IS GOD A MATHEMATICIAN

Dr Ivan Panin

By Keith Newman.

The authenticity of the Holy Bible has been attacked at regular intervals by athiests and theologians alike but none have explained away the mathematical seal beneath its surface.

It would seem the divine hand has moved to prevent counterfeiting in the pages of the Bible in a similar manner to the line that runs through paper money. Bible numerics appears to be God's watermark of authenticity.

Vital research on this numeric seal was completed by a native of the world's most renowned atheistic nation, Russia. Dr Ivan Panin was born in Russia on Dec 12, 1855. As a young man he was an active nihilist and participated in plots against the Czar and his government. He was a mathematical genius who died a Harvard scholar and a citizen of the United States in 1942.

Panin was exiled from Russia. After spending a number of years studying in Germany he went to the United States where he became an outstanding lecturer on literary criticism.

Panin was known as a firm agnostic - so well known that when he discarded his agnosticism and accepted the Christian faith, the newspapers carried headlines telling of his conversion.

It was in 1890 that Dr Panin made the discovery of the mathematical structure underlining the vocabulary of the Greek New Testament. He was casually reading the first verse of the gospel of John in the Greek: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with the God and the Word was God...".

Dr Panin was curious as to why the Greek word for "the"' preceeded the word "God"' in one case and not the other. In examining the text he became aware of a number relationship. This was the first of the discoveries that led to his conversion and uncovered the extensive numeric code.

Oldest manuscripts

Dr Panin found his proof in the some of the oldest and most accurate manuscripts - the Received Hebrew Text and the Westcott and Hort Text.

In the original languages of the Bible, mostly Hebrew and Greek, there are no separate symbols for numbers, letters of the alphabet are also used to indicate numbers.

The numeric value of a word is the sum total of all its letters. It was curiosity that first caused Dr Panin to begin toying with the numbers behind the texts. Sequences and patterns began to emerge. These created such a stirring in the heart of the Russian that he dedicated 50 years of his life to painstakingly comb the pages of the Bible.

This complex system of numbering visibly and invisibly saturates every book of the scriptures emphasising certain passages and illustrating deeper or further meaning in types and shadows. The 66 books of the Bible 39 in the Old and 27 in the New were written by 33 different people.

Those authors were scattered throughout various countries of the world and from widely different backgrounds. Many of them had little or no schooling. The whole Bible was written over a period of 1500 years with a 400 year silence apart from the Apocrypha between the two testaments. Despite the handicaps the biblical books are found to be a harmonious record, each in accord with the other.

Dr Panin says the laws of probability are exceeded into the billions when we try and rationalise the authorship of the Bible as the work of man. He once said: "If human logic is worth anything at all we are simply driven to the conclusion that if my facts I have presented are true, man could never have done this.

Inspiration from on high

"We must assume that a Power higher than man guided the writers in such a way, whether they knew it or not, they did it and the Great God inspired them to do it''.

The Bible itself states clearly that it is the literal God-breathed'' living word of the Creator. The words "Thus saith the Lord"' and "God said"' occur more than 2500 times throughout scripture.

In 2 Timothy 3:16 it states "All scripture is given by inspiration of God". Then in 2 Peter 9:20-21 it plainly states: "No prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost".

Let's take the number seven as an illustration of the way the patterns work. Seven is the most prolific of the mathematical series which binds scripture together. The very first verse of the Bible "In the begining God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1:1), contains over 30 different combinations of seven.

This verse has seven Hebrew words having a total of 28 letters 4 x 7. The numeric value of the three nouns "God", "heaven" and "earth" totals 777. Any number in triplicate expresses complete, ultimate or total meaning.

Also tightly sealed up with sevens are the genealogy of Jesus, the account of the virgin birth and the resurrection. Seven occurs as a number 187 times in the Bible (41 x 7), the phrase "seven-fold" occurs seven times and "seventy" occurs 56 times (7 x 8).

In the Book of Revelation seven positively shines out: there are seven golden candlesticks, seven letters to seven churches, a book sealed with seven seals, seven angels standing before the Lord with seven trumpets, seven thunders and seven last plagues. In fact there are over 50 occurrences of the number seven in Revelation alone.

Divisible by seven

There are 21 Old Testament writers whose names appear in the Bible (3 x 7). The numeric value of their names is divisible by seven. Of these 21, seven are named in the New Testament: Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea and Joel. The numeric values of these names is 1554 (222 x 7). David's name is found 1134 times (162 x 7).

God's seal also pervades creation as though it were woven into the very fabric of nature.

The Bible has declared man's years to be three score and ten (70). The development of the human embryo is in exact periods of sevens or 28 days (4 x 7). Medical science tells us the human body is renewed cell for cell every seven years.

We're told the pulse beats slower every seven days as if it were in accord with the seventh day of rest proclaimed in the Genesis creation week. And God formed man of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7); science confirms the human body is made of the same 14 elements (2 x 7) found in your average handful of dust.

The light of the sun is made up of seven distinct colours as shown in the rainbow. In music there are seven distinct notes which climax in a chord or octave at the beginning of a new seven.

In almost all animals the incubation or pregnancy period is divisible by seven. Seven is often referred to as "God's seal" or the number of spiritual perfection.

Number of resurrection

Eight is the number of new life or "resurrection". It is the personal number of Jesus. When we add together the letter values of the name Jesus in the Greek we get 888. Jesus was called The Christ, the numeric value of this title is 1480 (185 x 8). He was Saviour which has the value 1408 (2 x 8 x 88).

Jesus is also Lord which again is a multiple of eight being 800 (100 x 8). Messiah has the numeric value 656 (82 x8). Jesus also called himself the Son of man. The term occurs 88 times and is valued at 2960 (370 x 8).

Jesus said "I am the truth": the numeric value of "the truth" is 64 (8 x 8). The last book in the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which has exactly 888 Greek words. Eight persons were saved in the Ark at the great Noahic flood. God made a covenant with Abraham that every male Jewish child was to be circumsised on the eighth day of his life.

There are eight individual cases of resurrection spoken of in the Bible apart from Jesus. Three occur in the Old Testament, three in the gospels and two in Acts. It was on the eighth day or the first day of the new week that Jesus rose from the dead. The Holy Spirit also came down from heaven on the eighth day.

Nine is finality or completion. The first example of its use is that infinitely sealed first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning God'' which in Hebrew is: Brayshith Elohim which has the numeric value of 999. The very next statement "created the heaven" is also sealed with 999.

Nine is finality

The number nine is endowed with a peculiar quality, it is finality in itself. Not only is it the final single number, but if you multiply it by any other number, the addition of the resulting figures will always revert back to nine (2 x 9 = 18 / 1 + 8 = 9 etc).

There are nine basic gifts available to the Christian believer through the power of God's Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:8-10). There are nine basic fruits which should be evident in the life of the believer (Gal 5:22-23). The words "my wrath" have the numeric value 999. The word Amen or verily is valued at 99 and occurs 99 times.

The work on the cross was completed at the ninth hour when Jesus said "It is finished". The shedding of his blood was final. It saw an end to the old system of animal sacrifice to atone for sin. The word "blood" in this sense occurs 99 times.

Great superstition has always surrounded the number 13 as being unlucky or dark. Perhaps there is good reason. One of the most convincing proofs of the origins of this number can be found by unraveling all the names by which Satan is known. Drakon or dragon has a value of 975 (13 x 75) and it occurs 13 times. Peirazon or tempter has a value of 1053 (13 x 81). Belial which is personification of evil has a value of 78 (13 x 6).

Anthropoktonos or "murderer" has a value of 1820 (13 x 40). Ophis or "serpent" is 780 (13 x 60). The phrase used by the Holy Spirit Ho kaloumenos diablos kai ho Satanas or "called the Devil and Satan" is valued 2197 (13 x 13 x 13).

Small neat calculations

This article is in truth an oversimplification of the work of Dr Panin and others who followed in his footsteps. Dr Panin's work initially involved some 40,000 pages of material on which he had written millions of small neat calculations. It involved volumes.

He often laboured up to 18 hours a day exploring the vast numeric structure. By and large it was a thankless task. Dr Panin said "When I first made the discovery I was of course, taken off my feet - I was in the same condition as our friend Archimedes who when he solved a great mathematical problem while in the bath, rushed in to the street naked, crying 'I have found it'. I thought people would be delighted to embrace the new discovery, but I found human nature is always the same. So I quietly withdrew and did my work all by myself".

Although it would appear that his work has been largely lost from popular reading today Dr Panin did accomplish several outstanding works. He published Structure in the Bible the Numeric Greek New Testament and the Numeric English New Testament.

The works of Dr Ivan Panin have been put before the experts many times. Dr Panin once challenged nine noted rationalists and Bible critics through the medium of the New York Sun newspaper Nov 9, 1899. He dared them to publicly refute or give explanation for a few of his presented facts. Four made lame excuses. The rest were silent.

Dr Panin issued a challenge throughout leading newspapers of the world asking for a natural explanation or rebuttal of the facts. Not a single person accepted.

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.

For Pope’s WH visit, Obama invites pro-abortion nun, gay bishop, transgender

The Pope would cancel this visit if he had any scruples.

Check it out:

 A transvestite, a pro-choice nun, a gay bishop, and the Pope all walk into the White House. Only this is no joke:

President Obama will apparently test just how far Pope Francis’ notorious tolerance will go by inviting a rogue’s gallery of people opposed to Catholic teaching to greet the pontiff at the White House during his visit next week.

In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.

And you thought Obama was raising the ultimate middle finger to the religious right when he ordered that the “people’s house” be flooded in rainbow colors on June 26 following the Supreme Court’s notorious same-sex marriage ruling.

Among those invited to join the president when he greets the Pope will be Gene Robinson, who made history by becoming the first openly gay episcopal bishop in 2003. Mateo Williamson, a co-chair of the Transgender Caucus for Dignity USA, has also received an invitation.

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.

Giant bronze statue of Satan unveiled in Michigan

DETROIT – Several hundred people have attended a Mass at a Detroit Catholic church to protest an 8 1/2-foot-tall bronze statue of Satan that hundreds of people also lined up to see.

The Satanic Temple had said it would unveil the statue Saturday at a Detroit location that only people with tickets would know.

Hundreds lined up Saturday evening to get the tickets as Christian protesters rallied nearby.

Earlier Saturday, The Detroit News says 200-250 people attended Mass at St. Joseph Church in a protest against the satanic event.

The statue had been planned for the state capitol in Oklahoma City until Oklahoma’s Supreme Court banned all religious displays on Capitol grounds.

The Satanic Temple now says it wants to erect it outside Arkansas’ statehouse, where a Ten Commandments monument also is planned.

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.

Britain plans registry of religious leaders, will require government-specific training, security checks

Imams, priests, rabbis and other religious figures in Britain will have to enrol in a “national register of faith leaders” and be subject to government-specified training and security checks in the Home Office’s latest action on extremism.

The highly controversial proposal appears in a leaked draft of the Government’s new counter-extremism strategy, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, which goes substantially further than previous versions of the document.

The strategy, due to be published this fall, says that Whitehall will “require all faiths to maintain a national register of faith leaders” and the Government will “set out the minimum level of training and checks” faith leaders must have to join the new register.

Registration will be compulsory for all faith leaders who wish to work with the public sector, including universities, the document says. In practice, most faith leaders have some dealings with the public sector and the requirement will cover the great majority.

The move marks a significant deepening of the state’s involvement in religion and is likely to be resisted by many religious representatives.

Maulana Shah Raza, an imam who is a founding member of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (Minab), a self-regulatory body designed to promote best practice, warned the Government “not to meddle in religious affairs or to expand the state’s involvement in deciding on religious and theological issues.”

He said: “The Government needs to concentrate on ensuring that safeguards are in place to protect the public and treating all faith communities equally.”

Minab was launched with ministerial support under the last Labour government, but relations with Whitehall have cooled after the group refused to sever ties with extremist mosques and imams.

The new crackdown has emerged the week after the U.K. government announced that it had killed two British ISIL fighters in a drone strike.
 
It is believed Reyaad Khan, 21, from Cardiff, the main target of the drone attack, was radicalized at the Welsh city’s al-Manar mosque, which has hosted a series of extremist preachers, including Muhammad Mustafa al-Muqri, an al-Qaeda ally and former leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Until 2013 the mosque’s in-house preacher, Ali Hammuda, who believes that music is a “sickness,” was allowed into Cathays High School, one of the schools attended by Khan, to run lunchtime sessions with students, teaching among other things that music and “free-mixing” between men and women were “not permitted in Islam”.

Another extremist preacher closely linked with a terrorist, Usman Ali, who taught one of the men who killed soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, was appointed chaplain at the area’s local hospital and was also on the management committee of a community centre. He was only sacked from his NHS role after an undercover reporter filmed him inviting a guest speaker who praised the Taliban.

For far too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens that as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. This government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church said it had not been consulted on the proposals. Other senior Catholic sources said any plan for state supervision of priests would be “firmly resisted.”

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has said that the fight against Islamist extremism is the “struggle of our generation” and has to be won for the same reasons that Nazism was defeated. The leaked strategy is also sharply critical of the police and local councils for their failure to tackle scandals exposed by this and other newspapers, including the Trojan Horse plot to take over state schools in Birmingham, extremism and corruption in Tower Hamlets, and the child grooming scandal in Rotherham.

The strategy, which was supposed to be published in spring this year, has been delayed for months amid deep concern in some parts of government and most of the counter-extremism community about its most radical measure, to ban individuals whose behaviour “falls below the thresholds in counter-terrorism legislation” but which “undermines British values.”

Cameron has said: “For far too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens that as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. This government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach.”

In May, Haras Rafiq, director of the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, described this proposal as “Orwellian and totalitarian,” saying it would “play into the hands” of extremists. He added: “It is very noticeable that the main Islamist groups are not really up in arms about this. They want it, because it will feed the narrative of grievance and victimhood they love. They will be able to use it to say, ‘look, we told you so.'”

The document defines extremism as “the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs,” or as calling for the death of members of the British Armed Forces.

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.

Is the current Pope a Communist?

Is Pope Francis preparing to set up the new socialist system that will require everyone, who wishes to buy and sell, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead?

“And he causes all people, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, that they give them a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and that no one was able to buy or to sell except the one who had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16–17)

It sure appears like Mr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis) is a Marxist. The Pope said this about the European refugee problem:

“These poor people are fleeing war, hunger, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Because underneath that is the cause; and the cause is a bad and unjust socioeconomic system, in everything, in the world – speaking of the environmental problem –, in the socioeconomic society, in politics, the person always has to be in the centre. That is the dominant economic system nowadays, it has removed the person from the centre, placing the god money in its place, the idol of fashion. There are statistics, I don’t remember precisely, (I might have this wrong), but that 17% of the world’s population has 80% of the wealth.”  (Vatican Insider)

“The person has to be at the centre?”   …oh really? John the Baptist said,

“A man can receive not one thing unless it is granted to him from heaven!  …  The one who comes from above is over all. The one who is from the earth is from the earth and speaks from the earth; the one who comes from heaven is over all.” (John 3:31)

The pope argued the refugee problem is due to an unjust economic system and not supernatural evil (Ephesians 6:12)? Nominal Catholics with a Western education in economics know better. Robert Spencer – a vocal critic of Islam – takes Pope Francis’ socialist arguments and turns them on their ear with facts. Spencer demonstrates that the pope even contradicts his own previous statements about refugees… While Jesus was not a capitalist he was no Marxist: Jesus said,

“Therefore give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God!”(Matthew 22:21)

It is beyond question that in the context of the passage “the things of Caesar” meant more MONEY for the wealthiest man imaginable (and less for the poor) at that time Jesus spoke. Why does the alleged Vicar of Christ, contradict the words of the historical Jesus Christ?  In a different but relevant context, Jesus reminded the disciples that perfuming his body was more important than feeding the hungry:

“For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor!” But Jesus, knowing this, said to them, “Why do you cause trouble for the woman? For she has done a good deed for me. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” (Matthew 26:9–11)

Islam critic, Robert Spencer does a fine job of shredding the false prophet’s socialist apologetic: POPE KARL I The Pontiff blames the refugee crisis on…capitalism. 

It’s been assumed for centuries that a prerequisite for the coming of False Prophet and his Antichrist master would be the sudden or contrived emergence of a new world order—an umbrella under which national boundaries dissolve and ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world orchestrate a single and dominant sovereignty. At the head of the utopian administration, the Antichrist will surface. At first, he will appear to be a man of distinguished character, but will ultimately become “a king of fierce countenance” (Daniel 8:23) who makes the combined depravities of Antiochus Epiphanes, Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan, all of whom were types of the Antichrist, look like child’s play. With imperious decree, he will facilitate a One-World Government, universal religion, and global socialism.

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.

Alexis Tsipras: As a Greek, I’m proud to lead Europe’s Left

Alexis Tsipras tells EurActiv Greece in an exclusive interview that his candidacy for the European Commission presidency on behalf of the European Left shows the solidarity of Europe's southern people, who are suffering from the "catastrophic" social consequences of austerity policy.

Syriza, or Coalition of the Radical Left, is the second largest party in Greece and the main opposition force. At the June 2012 elections, the centre-right New Democracy (ND) led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras won 29.66% of the votes, followed by Syriza with 26.89%. PASOK came third with only 12.28%. Alexis Tsipras, a civil engineer, is the head of the Syriza parliamentary group since 2009 and leader of the opposition since June 2012.

What is the political meaning of your candidacy for president of the European Commission on behalf of the Party of the European Left?

It is a very important candidacy because it puts forward my identity as a Greek and a European politician of the Left with a concrete and realistic political plan, an alternative to today’s Europe that has succumbed to the neoliberal hegemony; a hegemony which endeavours to reorganise Europe to the benefit of its banks and to the detriment of its peoples; to the benefit of its capital and to the detriment of its workers.

Thus, the candidacy of the European Left aims at being the answer to the policy of permanent austerity; a policy which sets off economic insecurity in tandem with the risk of unemployment, social exclusion, and poverty.

In particular, the candidacy of the leader of the main opposition in Greece symbolizes recognition of the unjust sacrifices made by the Greek people. It also symbolizes solidarity of all the peoples in Europe’s South. The people that are suffering the catastrophic social consequences of the Memoranda of austerity and recession.

The message that the European Left aspires to send with my candidacy is that the strategy of austerity can be defeated; that the alternative political plan of the Left to refound Europe and give prominence to real democracy, in contrast to the current neoliberal architecture of the European Union, could pave the way for the unity of peoples and workers and thereby block the emergence of nationalism, chauvinism and the extreme right.  At the same time that the extreme right and nazism are marching in Europe, there are political forces which pretend not to have knowledge of European history – and, in particular, of German history under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning. They insist on the failed policies of austerity and poverty, which fuel populism and nazism. But their dangerous and myopic expediency spells the hour of the Left. When the wheel of history turns back, this is our own moment to move Europe forward.

Why did you accept to be a candidate at a time when you have increased responsibilities and commitments in Greece and the possibility of parliamentary elections in your country appears almost on a monthly basis?

Because, in essence, the two positions of the leader of opposition in Greece and candidate of the European Left for President of the European Commission are not only complementary but, also, mutually reinforcing. Problems are best tackled only at their actual level.  A Eurozone member-state’s overindebtedness and exclusion from the markets might appear on the surface to be a national issue. However, it is also a European issue. It is connected with the Eurozone’s structure and operation, because the single currency transforms the national into European. 

In that respect, the content of the solutions which might or might not be given at the European level determines the macroeconomic course and the standard of living in each member-state. So far, the management of the Eurozone debt crisis has escalated, recycled and prolonged the initial problem, keeping alive the risk that the crisis will be revived. The current policy is the policy of the crisis – it is not the policy of the solution of the crisis.

Furthermore – and this is particularly important – because the choice of my person for this candidacy is  both an honor to me and an honor to the Greek people. It is an act of political solidarity to the Greek people by the European Left.

It is, also, an act of moral, political and ideological vindication for our party – SYRIZA.

Moral, since it recognizes SYRIZA’s important contribution to developments in the European left.

Political, since it raises a point that SYRIZA has been supporting from the outset of the crisis: that the crisis  is not the result of free-riding behavior by the “lazy Greeks”, nor is it a Greek “special case”. It is a crisis which is European in nature. And, for that reason, we need to build a common front against the political forces of “Merkelism” – particularly at this point that Europe is at a crossroads.

Ideological, since, in its founding declaration, SYRIZA has set Europe as the terrain of political and class struggle.

On numerous occasions you have talked about the need to forge an alliance or even a front for Southern Europe to claim for your countries advantageous fiscal solutions from Northern Europe. How would you, then, convince the citizens of those member states in north that you can defend their interests as well, that you could equally be their own representative?

I have repeatedly and systematically supported the position that we have to urgently overcome the North-South divide that the neoliberal management of the crisis has consolidated. It rendered “creditors” the member-states of the North with a 3A credit rating, and weakened even further the countries of the South, which suffer from the austerity policies that are inscribed in the so-called “Memoranda”, by rendering them “debtors”.

Both the Party of the European Left and SYRIZA, are fighting for an anti-austerity and anti-recession European movement; a solidarity movement among the working people of the North and the South, which would inspire and impose a European political pact for democracy, development and social justice.

Our proposal for the widest possible European alliance against austerity interlaces with the quintessence of the process of European integration, as epitomized by Jean Monnet – the architect of Europe’s union: “We are not forming coalition of states – we are uniting men”.

We juxtapose the solidarity of the young, the working people, the pensioners and the unemployed to the solidarity of the capital that the current neoliberal management of the crisis materializes.  It is only this solidarity, which could break through the dichotomy North-South, “le mur de l’ argent” to use a historical phrase that has become relevant once again.  A phrase that Édouard Herriot, the leader of the “Cartel des gauches” and Prime Minister of France in the beginning of the 1920s coined to decry the hostility both of the Bank of France, which was in the hands of “200 families” at the time, and the financial capital to his government’s economic and social reforms.

We want to demolish this new “mur de l’ argent”. This is the meaning of the choice of my candidacy by the Party of the European left: to reunite Europe and refound it on a democratic and progressive basis.

However, at the time that you declare your solidarity to the wage demands and social struggles of the working people in the north, you propose a 'European Debt Conference'. The apparent goal of such a proposal is to have a “haircut” on the face value of your country’s – and perhaps of other overindebted countries’ – public debt. But this would be asking taxpayers in the eurozone north to put their hands into their pockets for your own sake. 

Nobody is asking the German or Dutch taxpayers to pay our own bill. The proposal that you mentioned does not imply loss of money. It, instead, implies cutting down on profits from the eurozone crisis. I could remind you of a recent publication by the Bertelsmann Foundation – a credible and not at all left-wing institution – which ascertains that: “Even if Germany and the other creditor countries have to write off a significant part of the loans which they have given to the highly indebted countries in southern Europe in the context of the various euro rescue measures, the advantages of the Monetary Union, at least as far as Germany is concerned, outweigh the disadvantages”. It further estimates Germany’s loss of income, without the euro, in the so-called “deutschmark scenario,” from this year to 2025 to almost €1.2 trillion or more than €14,000 per inhabitant.

Furthermore, last August, the magazine Der Spiegel made reference to data made available by the German Ministry of Finance to an SPD member of Parliament according to which “the crisis has only cost Germany a mere €599 million thus far”. Meanwhile, over the period 2010-2014, savings in interest payments from “a steep drop in yields due to strong demand from investors seeking a safe haven” will be €40.9 billion.

I would, therefore, tell you that, with our own proposal, taxpayers in Europe will not lose money. Quite to the contrary: they risk to lose – and rather a lot – if their governments defer inevitable solutions by hushing up the truth in view of a perceived gain in political time.  They will be asked to put their hands into their pockets as long as the austerity programmes fail, rendering necessary new loans, in a continuous vicious circle of austerity and recession.

Homeopathy does not work in the economy. You cannot tackle overindebtedness with more loans. That could blow us all up. We will be telling that truth all along the pre-electoral period.

Could you give us some of the basic political points of your candidacy? What electoral goal have you set?

We are optimistic that we will be the positive surprise of the May 25th 2014 election for the European Parliament. We want to imprint the Left on the conscience and preferences of the European citizens for what it actually is: the only alternative political force to neoliberalism. We are the main political force of change in Europe. We are the hope against the danger of entrapping people in the long-term recessionary austerity.

We support the immediate repeal of all Memoranda, the end of austerity and the coordinated reflation of all European economies.

We support the collective, credible and definite resolution of the Eurozone debt crisis, predicated on the 1953 London Conference for Germany’s debt.

We are working for a European economic and growth policy which would dwindle fascism and Nazism instead of dwindling democracy.

We want to be the necessary political countervailing power to a process of transforming Europe into the “dark Continent” as a result of the rise of the extreme right and fascism in the ruins of austerity, recession and poverty.

At the same time, we aim at being the political force which would alert the peoples of Europe against the danger of being entrapped in the introvert policies of national entrenchment.

We are cooperating with all the democratic and sensitive people regardless their ideology and political-party affiliation as well as with all the democratic political forces to repress xenophobia and nationalism and embolden democracy and peace.

Immigration policy is a case in point. The notorious 2003 Dublin II Regulation establishes a two-speed policy that could be encapsulated in the well-known British acronym “nimby” (“not in my own backyard”) for those EU member-states that are not points of entry of immigrants.

It confines immigrants to the EU-border member-states.

We reject the so-called “Fortress Europe” which only operates as a seeding ground for xenophobia, racism and fascism.

We are working for a Europe that will become an impregnable fortress to fascism. We are working for the necessary double European solidarity: external, with the viable support and developmental assistance to the countries of emigration and, internal, with the just allocation of immigrants across the EU.

We want to stress and make clear -- beyond the borders of Greece-- that the Left has the political vision and courage to build a wider social consensus on the programmatic goal to refound Europe on a democratic, social and ecological basis.

SYRIZA has proved in Greece that the Left can be a political force which can govern and not only a protest movement.; a political force that has the knowledge, the will and the capability to change α citizen’s everyday life. We don’t want to assume the role of outraged onlookers – we want, instead, to be decisive protagonists.

If, at the end of the day, you don’t overcome the double electoral hurdle that the Christian democratic and social democratic candidates pose, would you vote, in a possible second round, for the social democrat – your friend, Mr Schultz – using as a criterion your political proximity?

As I have told you before, the candidacy of the Left is the alternative to the multicolor neoliberal block. That block is multicolor because it includes the liberals – apart from the Christian democratic and conservative parties that are housed in the European People’s Party.

It also includes the -- strategically perplexed-- European socialdemocracy which, particularly in the aftermath of the Cold War, has played a leading part in breaking off the postwar social contract that it had undersigned. It has been fully integrated into the neoliberal hegemony; all the more, since it actually cooperates in the imposition of the policy of “internal devaluation” in Greece and the entire Eurozone South, through the successive Memoranda. 

The Social Democrats are perplexed in the wake of the catastrophic failure of that policy. They now face the clear strategic dilemma: will they continue their integration into the neoliberal strategy – a choice which, in the case of Greece resulted in completely breaking off their  bonds with the social forces  that they had traditionally represented – or will they -- at last-- decide to change strategy? Will they  seek the popular vote to govern in alliance with the right on the basis of  a neoliberal program  or will they  change political direction and work for an alliance with the radical Left?

I believe that  this is an interesting political question for all of us.

But to answer your question directly: If, at the end of the day, another candidacy prevails, I am not the proper person to decide for the position of the Party of the European Left. It is, instead, the MEPs of our Group in the European Parliament – of the GUE/NGL, who will vote. In any case, my conjecture is that a defining element of their choice would be the programmatic commitments and guarantees of a candidate – and not his/her political title.  

Today and tomorrow (25th and 26th of November) the Conference of Presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament will be held in Athens in view of the incoming Greek Presidency of the European Union. What is your opinion on the level of preparation of Greece?

On July 18, SYRIZA requested and was granted an official briefing on this  matter by the Foreign Ministry. They briefed us  “on time”. And they disappointed us “on time”.

In any case, it would have been absurd for someone to believe that a government which cannot take or influence decisions in its own country could do that for the entire Europe.

The Directorate of the lenders of the North will be deciding and the Samaras-Venizelos government will be presiding by carrying their decisions out.

This explains why, almost a month prior to the Greek presidency semester, the presiding country has failed to specify both its specific political benchmark and the concrete legislative initiatives that describe it.

The Samaras government downgrades an institutional achievement of the relatively smaller EU member-states, namely, the rotating EU Presidency, to a Presidency of “old-fashioned party-politics parochialism”, focused on photo opportunities and diplomatic amenities for domestic pre-electoral consumption.

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.

Is Pope Francis the False Prophet of Revelation?

November 30, 2014 by TruthLamp Editorial Staff

 

 

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has been the leader of the Catholic Church for nearly two years and during that brief time, many of his actions and statements have turned heads, including those of evangelical leaders, conservative Catholics, and end-times scholars.

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John wrote that during the last days, a False Prophet would emerge, paving the way for the Antichrist’s reign and assist him in the deception of humanity. This person would then serve as the Antichrist’s right-hand-man to form an ‘Unholy Trinity,’ comprising of himself, the Antichrist, and Satan.

Due to the recent actions and statements by Pope Francis, some, including other Catholics, are now beginning to speculate that he is indeed the False Prophet as foretold in the book of Revelation.

There is no doubt that Pope Francis has assumed a much more liberal stance on social and Biblical issues than that of his predecessors. Some eyebrow-raising statements during his brief tenure include:

Good Works By Atheists Will Grant Them Salvation. This is in direct contrast with Ephesians 2:8-9, which clearly states that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone.

The Theories of the Big Bang and Evolution are True. With this position, Pope Francis negates the authority of Scripture, as well as the omnipotence of God. In the same dialogue where he embraced evolution, Francis went on to say, “Reading Genesis, we imagine that God is ‘a wizard with a magic wand’ capable of doing all things… But it is not so.”

Who Am I To Judge? These famous words by Pope Francis were part of an unscripted response to a question about priests and their sexual orientation. Francis then made news when he demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high ranking and outspoken conservative leader who criticized Pope Francis’ stance on gay marriage, divorce and his progressive agenda. After his ousting, Burke was quoted as saying, “The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other doctrine of the faith.”

Proselytism is solemn nonsense. It makes no sense. Once again, the pope’s remarks are in direct contrast to Biblical teaching and The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Additionally, with these comments, Francis diminishes the importance of missionaries and missions work.

Seeking Jesus Outside the Church is ‘Dangerous and Harmful’. This past June in front of a crowd of 35,000 at St. Peter’s Square, the Pope was quoted as saying: “Some think they can have a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the communion and the mediation of the Church. Such temptations are dangerous and harmful.” This shocking statement, first reported by AsiaNews, is in direct conflict with what Jesus says in John 14:6 — I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Here is a video of that statement:

While such statements and actions in-and-of-themselves would not necessarily qualify someone to be the False Prophet of Revelation, world events and other influencing factors also need to be taken into consideration.

The Bible states that the last days will be marked by, among other things, mass deception and a large-scale ecumenical movement (consolidation of all the world’s religions). Most would agree that such a broad consolidation of faiths would only be possible by a leading religious figure, not a political one.

Pope Francis’ desire for ecumenism has been well documented, with experts predicting that he will be a ‘boon’ to the movement.

Indeed, just this past week, Pope Francis again raised eyebrows when he prayed alongside an influential Islamic cleric at a Turkish mosque.

There is little doubt by most Biblical scholars that the world is on the cusp of fulfilling many of the end-times prophecies as foretold throughout the Bible. If true, then all current political and religious leaders would need to be considered potential candidates to fill key roles during this time.

So is Pope Francis the False Prophet? While many indicators point in that direction, only time will tell…

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.