The aim of this blog is to identify those newsworthy events that tie in with Bible Prophecies. Then to report those findings back here. In doing so, those who read the articles may be readily informed as to where the world stands relative to the end times.
Identifying as a Fundamentalist Born Again Christian, (who holds fast to the Reformed Theory for Biblical interpretation) I do not agree with those who say that there is something out of the ordinary relative to Israel, or that God has not ordained this land for any special privileges. Having said made that statement; there was a time in the Old Testament when God promised to return the Jews to their promised land. That was achieved in 1948. However, when the Jews hung Christ on the cross they lost any special privileges God had in preparation for them from that point onwards. Accordingly, what remains in Israel to this current day are the remnants of the original Christian Israelites. It those privileged few that have been ordained by God to have received salvation, and not those who currently inhabit Israel. Evidence of that salvation can be found in the book of the Revelation that speaks of just 144,000 of the original Israelites from the 12 original tribes. Even though there are no Jews who reside in my homeland of Australia that are living under any fear of persecution whatsoever a common terminology that is being bandied around lately is anti-Semitism. However, the expressed use of that term is now being used unfairly and is being applied to those who do not favour the Jews who inhabit Israel Conversely, it now seems to me that rather than those who do not see Israel in the most favourable of lights labelled Anti-Semitic it really should be those Christian Zionists who believe the Jews have special privileges from God that really should be labelled as being opposed to their own race/religion. Accordingly, those persons need to be labelled as being Anti-Christ, not those who do not see Israel in the most favourable of lights as Anti-Semitic. After all, it is almost impossible to see Christ as the Saviour of Mankind if one is to see those who crucified him as being the favoured ones. Just to show that there is not prejudice against, or indeed favour towards Israel and the Jews, I have published this article from a BlogSpot that is quite clearly pro-Israeli. There is some news from Israel By David Hoyle All around the world anti-Semitism is on the rise and in many countries Jewish people are living in fear. A headline in the Jewish telegraph read “Greek Jewry fearful after election…. But for French Jews its wait and see.” Greece – Jewish leaders expressed concern and disappointment after the neo Nazi “Golden Dawn party” won 21 seats in the Greek Parliament. When their leader won a seat on Athens City Council in 2010 he said “we are coming” and gave a Nazi salute. During the election the party’s supporters shave their heads and wore black shirts! The party said it would tolerate religious freedom “except in cases that affect national interest and undermine Hellenism.” However the party displays Mien Kampf and works on Greek racial superiority at its headquarters. The party has plans to landmine Greece’s borders! The party’s banner has a swastika like motif. Whilst the neo Nazi’s are not in power the right wing is strengthening and anti-Semitism is on the rise. France – There was a mixed reaction in Jewish circles to the election of the left wing François Hollande as France’s president. Fears are that despite soothing noises Mr Hollande election would lead to a rise in the anti-Israel left. It is estimated that 92% of the Jews living in Israel cast their votes at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv in favour of Nicholas Sarkozy who was linked to the release of Gilad Shalit and has also strong links with the Jewish Community. Anti Semitism has been rising in France for years and a holocaust survivor who left there 3 years ago told me whilst I was speaking at their association in Leeds that parts of France were like Berlin, where she was in 1938. She escaped Berlin, went to Paris, and left for England only to find that there is anti – Semitism here! Only a few years ago swastikas were painted on Jewish peoples doors in Harrogate! Shortly before Ariel Sharon went into a coma (he is still alive) he caused outrage whilst on a visit to France by calling on French Jewry to make aliyah and live in Israel; such was the vilification of Jews at that time. Someone has said recently “there is only one safe place for Jews – Israel!” Jordan – Israeli and U.S. flags were recently burned in Amman and calls were made for that cancellation of the Jordan- Israel peace agreement. However their PM said, ‘Given a second chance I would sign again’. Jordan has of course gained immensely in Israeli technology, farming techniques and not least… water from their peace treaty. Aliyah - All around the world there is a movement of Jewish people back to their homeland. Recently 5,000 queued to attend an aliyah fair in Paris – an unprecedented number! It raised memories of the tens of thousands (ultimately over 1,000,000) who left Russia at the time of Mr. Gorbachev. Natan Sharansky was in Paris for the event. I met him 2 years ago and he asked me, ‘Ask your Christian friends to keep praying for us, God answers prayer’. U.K. – An Israeli invited to speak at a conference on mental health had his visit cancelled at the behest of the UNISON union. The Co-op has severed its connections with Israeli exporters and will ban all imports from so-called Jewish settlements. Stop buying from the Co-op, embargos can work two ways. Support Morrison’s and Waitrose, who both promote Israeli goods. Israeli Election – One day after Israel was set to call an early election on September 4th the move was cancelled as the main opposition party Kadima agreed to join the coalition. Shaul Mofez, their leader, had previously said he would keep them in opposition, but as they faced possible annihilation in an election he changed his position. The government will now have one of the biggest majorities in its history, 94. Friction may well be on the horizon as Mr. Mofez has stated he will give the Palestinians all they want! This is diametrically opposed to Mr. Netanyahu’s position. Additionally Mr Netanyahu has consistently stated that he might bomb Iran, Mr. Mofez is against any such move. Mr. Netanyahu has often reiterated that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel; Mr. Mofez takes the opposite view. Orthodox – The new unity government has stated it will make, ‘Equality of military service a priority’. Currently more than 60,000 orthodox men of military age are exempt from army service. Olympic Games – An online petition is calling for the International Olympic Committee to honour the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the Munich games in 1972. Petition organisers hope for 1,000,000 signatories. Lebanese Border – Israel is to build a mile long wall to protect the town of Metulla from rockets. During the second Lebanese war in 2006 160 of its residents were killed. Iran – Iranian Jews are reported to be living in fear as talk of an attack on Iran continues. A Tel Aviv spice seller who imports through a third country said, ‘The people there need food, not a bomb’, nevertheless if they get a bomb they will use it. Israeli Iranian Jews fear for their families in Iran should war break out. Gaza – Speaking at the UN Israel’s Ambassador Ron Prosor (formerly Ambassador to the UK) addressed myths surrounding the Middle East. He went on,’ There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza’. Numerous international organisations including the Red Cross confirm this. Exports are expanding and there are no civilian goods that cannot enter the country. “Yet” he said, ‘as aid flows in, the missiles fly out, that is the problem not aid’. Jerusalem – Mr. Prosor, again speaking at the UN said, ‘Across the Arab world we are accused of Judaising Jerusalem, this accusation is 3,000 years too late’! He went on, ‘We are accused of the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem even though the Arab population has risen from 26% to 35%.’ Refugees – Mr. Prosor pointed out that, ‘No one talks about 850,000 Jews uprooted from Arab countries in our 64 year history they are of course busy talking about Arab refugees.’ Good News – 7,000 visitors descended on Tel Aviv from 115 countries for “Agritech Israel” to study new approaches to growing better crops, flowers and even fish and dairy cows. Israel has solved problems of irrigation, recycling, crop storage, drought, disease resistant pest control and purification of waste water for its thirsty agriculture. A 7 man medical crew visited Ethiopia to provide free cataract surgery. Hundreds of adults and children were waiting and one young girl with a protruding eye was flown to Israel for a very special gift ‘A life-changing operation’. Another 10 year old girl had a tumour behind her eye removed. Undoubtedly Jewish people are specially gifted by God. Finally – Congratulations to Israel on her 64th birthday! Truly God’s hand is upon them - well that statment, I am not all that sure of? WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
Paolo Gabriele charged with illegal possession of documents after whistle blowing book alleges corruption at Holy See By Damien Pearse and Tom Kington in Rome guardian.co.uk
Pope Benedict XVI with his butler Paolo Gabriele (bottom left) and private secretary Georg Gänswein. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP The pope's butler has been formally charged over suspicions he leaked a large number of confidential letters addressed to Benedict XVI which have lifted the lid on alleged corruption and nepotism at the Holy See. Vatican magistrates charged Paolo Gabriele, 46, with illegal possession of secret documents and said a wider investigation would take place to see if he had any accomplices who helped him leak them. Gabriele, who has worked as Benedict's butler since 2006, was taken into custody after investigators reportedly found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children. The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julián Herranz, a member of Opus Dei, a full "pontifical mandate" to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks. Gabriele is a member of the 85-year-old pontiff's closest circle of helpers, assisting him in his papal apartment at the Vatican alongside four female members of the Italian religious movement Comunione e Liberazione who cook and clean. The Rome-born butler is in custody in the Vatican's cells. "We have cells," said a Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. "It is a simple structure, since this is a small state, but we have them." Among the most serious leaks published this year is a letter from Carlo Maria Viganò, the former deputy governor of Vatican City, denouncing inflated contracts with friendly companies, false invoicing and missing cash. Further revelations were published this week in a book by a journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who described how an unnamed whistleblower sent emissaries to sound him out before they held secret meetings in an unfurnished rented flat near the Vatican. "I wore a USB round my neck for six months with the leaked documents on it," Nuzzi said. "It was like something out of a film." In the book, the source says he was coming clean because "hypocrisy within the Vatican goes unchallenged and scandals multiply". The book, which was described as criminal by the Vatican, alleged that the editor of the Vatican's newspaper started a gay smear campaign against a rival editor, with the help of a newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family. Letters depict collusion between the Berlusconi government and the Vatican over how to avoid EU pressure to make the Catholic church pay tax on its properties. Huge cash donations to the pope from banks and a TV presenter are described, as well as a €100,000 (£80,000) truffle sent by a businessman which was donated to the poor. "After Pope John Paul II's death I started putting aside copies of some documents that came into my possession thanks to my work," the source told Nuzzi. "Initially I did it sporadically. When I saw that the truth coming out in the newspapers and official speeches did not match the truth in the documents I put everything aside in a folder to try and investigate and understand." The source said his growing disenchantment with the "personal interests and hidden truths" at the Vatican was shared by other people living and working in he city state, but "nobody knows who all the others are". The letters show the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a bad light but spare the pope. "The source backed Benedict's reforming spirit. The problem is that the pope has not been able to achieve things very quickly," said Nuzzi. Marco Tosatti, a Vatican expert at La Stampa newspaper, said: "I don't believe they would have arrested him if they didn't have real proof, but I believe he is not the only guilty one. I imagine he will go before an Italian court and risks 20 years for stealing correspondence from a head of state." Other letters reveal a row over improving transparency at the Vatican bank after it was implicated in the 1980s in the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano whose chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging under London Bridge. On Thursday, the Vatican bank's president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was brought in to improve transparency, was ousted "for not having carried out various responsibilities of primary importance regarding his office," the Vatican said in a statement. WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By Alessandro Speciale Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, in Rome in late February (CNS/Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi) VATICAN CITY -- In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign. According to a Vatican statement, the bank's supervisory council unanimously passed a no-confidence motion in Gotti Tedeschi for his "failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office." Carl A. Anderson, the supreme knight of the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, is one of the council's four members. The Vatican's chief spokesman, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, declined to give more details on the reasons for the dismissal, but analysts say the move should be read in the context of an internal Vatican struggle over controversial new rules for financial transparency. Since 2010, Gotti Tedeschi, together with the bank's director general, Paolo Cipriani, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering. In the past, the Vatican Bank, which operates under the protection of the Vatican's status as a sovereign nation, has been often accused of involvement in shady financial operations, such as money laundering for Italian politicians and even mafia bosses. According to Giuseppe Di Taranto, professor of finance with LUISS University in Rome, in recent years "Pope Benedict XVI has spearheaded an effort to bring more transparency to the Vatican," seeking its entry into an international list of financially transparent countries. A key step in this direction was the creation of an independent financial watchdog in December 2010. But according to internal Vatican documents leaked in recent months to the Italian press, the watchdog panel's effective powers have been at the center of a heated Vatican power struggle. A senior Vatican source quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA said this so-called "Vatileaks" scandal was one of the reasons that led to Gotti Tedeschi's ousting. In a statement, the Vatican Bank -- officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion -- said it hoped to find a new president who would "rebuild relationships between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect of internationally accepted banking standards." A cardinal's commission overseeing the bank's activities, headed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will meet tomorrow to discuss the bank's "future steps." An outspoken economist, Gotti Tedeschi had been at the helm of the Vatican Bank since 2009. His provocative analyses of the global economic crisis often appeared in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's semiofficial newspaper. According to Di Taranto, even if the precise reasons for Gotti Tedeschi's dismissal remain unclear, to comply with European standards "there is a need for a further modernization and restructuring" of the Vatican Bank. "After all, the Vatican is a very rich country." WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
Identifying as a Fundamentalist Born Again Christian, (who holds fast to the Reformed Theory for Biblical interpretation) I do not agree with those who say that there is something out of the ordinary relative to Israel, or that God has not ordained this land for any special privileges.
