An Examination of Biblical Precepts Involved in Issues at Hand |
Sant Claus Came to Town, 2012 Election.
The End of an Empire
A Christmas Hope, Micah 5 (Edersheim's dating of Christmas.)
Superstorm Sandy, Man Made? (Salvation defined)
Personal
Killers on the Loose
Debt Slavery
Banks Can Legally Steal Depositor's Private Funds
Salt Your Way to Health
We have had two superevents since the last Examiner, Superstorm Sandy, and Super Santa. I will cover them both this month.
I have been asked what I thought about the election. I can say nothing in a few words, so here is my lengthy answer.
Psalms 76:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
"God has given the world unto the dominion of Satan, but not in such a sense as to exclude himself from the government. The wrath of Satan, as well as the wrath of man, will be obliged to praise God; and any device of it, which has not this tendency, Jehovah will restrain, and not suffer to be manifested." (Alexander Carson, The History of Providence as manifested in Scripture. Banner of Truth Trust, p. xv.)
Jeremiah 5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Let me open with Rush Limbaugh's statement:
"Small things beat big things yesterday. Conservatism in my humble opinion did not lose last night. It's just very difficult to beat Santa Claus. People are not going to vote against Santa Claus, especially when the alternative is being your own Santa Claus," he continued. "In a country of children where the option is Santa Claus or work, what wins?"
It is hard to vote to pay your own bills when Santa Claus is on the ballot. I certainly am not implying that the option, Romney, was any better, for he also is a tool of the big banks. But he was offered as reality vs Santa.
The Santa mentality is a child's mentality that sees all the free stuff he provides. Children make no connection with Santa and bills. Today's Santa offers "free stuff" (my free Obama phone). He offers cradle to grave security with no responsibility. But hidden in his "free stuff" comes shackles to his will. "Be nice, or Santa will forget you, and not give you more free stuff." I wish he would forget about those who do not want his "free stuff", but I am sure he will not overlook those who will not submit.
drudgereport.com, December 7, 2012: "Govt. Borrowing 46 cents of every dollar it spends..." "‘Welfare Spending Equates to $165 Per Day for Every Household in poverty'..." "73% of New Jobs Created in Last 5 Months Are in Government..."
Observe: The government must cut Social Security rather than cut any social programs, which are far beyond wasteful, or the welfare recipients will burn the cities down. Additionally, the wastefulness in the "green energy" field is beyond imagination, but no one is talking of cutting back there. But SS (and maybe Medicare) recipients will not riot. It is sickening to hear of the foolish wastefulness of various welfare, medical and social programs (not SS). All of the government unions, postal workers and various other federal workers, got promises from the "powers" that any cuts in spending will not effect them.
Investors.com, 12/10/12.
"In the 1,420 days since he took the oath of office, the federal government has daily hired on average 101 new employees. Every day. Seven days a week. All 202 weeks. That makes 143,000 more federal workers than when Obama talked forever on that cold day in January of 2009.
Under Obama the total federal workforce has surpassed two million for the first time since the first Clinton term, now sitting about the 2.2 million level. ...
That report found the average civilian federal government worker collected just under $84,000 a year in taxpayer money, about $32,000 more than the average private sector worker."
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/politicsandrewmalcolm/121012636426americansfigureoutpublicemployeeshaveitbetterthanprivateworkers.htm#ixzz2ElyDim8f
It is obvious why Santa Claus carried northern VA; his well payed elves live there.
With the new jobs being Government jobs in order to expand "Big Brother", we can be assured those laid off will not be federal workers. But the devastating economic times will certainly destroy those who work in nonfederal jobs.
Santa won the election.
Let me give a few points that come to my mind.
First, the WASP (White AngloSaxon Protestant) influence that founded this nation is dead. I first became acquainted with the John Birch Society when I got out of the military in 1965 by going with a girl to some of the meetings. It was common knowledge then that every effort was being made by the "powers that be" to naturalize the WASP influence. Over the years since, we have observed many things done to neuteralize that influence: Open boarders with Mexico. Open immigration for any number of nationalities, as long as that nationality was not Christian. (The 66% of the Spanish vote carried the day for Obama, and 85% of the Muslim vote obviously went for him.)
Second, the people voted for the US to be a welfare state. The election was purchased with "public" funds. The funds went for food stamps, welfare payments of all kinds, auto bailouts and union vote purchasing, among other things. The laws concerning healthcare will be horrendous. (Obama ran ads showing Romney promoting his health plan as governor. It was the outline for Obama's plan.)
Third, "Analysis: Victory puts Obama in position to expand government's reach (Reuters) Both sides called it a generationdefining race for the White House: a choice between Democrat Barack Obama's brand of government activism and Republican Mitt Romney's commitment to reducing Washington's role in Americans' daily lives."
However, we know that every candidate for the last 100 years or longer has promised to reduce Washington, but none have done so. Romney would not either, but the vote was presented as reduced vs expansion.
Fourth, "The Divided States of America", Drudge, November 7, 2012. "Jessie Jackson Jr. Wins reelection from Mayo Clinic for ‘bipolar depression', as well as being investigated by the FBI. In other words, a great number of people vote according to color, enough to throw an election.
"Jackson Jr. Plea Deal Includes Resignation, Pleading Guilty to Misuse of Funds..." "Would end Jackson's 17year career as a congressman representing Chicago's South Side and suburbs." (http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/11/09/formerusprosecutornegotiatingpleadealforjacksonjr/) As we know now, he resigned, and is facing jail time. As the bumper sticker says, "Every politician deserves two turns. One in office, and one in Jail."
It is as much racists to vote for someone who is black as it is to vote for someone because he is not black.
"Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing blackonwhite crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims." http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/footballstarsaccusedinracialknockoutgame/
Fifth, "Thousands of military ballots ‘too late'. The DoD had the same "problem" in 1010, and had been told to fix it. But they did not. The military overwhelmingly votes Republican. Special care was taken so NY and NJ voters could vote even by email. Why is not special care taken for the military vote? http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/13529aremilitaryvotersbeingsuppressed, http://thehill.com/blogs/flooraction/senate/265925gopsenatorsthousandsofballotsunlikelytoreachmilitaryvoters
The electronic voting machines can be easily "fixed" toward a predetermined outcome. Once a national politician gets the votes, even if the count is more than 100% of registered voters, he has the office. (Do a "voting machine fraud" search on youtube, and you will be amazed at the number of videos posted showing switched votes. One man swears under oath about the ease he had in writing the software that guaranteed a 4951 victory to the favored candidate. He said the only way the fraud could be found was to go through the computer code line by line. There has been "ballot box stuffing" since there have been elections. The electronic machines make it much easier to steal an election with no trace.)
Really, the only basic difference between Obama and Romney is that Romney is white, and maybe more conservative on marriage and abortion, although the LDS just changed its stand on Sodomite marriage. Other than that, both are committed to endless wars, bigger government, federalized health care and the continued transfer of wealth to the "too big to fail" banks. Neither man addressed real everyday issues such as Big Government, abuse by law enforcement, e.g., TSA, inflation caused by printing money, debt nor the FED.
Conclusions.
First, the Lord changes not, and his unchanging laws of the Old Testament of sowing and reaping are now bearing fruit. We are reaping the result of those Christians who deny the validity of the Old Testament laws of sowing and reaping, so they ignore them.
Second, we are reaping the results of those who were and are waiting and hoping for a rapture before this time in history came to pass. It is here, and so are they, as they and their children must fact the results of their false faith.
Third, Americans, Christian especially, are now facing the results of allowing the state to educate their children. Those children have been taught to look to the state as their provider. They have been taught to accept alternative life styles, sodomy. They have been taught "Sex Education", which they put into practice.
Three states voted to allow sodomite marriages. Beyond any doubt, the sodomite education in the state education system has paid off. The wicked understand the importance of training up children in the way they want them to go far better than do Christians. The paganization of the Christian's children has worked wonderfully, as we see from this last election.
Fourth, though it quietly happened years ago, this election clearly showed us that the god named "We the people" has replaced the God of the founders of this nation. The founders' God was clearly defined in the Mayflower Compact, and the results are now upon us. That first 1620 covenant was clearly for the glory of the Christian God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The founding Covenant with the Christian God has been seriously violated.
I have dealt with covenants in the past, so this is a reminder. Throughout Scripture, God deals with his people through covenants: that is, do this and live, do that and die. The same holds true today. A covenant is simply a promise suspended upon a condition. The word of God is fulled with promises, but those promises have conditions. However, there is a promise with no conditionÑthe promise to Adam and Eve of a Redeemer, which was passed down through Abraham and David and others until Christ came.
The historic, orthodox stand of the church has been that the covenants made with the fathers of the faith in the Old Testament are brought forth in Christ to the Gospel Church.
The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD
"CHAP. XIII. -- CHRISTIANS AND NOT THE JEWS, THE HEIRS OF THE COVENANT. (The Epistle of Barnabas, A.D. 100. The AntiNicene Fathers, The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. 1867. American Edition, reprint, 1979. Vol. 1, p. 145.)
E. W. Hengstenberg, 1854.
"God's Law is based on His nature, and that is eternal and unchangeable, compare Mal. iii.22 (iv.4). ... The covenant with Israel is an everlasting covenant. Jehovah would not be Jehovah, if an entirely new commencement could take place." (E. W. Hengstenbert, Cristology of the Old Testament, 1854. MacDonald Reprint. Vol. 1, p. 704. See also Edersheim Old Testament History, vol 2, p. 3, Leupold, vol. 2, p. 65, and many more of the older orthodox authors.)
Friedrich Oehler, 1873:
"The Pentateuch knows nothing of a future change in the law, nor of an abrogation of it even in part ; only the attitude of the people toward the law was to be different in the last times." (Oehler, Theology of The Old Testament, T. & T. Clark, 1873. Printed by Klock and Klock, 1978. P. 218.)
But for some reason, it seems that a vast majority of Christians reject the idea of Old Testament covenants applying to the Gospel Church. Yet they gladly accept the idea of the covenant of Redemption given in the Garden coming down through history to Christ. Moreover, all Christians support the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 12, yet most apply it to the wrong people. In addition, they have no problem with God's covenant with David.
Here are some Old Testament Covenants that are obviously brought into the New:
1) The covenant of circumcision for the Gospel Church found in the promise of the circumcised heart. Jer 4:4, Deut 10:16, 30:6, Col 2:11, Ro 2:28, 29.
2) The covenant of priesthood. Ex 19:58, 1 Pe 2:9.
3) The covenant, or promise, of blessings or curses. The Lord God spoke to those he redeemed out of bondage. He spoke against those who would turn to other gods. Exo 2:710.
Peter clearly tell us (1 Peter 2:59) that the covenant of Exodus 19 is clearly carried over to the Gospel Church, for, according to Revelation 1:6, 5:10 and 20:6, those in Christ have been made kings and priests unto God and his Father.
Romans 10:9, Matthew 28:19, 20 and Acts 8:12 show us that Public Baptism is the willing, public commitment of that person to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ over himself. Though God's people may deny the validly of the covenant they made with the Lord at their baptism, we must not be deceived, for we will reap what we sow, as individuals or as a nation. Cursed is the nation whose God is not the Lord.
Upon hearing the words of God through Moses in Exodus 16:57, the people entered into a covenant with the Lord God, v. 8 all that the Lord hath spoken to us, we will do.
Exodus 24:3, 4, even after hearing all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments, all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said we will do. Then Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord to which the people had agreed.
The people whom the Lord had redeemed with the Blood of the Lamb agreed to keep his covenant. God promised if they would keep it, they would be a peculiar treasure unto him above all people. The rest of the Old Testament records how well God's people did what their fathers agreed to at the Mount. We know what happened as those children ignored that covenant. There is no need to recount it here, other than to say that the end result of breaking that covenant was the loss of their nation many years later.
The antiChrist children of our Pilgrim founders are now facing the results, as this once Christian nation sinks into the dustbin of history.
All of that to say this:
Whether or not the heirs of that covenant at the Mount believed the covenant applied to them, the end result of their apostasy proved that it did apply to them. The covenant the fathers made with the Lord God at the Mount was binding, and the children went into captivity for ignoring that covenant.
"Rush is right" when he said that conservatism did not lose in the 2012 election. Rather, it was the Christian God of the Mayflower Compact who lost. Conservatism is a false god, and he has nothing to do with the God of the original covenant made by our fathers.
The Compact, or covenant, of our fathers which we have broken reads thusly:
Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fiftyfourth. Anno Dom. 1620. (The Virginia grant went 200 miles north and south of Jamestown to the Pacific ocean.)
That 1620 covenant opened with a stated purpose: to establish a nation for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. These men covenanted and united together to be a civil body politic for purpose of glorifying God and advancing the Christian faith.
Our founding fathers clearly understood what they were doing when they made that covenant with one another and with God. They covenanted with one another and with God that this nation would be for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. That covenant was and is just as binding as was the Israelite fathers' covenant made at the Mount in Exodus 24:3
The purpose of the establishment of this nation by our Pilgrim fathers was for the "glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country." The authority of the day, the "king of England", broke the covenant, which released their new nation from the covenant they entered into with him.
However, the Christian God of the Pilgrims did not break the covenant they made with him. Rather, after a few years, the Christian God was replaced with "Nature's God" and with "We the people."
"I want to point you to one of the first treaties the newly formed United States entered into. This was the treaty of 1796 between the United States and Tripoli, which contained this specific declaration: "Article 11. As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims, (A current Hot Spot JMH), and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohammedan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." So the Founding Fathers deliberately set up a new kind of nation that was neither Christian, Islamic, Jewish or pagan. They created a country not tied to any religion." This was the fruit of a people who did not trust in God. David Bercot, IN GOD WE DON'T TRUST (Hite's home mission outreach, 816 E. Birch St, Palmyra, PA)
"Nature's God" has been revealed to be the god who controls nature, more commonly called "Mother Nature". Totally contrary to Scripture, she is believed to control all natural events, good and bad. (See Superstorm, Sandy.)
"We the people" has been revealed to be the people's choice. It is "We the people" who have cried out for Santa Claus to reign over them. (Santa today is either Democrat and/or Republican, which ever one appeals most to "we the people".)
Over the years, "we the people" have clearly said, "We will not have this man to reign over us. His requirements are old fashion and out of date. We will serve the new gods who will provide the security we desire. We will serve the gods that promise the most at the least cost to ourselves." Santa had to win in 2012, because he was offered in either Democrat or Republican clothing.
1 Samuel 8:49, v. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Samuel told the people what the king would be like, vv. 1017. V. 18, God promised that they would chafe under the king's despotic rule and cry out to the Lord, but the Lord would not hear nor deliver them. V. 19, yet they still said "Nay; but we will have a king over us."
The despotic rule has now been here for many years as "we" are forced to transfer our wealth to the bankers, send our young people to die in foolish and unjust wars where the parents are forced to pay for killing their children. We are forced to support those who will not work, &c., yet "We the people" continue to place their faith in Santa and his "free stuff".
(We know a single young man who is in total rebellion against any parental authority. He made it into a government program that provided him $1,200 a month so he could learn how to manage money. Being unable to live on the $1,200, his funds were increased.)
The god made after man's foolish imagination, Santa Claus, reigns. Santa will lead us into the dust bin of history, where is found the once great Babylonian, Greek and Roman empires.
Jeremiah 13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Psalms 106:15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
Over the past couple of gnerations, the Lord has given us our selfcentered requests, and now leanness...
We are told many times over that the people of a nation produce the leaders of that nation, not the other way around, Hosea 4:9, Isaiah 24:2. The answer is not in getting godly leaders, though we should strive for such.
Answer against the wicked
Bettie and I were coming back from seeing our grandchildren in PA, and we saw a sign in someone's yard, "Read Ps 109:8", which says Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Judgment to salvation,
* In Exodus 24, that Judgment is according to the covenant of God's law.
* In Isaiah 11:4, Judgment is compared to rain coming down, so that righteousness can be exalted.
* In Jeremiah 16:21, Judgment causes man to know that God is the Lord.
* In Isaiah 51:6, Judgment results in salvation
Questioning God with "where is the God of Judgment" wearies him
Malachi 2:17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Our hope is in the Lord, not in the corrupt ballot box, nor in man:
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man. Lamentations 3:26, Psalms 42 (v. 5), Zeph 3:8, 9.
The ballot box is rigged to produce the leaders who have already been anoited by the "puppet masters", which certainly does not mean we should not be politically involved. How many times must the ballot box hope be dashed before we will place our hope in the Lord?
Isaiah 5:1316 But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
Judgment brings forth righteousness in God's good time, so we must pray for God's judgment against those who do evil. Those in power corrupt justice, so the righteous have no recourse nor appeal against them for their injustice. God is our only appeal and refuge in the time of trouble, so we pray for God's just judgment against them.
Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
The following is worth repeating, though the author offers no hope. The unsaved have no hope.
The Will of the People Has Spoken and America Died
Our Constitutional Republic died a peaceful death on November 6, 2012. Having reached the point of no return in a comatose state after years of progressive and illegal immigration assaults, the fabric of conservative society is now completely unraveled and Uncle Sam's America is no more.
The United States of America is now relegated to the dust bin of history as a "has been" empire. The Shining City on the Hill, the hope of so many millions since July 4, 1776, no longer exists. What rises from the ashes is a country that few of us will recognize, like, or learn to accept submissively.
After 236 years of existence, a new country emerges today, run by secular progressives who rejected our Constitution, what we stand for, and who we are as a nation. The Supreme Court will be forever altered after its last conservative members will be replaced by the liberal academics who call themselves "progressives." The rule of law will be implemented by Executive Orders, making Congress irrelevant.
The communist motto "Forward" that resonated with so many ignorant Americans will plunge us into many years of darkness
The communist motto "Forward" that resonated with so many ignorant Americans will plunge us into many years of darkness from which we will never be able to recover. We have proven our Founding Fathers right, they did give us a Constitutional Republic and we were unable to maintain it.
The forces of the failed communist fundamental transformation that were driven underground in many places around the world, resurfaced with a vengeance in the United States and have now taken over.
How long we will still have freedom of speech, movement, assembly, and control of our private property remains to be seen. Faith and churches will be driven underground; allowing secularism to prosper and take deep roots among the progressives whose God is Mother Earth.
The welfare dependent Americans, unions, and illegal aliens have chosen for the rest of us the dark path of serfdom to big government and to socialist utopia.
Who would have guessed that the very people who were complaining that the government is not extricating them from disaster or giving them the help they needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, would vote for the very politicians who turned their backs on needy Americans after the lights went dark when the political photo opportunities ended?
Who would have guessed that Americans were as ignorant and irresponsible as to choose fiscal destruction over fiscal sanity for their children and grandchildren, secularism and communism over faith, dependence over personal responsibility and selfreliance?
Americans have been protesting for the last four years the dismal state of the economy and the direction of our country, the corruption of our politicians, and the loss of personal and economic freedom.
Rallies in support of conservatism overwhelmed venues for Mitt Romney while rallies for our bumbling President became scarcer and scarcer. Yet, miraculously, at the ballot box, our President won all over the country.
We lost seats in the Senate. Americans chose liars and cheats to be their Senators and Representatives, rejecting those who protected the Constitution. The candidate from Massachusetts who claimed direct American Indian lineage to Pocahontas is now a Senator, having defeated Scott Brown. Representative Allen West lost his seat by a narrow margin to the infamous Wasserman Schultz from Florida.
Americans chose high unemployment, reduction of our military, communist indoctrination of their children, and loss of personal freedoms unlike we have never seen before in this country.
I am saddened by the loss of millions and millions of American soldiers who have died to preserve freedom yet we lost it on November 6, 2012. Those buried in cemeteries around the world and at Arlington must be rolling in their graves today. We shamelessly allowed their sacrifice of blood and treasure to go in vain. We have no honor because we let down all the soldiers who fought in recent times and returned home limbless with lives shattered from physical and mental wounds of war.
I mourn today the loss of my adopted country. I have fought hard over the last four years to prevent its overt and accelerated destruction but the darker forces stronger than many of us have overcome concerted efforts by millions of Americans to maintain the Republic. Mediocrity, sloth, godlessness, dependence, cowardice, using the law selectively or ignoring it, and hopeless corruption will define the new country. Only God can save us now with his mercy and grace.
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh Wednesday, November 7, 2012 (http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/50871)
Micah chapter 5 offers the same hope as does Isaiah 7, which promised the Messiah who will gather a remnant of His people to Himself, v.3.
V.1. The heathens are over the covenant people. With a rod is an obvious reference to the smiting of the Lord by the Gentiles.
V. 2. The announcement of the birth of the ruler in Israel, a small and insignificant town in Judah, unworthy of consideration. But here is the promise that the Ruler would come from this insignificant place. The ‘smallness' of Bethlehem is emphasized, and contrasted with the greatness and glory of the Ruler which was to come from here. Not only was the city of David nothing in the world's eyes, but the family of David had fallen into poverty. (Matthew 2:111.)
This poverty is emphasized in Isaiah 11:1 when it is called a root of Jesse.
Note: Little in man's eyes is not little in God's eyes.
Also we have contained in this verse the fact of the preexistence of this Ruler, who is Christ. Not only was/is He preexistent, but He is the preexistent King, Ruler over all heaven and earth. The Lord presents this fact above all doubt in the Book of Daniel.
V. 2 goes with 4:8 where we see little Bethlehem identified as the tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion. From this insignificant place will come the Ruler who has the dominion over everything. Notice that the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. This is the church, the body of Christ.
EDERSHEIM
This tower of the flock is interesting. Edersheim, in his book, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS THE MESSIAH ([1883]pg.186) makes an extremely important and significant point about the location of this tower of the flock and what took place there. He says:
"That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder [see marg. of Bible, "Or, Edar"], ‘the tower of the flock.' The Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheepground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Templesacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds.... The same Mishnic passage also leads us to infer, that these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken of as in the fields thirty days before the Passoverthat is, in the month of February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. Thus, Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Templeflocks all year round. Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.
It was, then, on that ‘wintry night' of the 25th of December (he gives a good argument for this date), that shepherds watched the flocks destined for sacrificial services, in the very place consecrated by tradition as that where the Messiah was to be first revealed. Of a sudden came the longdelayed, unthoughtof announcement. Heaven and earth seemed to mingle, as suddenly an Angel stood before their dazzled eyes, while the outstreaming glory of the Lord seemed to enwrap them, as in a mantle of light. Surprise, awe, fear would be hushed into calm and expectancy, as from the Angel they heard, that what they saw boded not judgment, but ushered in to waiting Israel the great joy of those good tidings which he brought: that the longpromised Saviour, Messiah, Lord, was born in the City of David, and that they themselves might go and see, and recognize Him by the humbleness of the circumstances surrounding His Nativity.
It was, as if attendant angels had only waited the signal. As, when the sacrifice was laid on the altar, the Templemusic burst forth in three sections, each marked by the blast of the priests' silver trumpets, as if each Psalm were to be a TrisHagion; so, when the HeraldAngel had spoken, a multitude of heaven's host stood forth to hymn the good tidings he had brought. What they sang was but the reflex of what had been announced. It told in the language of praise the character, the meaning, the result, of what had taken place. Heaven took up the strain of ‘glory'; earth echoed it as ‘peace'; it fell on the ears and hearts of men as ‘good pleasure':
Glory to God in the highest
And upon earth peace
Among men good pleasure"
He adds this interesting footnote to the three sections of the Templemusic. "According to tradition, the three blasts symbolically proclaimed the kingdom of God, the providence of God, and the final judgment (of God)."
V. 3. Therefore... The Lord has given them up to the control of the Gentiles until the time of the birth of this ruler in Israel. He was going to break the power of the Gentiles, and this breaking started with His birth. Was it any wonder that Herod was so upset at the birth of Jesus that he killed all the children in this area? He believed this prophecy more than the covenant people today believe it. The believed it enough to kill to keep it from taking place.
As the King stood before Pilate, He told him that His kingdom was not of this world, John 18:36. The logical implication therefore, is that the kingdoms of men started to be smashed with His birth. Daniel is clear on this.
This Ruler will draw THE remnant of his brethren unto himself. Paul tells us who these brethren are in no uncertain terms.
Romans 8:1517 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and jointheirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
We will notice that never are the Hebrews refereed to as joint heirs with Christ in His kingdom. This is beyond all question, the covenant people, those who are redeemed by the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb whose birth we celebrate. The remnant of Israel is the Church.
THE REMNANT (See Isaiah 7.)
Here is a point that I have overlooked every time that I have read these passages which tell about the remnant. This chapter makes mention of this three times, vs. 3, 7, 8. The point that I have missed is the word THE rather than A when talking about the remnant of Jacob.
Is this not Romans 11:25, 26? Before Christ, even a nonIsraelite could become a member of the literal nation of Israel, just as anyone can be a member of a nation today. But with Christ, the definition of Israel today is more clearly restricted. Galatians, as well as many other passages, tells us that only those who have exercised faith in His work on the cross in their place are the true Israel, Galatians 3.
The Old Testament prophecies are not referring to a remnant, but the remnant. Thus, this remnant is not part of any other group, they are the group. In the Old Testament, Israelites were part of the larger group, the nation of Israel. Within this nation were all kinds of peopleÑobedient, disobedient, believers, unbelievers, &c. Their sin brought the judgment of God against them.
But, since Christ, Israel only consists of believers. In other words, all Israel is saved, because the work of Christ established the true Israel, made up of believers only.
Romans 11:26, THE DELIVERER came and called unto Himself THE REMNANT of Jacob, as was foretold all through the prophets with Micah 5:3, 7, 8 being extremely clear. He destroyed the power of this world, the flesh and of the devil with His birth, life, death and His resurrection. (Heb. 2:14, 1 Jn. 3:8.)
The major conflict in the New Testament was over the fact that THE REMNANT included the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and membership was based on faith. The Jews listened to Paul's testimony about his conversion until he told of God sending him to the Gentiles, Acts 22:21.
Paul appealed to Rome, and while Agrippa listened to him, Paul explained that what he was doing was foretold, Acts 26:6, 7. Our Lord explained the same thing from the Old Testament prophecy of His death, burial and resurrection to disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:4548.
Accordingly, the ancient nation of Israel had to be preserved until Christ, for it was to produce the Saviour and Prince of Peace, as Ahaz was told by Isaiah (7:14), and as Micah prophesied. The prophesied, godly remnant has nothing to do with any physical nation.
V. 4. This ruler will feed His people in the strength of the Lord. And He did this in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
In John 6, Christ told His adversaries that He was the bread which came down from heaven, v. 41, comparing Himself to the manna with which Moses fed their fathers in the wilderness, vv. 3135. His words caused them to murmur against Him. All of John 6 dwells on the point that He came to feed His people, vv. 4858.
Micah 5:4, and they shall abide:... In our Lord's words, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, John 18:28.
The greatness of this Ruler will be worldwide, for ever and ever.
Vv.5, 6. This man shall be the peace... V. 6 speaks of a deliverer from the power of the Assyrians. The Deliverer is Christ; the Assyrians represent the Gentile powers. This Ruler will raise up mighty men, men of faith and works who will advance the Kingdom of Christ our Lord into every area of the world.
These mighty men of faith will even pursue the pagans into their own land with the sword. Now, there are some great men who claim that this pursuit must be physical warfare, e.g., Keil. Here are some reasons the pursuit cannot be a bloody warfare.
1. V.5, and this man shall be the peace.. This Ruler is the Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:6.
2. This Ruler is the ruler of all creation Who holds the hearts of the rulers of this world in His hand, and turneth them whithersoever he will. (Pro. 21:1.) He needs no armed "peace keepers", for he is the Peace Maker who came to earth to make peace between God and man, and between man and man. (Luke 1:7679.) His kingdom is not one of physical might, or His followers would fight to advance His kingdom as do the followers of Mohammad. (Jn. 18:36, 14:27, 16:33, &c.)
"BEHEADED -- Islamic extremists in Somalla killed a Christian on Nov. 16 in Somalla's port city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The Al Shabaab militants beheaded 25year old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, reported Morning Star News. Mose converted to Christianity in 2010 while studying in Kenya. He opened a small cosmetics shop in Barawa in December 2011. (World, Dec 15, 2012)
I was trained up in dispensationalism to believe that during a literal reign of Christ on this earth for 1,000 years, He will do to those who refuse to follow Him as these followers of Mohammad did to Mose. How wicked, corrupt and unbiblical is such a "Christian" faith if applied to the Prince of Peace?
However, He did bring division, for He made clear that He was the only way to the Father. The only way greatly offends the world. (Luke 12:51.)
3. We use Psalms 76:10 to show that even the worst of men and their actions bring praise to God. He restrains their wrath with His Spirit, not with a sword. V. 12, He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth. His terribleness to the kings of the earth is His terribleness to their spirit. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of the Lord putting fear into the hearts of the enemies.
4. V. 5. The mighty men of God are called shepherds, speaking of pastorsÐshepherds of the flock of God. They number seven, which is God's number of perfection. Added to the seven is the eight principal men, or princes. Princes speaks of civil power in Joshua 13:21, Ezekiel 32:30. (Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, #1377a.) The conclusion here is that Micah is talking of a great multitude of people moving against the wicked with the Sword of the Spirit, a multitude that no man can number.
5. V. 6, they shall waste the land of Assyria... Assyria, the land of Nimrod. BabylonÐthat is, the world system which is in rebellion against God. Their rebellion is taken out against the Covenant people.
6. However, the remnant are not on the defensive, but they are actively engaged in charging against the very gates of Hell armed with the Sword of the Spirit. The gates do not prevail against this Sword, and they give way. Then the mighty men waste the "captured" land with the sword...
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Satan's goal is to waste the Church, the Godly remnant. But Micah tells us that his devices will be turned against him, and enemy will be wasted by God's people through the use of the word of God, which is the power of God. (Rom. 1:16, 1 Cor. 1:1821.) The mighty men with their Sword in hand, the Word, pursue the heathen into their homelands, and conquer them. "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel..." The triumph over the world, flesh and the devil must be with the Sword of the Spirit, for the ruler shall be the peace, v. 5.
7. The spread of the kingdom is only by the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, as Paul made clear both in Acts and in 1 Corinthians 1:272:5; note 2:4, the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God is in this preaching of the Gospel, not in the effective use of the human means, including physical warfare, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
The Spirit and power of God goes into all of the Babylonian world. It pursues the unbelievers wherever they go. It conquers them, no matter where they hide, for His Spirit works within the spirit of even His enemies.
8. I will cut off, v. 10. The Prince of Peace cuts off the means of warfare by the Spirit of Grace and peace. See Ps. 45.
I am totally amazed at the blindness of men like Keil, who must see a physical warfare in order to conquer the heathens. The Scriptures clearly tell of the power of the God who created the worlds out of nothing, simply by the word of His mouth, yet even the best theologians cannot grasp that Christ has the power over men's evil heart, and can turn them whensoever and whethersoever He will. Proverbs 21:1.
This time of the year we celebrate peace and good will from God toward men in the form of the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Luke 2:14. We do not celebrate war and destruction, as some should do as they look for a bloody king to come rescue them out of their selfmade mess.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Another storm of the Century! How many does that make now?
Was it caused by "climate change", as the godless media, especially NPR, is trying to tell us, in the effort to fleece the public treasury?
"Did Obama increase the power and path of Sandy with HAARP, including Aerosol Dumps", one email asked?
GeoEngineering... Speculations abound all the way from Alex Jones (conspiracy) to national news media (man caused "Climate Change").
Men love conspiracy theories to explain events, for conspirators remove personal responsibility for surrounding events. If we just make the conspirators and their plans known, our problems will be solved, for the truth will make us free. What a foolish assumption, as well as unbiblical. Problems are only solved by taking personal responsibility as required by the Lord God.
Sandy has given the prognosticators an abundance of speculative theories to last for years. Sandy has given the "wise men of this world" many opportunities to cry out "the sky is falling", scaring people into letting the opportunists again raid the "pubic" treasury to keep the "sky from falling". "With enough money", we will are assured, "we can prevent another superstorm!"
Was Sandy man made, increased or even caused by the actions of man?
There are already many speculations and many more will come as to how man created the conditions for Sandy, and how he can control those conditions.
Beyond any doubt, the Word of God lays the blame for "super natural events" at the feet of fallen men.
Deut 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: 16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: 46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. 47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
The Law as given to Moses in Deuteronomy chapters 2729, clearly tells us that the actions of man result in the actions of "nature". Nature will be either a friend or foe to man, according to man's relationship to nature's God, the Creator of all things visible, and invisible.
I realize there are Arminians, Calvinists, and even those who profess the Reformed Faith who deny the above is for our day. But denial will not change God's word. As Paul said, God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; (Rom. 3:4.)
New York City was at the heart of the American Revolution, a revolution motivated by a desire for religious freedom. Today, New York City is the home of the international Banksters, financed by the FED. Though there are no doubt godly efforts in the city, it is an overall filthy city that needs a good cleansing in the blood of Christ.
"Suppose ye that these New Yorkers were sinners above all sinners, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (See Luke 13:3, 4)
The wicked deny and even militate against the only answer for cleanliness. It was not long ago that the city of New York forbade churches from using the "Public Schools" for religious services. Many churches had no place else to meet. However, I believe that due to the public outcry, the city backed down some, and some churches now have access to the buildings their people were forced to pay for at the point of a gun.
A very common verse is,
Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
Some applications from Romans 1:
1) 1:16, salvation is not to be found in big government, nor in anything man can imagine.
Though Obama has shown himself to be a complete failure, yet an expert at spending money, he was offered again as the saviour of the world. I fully expected the election to be stolen by Obama.
"BREAKING: NAACP Takes Over Houston Polling Station, Advocates for President Obama". The NAACP is handing out water to those in line, and even moving some up to the front of the line. Though totally illegal to do anything within 100 ft of the poling place, the officials from the state house down have placed their approval on NAACP's activities.
There were many reports of the electronic voting machines being rigged to vote for Obama regardless of what the voter wanted. That was the primary purpose of going electronic. To make matters even worse NJ voters were allowed to vote by e mail. Unchallenged fraud was rampant. How much longer will the "wild side" of Americans remain subdued? The chains are ready for the terrorists, defined as anyone against the powers who have control at the time.
The "left" can steal an election, and nothing will be said. But if the "right" makes a wrong turn, the entire media is on them like a duck on a June Bug.
Again, events prove that the Gospel of Christ alone can provide salvation.
Rushdoony points out that Biblical Salvation must be defined in its Biblical meaning ... that is, deliverance, preservation, victory and health, and it refers to material and temporal deliverance, as well as personal, national, temporal and eternal triumph. Salvation is not escapism from the trials and temptations of this present life. It is victory through Christ in the midst of everything that is going on around us in this evil world. Salvation is victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. 1 John 2:1419, 3:8, Hebrews 2:14, 2 Timothy 2:26. Thus, salvation involves much more than assured eternal life. It is very much how to live for Christ here in this life. It is how to be salt and light in a dark, evil world. It is letting our light shine, so that others will see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:1316.
Notice the many things in the above statement that people expect from the state:
"deliverance, preservation, victory and health, and it refers to material and temporal deliverance, as well as personal, national, temporal and eternal triumph."
Biblical Salvation always involves judgment against all manmade gods.
Job 31:24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; v. 40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Hope in anything other than the Lord God results in hopeless nature. There are 23 "hope" verses like the one below in Scripture:
Psalms 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
We cannot let our surrounding distressing circumstances disquiet us, for our hope is God.
2) Romans 1:17, the righteousness of God as defined in Deuteronomy 2729 is required in order to inherit the blessings of God as promised there.
I associate with a group that offers itself as a Christian group. The group elected a man openly living with his girlfriend as an officer. When I confronted the president of the group with the fact, reminding him that the group professed to be Christian, he responded with, "That is between the man and the Lord. We must not judge him". Sadly, the group consists of at least two other pastors. It is common among "Christians" to separate personal activity from one's public profession of faith. "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have not we done many wonderful works in thy name...?"
3) v. 18 is very applicable for us today: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
4) vv. 19ff. Paul now starts down through the things that bring about the wrath of God from heaven. Moreover, men are without excuse, for all of creation reveals his eternal power and Godhead.
5) v. 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. V. 21 starts the downward trend that leads to God's wrathful vengeance against man's hardness in sin.
* the foolishness of the wise, particularly the foolishness of those who think they can control the weather.
* foolish man serves the gods of his own imagination.
* persisting in their rejection of the Lord God, and determined to serve their selfmade gods, the Lord turns the wicked over to the gods of their imagination.
"Devastated Rockaways residents lash out at Bloomberg during unannounced visit." In the New York Post interview, a woman was screaming at the mayor of NY, crying out for her savior, big government, to come help her.
Sandy has obviously shown that there is no saviour nor hope outside of the Lord, yet people still vote for those who profess to be their saviour.
"In New York's Public Housing, Fear Creeps In With the Dark" New York Times, 11/3/12. They show what it is like living in public housing in the dark. It is extremely dangerous as the terrorist mobs roam the streets looking for things to steal, yet no one makes an effort to capture those terrorist. On the other hand, if a man is reported to be "stockpiling weapons, food or ammo", he is immediately identified as a terrorist, and the entire weight of the federal police force is upon him.
Their selfmade god which has provided the big welfare checks is unable to protect them when the lights go out. They have found that their god is powerless when the need is the greatest.
Their god could not even supply clean drinking water, though he had many days to prepare. Though FEMA is promoted by Big Government fans as being prepared for disasters, and though they had many days warning of what Sandy was going to do, they ran out of water within a day, with no prospect of water for many days.
Over half of the gas stations were without electricity, causing mile long lines at the pumps that worked. The chaos in those lines became so dangerous that police had to guard the lines. The DOD came in with free gas, which led to even greater chaos. Again, the police had to step in.
"Queens residents arm themselves in the poststorm blackout from looters." The Daily News. 9/4. The inability of their god to protect them produced great fear.
NBC news reported that SandyStarved New Yorkers were "Dumpster Diving" to get food to eat.
Terrorists
The media pokes fun at those who have tried to lay up a store of food. The president has even identified those kinds of people terrorists. But they were not the ones dumpster diving for food that has been thrown out by grocery stores. Nor were they the terrorists who were pillaging the ravaged areas.
Terrorists are identified by the federal government as those who prepare for difficult times, even arming themselves for self protection. Terrorists are not identified as those who are pillaging, destroying, and even murdering.
Terrorists are military verterans who can defend themslves.
The chains are ready for the terrorists who want to be selfsustained, and who do not need Big Brother to care for them.
Salvation comes with judgment.
* the silence of the Christian community against the false god of the state shows approval.
* of course, sodomy is included in this list. New York is known for its promotion of the sodomites, as they proudly parade through the streets on "Gay Pride Day." And the New York police persecute the Christians who might protest the sodomites.
6) Romans 2:1, the men of 1:2132 are without excuse as they serve imaginary gods.
7) v. 2, God's judgment is according to his righteousness as revealed in his law as delivered to Moses.
Psalms 119:138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. 137 TZADDI. Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
8) v. 3, Oh, how foolish of man to think he can escape the judgment of God, for disbelief in the righteousness of God does not exempt one from his righteous judgment.
9) v. 4 God is patient and merciful, yet he is just:
Psalms 78:38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. (86:15, Exo 34:67)
Yet God's longsuffering and mercy will not overlook nor clear the guilty.
10) vv. 5, 6, God's purpose in his goodness, forbearance and longsuffering is to lead men to repentance.
Titus 3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
His longsuffering is with a purpose. However, if man does not repent, harsh judgement will come.
11) v. 5, treasurest up wrath... That is to say, like a dam, God's goodness, forbearance and longsuffering holds back his wrathful judgment. But his mercy will not last forever
2 Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) before his longsuffering changes to wrathful judgment.
12) vv. 8, 9, But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Wrath revealed from heaven:
Exodus 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Job 37:10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. 11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: 12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. 13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? 35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? 36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? 37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
Deut 28, 29 clearly show us that when man wars against God, God's nature wars against him, and we know who will win.
The Lord told Job that he alone tells the weather events, no matter how large or small, where to take place.
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Yet when this perfect and upright man who feared God and hated evil, understood who God was, he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes.
Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said, 2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. 3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. 4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
How foolish can man be to think the winds, rain and storms can be made to answer to him. Furthermore, how blind can "Christians" be to think that "nature" has a mind of "her" own, or can be controlled according to man's will. "Nature" is God's creation, and "nature" can never deviate from "her" Creator's will. The Plagues against Pharaoh prove that all of "nature" is simply a tool to carry out God's blessings or curses.
Man caused "Climate Change"! How foolish can man be to think he is the new god of the universe, able to subdue nature to his own will.
Moreover, how faithless of even Christians to think man can conspire against God to influence or control the weather.
However, the Lord did permit the magicians with their enchantments change their rods into serpents, 7:12, the water into blood, v. 22, the frogs, 8:7. It was not until the fourth judgment, lice, that the magicians could not duplicate God's actions.
In other words, when it fits within God's plan, he will give supernatural power to fallen man, because all power in heaven and earth is given unto Christ. Matthew 28:18.
Man does influence and control the weather, but that control is in accord to his attitude and actions toward the laws established by God.
Certainly, man caused Sandy, and Superstorms will continue and even increase as man goes deeper into his rebellion against God and his word. Man "makes" or causes horrendous acts of nature by his rebellion against God.
Added note: The "war on drugs" has failed. The "war on terrorism" has failed, and the people are demanding it be stopped. So the new world crisis is "climate change", promoted with the idea of scaring the population to agree to more money for "green" energy, among other foolish and wasteful things.
As a result of Sandy, there will be a great push to do the impossible dreamÑthat is, control the climate, "Climate Change".
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Sandy confirms 2 Corinthians 6:2 For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
I wanted to get this Examiner out soon after Thanksgiving, but my hard drive crashed. It totally quit. The Mac has a "Time Machine" program which continually backs everything up to an external hard drive however often you set. Thank the Lord, my backup drive was working at the time. It took a couple of weeks get the diagnosis, the new replacement drive, install it, reinstall the operating system, and get the backed up files in their proper place.
Sadly, a computer has become my brains, and without it, I feel lost. My life's work as a pastor and writer is stored on hard drives. Before computers, I hand wrote everything, and stored those things in paper files. Hand writing is very slow and difficult for me now. I may have had a very light stroke some time ago. There is no physical evidence of any kind of stroke other than my inability to write in longhand, unless I write very slowly. My keyboard ability is not effected at all.
However, I do seem to be developing Carpal Tunnel syndrome in my left hand. I will start wearing a brace to see if that will help.
Warning. Keep a back up drive running all the time your computer is on, especially if your occupation involves the use of a computer. You will curse the day you did not heed the many warnings to keep your files backed up. Seagate offered a $50 coupon to recover my data from their failed drive, but I am sure the total cost is not a pleasant thought.
We were able to go Ohio for Thanksgiving, and see two new grandsons. One born to Bettie's youngest daughter, and the other born to my oldest daughter, which now makes 30 total living grandchildren, counting the one due any day now to Bettie's daughterinlaw in PA.
Obviously, it was an enjoyable trip. Though it was some time after Sandy, there was still a good bit of snow left on the mountains where we crossed the Continental Divide going west on US 50 at 3000+ feet, about 50 miles west of us. (A pastor friend at the Roanoke Preacher's meeting we attend, said they had 3 ft of snow in WV where he lives; roofs collapsed, and lights gone.)
Driving through the WV mountains to Ohio just before Thanksgiving, it is easy to see why it takes weeks to restore power in some of those areas. They probably had at least 3 ft of very wet snow. Many trees were down, and there were several places where trees had fallen over the highway.
We received maybe 1216 inches of snow out of the storm. It was not enough to snow us in with a 4x4 PU. Snow on the back side of hills stuck around for several weeks at 2000+ ft. We only lost power for a few hours.
Our oldest grandson in Kenya started a bakery business at 13 years old. He turned it over to his parents who now have local Kenya people working it. The goal of the family there is to have a business for each of the children when they get old enough to strike out on their own. The oldest son is now into web design as broad band and web advertising is very new in Kenya. The businesses there are finding web advertising very successful.
The weather has been unusually warm; ideal for getting the garden cleaned up and ready for spring. Time has hindered such effort however.
We brought back some very beautiful and colorful material from Kenya, which is not available in the US. Bettie will be making some wraparound skirts from the material for sale over her web site, www.practicallypretybydesign.com.
Medical
Two tremendous praise the Lords:
I saw the doctors December 4, 2012. First, the cardiologist. He gave me a "clean bill of health". Realizing I have had 3 stent procedures, he urged me to take the statin drugs for my cholesterol, as every doctor has done since my heart event. I told him as I have told them all: everyone must die of something, and I guess I will die of high cholesterol", though I have never heard such a thing as a cause of death. I am fully convinced that the cholesterol frenzy is for marketing by the medicalindustral complex. There is hugue profits to be made, as the medical industry continually lowers the "safe" leevel of cholesterol. I have mentioned in the past the devastating effect statins had on Bettie when she took them some years ago. Moreover, half of heart related deaths are people with normal cholesterol. The medical (and food) profession seeks to spread the wealth around with false advertising, lies and half truths, all with the help of the AMA, and others.
My second appointment was with the eye doctor. As some of you remember, I had laser surgery on my left eye in 1995 for a seeping capillary behind the retina. It left a small area of distortion in the left eye, at about 2 Oclock. The doctor at that time told me that only about 10% regained use of their eye after that surgery. He also told me to have it checked yearly. God has been extremely good. The checkup revealed that the distortion is now healed to where it is not noticeable, though there are a few evidences of the scar on the retina.
However, cateracts are forming in both eyes, making it difficult to see at night, as both reflected light and the oncoming light cause a good bit of glare. If I would tell them it was unsafe to drive at night, they would do the surgery now, but we will put it off for a while yet.
Bettie:
She is having dental surgery the 17th of this month. And then January 22nd, she must have cateract surgery on her left eye. The thing she dreads most about the cateract surgery is that she must go completely without makeup for one weeks before the surgery, and one week after. The surgeon wants to take no chance of any foreign material being on or in the skin around her eye. Cateract surgery is absolutely amazing now. Remember her in your prayers, not necessarly about the makeup, but about the two surgeries.
The eye surgery is covered by Samaritan Ministries, but the oral surgery is not.
Again, God has been and is better to us beyond all we could ask or think.
‘Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' NAS whistleblower.
"The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone.
Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, resigned in 2001. He claimed he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the Constitution, such as how the FBI engages in widespread and pervasive surveillance through powerful devices called ‘Naris.'..."
http://rt.com/usa/news/surveillancespyingemailcitizens178/
"Senate Dems defend administration's right to take guns from veterans..."
drudgereport. December 11, 2012
"Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, wants veterans who have been deemed "mentally incompetent" to have their cases adjudicated by a judge Ñ rather than the Department of Veterans Affairs, as happens currently Ñ and argued that veterans who simply cannot support themselves financially are needlessly given the label and, as such, cannot buy or possess firearms.... [Who defines "mentally incompetent"? Ed.]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/3/changeonveteransgunrightslightsfire/#ixzz2EC3WCpp2
Please warn people that killer guns, killer cars and killer scissors, as well as other killers, are on the loose.
Brennan: NFL struggling through dark days, Christine Brennan, USA TODAY, Sports.
"... One week after Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed the mother of his nearly 3monthold daughter [Kasandra Perkins, 22] and then killed himself, the Cowboys are mourning the loss of a teammate while another has been arrested for intoxication manslaughter.
Nose tackle Josh Brent, who was to have started this Sunday against the Bengals, was arrested early Saturday morning after the car he was driving flipped over, killing his lone passenger, Cowboys practicesquad player Jerry Brown, who was Brent's teammate not only in Dallas but also at the University of Illinois from 200709...."
"On Saturday, a rich 25yearold man, Jovan Belcher, murdered his 22yearold girlfriend, the mother of his child. First, columnist Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports suggested that this "25yearold kid" wasn't responsible for his actions Ð it was the "gun culture" that was to blame. Then, Bob Costas of NBC repeats this idiotic notion, even though the 6'2", 228 lb. linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs could easily have murdered his girlfriend with a knife."
http://www.breitbart.com/BigJournalism/2012/12/03/CNNcultureofmanlinessBelcher
12/11/12. "A 41yearold man has been arrested for murder after he allegedly stabbed another man to death with scissors in his Harlem apartment building, police say...."
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ManStabDeathScissorsHarlemArrest182957731.html
A gun got out of control and killed Perkins and Belcher, but an uncontrolled knife would have been just as deadly. A car, aided by alcohol, also got out of control and killed Brown, and a pair of scissors got out of control and killed 45yearold Keith Warney. Yet only guns, with their natural inclination to kill people, need controlling. Are not uncontrolled knives, cars, scissors and alcohol just as dangerous, even killing more people than guns ever hoped to kill? Yet we do not hear of knives, cars, scissors nor alcohol, killing people. Why are they left blameless, while guns get all the blame?
Uncontrolled knives, cars, alcohol and scissors are as dangerous as guns ever hoped to be, so why is not the Brady bunch making serious effort to confiscate those killer knives, cars, scissors and alcohol? Where are the "buy back" programs to get those killers out of circulation. They can kill just as dead as a gun can. So why the special attention on the killer gun?
We must sound the alarm. Killer guns, cars, scissors, knives and may other killers, e.g., ball bats, are now out of control, randomly killing people at will. Beware as you meet these killers in the store, on the street or even in your house. Are they are lurking to kill you?
Hammurabi Knew Better
Why It Destroyed Rome, Why It Will Destroy Us Unless It's Stopped
by MICHAEL HUDSON
Book V of Aristotle's Politics describes the eternal transition of oligarchies making themselves into hereditary aristocracies Ð which end up being overthrown by tyrants or develop internal rivalries as some families decide to "take the multitude into their camp" and usher in democracy, within which an oligarchy emerges once again, followed by aristocracy, democracy, and so on throughout history.
Debt has been the main dynamic driving these shifts Ð always with new twists and turns. It polarizes wealth to create a creditor class, whose oligarchic rule is ended as new leaders ("tyrants" to Aristotle) win popular support by cancelling the debts and redistributing property or taking its usufruct [sic] for the state.
Since the Renaissance, however, bankers have shifted their political support to democracies. This did not reflect egalitarian or liberal political convictions as such, but rather a desire for better security for their loans. As James Steuart explained in 1767, royal borrowings remained private affairs rather than truly public debts. For a sovereign's debts to become binding upon the entire nation, elected representatives had to enact the taxes to pay their interest charges.
By giving taxpayers this voice in government, the Dutch and British democracies provided creditors with much safer claims for payment than did kings and princes whose debts died with them. But the recent debt protests from Iceland to Greece and Spain suggest that creditors are shifting their support away from democracies. They are demanding fiscal austerity and even privatization selloffs.
This is turning international finance into a new mode of warfare. Its objective is the same as military conquest in times past: to appropriate land and mineral resources, also communal infrastructure and extract tribute. In response, democracies are demanding referendums over whether to pay creditors by selling off the public domain and raising taxes to impose unemployment, falling wages and economic depression. The alternative is to write down debts or even annul them, and to reassert regulatory control over the financial sector.
Near Eastern rulers proclaimed clean slates for debtors to preserve economic balance
Charging interest on advances of goods or money was not originally intended to polarize economies. First administered early in the third millennium BC as a contractual arrangement by Sumer's temples and palaces with merchants and entrepreneurs who typically worked in the royal bureaucracy, interest at 20 per cent (doubling the principal in five years) was supposed to approximate a fair share of the returns from longdistance trade or leasing land and other public assets such as workshops, boats and ale houses.
As the practice was privatized by royal collectors of user fees and rents, "divine kingship" protected agrarian debtors. Hammurabi's laws (c. 1750 BC) cancelled their debts in times of flood or drought. All the rulers of his Babylonian dynasty began their first full year on the throne by cancelling agrarian debts so as to clear out payment arrears by proclaiming a clean slate. Bondservants, land or crop rights and other pledges were returned to the debtors to "restore order" in an idealized "original" condition of balance. This practice survived in the Jubilee Year of Mosaic Law in Leviticus 25.
The logic was clear enough. Ancient societies needed to field armies to defend their land, and this required liberating indebted citizens from bondage. Hammurabi's laws protected charioteers and other fighters from being reduced to debt bondage, and blocked creditors from taking the crops of tenants on royal and other public lands and on communal land that owed manpower and military service to the palace.
In Egypt, the pharaoh Bakenranef (c. 720715 BC, "Bocchoris" in Greek) proclaimed a debt amnesty and abolished debtservitude when faced with a military threat from Ethiopia. According to Diodorus of Sicily (I, 79, writing in 4030 BC), he ruled that if a debtor contested the claim, the debt was nullified if the creditor could not back up his claim by producing a written contract. (It seems that creditors always have been prone to exaggerate the balances due.) The pharaoh reasoned that "the bodies of citizens should belong to the state, to the end that it might avail itself of the services which its citizens owed it, in times of both war and peace. For he felt that it would be absurd for a soldier ... to be haled to prison by his creditor for an unpaid loan, and that the greed of private citizens should in this way endanger the safety of all."
The fact that the main Near Eastern creditors were the palace, temples and their collectors made it politically easy to cancel the debts. It always is easy to annul debts owed to oneself. Even Roman emperors burned the tax records to prevent a crisis. But it was much harder to cancel debts owed to private creditors as the practice of charging interest spread westward to Mediterranean chiefdoms after about 750 BC. Instead of enabling families to bridge gaps between income and outgo, debt became the major lever of land expropriation, polarizing communities between creditor oligarchies and indebted clients. In Judah, the prophet Isaiah (5:89) decried foreclosing creditors who "add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land."
Creditor power and stable growth rarely have gone together. Most personal debts in this classical period were the product of small amounts of money lent to individuals living on the edge of subsistence and who could not make ends meet. Forfeiture of land and assets Ð and personal liberty Ð forced debtors into bondage that became irreversible. By the 7th century BC, "tyrants" (popular leaders) emerged to overthrow the aristocracies in Corinth and other wealthy Greek cities, gaining support by cancelling the debts. In a less tyrannical manner, Solon founded the Athenian democracy in 594 BC by banning debt bondage.
But oligarchies reemerged and called in Rome when Sparta's kings Agis, Cleomenes and their successor Nabis sought to cancel debts late in the third century BC. They were killed and their supporters driven out. It has been a political constant of history since antiquity that creditor interests opposed both popular democracy and royal power able to limit the financial conquest of society Ñ a conquest aimed at attaching interestbearing debt claims for payment on as much of the economic surplus as possible.
When the Gracchi brothers and their followers tried to reform the credit laws in 133 BC, the dominant Senatorial class acted with violence, killing them and inaugurating a century of Social War, resolved by the ascension of Augustus as emperor in 29 BC.
Rome's creditor oligarchy wins the Social War, enslaves the population and brings on a Dark Age
Matters were more bloody abroad. Aristotle did not mention empire building as part of his political schema, but foreign conquest always has been a major factor in imposing debts, and war debts have been the major cause of public debt in modern times. Antiquity's harshest debt levy was by Rome, whose creditors spread out to plague Asia Minor, its most prosperous province. The rule of law all but disappeared when publican creditor "knights" arrived. Mithridates of Pontus led three popular revolts, and local populations in Ephesus and other cities rose up and killed a reported 80,000 Romans in 88 BC. The Roman army retaliated, and Sulla imposed war tribute of 20,000 talents in 84 BC. Charges for back interest multiplied this sum sixfold by 70 BC.
Among Rome's leading historians, Livy, Plutarch and Diodorus blamed the fall of the Republic on creditor intransigence in waging the centurylong Social War marked by political murder from 133 to 29 BC. Populist leaders sought to gain a following by advocating debt cancellations (e.g., the Catiline conspiracy in 6362 BC). They were killed. By the second century AD about a quarter of the population was reduced to bondage. By the fifth century Rome's economy collapsed, stripped of money. Subsistence life reverted to the countryside.
Creditors find a legalistic reason to support parliamentary democracy
When banking recovered after the Crusades looted Byzantium and infused silver and gold to review Western European commerce, Christian opposition to charging interest was overcome by the combination of prestigious lenders (the Knights Templars and Hospitallers providing credit during the Crusades) and their major clients Ð kings, at first to pay the Church and increasingly to wage war. But royal debts went bad when kings died. The Bardi and Peruzzi went bankrupt in 1345 when Edward III repudiated his war debts. Banking families lost more on loans to the Habsburg and Bourbon despots on the thrones of Spain, Austria and France.
Matters changed with the Dutch democracy, seeking to win and secure its liberty from Habsburg Spain. The fact that their parliament was to contract permanent public debts on behalf of the state enabled the Low Countries to raise loans to employ mercenaries in an epoch when money and credit were the sinews of war. Access to credit "was accordingly their most powerful weapon in the struggle for their freedom," Richard Ehrenberg wrote in his Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance (1928): "Anyone who gave credit to a prince knew that the repayment of the debt depended only on his debtor's capacity and will to pay. The case was very different for the cities, which had power as overlords, but were also corporations, associations of individuals held in common bond. According to the generally accepted law each individual burgher was liable for the debts of the city both with his person and his property." [School bond debt!]
The financial achievement of parliamentary government was thus to establish debts that were not merely the personal obligations of princes, but were truly public and binding regardless of who occupied the throne. This is why the first two democratic nations, the Netherlands and Britain after its 1688 revolution, developed the most active capital markets and proceeded to become leading military powers. What is ironic is that it was the need for war financing that promoted democracy, forming a symbiotic trinity between war making, credit and parliamentary democracy which has lasted to this day.
At this time "the legal position of the King qua borrower was obscure, and it was still doubtful whether his creditors had any remedy against him in case of default." (Charles Wilson, England's Apprenticeship: 16031763: 1965.) The more despotic Spain, Austria and France became, the greater the difficulty they found in financing their military adventures. By the end of the eighteenth century Austria was left "without credit, and consequently without much debt," the least creditworthy and worst armed country in Europe, fully dependent on British subsidies and loan guarantees by the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
Finance accommodates itself to democracy, but then pushes for oligarchy
While the nineteenth century's democratic reforms reduced the power of landed aristocracies to control parliaments, bankers moved flexibly to achieve a symbiotic relationship with nearly every form of government. In France, followers of SaintSimon promoted the idea of banks acting like mutual funds, extending credit against equity shares in profit. The German state made an alliance with large banking and heavy industry. Marx wrote optimistically about how socialism would make finance productive rather than parasitic. In the United States, regulation of public utilities went hand in hand with guaranteed returns. In China, SunYatSen wrote in 1922: "I intend to make all the national industries of China into a Great Trust owned by the Chinese people, and financed with international capital for mutual benefit."
World War I saw the United States replace Britain as the major creditor nation, and by the end of World War II it had cornered some 80 per cent of the world's monetary gold. Its diplomats shaped the IMF and World Bank along creditororiented lines that financed trade dependency, mainly on the United States. Loans to finance trade and payments deficits were subject to "conditionalities" that shifted economic planning to client oligarchies and military dictatorships. The democratic response to resulting austerity plans squeezing out debt service was unable to go much beyond "IMF riots," until Argentina rejected its foreign debt.
A similar creditororiented austerity is now being imposed on Europe by the European Central Bank (ECB) and EU bureaucracy. Ostensibly social democratic governments have been directed to save the banks rather than reviving economic growth and employment. Losses on bad bank loans and speculations are taken onto the public balance sheet while scaling back public spending and even selling off infrastructure. The response of taxpayers stuck with the resulting debt has been to mount popular protests starting in Iceland and Latvia in January 2009, and more widespread demonstrations in Greece and Spain this autumn to protest their governments' refusal to hold referendums on these fateful bailouts of foreign bondholders.
Shifting planning away from elected public representatives to bankers
Every economy is planned. This traditionally has been the function of government. Relinquishing this role under the slogan of "free markets" leaves it in the hands of banks. Yet the planning privilege of credit creation and allocation turns out to be even more centralized than that of elected public officials. And to make matters worse, the financial time frame is shortterm hitandrun, ending up as asset stripping. By seeking their own gains, the banks tend to destroy the economy. The surplus ends up being consumed by interest and other financial charges, leaving no revenue for new capital investment or basic social spending.
This is why relinquishing policy control to a creditor class rarely has gone together with economic growth and rising living standards. The tendency for debts to grow faster than the population's ability to pay has been a basic constant throughout all recorded history. Debts mount up exponentially, absorbing the surplus and reducing much of the population to the equivalent of debt peonage. To restore economic balance, antiquity's cry for debt cancellation sought what the Bronze Age Near East achieved by royal fiat: to cancel the overgrowth of debts.
In more modern times, democracies have urged a strong state to tax rentier [one to whom rent or intrest is paid] income and wealth, and when called for, to write down debts. This is done most readily when the state itself creates money and credit. It is done least easily when banks translate their gains into political power. When banks are permitted to be selfregulating and given veto power over government regulators, the economy is distorted to permit creditors to indulge in the speculative gambles and outright fraud that have marked the past decade. The fall of the Roman Empire demonstrates what happens when creditor demands are unchecked. Under these conditions the alternative to government planning and regulation of the financial sector becomes a road to debt peonage.
Finance vs. government; oligarchy vs. democracy
Democracy involves subordinating financial dynamics to serve economic balance and growth Ð and taxing rentier income or keeping basic monopolies in the public domain. Untaxing or privatizing property income "frees" it to be pledged to the banks, to be capitalized into larger loans. Financed by debt leveraging, assetprice inflation increases rentier wealth while indebting the economy at large. The economy shrinks, falling into negative equity.
The financial sector has gained sufficient influence to use such emergencies as an opportunity to convince governments that the economy will collapse they it do not "save the banks." In practice this means consolidating their control over policy, which they use in ways that further polarize economies. The basic model is what occurred in ancient Rome, moving from democracy to oligarchy. In fact, giving priority to bankers and leaving economic planning to be dictated by the EU, ECB and IMF threatens to strip the nationstate of the power to coin or print money and levy taxes.
The resulting conflict is pitting financial interests against national selfdetermination. The idea of an independent central bank being "the hallmark of democracy" is a euphemism for relinquishing the most important policy decision Ð the ability to create money and credit Ð to the financial sector. Rather than leaving the policy choice to popular referendums, the rescue of banks organized by the EU and ECB now represents the largest category of rising national debt. The private bank debts taken onto government balance sheets in Ireland and Greece have been turned into taxpayer obligations. The same is true for America's $13 trillion added since September 2008 (including $5.3 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bad mortgages taken onto the government's balance sheet, and $2 trillion of Federal Reserve "cashfortrash" swaps).
This is being dictated by financial proxies euphemized as technocrats. Designated by creditor lobbyists, their role is to calculate just how much unemployment and depression is needed to squeeze out a surplus to pay creditors for debts now on the books. What makes this calculation selfdefeating is the fact that economic shrinkage Ð debt deflation Ð makes the debt burden even more unpayable.
Neither banks nor public authorities (or mainstream academics, for that matter) calculated the economy's realistic ability to pay Ð that is, to pay without shrinking the economy. Through their media and think tanks, they have convinced populations that the way to get rich most rapidly is to borrow money to buy real estate, stocks and bonds rising in price Ð being inflated by bank credit Ð and to reverse the past century's progressive taxation of wealth.
To put matters bluntly, the result has been junk economics. Its aim is to disable public checks and balances, shifting planning power into the hands of high finance on the claim that this is more efficient than public regulation. Government planning and taxation is accused of being "the road to serfdom," as if "free markets" controlled by bankers given leeway to act recklessly is not planned by special interests in ways that are oligarchic, not democratic. Governments are told to pay bailout debts taken on not to defend countries in military warfare as in times past, but to benefit the wealthiest layer of the population by shifting its losses onto taxpayers.
The failure to take the wishes of voters into consideration leaves the resulting national debts on shaky ground politically and even legally. Debts imposed by fiat, by governments or foreign financial agencies in the face of strong popular opposition may be as tenuous as those of the Habsburgs and other despots in past epochs. Lacking popular validation, they may die with the regime that contracted them. New governments may act democratically to subordinate the banking and financial sector to serve the economy, not the other way around.
At the very least, they may seek to pay by reintroducing progressive taxation of wealth and income, shifting the fiscal burden onto rentier wealth and property. Reregulation of banking and providing a public option for credit and banking services would renew the social democratic program that seemed well underway a century ago.
Iceland and Argentina are most recent examples, but one may look back to the moratorium on InterAlly arms debts and German reparations in 1931. A basic mathematical as well as political principle is at work: Debts that can't be paid, won't be.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/02/debtslavery%E2%80%93whyitdestroyedromewhyitwilldestroyusunlessit%E2%80%99sstopped/
Susanne Posel, August 20, 2012
In 2007, the Sentinel Management Group (SMG) collapsed, leaving many customer segregated funds lost after they had been used as collateral. After a plethora of lawsuits and creditor claims, a decision earlier this month in the 7th Circuit Court placed the banking cartels ahead of customer claims for funds returned. Essentially, the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) sued to be first in line for return on stolen customer account monies Ð and won the right by the US court system.
In the mainstream media (MSM), the SMG collapse and subsequent ruling in favor of BNYM was touted as a difficulty "for customers to recoup money lost".
SMG, a Chicagobased futures broker, had stolen more than $500 million in segregated customer funds to use as collateral on a loan to BNYM for inhouse proprietary trading operations. Their books were audited by the National Futures Association (NFA), however the NFA admitted that they could not understand the convoluted mess they were provided by SMG to sign off on. And yet they did; and approved the audit.
BNYM sued SMG to recoup any monies owed to them. However, these monies were customer segregated funds that SMG stole and rehypothecated.
In federal Court, John D. Tinder, US Circuit Court Judge ruled "that Sentinel failed to keep client funds properly segregated is not, on its own, sufficient to rule as a matter of law that Sentinel acted ‘with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud' its customers."
This means that once a banking customer deposits their money into an account with a bank, the funds become property of the bank. The customer, at the point of deposit, relinquishes all rights to that money regardless of any laws in place, legal assurances, claims or guarantees; and this extends from investments to private checking accounts.
Once the bank has physical possession of your money, they own it and can use it for any means they deem fit. The veil has been lifted on separation of customer and bank funds. They are now legally comingled.
The bank could use it as collateral (as SMG did), to pay off debts, or place it on the stock market to bump up their trading with extra cash. And in the event that the customer allocated funds are lost, the bank does not owe the customer the money back.
Essentially, once you deposit money in your bank account it is gone. (Emp added)
Fred Grede, SMG trustee remarked: "I don't think that's what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had in mind. It does not bode well for the protection of customer funds."
The MF Global (MFG) scandal rocked the investment world because Jon Corzine, chief executive officer of MF Global, instructed the transfer of $200 million from their customer segregated funds to cover the corporation's overdraft account with JP Morgan Chase.
Corzine emailed this order just three days before the official collapse of MFG. At the same time Corzine was moving customer money, this missing $6.3 billion dollars were used on bets on European indebted nations. As those European nation's credit ratings plummeted, JP Morgan profited financially.
Our financial institutions have been planning for a financial collapse wherein the US government will not offer assistance. The resolution plans required by the Federal Reserve Bank, described schemes to have the major domestic banks remain afloat by selling off assets, finding alternative sources of funding, reducing risky measures that make a quick buck. These strategies were to be perfected with "no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector."
By selling "noncore assets" without upsetting shareholders while protecting the monetary system, taxpayers and creditors is the work of the megabanks who have contributed solely to the destruction of the global financial markets. Bank of America (BoA) and Citibank have already begun to liquidate some of their assets Ð an action a bank takes when they are insolvent.
Both megabanks and credit unions have been silently altering their deposit/withdrawal policies to deter customers from emptying out their accounts.
Because the digital record of monies is greater than the physical cash held by banks, this is a scheme to stave off a "run on the banks".
With the Patriot Act , signed in 2001 by former President George W. Bush, and extended in 2011 by President Obama states that all banks must record all banking transactions with photo ID and fingerprints that will then be sent to an FBI database wherein all banking information tied to each individual on file can be traced for future reference.
Of recent, when withdrawing cash from an ATM, the daily allotted amount has decreased with some banks, thereby forcing the customer to go into the branch and extract the difference with a teller. At this point, according to anonymous informants, the customer is taken into a backroom to be questioned as to why they want the cash, what they are purchasing with the cash, why they are not choosing to use a debit card or another form of digital trade to make the purchase. These questions are not only intrusive, they are illegal.
Some anonymous sources have said that banking representatives who conduct the integrations are directed to keep a record of customer responses on an online application that will be sent to the FBI in conjunction with Patriot Act mandates on tracking banking activity.
While American citizens sit on the fence about whether or not they even subscribe to a banking collapse in the US, globalists like George Soros are investing heavily in gold.
Soros recently "unloaded over one million shares of stock in financial companies and banks that include Citigroup (420,000 shares), JP Morgan (701,400 shares) and Goldman Sachs (120,000 shares). The total value of the stock sales amounts to nearly $50 million" and then purchased 884,000 shares of Gold with SPDR Gold Trust.
The megabanks, through Wall Street, are also acquiring firearms, ammunition and control over private mercenary corporations like DynCorp and "Blackwater" as authorized by the Department of Defense (DoD) directive 3025.18 .
DynCorp is a militarybased private mercenary contractor that provides (among other services) intelligence training and support, international security, contingency plans and operations. Ninetysix percent of their funding is based on annual revenues from the US federal government. The international branch of DynCorp has operated as a "police force" even assisting local law enforcement during Hurricane Katrina.
Named as investors for the amassing of gun and ammunition manufacturers are Citibank, BoA, Barclays and Deutsche Bank who are pouring money into Cerebus and Veritas Equity who have taken over private corporations involved in the controlling riot situations.
The Federal Reserve Bank, one of the heads of banking cartels, has their own police force which operates as a protective security for the Fed against the American public. As part of the Federal Reserve Act signed in 1913, the designation of a Federal Law Enforcement Ð special police officers that are exclusively regulated by authority of the Fed (whether in uniform or plain clothes. These specialized police officers (who train with Special Response Teams) can work in tandem with local law enforcement or US federal agencies. These officers are heavily armed with semiautomatic pistols, sub machine guns and assault rifles as well as body armor.
Just this month, the Kaspersky Lab discovered Gauss, a banking surveillance virus believed to have the capability of stealing money out of customer's bank accounts, as well as spying on banking transactions, stealing login information for social networks, email and instant messaging. So far, Middle Eastern banks have reported having been affected by Gauss Ð however both Citibank and Ebay's Paypal have also been infected by this new viral threat to our banking systems.
It is clear that the financial collapse could be eminent. Banks are not only preparing with contingency plans, but also amassing a private police force for protection. With the legalization of stealing from customer secured funds, combined with a possible banking virus that could provide the perfect cover for an allinone banking holiday, the stage is being set for utter financial destination.
Once all customer funds were electronically transferred into offshore accounts, the specialized police forces and hired mercenaries would be allocated forward to protect the technocrats from retaliation for their crimes.
The banking holiday will not come with flashing neon signs. Our warnings are right in front of us, if we choose to see them.
Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.
http://www.infowars.com/bankscanlegallystealcustomerfundsfromprivatecheckingaccounts/
Note: Banks can legally gamble with the customer's money. If the banks win, they keep the spoils. If they lose, the customer's funds are gone. Certainly an encouragement for the banks to gamble, for they have a winwin situation. The time for disbelief, "It can't and won't happen here", is over. The facts are now public, and you now know any banked funds are at very high risk. See themoneychanger.com
Book Review
Learn about the remarkable healing ability of unrefined salt.
By Dr. David BrownsteinÑreviewed by Jed Stuber
Early in my medical career, I accepted the "low salt = lowered blood pressure" hypothesis unquestionably ... until ... I began to study the medical literature about salt. What I found was astounding; there is little data to support lowsalt diets being effective at treating hypertension for the vast majority of people.
Also, none of the studies looked at the use of unrefined salt, which contains many valuable vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium and potassium, which are vital to maintaining normal blood pressure.
Ñ Dr. David Brownstein
Dr. David Brownstein begins Salt Your Way to Health by clearly stating that his purpose in writing the book is to refute two ideas that are commonly believed in the medical community and in popular culture. The first idea is that a lowsalt diet is healthy. The second idea is that there is no difference between table salt and unrefined salt.
Browstein believes the conventional wisdom about salt is fundamentally flawed for an astonishingly simple reason: the research is being done on the wrong kind of salt. To be more accurate, Dr. Brownstein would say that the stuff we call salt today isn't complete salt.
It's not salt according to the common understanding that stretches back to the beginning of recorded history. It's not salt according to simple verifiable science that shows we have significantly altered the molecular makeup of the stuff in our salt shakers only in the last century or so.
Somewhat surprisingly this health book by a medical doctor begins with a chapter full of fascinating facts from history.
Salt bars were used as currency for thousands of years. Governments collected taxes in salt. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and we get the word salary from the Latin for salt. Salt was a vital preserving agent and played a significant role in wars. The North made disruption of the South's salt supplies a key strategy in the American war between the states, and it caused major problems for feeding the troops. In an important aspect of symbolism in Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, Judas is overturning the salt. All this background information serves to show that until the 20th century it was taken for granted that salt was valuable and good for you.
The second chapter of Salt Your Way to Health explains the differences between refined and unrefined salt. In the refining process salt is treated with chemicals to remove minerals that are then sold off for use in industry. Up to 2 percent of refined salt may contain preserving agents including the potentially dangerous sodium ferrocyanide, ammonium citrate, and aluminum citrate. In the refining process moisture is removed to increase shelf life, and the salt is bleached to produce a cleaner look that will increase sales.
Next Dr. Brownstein gives some basic reasons you should use unrefined salt instead of refined. Mineral deficiency is associated with low PH, which is in turn associated with many health problems, such as low kidney, liver, and brain function; disruption of enzymatic activity; poor immune function; hormonal imbalances; and a host of chronic degenerative diseases including cancer.
Dr. Brownstein regularly checks patients for two key minerals, magnesium and potassium, and finds that the majority are deficient. Magnesium is the 11th most abundant compound in the body, and known to be a cofactor in hundreds of reactions in the body. Potassium is important for maintaining fluid balance, stimulating muscle contractions, and conducting nerve impulses.
Next Dr. Brownstein explains some problems with low salt diets in more detail. Many organizations have advocated low salt diets as a way to lower blood pressure, despite medical research to the contrary. Dr. Brownstein gives references to studies showing that low salt diets don't significantly lower blood pressure. One of the studies reviewed 56 different trials and found no significant effect on blood pressure. Another study showed a 430 percent increase in myocardial infarction (heart attack) in the group with the lowest salt intake.
Dr. Brownstein goes on to reference many studies giving evidence of mineral deficiencies' connection to heart disease, especially magnesium deficiency.
Moving on to the issue of cholesterol, Dr. Brownstein states that his clinical experience has shown that unrefined salt has an ability to help lower cholesterol. (Dr. Brownstein expanded on this topic in his later book, Drugs That Don't Work and Natural Therapies That Do.)
Dr. Brownstein continues presenting more evidence against low salt diets. They result in the body increasing certain hormones that cause the kidneys to retain more sodium, which strains the nervous system and may precipitate a heart attack. Low salt diets also elevate insulin levels, which is associated with diabetes, polycystic ovaries, and obesity. According to Dr. Brownstein it is "nearly impossible" to treat diabetes if the patient
is using refined salt. Finally Dr. Brownstein notes that a lowsalt diet leads to accumulation of toxins, such as bromide.
Having laid out the basic argument in his first four chapters, Dr. Brownstein, then devotes chapters to analysis of each of the following topics: hypertension, water, adrenal glands, the thyroid gland, and detoxification using salt and iodine.
The chapter on hypertension is a detailed review of the medical literature. For a 50year period in the early 20th century, most experiments gave huge amounts of refine salt to animals to induce a hypertensive effect, and then erroneously extrapolated to a human population. Once the Surgeon General and the FDA started inveighing against salt in the 1970s and 1980s, it became medical dogma that salt was bad for you. It was all based on experiments done with refined salt that had minerals removed and toxins added.
Dr. Brownstein then references some often overlooked studies that show that low mineral intake, especially magnesium, potassium, and calcium, is associated with hypertension. There are even a few studies where unrefined salt containing minerals was used to treat high blood pressure, and in one a significant decline in blood pressure was observed in an impressive 45 percent of the people studied.
Sprinkled throughout the book are testimonies from Dr. Brownstein's patients who have seen major medical conditions like high blood pressure improve by using unrefined salt. For about twenty years now, Dr. Brownstein's first course of action has been to have patients switch to unrefined salt. He recommends 1/4 teaspoon of unrefined salt for every quart of water ingested.
In a chapter on water he explains that pioneering medical researchers have been developing a theory of the body's extracellular and intracellular oceans. That is, the water outside and inside the cells. The minerals in unrefined salt play key roles in both oceans, especially by supplying minerals the cells need to stay properly hydrated and expel waste. Dr. Brownstein believes that the proper intake of water and salt is especially important for treating nervous system problems, and he has seen patients with chronic headaches or seizures make significant improvements.
The concluding chapters are short treatments of more topics that Dr. Brownstein later expanded into full books. The chapter on adrenal glands corresponds to the book The Miracle of Natural Hormones, the thyroid chapter to Overcoming Thyroid Disorders, and the detoxification chapter to Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It. (A review of the iodine book from a previous newsletter is available on our website at http://bitly/youneediodine.)
Dr. Brownstein's books are available through his website, www.drbrownstein. corn. He also sells DVDs with presentations summarizing each of the books.
The information provided in this article is for educational purposes and is not meant as medical advice.
(Christian HealthCare Newsletter. Samaritanministries.org)
All articles by Bro Need unless sotherwise noted. Use with credit.