International and other civil libertarians brought the last Supreme Court challenge to government surveillance programs in 2012. But in February, the justices ruled 5-4 that the challengers lacked standing because they could not prove they had been wiretapped.

"This theory of future injury is too speculative," Justice Samuel Alito said in announcing the decision, calling it "hypothetical future harm."

Since then, however, a continued stream of leaks from former Snowden have led the government to make much of the programs public, enabling challengers to claim their privacy was invaded.


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Pope celebrates his 77th birthday by going for breakfast with four homeless people often seen near the Vatican



  • Pope started birthday with mass before breakfast with homeless people
  • Rumours circulating Francis sneaks out of the Vatican to distribute charity
  • His football team set to offer him league trophy they won earlier this week


By Hannah Roberts

PUBLISHED: 11:06 EST, 17 December 2013 | UPDATED: 11:16 EST, 17 December 2013


Since becoming leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, his trademark humble style has won him plaudits.

And even on his birthday Pope Francis has refused to make a splash - choosing instead to celebrate the day with four homeless people.

The pontiff kicked off his 77th birthday, with mass at the humble priests’ guesthouse where he has made his home, followed by breakfast with four homeless people often seen near the Vatican.



Pope Francis (pictured meeting children and volunteers of the Santa Marta Vatican Institute on Saturday) has celebrated his 77th birthday by going for breakfast with four homeless people often seen near the Vatican



The four got a chance to wish him many happy returns when they were introduced in person to Francis by Konrad Krajewski, his alms distributor.

Rumours that Francis sneaks out of the Vatican, disguised as a priest, to distribute charity to those living on the streets, have circulated Rome in recent weeks, after Monsignor Krajewski dropped a strong hint during a TV interview.

Francis has cultivated an image of a poor church since his inauguration in April. He has shunned the traditional robes, jewellery and even the luxurious papal apartment for a more spartan lifestyle.


More...
I'm not a Marxist (but I do know some nice ones), insists the Pope as he responds to criticism of papal documents that commented on 'economy of exclusion'
You've got to take your hat off to this Pope: The moment young child removes pontiff's skullcap (but doesn't get to keep it for long)



But the Argentinian Pope is set to receive at least one priceless gift. His favourite football team Buenos Aires side San Lorenzo de Almagro are set to offer him the league title trophy they won earlier this week.

When he heard of the result, Francis exclaimed, ‘What joy!’, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

The club's most famous fan is scheduled to receive a six-person delegation of players and managers from the club who boarded a private jet to Rome to visit him, after winning a title for the first time in six years.



Rumours that Francis sneaks out of the Vatican, disguised as a priest, to distribute charity to those living on the streets, have circulated Rome in recent weeks



San Lorenzo manager Bernardo Romeo told TV channel CN23 that Francis asked the club to win the championship.

'We’re going to offer him the trophy as he is the world’s most powerful man, we’re proud and excited for the trip.'

The Vatican TV Centre released a short film entitled ‘Happy Birthday Papa Francesco’, to mark his first birthday in office.

The 1minute 45 second video shows the most significant images of the first nine months of his pontificate from the white smoke emerging from the Sistine Chapel to his historic mass on Copacabana beach in Rio di Janeiro.

GAY RIGHTS MAGAZINE NAMES POPE FRANCIS ITS 'PERSON OF THE YEAR'


The oldest gay rights magazine in the United States has named Pope Francis its 'Person of the Year' as the pontiff marked his 77th birthday today.


The Advocate magazine said it gave Francis the honour because, although he is still against homosexual marriage, his pontificate so far had shown 'a stark change in (anti-gay) rhetoric from his two predecessors'.


It hailed as a landmark his famous response last July to a reporter who asked about gay people in the Church: 'If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?'


The Advocate noted that the Catholic gay organisation 'Equally Blessed' called the phrase 'some of the most encouraging words a pontiff has ever spoken about gay and lesbian people'.


The Vatican has stressed the pope's words did not change Church teachings that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are.


Still, the gay community and many heterosexuals in the Church have welcomed what they see as a shift in emphasis and a call for the Church to be more compassionate and less condemning.

The Advocate said no-one should 'underestimate any pope's capacity for persuading hearts and minds in opening to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) people'.

Source



Archbishop Kurtz: Pope Francis Is 'Engaged' With People



7 min 47 sec
Pope Francis celebrates his 77th birthday on Tuesday. Linda Wertheimer talks to the recently elected head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, about the pope's recent statements on global economics.

 http://www.npr.org/2013/12/17/251833643/archbishop-kurtz-pope-francis-is-engaged-with-people?ft=1&f=
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Monday, December 16, 2013

A week of Hegelian Dialectics

This past week (w/e 12/14/13) we were provided a week of  Hegelian Dialectics

This past Tuesday was the culmination of the latest paradigm shift

  1. Jorge Ma. Bergoglio, the bishop of Rome was named man of the year by Time Magazine...
  2. On the same day a Memorial Service for the recently deceased Nelson Mandela (at least 100 world leaders and dignitaries attended) was held in Johannesburg South Africa...
  3. During that Memorial Service President Obama shook hands with Raul Castro, El Nuevo Comandante of Cuba...





I see Hegelian Dialectics (in effect) in these events -

Last month, Jorge Ma. Bergoglio disparaged Capitalism via a  85 page document Evangelii Gaudium, (The Joy of the Gospel), for which he was criticized by Conservative Radio Commentator Rush Limbaugh. In my opinion the Jesuit Bishop of Rome hinted at the need for a Third Way, what I call Liberation Theology, the Catholic Church's Social Doctrine.  This ideology promotes Universal Wealth Redistribution, and embraces the Catholic fomented Liberation Theology.

While Bergoglio is promoting Socialism;  Barak Obama, the President of the United States attended a reunion of World Leaders where he makes cordial social contact with Raul Castro, the leader of Cuba which has had an Economic Embargo in place (by the U.S. of America) for over 50 years.

The United States represents Free Enterprise Capitalism, while Cuba is the epitome of Socialism and  a tyrannical Oligarchy.

Nelson Mandela was a revolutionary and a Socialist.

Hegelian Dialectics

Thesis - Antithesis = Synthesis
Capitalism - Socialism = Madiba-ism
 I would define Madiba-ism, as a Syncretism of Capitalism, Socialism and Racial Equality, a consensus of economic ideologies.
 
or

Problem - Reaction = Soltution
The Developed Nations acquired wealth - The Third World lacks goods - Wealth Redistribution



To further illustrate the subliminal propaganda perpetrated in the media:


Yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, while in Viet Nam, for his 14th visit, stated he wanted to stop climate change in the Mekong Delta...  When John Kerry was an Navy Officer during the Viet Nam Police Action, he patrolled the Mekong River looking for Communists...



Now,
Now, Kerry wants to stop climate change?


Two words:
 Hegelian Dialectics

Arsenio


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Wall of Separation Church & State in America






“At it again,” Pope Leo XIII is depicted exerting influence “through the ballot box to the Constitution.” Puck, November 18th 1885 (Library of Congress).




Published: December 13, 2013

The holidays are upon us – and that means debates about holiday displays. Are Christian Nativity scenes, Jewish Menorahs, or even atheistic symbols appropriate for display at public buildings? And what about other expressions of religion in the public sphere – like prayers during local government proceedings? The Supreme Court will soon be deciding that issue. So BackStory is following the Court into the thicket, taking up the tricky issue of government in our religion – and religion in government. Where have Americans drawn the line between the two, and have they ever erected a “wall of separation”?

In this episode, the Guys explore the relationship of church and state across American history. We’ll consider the meaning of “freedom of religion” and find out why Baptists in 1802 actually favored Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation.” We’ll learn why the dramatic wartime deaths of three ministers – each of different faiths – shaped public ideas about American religion during the 1940s and 50s. And we’ll explore how legal decisions about the relationship of church and state have shaped how Americans understand faith and what it means to have “a religion.”




Ü Guest List
i Resources


Guests Include:
e Adam Jortner, Auburn University
e Kevin Schultz, University of Illinois at Chicago
e David Sehat, Georgia State University
e Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania Law School
e Tisa Wenger, Yale University


Source
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Thousands Still Need To Apply For DACA Program

 

4 min 20 sec
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation. They can also get a work permit for two years.


Source
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The Snares of Satan



The Spirit of Prophecy Volume Four



Chapter 27—The Snares of Satan

As the people of God approach the perils of the last days, Satan holds earnest consultation with his angels as to the most successful plan of overthrowing their faith. He sees that the popular churches are already lulled to sleep by his deceptive power. By pleasing sophistry and lying wonders he can continue to hold them under his control. Therefore he directs his angels to lay their snares especially for those who are looking for the second advent of Christ, and endeavoring to keep all the commandments of God.

Says the great deceiver: “We must watch those who are calling the attention of the people to the Sabbath of Jehovah; they will lead many to see the claims of the law of God; and the same light which reveals the true Sabbath, reveals also the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and shows that the last work for man’s salvation is now going forward. Hold the minds of the people in darkness till that work is ended, and we shall secure the world and the church also. 

“The Sabbath is the great question which is to decide the destiny of souls. We must exalt the Sabbath of our creating. We have caused it to be accepted by both worldlings and church-members; now the church must be led to unite with the world in its support. We must work by signs and wonders to blind their eyes to the truth, and lead them to lay aside reason and the fear of God, and follow custom and tradition. 

“I will influence popular ministers to turn the attention of their hearers from the commandments of God. That which the Scriptures declare to be a perfect law of liberty shall be represented as a yoke of bondage. The people accept their ministers’ explanations of Scripture, and do not investigate for themselves. Therefore by working through the ministers, I can control the people according to my will.

But our principal concern is to silence this sect of Sabbath-keepers. We must excite popular indignation against them. We will enlist great men and worldly-wise men upon our side, and induce those in authority to carry out our purposes. Then the Sabbath which I have set up shall be enforced by laws the most severe and exacting. Those who disregard them shall be driven out from the cities and villages, and made to suffer hunger and privation. When once we have the power, we will show that we can do with those who will not swerve from their allegiance to God. We led the Romish Church to inflict imprisonment, torture, and death upon those who refused to yield to her decrees, and now that we are bringing the Protestant churches and the world into harmony with this right arm of our strength, we will finally have a law to exterminate all who will not submit to our authority. When death shall be made the penalty of violating our Sabbath, then many who are now ranked with commandment-keepers will come over to our side.

“But before proceeding to these extreme measures, we must exert all our wisdom and subtlety to deceive and ensnare those who honor the true Sabbath. We can separate many from Christ by worldliness, lust, and pride. They may think themselves safe because they believe the truth, but indulgence of appetite or the lower passions, which will confuse judgment and destroy discrimination, will cause their fall.

“Go, make the possessors of lands and money drunk with the cares of this life. Present the world before them in its most attractive light, that they may lay up their treasure here, and fix their affections upon earthly things. We must do our utmost to prevent those who labor in God’s cause from obtaining means to use against us. Keep the money in our own ranks. The more means they obtain, the more they will injure our kingdom by taking from us our subjects. Make them care more for money than for the upbuilding of Christ’s kingdom and the spread of the truths we hate, and we need not fear their influence; for we know that every selfish, covetous person will fall under our power, and will finally be separated from God’s people. 

“Through those that have a form of godliness but know not the power, we can gain many who would otherwise do us great harm. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God will be our most effective helpers. Those of this class who are apt and intelligent will serve as decoys to draw others into our snares. Many will not fear their influence, because they profess the same faith. We will thus lead them to conclude that the requirements of Christ are less strict than they once believed, and that by conformity to the world they would exert a greater influence with worldlings. Thus they will separate from Christ; then they will have no strength to resist our power, and erelong they will be ready to ridicule their former zeal and devotion. 

“Until the great decisive blow shall be struck, our efforts against commandment-keepers must be untiring. We must be present at all their gatherings. In their large meetings especially our cause will suffer much, and we must exercise great vigilance, and employ all our seductive arts to prevent souls from hearing the truth and becoming impressed by it. 

“I will have upon the ground, as my agents, men holding false doctrines mingled with just enough truth to deceive souls. I will also have unbelieving ones present, who will express doubts in regard to the Lord’s messages of warning to his church. Should the people read and believe these admonitions, we could have little hope of overcoming them. But if we can divert their attention from these warnings, they will remain ignorant of our power and cunning, and we shall secure them in our ranks at last. God will not permit his words to be slighted with impunity. If we can keep souls deceived for a time, God’s mercy will be withdrawn, and he will give them up to our full control. 

“We must cause distraction and division. We must destroy their anxiety for their own souls, and lead them to criticise, to judge, and to accuse and condemn one another, and to cherish selfishness and enmity. For these sins, God banished us from his presence; and all who follow our example will meet a similar fate.” 

The Scriptures declare that upon one occasion, when the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan came also among them, not to bow before the Eternal King, but to further his own malicious designs against the righteous. With the same object he is in attendance when men assemble for the worship of God. Though hidden from sight, he is working with all diligence to control the minds of the worshipers. Like a skillful general, he lays his plans beforehand. As he sees the messenger of God searching the Scriptures, he takes note of the subject to be presented to the people. Then he employs all his cunning and shrewdness to so control circumstances that the message may not reach those whom he is deceiving on that very point. The one who most needs the warning will be urged into some business transaction which requires his presence, or will by some other means be prevented from hearing the words that might prove to him a savor of life unto life.

Again, Satan sees the Lord’s servants burdened because of the spiritual darkness that enshrouds the people. He hears their earnest prayers for divine grace and power to break the spell of indifference, carelessness, and indolence. Then with renewed zeal he plies his arts. He tempts men to the indulgence of appetite or to some other form of self-gratification, and thus benumbs their sensibilities, so that they fail to hear the very things which they most need to learn. 

Satan well knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the Scriptures will be overcome by his attacks. Therefore he invents every possible device to engross the mind. There has ever been a class professing godliness who, instead of following on to know the truth, make it their religion to seek some fault of character or error of faith in those with whom they do not agree. Such are Satan’s right-hand helpers. Accusers of the brethren are not few; and they are always active when God is at work, and his servants are rendering him true homage. They will put a false coloring upon the words and acts of those who love and obey the truth. They will represent the most earnest, zealous, self-denying servants of Christ as deceived or deceivers. It is their work to misrepresent the motives of every true and noble deed, to circulate insinuations, and arouse suspicion in the minds of the inexperienced. In every conceivable manner they will seek to cause that which is pure and righteous to be regarded as foul and deceptive. And in this work the agents of Satan have their master and his angels to help them. 

But none need be deceived concerning them. It may be readily seen whose children they are, whose example they follow, and whose work they do. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” [Matthew 7:16.] They closely resemble Satan, the envenomed slanderer, the accuser of the brethren. 

It is Satan’s plan to bring into the church insincere, unregenerate elements that will encourage doubt and unbelief, and hinder all who desire to see the work of God advance, and to advance with it. Many who have no real faith in God or in his word, assent to some principles of truth, and pass as Christians; and thus they are enabled to introduce their errors as scriptural doctrines. 

The position that it is of no consequence what men believe, is one of Satan’s most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver; therefore he is constantly seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel. From the beginning, the servants of God have contended against false teachers, not merely as vicious men, but as inculcators of falsehoods that were fatal to the soul. Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, firmly and fearlessly opposed those who were turning men from the word of God. That liberality which regards a correct religious faith as unimportant, found no favor with these holy defenders of the truth. 

The vague and fanciful interpretations of Scripture, and the many conflicting theories concerning religious faith, that are found in the Christian world, are the work of our great adversary to so confuse minds that they shall not discern the truth. And the discord and division which exists among the churches of Christendom is in a great measure due to the prevailing custom of wresting the Scriptures to support a favorite theory. Instead of carefully studying God’s word with humility of heart to obtain a knowledge of his will, many seek only to discover something odd or original. 

In order to sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices, they seize upon passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite. With the cunning of the serpent, they entrench themselves behind disconnected utterances construed to suit their carnal desires. Thus do many willfully pervert the word of God. Others, who have an active imagination, seize upon the figures and symbols of Holy Writ, interpret to suit their fancy, with little regard to the testimony of Scripture as its own interpreter, and then they present their vagaries as the teachings of God’s word. 

Whenever the study of the Scriptures is entered upon without a prayerful, humble, teachable spirit, the plainest and simplest as well as the most difficult passages will be wrested from their true meaning. The papal leaders select such portions of Scripture as best serve their purpose, interpret to suit themselves, and then present these to the people, while they deny them the privilege of studying the Bible, and understanding its sacred truths for themselves. Unless the whole Bible is given to the people just as it reads, it would be better for them not to have it at all. 

The Bible was designed to be a guide to all who wish to become acquainted with the will of their Maker. God gave to men the sure word of prophecy; angels and even Christ himself came to make known to Daniel and John the things that must shortly come to pass. Those important matters that concern our salvation were not left involved in mystery. They were not revealed in such a way as to perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. Said the Lord by the prophet Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” [Habakkuk 2:2, 3.] The word of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. Every truly honest soul will come to the light of truth. “Light is sown for the righteous.” [Psalm 97:11.] No church can advance in holiness unless its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure. 

By the cry of liberality, men are blinded to the devices of their adversary, while he is all the time working steadily for the accomplishment of his object. As he succeeds in supplanting the word of truth by human speculations, the law of God is set aside, and the churches are under the bondage of sin while they claim to be free. 

To many, scientific research has become a curse; their finite minds are so weak that they lose their balance. They cannot harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements, and they think that the Bible is to be tested by their standard of “science falsely so called.” Thus they err from the faith, and are seduced by the devil. Men have endeavored to be wiser than their Creator; human philosophy has attempted to search out and explain mysteries which will never be revealed, through the eternal ages. If men would but search and understand what God has made known of himself and his purposes, they would obtain such a view of the glory, majesty, and power of Jehovah, that they would realize their own littleness, and would be content with that which has been revealed for themselves and their children. 

It is a masterpiece of Satan’s deceptions to keep the minds of men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not made known, and which he does not intend that we shall understand. It was thus that Lucifer himself was cast out of Heaven. He became dissatisfied because all the secrets of God’s purposes were not confided to him, and he entirely disregarded that which was revealed concerning his own work in the lofty position assigned him. By arousing the same discontent in the angels under his command, he caused their fall. Now he seeks to imbue the minds of men with the same spirit, and to lead them also to disregard the direct commands of God.

Those who are unwilling to accept the plain, cutting truths of the Bible, are continually seeking for pleasing fables that will quiet their consciences. The less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating the doctrines presented, the greater the favor with which they are received. These persons degrade the intellectual powers to serve their carnal desires. Too wise in their own conceit to search the word of God with contrition of soul and earnest prayer for divine guidance, they have no shield from delusion. Satan is ready to supply the heart’s desire, and he palms off his deceptions in the place of truth. It was thus that the papacy gained its power over the minds of men; and by rejection of the truth because it involves a cross, Protestants are following the same path. All who neglect the word of God to study convenience and policy, that they may not be at variance with the world, will be left to receive damnable heresy for religious truth. The apostle Paul speaks of a class who received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” He says of these, “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” [2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.] With such a warning before us, it behooves us to be on our guard as to what doctrines we receive. 

Every conceivable form of error will be accepted by those who willfully reject the truth. Satan has different deceptions prepared to reach different minds; and some who look with horror upon one deception will readily receive another. 

Among the most successful agencies of the great deceiver are the delusive doctrines and lying wonders of Spiritualism. Disguised as an angel of light, he spreads his nets where least suspected. If men would but study the word of God with earnest prayer that they might understand its teachings, they would not be left in darkness to receive false doctrines. But as they reject the truth, they fall a prey to these deceptions. 

Another dangerous heresy is the doctrine that denies the divinity of Christ. Men who have no experimental knowledge of Jesus, will yet assume an appearance of great wisdom, as though their judgment were beyond question, and boldly declare that the Son of God had no existence prior to his first advent to this world. This position directly contradicts the plainest statements of our Saviour concerning himself; yet it is received with favor by a large class who claim to believe the Scriptures. With such persons it is folly to argue. No argument, however conclusive, will convince those who reject the direct testimony of the Son of God.
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” [1 Corinthians 2:14.] Those who persistently cling to such errors, give evidence of their own ignorance of God and of his Son. 

Still another subtle and mischievous error is the fast-spreading belief that Satan has no existence as a personal being; that the name is used in Scripture merely to represent men’s evil thoughts and desires. 

The teaching so widely echoed from popular pulpits, that the second advent of Christ is his coming to each individual at death, is a device to divert the minds of men from his personal coming in the clouds of heaven. For years Satan has thus been saying, “Behold, he is in the secret chambers;” and many souls have been lost by accepting this deception.

Again, worldly wisdom teaches that prayer is not essential. Men of science claim that there can be no real answer to prayer; that this would be a violation of law, a miracle, and that miracles have no existence. The universe, say they, is governed by fixed laws, and God himself does nothing contrary to these laws. Thus they represent God as bound by his own laws; as if the operation of divine laws could exclude divine freedom. Such teaching is opposed to the testimony of the Scriptures. Were not miracles wrought by Christ and his apostles? The same compassionate Saviour lives today, and he is as willing to listen to the prayer of faith as when he walked visibly among men. The natural co-operates with the supernatural. It is a part of God’s plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which he would not bestow, did we not thus ask. 

Innumerable are the erroneous doctrines and fanciful ideas that are obtaining among the churches of Christendom. It is impossible to estimate the evil results of removing one of the landmarks fixed by the word of God. Few who venture to do this, stop with the rejection of a single truth. The majority continue to set aside one after another of its principles, until they become actual infidels. 

And this is the object which Satan seeks to accomplish. There is nothing that he desires more than to destroy confidence in God and in his word. Satan stands at the head of the great army of doubters, and he works to the utmost of his power to beguile souls into his ranks. It is becoming fashionable to doubt. There are many who seem to feel that it is a virtue to stand on the side of unbelief, skepticism, and infidelity. But underneath an appearance of candor and humility, it will be found that such persons are actuated by self-confidence and pride. It is a terrible thing to lose faith in God or in his word. Unbelief strengthens as it is encouraged. There is danger in even once giving expression to doubt; a seed is sown which produces a harvest of its kind. Satan will nourish the crop every moment. Those who allow themselves to talk of their doubts will find them constantly becoming more confirmed. God will never remove every occasion for doubt. He will never work a miracle to remove unbelief when he has given sufficient evidence for faith.

God looks with displeasure upon the self-sufficient and the unbelieving, who are ever doubting his promises and distrusting the assurance of his grace. They are unproductive trees that spread their dark branches far and wide, shutting away the sunlight from other plants, and causing them to droop and die under the chilling shadow. The life-work of these persons will appear as a never-ceasing witness against them. They are sowing seeds of doubt and skepticism that will yield an unfailing harvest. 

The followers of Christ know little of the plots which Satan and his hosts are forming against them. But He who sitteth in the heavens will overrule all these devices for the accomplishment of his deep designs. The Lord permits his people to be subjected to the fiery ordeal of temptation, not because he takes pleasure in their distress and affliction, but because this process is essential to their final victory. He could not, consistently with his own glory, shield them from temptation; for the very object of the trial is to prepare them to resist all the allurements of evil. 

Satan is well aware that the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness, and that, should he reveal himself openly, he would be met and resisted. Therefore he seeks to draw away the soldiers of the cross from their strong fortification, while he lies in ambush with his forces, ready to destroy all who venture upon his ground. No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. Especially should we entreat the Lord for wisdom to understand his word. Satan is an expert in quoting Scripture, placing his own interpretation upon passages by which he hopes to cause us to stumble. We should study the Bible with humility of heart, never losing sight of our dependence upon God. While we must constantly guard against the devices of Satan, we should pray in faith continually, “Lead us not into temptation.” 

{4SP 337-350}
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