v v v v v
COPENHAGEN
TAMING THE CLIMATE &
CHANGING THE WORLD
TURKEY
READING THE SIGNS &
CHANGING ALLIES
TEHRAN
PURSUING GOALS &
CHANGING strategIES ?
EUROPE
RATIFYING “LISBON”
&
CHANGING THE PRESIDENCY
ROME
WOOING ANGLICANS &
CHANGING THE TERMS
My dear Reader, Shalom!
Praise God there is shalom (peace)
with God through the Messiah, Y’shua, who loved us and gave Himself for
our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age.
(Galatians
1:3-4).
This issue I report on six major
events that are confronting the nations at the present time …
1.
The Coming Copenhagen
Conference
where a treaty is designed to
supersede Kyoto – the Climate Change Protocol. The hidden agenda at
Copenhagen, many believe, will lay a foundation for a global regime. An
observer writes: “I believe that once the new climate change protocols
are in place, it will plunge the world as we know it, into a global
socialist state.”
2.
The Reversal of Turkey’s
Relations with Israel
and the Western nations. Turkey is now deepening relations with Syria,
Iran and Russia. The Northern Confederation is developing fast.
3.
The Goldstone Report into
“Operation Cast Lead”
-
the Israeli military response last
January to the constant Gazan rocket attacks on southern Israel. The
anti-Israel report has been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council by a
big majority. That endorsement demonizes Israel, and deals a heavy blow
to the Middle East peace process.
4.
Iran’s Nuclear Issue.
The UN’s International
Atomic Energy Agency has announced that the US, Russia and France have
agreed to a deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. If Iran signs on to
the deal, its nuclear program would receive legitimacy.
5.
The European Union’s
preparation for a long- term President.
Mr Tony Blair has been
touted as a possible candidate for the position.
6.
Pope Benedict XVI’s Edict
offering a new
structure for Anglicans who wish to join the Roman Catholic Church.
Thousands of Anglican priests, and entire parishes and even dioceses,
may now defect to Rome.
Y’shua the Messiah said:
“When these things begin to take place, straighten yourselves and
lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke
21:28)
Amen! And may God’s peace keep
our hearts and minds in these days.
Your brother,
Don
Stanton
THE U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
COPENHAGEN (Denmark) -
DEC. 7-18, 09
Last March (27/09), Foxnews
reported that a UN document on “climate change” was distributed to a
major environmental conclave in Bonn, Germany. The document envisioned a
huge reordering of the world economy, that would likely involve
trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and
gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and
complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon
taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.
Those and other results are
discussed in a discretely worded United Nations “information note” on
potential consequences of the measures that industrialized countries
will likely have to take to implement the Copenhagen Accord, the
successor to the Kyoto Treaty, after it is negotiated and signed by
December 2009.
- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510937,00.html
(The Copenhagen conference logo
is COP15. COP stands for “Conference of Parties”; 15 stands for the
15th conference.)
The Obama administration has said
it will support the COP15 process if it can come up with an “effective
framework” for dealing with global warming.
Getting that deal done has become
the United Nations’ highest priority; and the consequences of their
negotiations, if enacted, would be nothing short of world-changing.
Note that
“Global warming,”
has now been expanded to
“climate change,”
which would take into account both
global warming
and
global cooling.
“COPENHAGEN’S GOAL IS
WORLD GOVERNMENT”
U.N. ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ PLAN WILL LIKELY SHIFT
TRILLIONS TO FORM A NEW WORLD ECONOMY
Oct 18/09.
A former science
adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says the real
purpose of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is to use
global warming hype as a pretext
to lay the foundation for
a one-world government.
“At Copenhagen this December, a
treaty will be signed,” Lord Monckton told a Minnesota Free Market
Institute audience:
“Your president will sign it. Most
of the Third World countries will sign it, because they think they’re
going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regimes from the
European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually
nobody
won’t sign it,” he told the audience of some 700 attendees.
“I read that treaty and what it
says is this: a world government is going to be created. The word ‘government’
actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity.
“The second purpose is the
transfer of wealth from
the countries of the West to Third World countries,
in satisfaction of what is called ‘climate debt’ – because we’ve been
burning CO2, and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and
they haven’t.
“And the third purpose of this new
entity, this government, is
enforcement.”
In an hour and a half lecture
illustrated by slides featuring scientific data on a wide range of
climate issues, Monckton refuted claims made by former Vice President Al
Gore in his movie and book entitled, “An Inconvenient Truth,” as
well as scientific arguments made by the United Nations
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change.
Monckton argued that President
Obama will sign the Copenhagen treaty at the December meeting, without
seeking a two-thirds ratification of the treaty by the Senate, or any
other type of Congressional approval.
“So, thank you, America. You were
the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege to stand on this
soil of freedom while it is still free,” he continued. “But, in the next
few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom,
your democracy, and your humanity away forever.
“But I think it is here, here in
your great nation, which I so love and I so admire – it is here that
perhaps, at this eleventh hour, at the fifty-ninth minute and
fifty-ninth second, you will rise up and you will stop your president
from signing that dreadful treaty, that purposeless treaty. For there is
no problem with the climate and, even if there were, an economic treaty
does nothing to [help] it.”
Other main points in Monckton’s
speech reveal:
* Details of the 200 page draft
Copenhagen Treaty are being concealed from the people.
* The science behind Global
Warming has collapsed.
* The Treaty has been kept
secret in their usual way.
* The word “Government” is
explicitly referred to in the Treaty, with powers for a communistic
international Government – similar to the EU Commissars, but on a
global scale.
* This proposed World
Government is designed to take over all global free markets.
* The Copenhagen Treaty will
take precedence over the Australian (and other nations’) Constitutions.
* There’s NO provision to exit
the Copenhagen Treaty.
A part of Monckton’ lecture can be
viewed at …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40
(Another report says that at
present it looks like China, India and the US will not sign the Treaty.)
ENSLAVEMENT TO THE
CLIMATE CHANGE TREATY
BY A
COPENHAGEN PROTOCOL
A few facts from an
article by Henry Lamb.
Oct 20/09. The 15th
meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change will meet in Copenhagen December 7-18.
This is about to become the successor to Kyoto.
The UNFCCC (U.N. Framework
Convention of Climate Change – known more commonly as the Kyoto
Protocol) was a voluntary treaty through which the US agreed to
voluntarily reduce carbon emissions in 1992.
At the very first meeting of the
COP in 1995, the delegates decided to add a “Protocol” to the treaty
that would make specific emissions reduction targets set by the UN body,
legally binding on 34 developed nations.
The US Senate adopted a resolution
instructing the Clinton administration
not
to participate in the
Protocol unless it included all nations, or if it would have a negative
impact on the US economy. The developing nations refused to accept any
reduction in their carbon emissions. So the Kyoto Protocol went into
effect without the United States’ participation.
The Copenhagen meeting is supposed
to produce the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in
2012. This new agreement is supposed to set new emissions reductions
targets, even more onerous than the Kyoto targets.
The same arguments plague the
negotiations leading up to the Copenhagen meeting that plagued
negotiations in Kyoto: developing nations absolutely do not want any
kind of reductions imposed upon them, while insisting that developed
nations, especially the United States, be forced to drastically reduce
carbon emissions.
President Obama has as good as
promised the world that the US would rejoin the international climate
change treaty. He evidently thought his promise, would be sufficient to
persuade developing nations to join the party. So far, they haven’t.
His ace is a “Cap & Trade” bill that he wants signed before the
Copenhagen meeting. If he gets his bill, he can tell the developing
nations that the US has already done its part, and that he will not sign
the Copenhagen agreement unless the developing nations do.
Notice the absence of any
discussion about the validity of climate change science, or the need to
control it?
Climate change has nothing
to do with the negotiations or the meetings, or the treaties. It never
has. Climate change is simply an excuse to construct a monstrous
international bureaucracy that meets many times each year in exotic
venues around the world.
Billions of dollars
flow into and out of the climate change industry.
http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-5507/Brannon-Howse/Henry-Lamb
In the run-up to the Copenhagen
Conference, expect to hear a lot of …
CLIMATE-RELATED HORROR
STORIES
The scale of crisis must be “world
threatening” before a global consensus will be sufficient to enact
changes. Already articles with these headlines have appeared:
“IS A NEW ICE AGE ON THE HORIZON?”
“BILLIONS FACE FAMINE, SAYS SCIENTIST”
“AUSTRALIA: COASTAL LIVING AT RISK”
“PM WARNS OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE”
Oct 19/09. The UK faces a
“catastrophe” of floods, droughts and killer heat waves if world leaders
fail to agree on a deal on climate change, the prime minister has
warned. Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from
global warming and break the “impasse.”
ARCTIC OCEAN WILL BE ICE- FREE IN SUMMER
Global warming will leave the
Arctic Ocean ice-free during the summer within 20 years, raising sea
levels and harming wildlife such as seals and polar bears.
UN CHIEF CALLS FOR 
‘GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
STRUCTURE’
TO OVERSEE RESOURCES
Oct 27/09. Secy-Gen Ban Ki-moon,
in an opinion piece in New York Times, laid out a number of
benchmarks for success in the upcoming global climate talks.
Ki-moon argued that a “global
governance structure” must be levied to ensure that nations collaborate
on how resources are deployed and managed.
The editorial, entitled “We Can Do
It,” urges world leaders toward the accomplishment of three key points:
1. Curbing emissions, 2. investing
in green growth for third world nations and, 3. establishing a
supranational structure to oversee resources.
“A deal must include an
equitable global
governance structure.”
he said. “All countries must have a voice in how resources are deployed
and managed. That is how trust will be built.”
WHERE’S THE GLOBAL
WARMING?
As evidence mounts up that the
United States is headed toward
a cooling cycle
that may last decades,
global alarmists within the Obama administration remain resolved to push
cap-and-trade legislation through Congress on the increasingly dubious
theory that man-made carbon emissions are creating global warming.
In what has to be seen as
increasingly bad news for global warming alarmists, scientific evidence
is mounting that temperatures in the United States have cooled at a rate
that would be projected to lower temperatures 7.3 degrees Fahrenheit
over the next century.
(Source: U.S.
National Climate Data Center and www.c3headlines.com).
While the science behind Global
Warming is collapsing, the Messiah warns of much greater disasters than
the Greenies are worried about.
“And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon earth
despair among nations, with perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the
sea. Men’s hearts will faint from terror, being apprehensive of what is
coming upon the world; for the very powers of the heavens will be
shaken. Then will they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory.” (Luke 21:25-27)
So believer, look up, your
redemption is drawing near!
TURKEY REVERSES ITS RELATIONSHIPS
WITH ISRAEL & THE WEST
ANKARA SIDES WITH
SYRIA AND IRAN
Turkey was once the most
progressive form of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, but in
October, Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full
member of the
Iranian axis. This was not
a total surprise. Militant Islam of the AKP variety has been enjoying
growing popularity and support throughout Turkey for many years.
The Obama administration, since
entering office in January, has abandoned US support for democracy
activists throughout the world in favor of a policy of pure appeasement
of US adversaries at the expense of US allies.
In keeping with this policy,
President Barack Obama paid a preening visit to Ankara where he
effectively endorsed the Islamization of Turkish foreign policy that has
moved the NATO member into the arms of Tehran’s mullahs.
– Caroline
Glick /
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
DETERIORATING RELATIONS
WITH ISRAEL
Diplomatic relations between
Israel and Turkey took a nose-dive in October after Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan booted Israel out of a NATO joint training exercise
involving Italy and the US.
Turkey banned Israel planes from
flying over Turkey in the NATO exercise, and informed Israel that its
Air Force was not welcome to fly in the “Anatolian Eagle”
exercise because of IAF’s use of its planes during its counter-terrorism
Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter.
Anatolian Eagle
was slated to begin October 12,
and continue through to October 23, but when the US and Italy refused to
take part in the exercise without the IAF, Turkey was forced to postpone
the exercise indefinitely.
The reason Turkey gave, was
Israel’s inability to deliver an order of Heron surveillance drones to
Turkey on the agreed schedule, even though it was the failure of a part
produced by Turkey that made on time delivery impossible.
Turkish officials tried to calm
harsh Israeli reactions to the surprise cancellation, but Israeli
officials maintained that the government of Prime Minister Recip Tayyip
Erdogan was trying to punish Israel for the three-week Operation Cast
Lead counter-terrorist war against Gaza that concluded in mid-January.
TURKEY REBUFFS ISRAEL,
CONDUCTS WAR GAME WITH
SYRIA
The threat of the anti-Israel axis
north of the border worsened with an announcement just two days after
the joint training exercise cancelled, that Turkey was conducting
joint military maneuvers with Israel’s enemy, Syria.
Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defence Committee chairman Tzachi HaNegbi stated that the cancellation
of the joint military exercise is a “troubling” development.
Two decades of close ties between
Ankara and Jerusalem appear to be coming to an end, the Asia Times
reported. It explained that demands from the Arab world and from
hardline Muslims in Turkey have influenced the government to distance
itself from Israel, which has supplied Ankara with hundreds of millions
of dollars’ worth of equipment for refurbishing tanks and airplanes.
Despite having a majority Muslim
population, Turkey has enjoyed strong diplomatic, military and trade
relations with the Jewish state over the past two decades, and has tried
to bolster its image as being a cultural bridge linking East and West.
Both countries have flown together
over each other’s territory in various joint military drills since the
signing of a bilateral defence alliance between the two nations in 1996.
The Turkish army has fiercely
guarded its country’s secular government, and has often overthrown those
which have sought to turn the nation into an Islamic state. But in 2002
the Islamic based Justice and Development party took power, and since
then Turkey’s relations with Israel have deteriorated. And now the
friendly era has apparently ended.
A TURKISH-SYRIAN TREATY
On 13 October, these neighbouring
countries signed a treaty which included plans to strengthen military
ties, and to end visa requirements for both countries. Ten Turkish
ministers flew to Syria for the high-level meeting with Syrian
counterparts.
Syria also praised Turkey for
pulling out of the military exercise with Israel, and urged other Muslim
countries, mainly Jordan and Egypt, to cut diplomatic ties with Israel.
TENSIONS BUILDING UP
The warm ties between Israel and
Turkey have cooled considerably since Erdogan’s harsh criticism of
Israel’s role in Operation Cast Lead in January.
Later in January, tensions between
Turkey and Israel intensified after a harsh debate between Erdogan and
President Shimon Peres, at the World Economic Forum, held in Davos,
Switzerland.
Erdogan lambasted Peres, saying:
“When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill. I know very
well how you hit and killed children on the beaches.”
Erdogan stormed
out of the panel discussion.
(The incident of which he speaks
was later discovered to have been caused by a Palestinian landmine,
buried in the sand to try and prevent an IDF invasion of Gaza by sea.)
TURKISH TV SERIES
ANGERS ISRAEL
Turkey has been distancing itself
from Israel since the Gaza offensive, and as well as the cancelled
training exercise, recently began airing a controversial TV drama series
depicting Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children and executing
others.
The drama shows monstrous images
of Israeli soldiers, as clips of explosions, tanks wreaking havoc,
soldiers beating civilians, and dead bodies, fill the screen. One of the
shots depicted a group of Palestinians facing an IDF firing squad.
Israel summoned the Turkish
ambassador, in order to protest over the belligerent TV programme in
Turkey.
TURKISH PROTESTORS BURN
ISRAELI FLAG
Oct 5/09.
A mass anti-Israel rally
was held in Istanbul. The demonstrators, who rallied in support of
riots in east Jerusalem, carried Palestinian Authority flags and posters
of the al-Aqsa Mosque, and set Israeli flags on fire. - Ynet News
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny
Ayalon told Voice of Israel government radio, however, that
“Turkey has been, and remains an important strategic anchor in the
Middle East, and certainly its relations with Israel are something that
serves the entire region.”
THE TURKISH MILITARY
Since last year, Turkey’s military
has been switching between two conflicting tracks - falling in line
behind a government led by an Islamic party which is intent on
developing close ties with Iran and Syria, while at the same time not
giving up its longstanding profitable military interchanges with Israel.
But the government
has inserted Islamists inside the secular army, so that it has now been
brought completely under the heel of the Erdogan regime.
Modern Turkey
was founded as a secular republic by Kemal Mustafa Ataturk on the ashes
of the old Ottoman Empire in 1923. Prime Minister Erdogan is gripped by
the ambition to restored Ottoman glory to his country.
THE SYRIA-TURKEY-IRAN
TRIANGLE
Syrian-Turkish relations are
rapidly evolving on all fronts, noted the pan-Arab daily Al Quds al
Arabi. The two parties have signed an agreement to establish a free
trade zone and to waive entry visas for the citizens of both states.
“Syria has started to look
northwards (to Turkey) to break out of its isolation in the Arab world,
which had been imposed on it by Saudi Arabia and Egypt at a time when
many differences arose over Lebanon.”
At the same time, Turkey has
about-faced eastwards and started to embrace its Ottoman legacy after
its efforts to join
the EU proved to be fruitless.
It is not yet clear how this
Syrian-Turkish entente (friendship) will influence the region’s
alliances. Countries like Egypt are quite “embarrassed” by Turkey’s
dynamism. Syria itself thinks Turkey would become a serious challenger
if it gains full access to the Arab region by championing all its major
causes, especially Palestine’s.
Now, adding Iran to the equation,
a Damascus-Ankara-Tehran triangle would appear to be edging its way to
replace the older Damascus-Cairo-Riyadh bloc which has governed the
region for over 30 years. - www.thenational.ae
ERDOGAN: “IRAN IS OUR
FRIEND”
Oct 27/09. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip
Erdogan arrived in Tehran today for a two-day visit!
Erdogan confirmed his country’s
increasingly close ties with Iran in an interview with British newspaper
The Guardian. Of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, he said, “There
is no doubt he is our friend.”
Relations between Iran and Turkey
are “very good,” Erdogan reported, even as many Israelis saw Turkey
increasingly distance itself from Israel. He defended Iran against
charges that it is actively seeking nuclear weapons, saying the Islamic
republic wants nuclear technology “for the purposes of energy.” - Arutz
Sheva
In September also,
Erdogan defended Iran’s
nuclear program, arguing
that the problem in the Middle East is Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
HOW DOES THE LOSS OF
TURKISH-ISRAELI
RELATIONS AFFECT
ISRAEL?
Turkey is now being drawn into an
unholy alliance with Israel’s enemies.
Israel’s loss of an ally in a
Middle East full of Muslim aggressors, leaves it decidedly more
isolated. As former Israeli Air Force Commander Eitan Ben-Eliyahu told
an interviewer on Israeli television: “This is a seriously worrying
development. Turkey is critically essential in the training of our air
force over wide spaces, particularly given Turkey’s strategic location
adjacent to both Iran and Syria.”
A hostile Turkey leaves Israel
without any friendly nation anywhere close to its northern border.
Iran and other openly anti-Semitic
nations are feeling emboldened by their newest ally in their desire to
“wipe Israel off the map,” as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
so enthusiastically threatened.
The influx of Turkish support into
a coalition against Israel makes
the threat of invasion
against Israel
loom even closer.
ISRAEL HAS LOST A
STRATEGIC ALLY
Oct 22/09. World Tribune
reported that Turkey was said to have suspended up to $1 billion in
proposed Israeli defence projects after cancelling the air exercise with
Israel.
Ron Ben-Yishai, a leading Israeli
defence analyst said Turkey has decided to end defence and military
cooperation with Israel, and it has shelved a range of proposed Israeli
projects.
“New deals worth tens and hundreds
of millions of dollars offered by Israel’s defence industries to the
Turkish Army, as well as cooperation with Turkish colleagues, are being
put on hold or cancelled altogether,” he said.
In Ankara, Turkish industry
sources said Ankara has ruled out awarding Israel any major defence
contracts.
Ben-Yishai warned that Israel has
lost Turkey as a strategic ally. “Israel has now embarked on a process
of seeking substitutes to the strategic advantages offered by the
relationship with Turkey,” he said on Oct. 14. “However, this process is
difficult and complex, and it is doubtful whether it will compensate us
for the lost ties with Ankara. The loss of Turkey as a strategic ally
has also harmed Israel’s deterrence, particularly toward Iran and Syria.
http://www.worthynews.com/top/worldtribune-com-worldtribune-WTARC-2009-me_israel0828_10_22-asp/
THE DEVELOPING NORTHERN
CONFEDERATION
What we are witnessing today is
the coming together of the Northern Confederation which has been
prophesied in Ezekiel 38 & 39.
Along with Rosh, Magog, Meshech (Russia)
- the leader of the Confederation - are the nations of Tubal (Baltic
region) Cush (Ethiopia/Sudan)
and Put (Libya),
Gomer (possibly Germany), as well as Persia (Iran)
and Beth-Togarmah (Turkey
and the Turkic
people of
Central Asia – which
may include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Xinjiang (NW
China)
– as well as many other unnamed peoples.) (Ezekiel 38:2-6)
The Northern Confederation will
invade Israel; the battlefield will be the “mountains of Israel which
had long been desolate.” (Ezekiel 38:8). The purpose of the invasion
will be to “plunder and loot” and to destroy the nation of Israel.
(Ezekiel 38:12, 16).
Turkey is now taking its stand
with these nations and preparing for the invasion of Israel.
“I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws and bring you out with
your whole army - your horses and horsemen all fully armed, and a great
horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing swords.
“Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and
take command of them. After many days you will be summoned; in the
latter years you will invade the land that has recovered from the sword,
whose people have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of
Israel which had long been desolate. Its people had been brought out
from the nations, and now all of them are living securely. You and all
your troops and the many nations
with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud
covering the land.” (Ezekiel 38:4, 7-9)
The result will be a worldwide
nuclear war.
“And with pestilence and with bloodshed I shall execute judgment upon
him; and I shall rain on him, and on his troops, and on the many peoples
who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones and burning sulphur.”
(Ezekiel 38:22)
In relation to the developing
Northern Confederation, this report is also quite significant …
TURKEY AND ARMENIA MEND BRIDGES
Oct 10/09.
Turkey and Armenia signed a
landmark treaty accord, normalizing relations after a century of
hostility. This is extraordinary, given the 1915 killing of over a
million Armenians during WWI.
As well as US Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, was among
the officials attending the ceremony.
As emotions over the century old
genocide bubbled up, Clinton broke in and appealed to the broader aim of
a signed treaty. In other words, Turkey doesn’t have to apologize for
the massacres — we just need to get on with the
peace program
and form alliances.
The protocols will establish
diplomatic ties and open the Armenian-Turkish border, provided their
respective parliaments subsequently ratify them.
Both Armenians and Turks have
mixed feelings about the agreement. Some 10,000 people marched through
the Armenian capital Yerevan to protest against the planned
normalization of diplomatic relations with Turkey. They said ties can
only be restored if Turkey recognizes that the massacre, during the last
days of the Ottoman Empire, of as many as 1.5 million Armenians, was
genocide.
But Turkey has denied the mass
killings in 1915 amounted to genocide, saying many people died because
of hardship and fighting during World War One.
Despite disagreements, the
governments of predominantly Christian Armenia and mainly Islamic Turkey
agreed to sign a peace accord to normalize relations. They also agreed
that a special commission of experts would investigate the circumstances
surrounding the mass killings of Armenians.
Armenia is already pro-Russian;
and normal bilateral relations with Turkey will help facilitate these
two countries’ participation in the Northern Confederation.
THE GOLDSTONE REPORT
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
ENDORSES ANTI-ISRAEL REPORT
“O God, do not keep silent! Do not be quiet, and do not be still, O God!
For look, Your enemies are roaring; and those who hate You have raised
their heads. They craftily plot against Your people, and conspire
against Your hidden, treasured ones.
“They have said, ‘Come, and let us destroy them as a nation, that the
name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have conspired
together with one mind; they make a pact against You.” (Psalm 83:1-5)
The United Nations Human Rights
Council [UNHRC] on October 16 endorsed the controversial Goldstone
report, which accuses both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes
during last winter’s conflict in Gaza.
In a special session, 25 of the
UNHRC’s 47 members - including Argentina, Brazil, China, and Russia -
voted in favor of a subsequent resolution co-sponsored by the
Palestinian Authority and several Islamic states.
Six council members - Italy,
Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine and the United States -
voted against, and eleven - Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon,
Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay -
abstained.
Although the Goldstone report also
accused Hamas
of war crimes, the
5-page resolution voted for by the Human Rights Council makes
only explicit mention of
alleged Israeli violations of international law.
The UNHRC-sponsored Goldstone
report calls for the U.N. Security Council to refer the matter to the
International Criminal Court if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to
investigate the alleged abuses themselves [although the Security Council
has to decide if they will actually even discuss the matter].
The Deputy US Ambassador to the
UN, Alejandro Wolff, called the resolution “regrettable” and one that
went “beyond the scope of the Goldstone report.”
He said the text voted by the
Human Rights Council contained elements that should be “discussed within
a final status agreement,” including the status of Jerusalem.
Wolff said the Goldstone report
had failed to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the
confrontation, and that the adoption of the subsequent resolution could
only postpone a lasting peace and deepen the divide between Israel and
Palestine.
(Excerpts of an
article by World Jewish Congress, Oct 16/09).
A
MASSIVE ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE PALESTINIANS
In an article, “Waging
Diplomatic War,” Caroline Glick comments:
Oct 23/09. The UN Human Rights
Council passed a resolution (Oct 16, 09) condemning Israel in every
possible way for asserting its sovereignty over its capital city and for
defending its citizens against wanton, massive, unprovoked and illegal
terror from the skies emanating from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The resolution represented a
massive achievement for the Palestinians. It referred Israel to the
Security Council with the recommendation that Israel’s leaders be tried
as war criminals before international tribunals.
The UNHRC’s resolution effectively
delegitimized Israel’s right to exist by denying that it has a right to
defend its territory and its people from illegal ag-gression carried out
by an illegal terrorist organization.
Unlike the Palestinians and the
Iranians, Israel has no great diplomatic assets. It can assume that it
will always be condemned by the UN.
And the EU, with its
member-nations’ own anti-Jewish baggage, a burgeoning and radicalized
Muslim minority, and an addiction to Arab oil, cannot be expected to
stand with Israel.
-
http://carolineglick.com/
ENDORSING THE GOLDSTONE
RESOLUTION
MARKS THE END OF PEACE
PROCESS
By Barry Rubin –
www.worldviewtimes.com
Oct 19. Now the UN Human Rights
Council has now endorsed the Goldstone Report, there are important
implications that make it a turning point.
It is the first make or break test
for Obama’s foreign policy. There is no easy way out. The president must
either block a disastrous UN resolution through effective diplomacy in
the UN corridors, accept a bad resolution in order to avoid a
confrontation, or veto such a resolution and accept the price in
unpopularity.
Oh, and it also marks
the end of the peace
process era that began in 1993,
showing both sides why they don’t want a compromise deal.
Of course, it says a great deal
about the nature of international affairs nowadays. What does it say
about the UN that it condemns Israel but says not a word against Hamas,
which is guilty of aggression, terrorism, seizure of power by force,
calls for genocide, anti-Semitism, indoctrination of children to become
suicide bombers, oppression of women, systematic use of civilians as
human shields, and a range of war crimes?
Trying to present the Goldstone
report in a more favorable light, Western media overstated its
“evenhandedness,” playing up a few mentions of Hamas to pretend that
both sides in the conflict were condemned.
The UNHRC drops this pretense and
only speaks of Israel, totally removing the factors that forced a
reluctant Israel to launch an operation on the Gaza Strip.
This is not merely another of the
many ritual condemnations of Israel but a
demonization.
Israel is now accused of massive war crimes on a remarkably flimsy
basis.
Of course it is all political, but
this is a step toward delegitimization. The Arabic-speaking,
Muslim-majority, and left-wing governments that supported the resolution
see this as a step, not toward a compromise peace, but an elimination of
Israel altogether.
Having tasted blood, these forces
will not be interested in getting less. Why should they - including the
Palestinian Authority - settle for a stable two-state solution when they
believe they can get far more without giving up anything?
FULL ARTICLE>
http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-5503/Brannon-Howse/Barry-Rubin
IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
A DEAL TO SOLVE AN
EXPLOSIVE ISSUE ??
The UN’s International Atomic
Energy Agency has announced the US, Russia and France had agreed to a
deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
Under the draft plan Iran would
send around 1200kg, the majority of its stocks of enriched uranium, to
Russia and then to France before it is returned to run a research
reactor in Tehran.
The big advantage for the West is
that the arrangement would neutralise most of Iran’s stockpile of
enriched uranium. At the very least this would delay Iran’s ability to
make a nuclear bomb.
But would Iran also sign on to the
deal?
The day after the deal was hailed
by the big powers, Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, Ali Larijani rejected
the overseas enrichment plan.
A couple of days later, Iran’s
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran could accept
parts of the UN proposal
for its nuclear programme.
Iran, he said,
may agree
to send
some
of its existing stock
of low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing. But Tehran was
considering whether to buy enriched uranium instead. There were two
options available to Tehran: “Either to buy it [enriched uranium] or to
give part of our fuel for further processing abroad.”
Oct 27/09. Iranian state media
have reported that Iran will accept the UN deal on its nuclear programme,
but only if “very
important changes” are made.
Al Alam
TV quoted “informed” sources as saying Tehran would respond to the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deal within 48 hours.
Oct 27/09. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that
as long as Israel was in
possession of atomic weapons, Iran would not halt its nuclear program.
“When an illegal regime possesses
nuclear weapons, the other countries’ rights for peaceful nuclear energy
cannot be denied.
“The
Zionist regime is a threat to all nations
... it cannot tolerate the existence of any strong country in the
region,” Ahmadinejad said.
AHMADINEJAD CLAIMS
VICTORY IN NUCLEAR BATTLE
Oct 30/09. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
proclaimed victory in his battle with the West, claiming he has
compelled America and its allies to ‘co-operate’ with Iran’s nuclear
program. He hailed a change in Western policy from “confrontation to
co-operation.”
“We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear
co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to
co-operate,” Ahmadinejad said on state TV. But he said he would not
retreat “one iota” in his demand that the country continue with its
nuclear program.
Under the proposals, put forward
by the head of the IAEA Mohammed ElBaradei, Iran would transfer three
quarters of its low enriched uranium to Russia for further processing.
It would then be returned as fuel plates for its research reactor.
But
Iran proposed changes to
the deal,
making demands that appeared to
challenge the basis of the agreement with the US, France and Russia.
According to repeated leaks to Iranian media, the government demands
revisions to the deal’s timetable. Iran wants to hand over its stocks
piecemeal rather than in one go. - www.telegraph.co.uk
The Iranians’ counter-offer drew
criticism in Europe - “It’s the same old tricks,” said the Swedish
Foreign Minister. It is understood that Britain, France and Germany will
not accept Iran’s new terms, and are preparing to reject the plan.
IRAN’S NUCLEAR
PROGRAM LEGITAMIZED
Forthright commentator, Caroline
Glick says:
On Oct 21, Mohamed ElBaradei, the
UN IAEA’s virulently anti-Israel chairman, announced a deal has been
reached between the US, Russia and France regarding Iran’s nuclear
program.
The deal - which the parties
initialized in Geneva after just three days of talks - legitimizes
Iran’s nuclear weapons program and effectively transforms the US, the EU
and Russia into facilitators rather than opponents of that program.
According to news reports of the
accord, the US
agreed to send
American personnel to Iran to upgrade a research reactor in Tehran
that was provided to the Shah in the 1960s.
Russia
agreed to increase
enrichment levels of Iranian uranium from their current level of 3.5
percent, to 19.75%. And
France
agreed to transform the
higher-enriched uranium into metallic nuclear fuel.
Until 21st Oct, in accordance with
three binding UN Security Council resolutions, the US, Russia and the EU
refused to accept the legitimacy of Iran’s uranium enrichment
activities.
Their refusal stemmed from the
fact that by enriching uranium, Iran stands in breach of its commitments
under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Wednesday’s accord ignores this
inconvenient fact and so whitewashes Iran’s illicit behavior,
effectively accepting Iran’s right to enrich uranium.
And that isn’t all. According to
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, by agreeing to enrich
Iran’s uranium from 3.5%, to 19.75%, the US, Russia and France have
provided Iran with a solution to its technical deficiencies.
Citing a report in the
Nucleonics Week trade journal, Ignatius wrote last week that Iran
has apparently been unable to enrich uranium beyond 3.5%, and its
current “supply of low-enriched uranium... appears to have certain
‘impurities’ that ‘could cause centrifuges to fail’ if the Iranians try
to boost it to weapons grade.”
Jack Wakeland, an engineer
employed in the nuclear power industry, expanded on Ignatius’s
revelation at The Intellectual Activist Website.
Wakeland explained that the
metallic fuel Iran will receive in this deal “can be converted back to
highly purified uranium hexafluoride very, very easily.”
That is,
the deal allows Iran to surmount the
scientific hurdles it reportedly now faces, clearing the mullahs’ path
to acquiring the weapons-grade uranium.
For their part, the Iranians
haven’t wasted a moment pushing the diplomatic envelop still further. As
the Americans, French and Russians were offering them more than they
could have ever imagined possible - including the prospect of
US personnel serving as
human shields against a possible Israeli air strike on Iran’s nuclear
installations - back in
Tehran they ratcheted up their demands.
- from “Waging
Diplomatic War” /http://carolineglick.com/
Regardless of whether Tehran
accepts the new deal or not, Iran will determinedly heed the Biblical
injunction:
“Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let
all the men of war draw near; let them come up to attack! Beat
your plowshares into swords.” (Joel 4:9-10)
THE SEARCH FOR A EUROPEAN UNION PRESIDENT
IRISH VOTE FOR LISBON
TREATY
Oct 3/09. Ireland voted strongly
for the EU Lisbon treaty in a second referendum, which has sparked
widespread relief in Brussels. European politicians are now considering
the next moves for complete ratification of the treaty.
“Thank you Ireland! It’s a great
day for Ireland; it’s a great day for Europe,” said European Commission
president Jose Manuel Barroso.
The Lisbon pact is designed to
increase the 27-nation grouping’s influence in world affairs.
With the Irish vote now in the
bag, the focus switched to the practicalities of implementing the Lisbon
Treaty, and particularly to the presidents of Poland and the Czech
Republic.
Their signatures under the treaty,
which has already been passed in the parliaments in Warsaw and Prague,
are needed for the new rules to come into force across the 27 nation
club.
The Polish president, Lech
Kaczynski, signed the treaty October 10, leaving the Czech Republic as
the only one of the EU’s 27 members that has yet to fully approve the
charter intended to streamline the bloc’s decision-making and give it a
long-term president and stronger foreign policy chief.
Czech president Vaclav Klaus is a
eurosceptic and arch- opponent of the document, and he has stated at
every opportunity that he fears the Lisbon Treaty’s ratification would
mean an unacceptable loss of national sovereignty and autonomy.
This has long been the fear of
many within Great Britain’s Parliament. Still, the drive is on for
finding a man about which Henri Spaak, one of the earlier leaders in
searching for a formula for a new European order, said that whether he
would be a man or the devil, the new order builders would embrace him.
Mr Klaus recently made those who
believe he will not sign even after judicial approval more nervous by
throwing out an eleventh-hour
demand for Prague to get
an opt-out from the Charter
of Fundamental Rights, a part of Lisbon.
The president argued the charter
would expose the Czech Republic to property claims by ethnic Germans
expelled from the country after World War II.
KLAUS STRIKES POSITIVE
NOTE
Oct 23/09. Czech President Vaclav
Klaus has backed away from a major dispute with other EU leaders by
indicating that he is satisfied with a proposal to modify the Lisbon
Treaty following a last minute demand he made last week.
The Czech constitutional court has
indicated it will rule on whether the Lisbon Treaty is compatible with
Czech national law when it would reconvene on November 3.
UNITING EUROPE SEEKS LEADER
The creation and establishment of
a long-term
president
of the EU is the main issue
on the European Union agenda right now.
The search is on for a powerful
leader who can take the member states into a position many of the EU
architects elite believe will be above that of America as the great
world super-nation state.
“The EU is on the point of an
important change. The American Empire is starting to die and the EU
will, slowly and surely, be taking over its role and influence. It is
already happening financially as the euro emerges as the world’s most
reliable currency. Politically too, the EU with its “soft power” is
becoming a major diplomatic force. We Europeans are, after more than 60
years, finally ridding ourselves of our dependence on and subservience
to the US, a fact already recognized by serious politicians on the
European mainland.”
(quote in Rapture
Ready News, 10/14/09).
Leaders of the European Parliament
have decided to hold a debate on Nov. 11 on whether the president should
be a bureaucrat or a figurehead. The eventual candidate will be chosen
by national leaders and must be confirmed by Parliament.
Former British PM, Tony Blair,
is
a favourite to become the first permanent EU president. This is due in
large part to the strong backing of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi on
Blair’s behalf for the £275,000-a-year post.
Blair’s leading position, however,
isn’t without considerable opposition. When asked last week whether Mr.
Blair would be a good candidate, French President Nicolas Sarkozy --
hitherto an apparent strong supporter -- said it was too early to say.
“The fact that Great Britain is
not in the euro remains a problem,” he said. He said the role demands
either a “strong and charismatic president,” as Blair would be seen, or
a “consensus-seeking organizer” -- a description that more closely
applies to other candidates.
Opponents of a Blair EU presidency
also centre on the fear that he would be an operative more for the US
than for Europe.
While the Lisbon Treaty has
circumvented failure to ratify an earlier EU constitution, and despite
the fact that Ireland has finally committed to coming onboard after
years of refusal to do so, there are nonetheless hurdles to be overcome.
Oct 30/09. Only 31% of UK voters
are in favour of Tony Blair as EU President.
The Daily Telegraph/YouGov
poll comes amid signs that the former premier’s bid for the new European
job is set to end in failure. European opinion has begun to shift away
from Mr Blair, with more countries openly opposing his candidacy.
Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg and Poland, in recent reports, have all depicted the role in
ways that clearly excluded Mr. Blair.
Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch
prime minister, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg premier, have
emerged as candidates of the consensus-building type.
One European newspaper analysis
stated: “Europe had hope for a future, only if a figure of great
international calibre, able to warm hearts, to be respected outside
Europe and perhaps even feared, but also able to identify the
institutions with his leadership, is chosen.”
Whoever becomes the first
permanent president of the EU, won’t be able to begin acting officially
until the Lisbon de facto constitution is ratified.
Daniel’s prophecy (9:24-27)
indicates that “the prince” (Antichrist) will come from the territory of
the ancient Roman Empire.
“The prince” (king) will be the
arrogant, ruthless ruler of the
10-horned Beast
Confederation
described in Daniel 7 and 8 &
Revelation 13 and 17. The EU is now urgently preparing for that
confederation.
“A king will arise, insolent and skilled
in intrigue. He will become
very strong, but not by his own power. He will destroy to an
extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; He will destroy
mighty men, and also the holy people. Through his shrewdness, he will
cause deceit to succeed under his hand; and he will magnify himself in
his heart. He will destroy many while they feel secure and are at ease.
He will even rise against the Prince of princes. But he will be broken
without human agency.” (Daniel 8:23-25)
“The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a
kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with
the beast. They will have one purpose and will give their power and
authority to the beast. These will go to war against the Lamb, and the
Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and
those who are with Him are the called, chosen, and
faithful.” (Revelation 17:`12-14)
I expect that from out of the 27+
EU nations, ten will be amalgamated as the solid front-line
confederation of the Antichrist when he comes to power in Europe.
The other nations could form a
second line of affiliation to the Beast Confederation.
THE VATICAN’S BOLD BID TO WIN ANGLICANS
Oct 22/09. In one of Rome’s most
sweeping gestures to a Protestant church since the Reformation, the
Vatican said it will make it far easier for Anglicans (the Church of
England, and Episcopalians in the US), to convert to Catholicism.
A newly created set of canon laws,
known as an “Apostolic Constitution,” will clear the way for entire
congregations of Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.
The move comes nearly five
centuries after King Henry VIII broke with Rome and proclaimed himself
head of the new Church of England after being refused permission to
divorce.
Cardinal William Levada, head of
the Vatican’s office on doctrine, has described the new measures as a
step in the Pope’s long efforts to heal the rift between Roman
Catholicism and Anglicanism. And, he said, they are also a response to
requests from Anglicans around the world who are seeking to join the
Catholic Church.
Under the plan, the Pope will
issue an apostolic constitution, a form of papal decree, that will lead
to the creation of “personal ordinariates” for Anglicans who convert to
Rome.
These will provide a legal
framework to allow Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic
Church while preserving distinctive elements of their Anglican identity,
such as liturgy. Clergy will have to be retrained and re-ordained, since
Rome regards Anglican orders as “absolutely null and utterly void.” But
they will be granted their own seminaries to train future priests for
the new ordinariate.
THE DIVIDED AND
DISGRUNTLED ANGLICANS
The worldwide Anglican Communion
has become divided and disgruntled ever since its leaders began
embracing liberal theological doctrine, starting with the ordination of
women priests in the 1970s.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr
Rowan Williams, who is the head of the Anglican Communion, has been
trying to hold the church of about 80 million members worldwide,
together.
There are now at least four
factions.
1.
Anglo-Catholics (“high church”), whose beliefs and practices are
close to those of Catholics; and they have an interest in being united
with Rome.
2.
Conservative Anglicans who don’t want change –
they want to hold to past
customs and practices.
3.
Fundamental, Bible-believing,
evangelical Anglicans.
4.
Liberal and modernistic Anglicans. These are divided into three
factions:
* those who are in favour of
ordaining female priests.
* those who accept the
ordination of gay
(homosexual) priests, and
same-sex marriage.
* those who are liberal in
thinking, but who may not necessarily believe in
female and gay priests. But they are willing to tolerate
“whatever.”
It is the first faction –
the Anglo-Catholics
- that will most likely accept the pope’s invitation to convert to
Catholicism.
Rowan Williams issued a statement
with Vincent Gerard Nichols, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster,
that described the papal announcement as an
“end to uncertainty for
such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with
the Catholic Church.”
Liberals are not likely to join
the Roman church as it is vigorously opposed to both female and gay
priests.
The Bible-believing, evangelical
Anglicans are fundamentally opposed to joining Rome because of the
unbiblical teachings and practices of Rome.
In the Reformation, during the
reign of Catholic Queen Mary, there were 88 such Bible-believing
leaders, including bishops, who were burned at the stake because they
refused to accept the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation – the
teaching that says, that after the performing the mass, the bread of the
communion becomes literal body of Christ, and the wine becomes His
literal blood.
(Read the booklet,
Why were our Reformers Burned
by Bishop J C Ryle, available from MRC and www.maranathaMRC.com).
CELIBACY
Pope Benedict wants to make
Christian unity an enduring legacy of his papacy. He has already shown
his determination to reunite Christendom at almost any price.
Celibacy for priests and nuns has
been a major issue, and the Vatican is not yet ready to relax on that
issue – for Catholics. But for converting priests who are already
married, celibacy will evidently not be required.
The Vatican has at times provided
dispensations to non-Catholic married priests on an individual basis,
including Anglicans and Lutherans.
Eastern Rite Churches, which are
in communion with the pope, ordain married men as priests. Still,
relaxing rules on priestly celibacy for a group as large as the Anglican
Communion is very dramatic!
The Pope is due to visit Britain
next year; and Dr Williams will visit Rome next month (November).
A THREAT TO FRAGILE
ANGLICAN COMMUNION
The Anglican Communion is the
world’s third-largest Christian communion after the Catholics and
Eastern Orthodox. But the new Vatican initiative is a serious blow to
Rowan Williams attempts to save the Anglican Church from further
fragmentation. And it threatens to wreck the ecumenical negotiations
between the two churches that have been going on for several decades.
As many as 1,000 priests in UK,
and thousands more from around the world, may quit the Anglican Church
and convert to Rome. Entire parishes and even dioceses could defect and
become part of the Roman Church.
But many Anglicans privately
accused Rome of poaching and attacked Dr Williams for capitulating to
the Vatican. Many were dismayed at his joint statement with the
Archbishop of Westminster in which they spoke of Anglicans who are
“willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept
the Petrine ministry.” Some called for William’s resignation.
In the past two years, at least
four US dioceses have voted to split from the Episcopal Church. They
have set up a rival province, the Anglican Church in North America.
Individual parishes also have chosen to leave the national body.
This breakaway faction has
expressed support for the pope’s initiative. “We rejoice that the Holy
See has opened this doorway, which represents another step in the
growing cooperation and relationship between our churches,” said the
group’s archbishop. But he qualified by adding. “Not all Anglo-Catholics
can accept certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do they
believe that they must first convert to Rome in order to be truly
catholic Christians.”
Source: various
articles including …
http://www.
timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6883151.ece
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and hollow
deception, according to the tradition of men, and according to
the basic principles of the world, and not according to Messiah.”
(Colossians 2:8)
IF YOU COULD TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN
and ask how to be saved,
you would receive the same answer
the Bible gives.
God
Has No Different Answer!
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will be saved.”
(Acts 16:31)
“For you are saved by grace, through faith; and this is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God - not the result of
works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us ... For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life ... For God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him ... The
Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
(Romans 5:8; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:6}
Our good works and
efforts will never save us!
“By the works of the Law no person will be justified in His (God’s)
sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Romans
3:20).
It’s “not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” (Titus
3:5)
Every one of us is unclean
because of our sin.
We need forgiveness, cleansing,
and the eternal life that God gives.
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our
righteous deeds are like filthy rags.” “For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in the Messiah, Y’shua our
Master.” (Isaiah 64:6) (Romans 6:23)
We need the One who alone
can save us!
It was because man could not save
himself by any means that God sent His only begotten Son to die as a
substitute for sinners. If man could have achieved righteousness in some
other way, then obviously the Saviour need not have suffered and died.
When the Lord Jesus died on
Calvary, He finished the work necessary to reconcile us to God, and rose
again victoriously on the third day. Now all that He requires is that we
should acknowledge our need of Him and receive Him as our Lord and
Saviour.
“To all who received Him, to those who believe in His Name, Y’shua,
Jesus, He gave the right to become children of God; children
born, not of blood (of natural descent), nor of the will of the
flesh (human decision), nor of the will of man (a natural
father), but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
To “receive Him” means to believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation.
“He who believes (trusts) in the Son has eternal life; but he who
does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
remains on him.” (John 3:36)
To summarize; man is a sinner and
cannot reach Heaven by his good works, good character, personal effort,
or merit of any kind. His only hope of salvation rests upon the finished
work of Christ upon Calvary’s cross.
So, when the sinner believes and
trusts - has faith in the Saviour - his sins are forgiven, he receives
the gift of eternal life, he is saved, and he is bound for the Promised
Land - Heaven. God then gives him the assurance that he is “in Christ,”
that he is a child of God, and that he has eternal life.
Reader, you can do that right now,
if you believe. Bow your head and pray, expressing your faith in the
Saviour, Jesus Christ.
q q q
q q q q
