Retirement: The Government Option

Retirement: The Government Option
Vol: 108 Issue: 30 Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, in conjunction with the Department of the Treasury, has published a Request for Information asking for ideas on how to help reduce the chances that workers will run out of funds during their retirement years.

That’s the preamble to the Fact Sheet put out by the Department of Labor under the title, “Lifetime Income Options for Retirement Plans.”   The government can no longer pretend that Social Security is anything less than the unsupported and unsustainable Ponzi scheme it has always been.

So it has put together what it calls an RFI to address the looming financial catastrophe for millions of future retirees.  What is an RFI?

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, in conjunction with the Department of the Treasury, has published a Request for Information asking for ideas on how to help reduce the chances that workers will run out of funds during their retirement years.

The RFI is merely a vehicle to engage interested persons in exploring ways that the Agencies and the private sector can work together to ensure that workers have the tools they need to help ensure their retirement savings last a lifetime.

Actually, it is much more than merely a “vehicle to engage interested persons.” It is an effort to recapitalize the nation by using your retirement savings.  

It is estimated that Americans have roughly $3.6 trillion in IRA’s and another $2.35 trillion in 401ks.  America’s budget deficit last year was $1.42 trillion.  

That’s more than enough to bail Uncle Sam out of the hole.  According to one report, the administration hopes to seize those accounts and put them into US Treasury bills paying out at 3%.

Upon retirement, the value of an individual retirement account would be placed into annuities that would guarantee income for life.   After the retiree dies, the annuities would become property of the federal government.  

It would be the largest theft in the history of man.  But don’t kid yourself into believing that they wouldn’t do it.  Or that they couldn’t get away with it.

Once we wouldn’t have believed that the government could get away with using taxpayer money to bail out bankers, either.

Assessment:

This is just one of the plans being floated by the federal government to try and keep itself afloat.  At least, that’s one way of looking at it.  

Frankly, I think it is one of the plans being floated by the Obama administration to sink the existing system.

The scheme is currently being floated as an ‘option.’ For retirees who have recently seen their retirement savings collapse overnight, it looks very attractive.   But when the government is involved, ‘optional’ doesn’t mean the same thing it does when used in normal conversation.

For example, putting your Social Security number on a government form is ‘optional’.  You don’t have to, but if you don’t, the form you’re filling out will get tossed in the trash. 

Your ‘option’ is to fill in the number — or sit down and shut up.

This will be the same kind of ‘option’.  You won’t have to participate, but if you don’t, then the government will find a way to offer you an unacceptable alternative choice, like it did when it broke its pledge never to use Social Security numbers for identification purposes.

I got my first Social Security card in 1965.  It said right on it, “Not to be used for identification purposes.” Since then, it is the only thing I’ve ever used it for. 

I needed it to join the Marines, even though at the time they also issued me a military service number.  (Which I remember as clearly today as I did forty years ago.)

Indeed, during my second tour in the Marines they dropped the use of military service numbers altogether and replaced them with Social Security numbers.  Despite that, the government still maintained that using one’s SSN was ‘optional’.

There is little doubt that the RFI plan will work much along the same lines.  It will be offered as an option you can’t afford to refuse.

There is a massive economic crisis still brewing.  According to a report at CNBC the United States is “practically owned” by China.   Rahm Emmanuel may be leaving the White House, but his admonition to “never waste a good crisis” will remain.  

The US debt is clearly unsustainable.  Unemployment continues to rise as the housing market continues to collapse.   Banks are failing at a higher rate than video rental stores.  One in six Americans is now on some form of government assistance. 

In 1933, the federal government ordered the confiscation of all privately-held gold, after it set a fixed price of $35 oz which it paid for using paper Federal Reserve notes.   The action became necessary because the federal government could not meet its obligations to its creditors.  

That’s what happens when the government borrows money.  They borrow in your name and if they can’t pay the bill, then you have to.   Currently, your share is $43,583.00, if it is broken down per citizen.  Per taxpayer, your share is $121,602.  

America’s debt to GDP ratio is now at 93% and rising. 

I don’t know what the answer is – the government will HAVE to seize America’s IRAs and 401ks eventually, anyway, to satisfy our creditors, as it did in 1933.   The problem is that even if the government confiscated all the gold left in America, it wouldn’t be enough. 

Nationalizing retirement savings accounts would stave off collapse — temporarily. 

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6)

The third of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is famine.  Notice the voice in the midst – a measure of wheat or three measures of barley are representative of a day’s worth of food for one person.  

A penny is representative of a day’s pay. Oil and wine is representative of great wealth.   So the image presented is of income disparity so severe that it will take a day’s pay to earn a day’s worth of food, but the rich will still live in luxury for a time.

That is almost where we are at this moment – but Famine is the second horseman.  The first horseman is the rider on the white horse, the conqueror who conquers without weapons. The rider on the white horse is almost universally recognized by prophecy scholars as the antichrist.

 “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:” (2^nd Thessalonians 2:6-8)

First the removal of the Restrainer together with the vessels He indwells at the Rapture.  Then the revelation of “that Wicked” (the rider on the white horse of Revelation 6:2) 

Then comes the rider on the red horse (War) and then comes the rider on the black horse (Famine).

The Bible says the first horseman to be seen is the antichrist, but we can practically hear the hooves of the second and third horsemen already.  

So its all bad news.  Unless you are a believer.  Then it’s good news. It means we’re even closer to hearing the trumpet. 

Maranatha!

Confessions of a Flat-Earther

Confessions of a Flat-Earther
Vol: 108 Issue: 29 Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The 58^th meeting of the Bilderberg Group was held this year in Sitges, Spain during the first week in June.   The meeting was attended by roughly 130 members of the global elite.  

According to the Bilderberg website, Bilderberg was named for the hotel where the first meeting took place in 1954.

“That pioneering meeting grew out of the concern expressed by leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on common problems of critical importance.”

But the part that got my attention was the the group’s discussion agenda for this year. Again, from the official website:

“The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations . . .”

You caught it, didn’t you?  Global cooling? Is that a typo?   As the piece of string once said, “I’m a frayed knot.”

One might be tempted to credit Al Gore and the global warming crazies who so scared the population that we overcorrected and now the planet has entered into a cooling trend.   But that assumes that climate change is man-made (antropogenic) in the first place.

The concept is so easily disproved that it is utterly astonishing that it ever gained traction in the first place.  Ninety-six percent of all greenhouse gases and other so-called global warming emissions occur naturally as a consequence of the oceans that cover 5/6s of the world’s land mass.  

That leaves only 4 percent to divide up between human activity, volcanoes, rotting vegetation, cow flatulence, etc., etc.   Human activity accounts for about 14% of that 4%. 

 Let’s simplify it.  How much money is 14% of four cents? ($0.056 —  or roughly one-tenth of a half penny.)

Evidently, you have to be a rocket scientist in order to believe that the human contribution of 0.056% in greenhouse gases is enough to destroy the planet.  Turns out that it isn’t.  Never was.  

By now you probably know it too,  but that isn’t stopping either Senate Democrats or the Far Left crazies from continuing to stump for a cap and trade scheme that would tax the air that we breathe to combat global warming.

The fact that global warming has been renamed twice in order to acccomodate the fact the planet isn’t warming anymore has had little effect on the True Believers.

(It was Al Gore who compared global warming skeptics to members of the “Flat Earth Society” and coined the phrase “global warming heretics” to describe climate scientists that questioned his ‘evidence’.)

When global warming turned out not to be either ‘global’ or ‘warming’ Al Gore’s True Believers decided a better name for it might be ‘climate change’.  

But that wasn’t a scary-enough name.  Especially since ‘climate change’ was already in use — as another name for ‘weather.’   A scarier name had to be found, but one that didn’t openly admit that the global warming scare was massive con job, so at first, global cooling was out.  

John Holdren, one of the administration’s dozens of unaccountable ‘czars’ thinks a much better hame might be ‘global climate disruption’.   That is a lot harder to argue against, since it is hard to nail down exactly what that might describe.  

Does it mean that somebody has temporarily turned off the climate?  “This just in!  Due to global climate disruption there will be no weather today. . .”

Or it could mean we’re as dumb as he thinks we are, so it really doesn’t matter what it really means..

As long as it sounds scary enough.

Assessment:

December 2009 was the second snowiest year on record for the entire Northern Hemisphere.    Beijing had its heaviest snowfall in sixty years.  Korea had the largest snowfall since record keeping began. 

The Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting the current global cooling trend will continue.

“The 2011 issue of the almanac, which claims to be the nation’s oldest continuously published periodical, was released Tuesday. It predicts that in the coming months, the Earth will continue to see a “gradual cooling of the atmosphere … offset by any warming caused by increased greenhouse gases.”

A leading scientist and member of the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Dr. Mojib Latif says an analysis of natural cycles proves human activity has zero effect on global climate change, which if true, eliminates any need for cap and trade legislation, greenhouse gas taxes, or alternative fuel sources.

In a stunning revelation, he told the Daily Mail that:

“a significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 percent.”

Thanks to Al Gore, instead of using oil from the ground that has no other purpose, we are instead taking food grains and converting them to fuel.   The amount of grain necessary to fill an SUV’s 25 gallon tank is enough to feed one person for a year. 

So guess what is replacing global warming as the Next Big Thing?  Food shortages.  (Thanks, Al.)

Meanwhile, fuel bills continue to rise as governments continue to use global warming fears to justify everything from tax increases on fuel to rationing electricity in the name of saving the planet.   

Individual freedoms curtailed in the name of saving the planet run from what kind of light bulbs are allowed to the number of bags of trash allowed per household.

Where I live, it is illegal to use ordinary incandescent light bulbs (no longer manufactured).  We are permitted one bag of trash per week, provided it has been properly sorted for recycling. 

The government is subsidizing the installation of ‘smart meters’ that will automatically brown out a home using more electricity than the government thinks is allowable.

Global warming was a terrific boon to power-hungry politicians and governments that are now trying to respin the argument in order to keep their gravy train on the tracks, hence the repositioning of it to accomodate the lack of global warming by renaming it whenever scientific evidence forces them to.

How stupid do they think the public is?  Answer:  Stupid enough.

First it was global warming.  Then global climate change.  Then, global climate disruption.   Finally, with the Bilderbergs, we have the first official reference to global cooling.   

Whether it is global warming, climate change, climate disruption or global cooling, one thing is certain.  They are lying about the cause.  Deliberately.  

I’m not a scientist, so that is probably the reason why the actual cause of global climate change is a no-brainer to me.   I did this experiment in order to confirm the answer and, lo and behold, the experiment worked EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

Try it for yourself:

Go outside at noon on a sunny day.   It won’t matter if it is summer or winter – the experiment works no matter what the season.    Note the temperature.    Now go back inside until midnight.    Come back outside.  Note the temperature.  

Without anybody starting a car, burning a pile of leaves, turning up a thermostat or throwing out too much garbage, you will note that the temperature at midnight is lower than the temperature at noon.  

That experiment demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt the cause of global warming, global cooling and climate change in general.

It’s the sun.

But you can’t tax the sun.  You can’t change its’ behavior.  If the cause of global climate change is the sun, then there is nothing human beings can do to prevent it.  For that reason, the sun is the last place True Believers would blame for global warming. Or cooling.  Or in between.

One last thing I’d like to highlight in this story.  The planet isn’t warming.  Nor is it cooling.  That is obvious to anyone that doesn’t have a global climate change agenda up their sleeve.   

What they are selling is fear.  Of what is irrelevant, as long as it scares you into submission.  

It can be fear of global climate change. Fear of the sun itself.   Fear of impending destruction from killer asteroids.  Fear of melting ice causing catastropic flooding. 

(Here’s another experiment.  Put an ice cube in a glass of water. Mark the water level.  Wait till the ice melts.  Note the water level. )

In His description of the signs that will precede His Second Coming, Jesus said:

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;  Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26)

Then the Lord shifts gears a little.  After all these signs appear, the Lord He will return visibly, where every eye can see Him:

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27)

But in what is obviously a reference to what happens before the visible coming of the Son of Man in power and great glory at His Second coming, the Lord said this to His disciples.  

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”  (Luke 21:28)

It is coming to pass, is it not?  Then the remainder of the Promise remains equally valid.  He’s coming soon. 

But He’s comng for us first.

When Ignorance Is Not Bliss

When Ignorance Is Not Bliss
Vol: 108 Issue: 28 Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hindus are asking for the introduction of a new subject, “comparative religion” to be included in American high schools to teach the basics of major world religions, including that of atheism.

Hindus evidently recognize, as do Muslims and Christians, what atheists vehemently deny – that atheism is a religion of faith, just like all the others.

Indeed, I am often humbled by the blind faith of atheism – I wish more Christians had that kind of faith.  I mean, just look at the faith obstacles atheism has overcome. 

Atheism acknowledges no doubt, no ambiguity of perspective, no divergent doctrines. Atheism is the certainty that man is the supreme being in the universe and that there is no God, no higher power, no afterlife and no future accountability.   

By definition, an atheist who does not have absolute faith in his position is automatically moved over one column into the “agnostic” category.

If you know, then you have a religious knowledge — whether that knowledge acknowledges or denies God is irrelevant.  If you do not know, then you are an agnostic.  An atheist knows his stuff and wants to convince you that he is right. 

An agnostic is best described as ignorant and apathetic – he doesn’t know and he doesn’t care.  An agnostic doesn’t want to convince you . . . if anything, he wants you to convince him.

A recent Pew poll found that most American Christians are ill equipped to either refute the atheist or educate the agnostic.  More than that, the poll found that on average, the atheist and agnostic know more about Christianity than many who claim Christianity do.

A majority of Protestants in the poll, for instance, couldn’t identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church’s central ritual of communion, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

(Catholicism teaches the doctrine of transubstantiation, which teaches that during the Mass, the wafer is literally ‘transubstantiated’ into the actual Body of Christ and the wine in His literal Blood – it only still looks like bread and wine.)

So why would an atheist know more about religion than a Christian?  American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

“These are people who thought a lot about religion,” he said. “They’re not indifferent. They care about it.”

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

The groups at the top of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey were followed, in order, by white evangelical Protestants, white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, people who were unaffiliated with any faith (but not atheist or agnostic), black Protestants and Latino Catholics.

Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were included in the survey, but their numbers were too small to be broken out as statistically significant groups.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and author of “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn’t,” served as an advisor on the survey.

“I think in general the survey confirms what I argued in the book, which is that we know almost nothing about our own religions and even less about the religions of other people,” he said.

He said he found it significant that Mormons, who are not considered Christians by many fundamentalists, showed greater knowledge of the Bible than evangelical Christians.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Leawood, Kan., and the author of “When Christians Get it Wrong,” said the survey’s results may reflect a reluctance by many people to dig deeply into their own beliefs and especially into those of others.

“I think that what happens for many Christians is, they accept their particular faith, they accept it to be true and they stop examining it. Consequently, because it’s already accepted to be true, they don’t examine other people’s faiths. … That, I think, is not healthy for a person of any faith,” he said.

Among Christians, the survey was delighted to report that eight in 10 people surveyed knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic. Seven in 10 knew that, according to the Bible, Moses led the exodus from Egypt and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Wow.

Assessment:

Why do Mormons and atheists know more about the New Testament than Christians?  To some degree, I think Reverend Hamilton got the right answer, although I question his conclusions.

Mormons, agnostics and atheists know the answers to the questions better than many self-proclaimed Christians because they have to defend their positions more often than Christians do.

And the only defense for an indefensible position like atheism is a strong offense.

Which is why so few Christians come out on the winning side of debates with atheists. Atheists don’t have to defend unbelief – the burden of proof is on the believer.  Atheists need only present a scenario that the believer can’t defend.

Can you defend stoning a disobedient child to death outside the gates of the city?   Or explain why God sent two she-bears to kill forty-two children for mocking Isaiah’s bald head?

So it’s not too big a surprise that unbelievers know more about such passages than do most Christians.  Nail a Christian with one seemingly impossible passage – and the debate is over.

Christianity is the Alpha Dog – atheists seldom bother to attack Mormons, JWs, Hindus, Muslims, etc. Why should they? There’s no challenge there.  

Moreover, from the enemy’s perspective, there’s no threat.  His objective is to prevent the lost from coming to Christ, not from becoming religious.  As the poll proves, the more religious one is, the less one knows. 

Which is exactly where the enemy would prefer to keep his prey – in the dark.   

What the poll confirms is the existence of what I call ‘cultural Christianity’ – more than three quarters of Americans, when polled, list their religion as ‘Christian’  – but it is doubtful that one in ten of that number are born-again, Blood-bought, saved believers.

The rest are the ones reflected by this poll – which is why we started the Omega Letter in the first place, some nine years ago next month.   Every day, we meet people in our daily lives who think they are Christians because they were raised in a Christian culture, but who have no idea what the Bible teaches about salvation.

Or we find ourselves in discussions with those who have studied the Bible in search of the hard questions they can use to debate believers.  We try and find the answers to those hard questions so that you are prepared with a ready answer when the questions come up.

The Omega Letter is somewhat unique among Christian websites on the net in that we focus our efforts on the saved, rather than the lost.  Our mandate is to equip the saints for the mission, rather than trying to carry the message all alone. 

We can only reach out to those who come to our website – lost people seldom seek out Christian websites – most visitors to Christian websites are already Christians.    So most of our visitors are Christians.  Why preach to the choir?

Instead, we endeavor to obey the mandate given in 2^nd Timothy 4:1-4:

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2^nd Timothy 4:1-4)

The time has come when they will not endure sound doctrine.  They have heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears. They have abandoned the truth in favor of fables. 

 “For thus hath the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.” (Isaiah 21:6)

Poll after poll demonstrate the truth of this prophecy.  This poll is no exception.   We are living in the time of which Paul was warning.   This is our time.

“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Revelation 1:3)

Maranatha! The Lord is coming! 

Stuxnet

Stuxnet
Vol: 108 Issue: 27 Monday, September 27, 2010

In July, Microsoft released a Threat Research report on a new virus threat called “Stuxnet.” The virus, Microsoft says, uses a new method of propagation.

It transfers itself from a USB drive like a thumbdrive or an external hard drive automatically as soon as the drive is browsed by the operating system.

According to Microsoft, the Stuxnet began targeting machines specifically in Iran and Indonesia and had begun spreading slowly across the globe.

“In terms of numbers of attacks, the most reports are coming from the US, Indonesia, India, and Iran.  When you factor in the number of MMPC monitored machines along with the number that are reporting attacks, the US falls further down the list, giving way to Iran and Indonesia with attack attempts far higher than the global average.”

Stuxnet doesn’t target ordinary computer users.  It targets the types of industrial control systems built specifically by the German manufacturer Siemans.

Siemens was involved in the original design of the Bushehr reactor in the 1970s, when West Germany and France agreed to build the nuclear power station for the former Shah of Iran before he was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Stuxnet isn’t actually a virus, a distinction without a difference to most people, but actually two entirely different mechanisms.  Siemans says said the malware is a Trojan worm with tremendous destructive capabilities.  According to Symantec, the antivirus giant behind Norton Antivirus,

“By writing code to the PLC, Stuxnet can potentially control or alter how the system operates. A previous historic example includes a reported case of stolen code that impacted a pipeline.

Code was secretly “Trojanized” to function properly and only some time after installation instruct the host system to increase the pipeline’s pressure beyond its capacity. This resulted in a three kiloton explosion, about 1/5 the size of the Hiroshima bomb.”

Noted the Toronto Globe and Mail:

“Vice Admiral Bernard McCollough the head of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Cyber Command, told Reuters on Thursday after testifying about cyber operations before a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee, that the worm “has some capabilities we haven’t seen before.”

On Wednesday, Army General Keith Alexander, head of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command, said his forces regarded the virus as “very sophisticated.” 

The Israeli website Debkafile describes Stuxnet as “the most destructive virus ever devised” and says that among its functions was to periodically transfer classified information from the infected computer to computers abroad.   

“This was the first time an Iranian official has explained how the United States and Israel intelligence agencies have been able to keep pace step by step of progress made in Iran’s nuclear program. Until now, Tehran attributed the leaks to Western spies using Iranian double agents.”

A report  from Computerworld confirms the Debkafile’s assessment of the worm’s destructive capability under the ominous headline, “Iran nuke SCADAs saturated with Stuxnet infection.”

Stuxnet, “the most sophisticated malware ever,” has been found infesting Iran’s nuclear installations. Speculation continues that this was indeed the intended target of what the mainstream continues to call a “virus”.  

Stuxnet has been attacking SCADA systems in Iran and Russia since at least January 2010.

“According to the Tehran-based Mehr News Agency, Mahmoud Alyaie, an IT official with Iran’s industries and mines ministry, said that 30,000 IP addresses in the country had been infected with Stuxnet. Multiple computers can access the Internet via a single IP address, so the total number of infected Windows PCs may be considerably larger.”

No doubt.  And since the worm was no doubt introduced in Iran via an infected flash drive but has spread primarily across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, one wonders what we may be about to discover there.

Assessment:

Nobody is certain how Stuxnet was introduced into Iran’s system, but most probably it was introduced by a Russian technician using an infected flash drive.  

About the only thing upon which there is unanimity is that Stuxnet’s complexity “points to a state actor” – a code just as universally interpreted as meaning, “Israel.”   It included a timer that limited infection to three additional machines, suggesting Stuxnet was not intended to spread far beyond its intended target.

In one official report, Iran is confirming the infection claiming it has done little or no damage and that its “experts are systematically eliminating the virus.”   

According to the AFP/AP, Tehran is denying any infection of any of its critical computer systems at all, saying at worst some of the personal computers belonging  to members of the staff may have been infected. But other reports suggest that the worm has done more damage than Tehran wants to admit.

In other words, it is probably just as bad as the Western reports are suggesting – maybe worse.  Which may be great news for Israel and the West.   If true, it also helps supply another piece of the puzzle insofar as Iran’s role in Bible prophecy is concerned.

Current events make it almost a sure bet that any war between Israel and Lebanon, Syria or Hezbollah will also involve Iran.  Iran is backing Syria, supplying Hezbollah and controlling Lebanon.  But that scenario conflicts with Bible prophecy for the last days.

As we reported in February, the Bible outlines two major conflicts involving Israel in the last days. The first is the one outlined in Psalms 83 and Obadiah.   

Ishmael was the eponymous father of the Arabs, his brother Isaac being the father of the Jews.  The Ishmaelites most probably refers to the Saudis, but that identification is admittedly speculative.

 The Tents of Edom refers to the Palestinians of the West Bank and southern Jordan.  The Moabites refer to the Palestinians and central Jordanians.

 The Hagarites corresponds with Egypt, Gebal with Hezbollah and the Lebanese.  Ammon includes the Palestinians and northern Jordanians, Phillistia corresponds with Hamas and the Gaza Strip.

Last but not least are Assyria (Syria and Kurdish Iraq) and Tyre, (Hezbollah and South Lebanon).   

 Persia — modern Iran — doesn’t make the list.  Iran’s fingerprints are all over the battle plan, but the combatants are all Arabs.  Iranians are Persians, not Arabs.     The Gog-Magog Alliance does not include Syria or the rest of the Psalms 83 nations, and the Psalms 83 nations does not include any of the protagonists from Gog-Magog Alliance”

I confessed then that it was a puzzlement to me.  While the Psalms 83 War is depicted as being forced on Israel by repeated attacks, the Gog-Magog War takes place at a time when Israel is dwelling safely and at rest.  

They cannot be the same war.  It is for that reason that I questioned the probability of an Israeli military attack directly on Iran, since it would prompt an immediate response from both Iran and Russia. 

Something has to prevent Iran from going nuclear and keep Iran and Russia out of the current conflict — if the Iranians and Israelis are to survive to make their appointment to meet on the mountains of Israel  as outlined by Ezekiel. 

And something else has to happen first to eliminate the existential threat posed by Hamas and Hezbollah, by Damascus and Beirut . . .  before Israel can meet Ezekiel’s description of a land of unwalled villages dwelling in peace and safety.   

If Stuxnet meets its full potential, it won’t end the Iranian threat.  But it would contain it — without a shot being fired — by forcing Tehran back to the drawing board.   Exactly in keeping with the Bible’s outline for the last days. 

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” (Habakkuk 1:5)

Exactly.

The Christophany

The Christophany
Vol: 108 Issue: 25 Saturday, September 25, 2010

It is a verse so well-known that even Nancy Pelosi cited it as a kind of ‘code’ during a speech so that nobody could dredge up video of Pelosi saying the Name “Jesus” to use against her in future campaigns.

It was the famous “word speech” in which Pelosi claimed an obligation to pursue public policies “in keeping with the values of the Word” which “was made flesh” – an event that the Speaker pronounced “good” saying that “the Word” was her “favorite word” and so on.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

We all know the verses, but let’s look more closely at what this passage is actually revealing.

“The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.  In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:1-4)

All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made . . .

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

In Him was life and the life was the light of men . . .

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light and God saw the light, that it was good. . .  (Genesis 1:3) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . (Genesis 1:26) . . And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

The subject of the preincarnate Christ is one of the most essential doctrines of Christianity but almost totally neglected by most Bible teachers.   But if Christ wasn’t present at creation, then He could not be God. 

It is this doctrine of preincarnation that cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the LDS have trouble with.  The JW’s New World Bible had to change John 1:1 slightly, to read, “and the Word was a god” in order to make Jesus a created being. 

The LDS can’t go there at all, since it teaches Jesus was the brother of Lucifer and Lucifer is an angel without any of the attributes of Deity. 

Jesus could not be God and also be created by God.  God is eternal – He has no beginning.  So the preincarnation of Christ is an absolute doctrinal necessity to proving His Deity.     

The OT prophet Micah prophesied that Messiah would come from Bethlehem describes Him as He “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

Isaiah 9:6 describes Israel’s Messiah as “the everlasting Father” which could also be understood as the “Father of Eternity.” 

Assessment:

Jesus Christ wasn’t merely present at creation.    John 1:3 says Jesus was the Creator – without Him was not anything made that was made.

The angels were present at creation. Genesis refers to angels as ‘the sons of God twice.  The Book of Job uses the term “sons of God” three times to describe angels. The New Testament understanding of the ‘sons of God’ is that of born-again, Blood-bought believers.

But the reference to Jesus as the “Son of God” is in the sense of His physical Personhood.  

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Jesus is the ‘begotten Son of the Father’ in that He did not have a human father, not in the sense that Jesus did not exist until the Father made Him. When the Word was made flesh, the flesh was begotten of the Father. 

Jesus was also the first begotten of the dead — but that is a title born out of His physical death, the way the Son of God is a title born out of his physical birth.  

The Angel of the LORD in the OT is often identified as Jehovah.  He is so identified in Genesis 16:7-13 when He spoke with Hagar.  In Genesis 22:11-18 when He confirmed the covenant with Abraham.  He is identified as Jehovah in Judges 6:11-24.  

It was the Angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses in the burning bush who identified Himself as “I Am.”

The Angel of the Lord accepts worship.  Only Jehovah God is to be worshipped.   

The Angel of the Lord is identified AS Jehovah and also distinguished FROM Jehovah.  In Genesis 24:7 Jehovah sends His Angel. In Zechariah 1:12-13 the Angel of the Lord is speaking with Jehovah.

God the Father has been heard, but never seen.  God the Spirit has been seen only as a dove hovering over Christ.  But the Second Person of the Trinity walked among visibly among men.  He could be seen and touched. 

The Angel of the Lord also appeared visibly. He ate with Abraham.  Abraham offered Him prayers.  Genesis 18:13  identifies one of the three angels that visited him as the Lord Himself.

The Angel of the Lord cannot be the Father, Whom no man hath ever seen at any time (John 1:18) and He couldn’t be the Holy Spirit because the Spirit is, by definition, Spirit and immaterial.

Jesus is the Creator.   Jesus is the force that holds the created universe together. Indeed, the very protein that holds cells together is laminin, is shaped like a Roman Cross.

Jesus is the Revelator.  He is the Author of Prophecy as well as its literal fulfillment.  And He is the Deliverer.   In his Christophanies (preincarnate appearances) it was Jesus that stopped Abraham from offering Isaac. 

It was Jesus in the burning bush. It was Jesus that parted the Red Sea.   It was Jesus that supplied the manna from heaven and water from the rocks in the wilderness.  

It was Jesus that guided Moses and the Israelites in the form of a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

It was God the Father that made the visible from the invisible, God the Son, the visible Image of the invisible God, and by Whom all things were created and God the Holy Spirit that illuminates the spiritual.

One God.  Three Persons.   But still just one God.

”The Most Correct of Any Book On Earth”

”The Most Correct of Any Book On Earth”
Vol: 108 Issue: 24 Friday, September 24, 2010

If one looks at the historical charts, one sees a correlation between rising gold prices and economy downturns, leading one to conclude that the price of gold goes up when confidence in the dollar goes down.  

That’s almost correct.  On taking a closer look, the data shows the price of gold goes up as confidence in the government goes down.  

NY Congressman Anthony Weiner went ballistic on the executive vice-president of Goldline International yesterday, accusing Goldline of profiteering off the Obama administration’s ham-fisted handling of the economy.  Here’s how Politico framed it:

“Weiner released a report in May accusing the company of profiting off the fears of conservatives who worry that President Barack Obama’s administration will destroy the American economy. He and Beck have traded shots over the company’s practices, with Weiner saying Beck should be “ashamed of himself,” while Beck, on the O’Reilly Factor, challenged Weiner to call him to testify before Congress.”

First off, one has to wonder why Weiner, a dyed-in-the-wool bright-blue New York liberal Democrat, would be so worried about conservative investors?   Secondly, isn’t ‘profit’ the motive for selling a product?   And third, how can Goldline possibly be responsible for Obama’s handling of the economy?

The answer to all three questions is not gold or Goldline or even Obama.   It’s Glenn Beck.   Weiner’s assault on Goldline is aimed at Glenn Beck.  There is no other reason for attacking a broker for doing what brokers do.   

Gold prices spike when investors lose confidence in the government  — not, as most believe, when investors lose confidence in the currency.   Weiner’s attack on Goldline is as close as he dare go to confronting Beck directly.

Weiner lambasted Goldline for promoting fear of the federal government because Goldline accurately cited the 1933 Executive Order confiscating privately held gold in its advertising.   

“The fundamental question is this: Should you be doing this? Should you be exploiting people this way? Should you be implying to people that a confiscation order is in place that hasn’t been in place since my father was born? That’s just wrong,” Weiner pontificated.

Actually, the confiscation order wasn’t lifted until 1974. Weiner was ten years old in 1974.

(But Weiner is a Congressman.  He doesn’t need to be accurate to be right. And he is a Democrat, so things needn’t be factual in order to be true. )

Beck has made some pretty amazing statements concerning the government and the economy and the administration.  Statements which should have Congressman Weiner investigating whether or not they are true. 

But instead, he is investigating Goldline.    

Assessment:

The Assault on Glenn Beck continues from all sides, including, as we’ve discussed a number of times, from the Christian community because Glenn Beck is a Mormon.    I promised we’d examine what that means in detail and why it should or shouldn’t matter.

Beck gets visibly angry when anyone suggests that Mormons aren’t Christians.   So let’s start there.  Are Mormons “Christians?”    For the purposes of our discussion we’ll need a working definition for “Christian”.

Let’s define a “Christian” as a follower of Jesus Christ who believes his salvation is a gift of grace through faith and not of works.   By that definition, Mormons are not Christians.    Joseph Smith wrote in the introduction to the Book of Mormon that it was ”the most correct of any book on earth”.

However, the Book of Mormon has been proved wrong so many times that even LDS leaders can’t pretend otherwise.  But the entire Mormon religion stands on the divine authority of the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrines and Covenants.

I triple-checked my sources on this because I want to be sure to get it right.  

The Mormon God was once an ordinary man who attained godhood by living a perfect and righteous life on his home planet in the Kolob star system.  It is mentioned in the Mormon Book of Abraham, but rarely mentioned by Mormons.   I can’t imagine why.

Mormons believe that humans existed before they got here as ‘spirit beings’.   I once heard Beck reference this doctrine peripherally on his program, saying “you were given an assignment by God before you got here”.

Mormons believe the physical world is a probation period.  Those spirit beings chosen to have bodies are on their way to godhood.   If they do well, including fulfillment of all Mormon Temple obligations and die in good standing with the LDS, they will be promoted to gods in the next life.

A Mormon can also produce spirit children to populate a world of his own (like God did here) which is the doctrinal justification for Mormon polygamy.  The Mormon focus on the family is also rooted in this belief.

Mormons believe Jesus and Lucifer were spirit brothers and equal sons of God.   

“God put forth His plan of salvation for the world, and Satan proposed his own plan. Jesus accepted the Father’s plan and offered to implement it as the Savior. The Father chose Jesus, and the spirit of Jesus was given a body through the virgin Mary. He was crucified on a Roman cross, and rose from the dead three days later to establish His deity. The character and life of Jesus is attainable by anyone who performs at such a righteous level.”

Brigham Young taught that Adam was actually God and the father of Jesus Christ.

By those beliefs alone, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints cannot be considered Christian.  

I don’t want to ridicule Mormonism, but some of their most foundational beliefs are, well, ridiculous. 

Mormons believe that salvation comes by works, and forgiveness through faith, repentance and baptism by an approved Mormon priest.  Mormons believe in baptism for the dead in which a person is baptized a Mormon after death by having someone (who is still alive) “stand in” for them during the ceremony.

Mormons believe that two groups of Jews emigrated to what is now the US.  (I also heard Beck reference ‘ancient Israelites’ in America in passing on one of his programs.)

The first group, allegedly led by a Hebrew named Lehi, settled around 600 BC. These descendents of Lehi were “white, beautiful and delightsome.”  They were followed hundreds of years later by Laman and his band.  The Lamanites rebelled against God and were cursed with dark skin.

By the 5^th century AD, the Lamanites had finally killed all Lehi’s white descendants.  According to the Book of Mormon,  Lamanites are therefore the ancestors of the native American Indians.  However, blacks were not permitted to join the LDS until recently.

Mormons are forbidden to use tobacco, drugs, or hot drinks like coffee or tea.   Mormons believe Jesus visited American and taught the Gospel to the Nephites (descendants of Lehi) before the Lamanites wiped them out.

And on it goes.  This is Glenn Beck’s “faith” and he certainly has referenced both his faith in Mormonism and some of its doctrines on his program.   So is it relevant?  Should Christians avoid Glenn Beck?  

It seems highly unlikely that Glenn Beck’s beliefs will infect the Church or that Christians will be led into apostasy by a guy that thinks God used to live on Kolob and that Jesus and Lucifer were spirit brothers. 

On the other hand, Beck scares the absolute daylights out of the American Left, especially the Marxists, socialists and Communists that have managed to infiltrate and take over most of the American levers of power. 

I don’t know if Beck actually believes Mormon doctrine or if he just likes its alcohol-free family-oriented lifestyle.  But I suspect that he does.

Still, whether or not Beck is a Mormon, or even if he believes in Mormon doctrine is still no more relevant to his politics than if Beck were a Catholic, a Jew or a Presbyterian.     

What is relevant is that he scares the daylights out of guys like Anthony Weiner.

Another History Rhyme: The President Vs. The Talk Show Host

Another History Rhyme: The President Vs. The Talk Show Host
Vol: 108 Issue: 23 Thursday, September 23, 2010

There doesn’t seem to be any way of avoiding the Glenn Beck phenomenon.  There are as many opinions about the guy as there are people to express them.   (I have about three different opinions about the guy myself.)

According to the Far Left both in and out of government, Beck is a rabble-rousing lunatic comparable to the ultra-right anti-Semitic 1930’s radio personality and Catholic priest, Father Charles Edward Coughlin.

According to the Far Right and much of the middle) Glenn Beck is a political messiah whose only flaw is that he just happens to be a Mormon. 

But what is important to today’s discussion isn’t Glenn Beck or his religion.  Not exactly, anyway.  Stay with me.

Father Coughlin was a staunchly liberal anti-Communist whose 1930’s radio broadcast made him so popular that by 1934 he was literally the second most important political figures in the United States.

He once argued that the communist government had made divorce too easy and that communist anti-family ideas were spreading to the United States. Coughlin called this process the “Bolshevism of America”.

He pointed out that more than two million men and women had obtained divorces in the preceding ten years and people had therefore “scorned the basic family and national doctrine of Jesus Christ.”

His audience was more than 30 million listeners.  In 1933, his radio discourses were bound and published, with the first edition selling more than one million copies.  

But Father Coughlin was Glenn Beck’s ideological mirror image.  Coughlin was a rabid anti-Semite and initially a strong supporter of the Roosevelt New Deal. 

Coughlin’s weekly journal, with a circulation of over one million, was called “The Social Justice Weekly.”  

Coughlin didn’t think that Roosevelt was progressive enough, and announced the formation of the “National Union of Social Justice” which supported Huey Long until Long was assassinated in 1935.

Huey Long’s platform was ‘Share the Wealth’ and he even wrote and performed his own campaign song, “Every Man a King” based on a 1934 speech by that name.

After Long’s assassination, Coughlin’s “National Union of Social Justice Party collapsed and was replaced by “the Christian Front.” 

Coughlin admired the strong measures taken against Communism by Mussolini and Hitler and shared the Nazi worldview that Marxism was really a Jewish plot.  In 1942, the Post Office banned his Social Justice newsletter.  Coughlin’s program was banned by the National Association of Broadcasters as ‘enemy propaganda’.

Assessment:

Long-time Omega Letter members will recognize two familiar themes here. 

We’ve noted literally dozens of times over the past nine years the political similarities between the first decade of the 21^st century and the politics and circumstances of the 1930’s.  

In so doing, we’ve also noted the accuracy of Mark Twain’s observation that history doesn’t repeat itself, but that it rhymes. 

And while there is no comparison between the agendas or politics of Father Coughlin and Glenn Beck, there does seem to be a history rhyme kicking around in here somewhere.

Father Coughlin rose to prominence during the Depression as a critic of the Roosevelt government to become the second most powerful political voice in the nation.   

So powerful was he that via his radio broadcast, he virtually spoke a grass-roots political opposition party into existence.   He tapped into a wellspring of national discontent and focused it like a laser in support of his own agenda for the country.

Father Coughlin set up 16 Rights and Principles for his National Union of Social Justice, beginning with this one:

“I believe in the right of liberty of conscience and liberty of education, not permitting the state to dictate either my worship to my God or my chosen avocation in life.”

The rest of them sound equally fair and just when viewed from the perspective of the 1930’s.

It is important to keep in mind here that Father Coughlin’s rise to prominence was a direct result of dissatisfaction with Roosevelt’s handling of economic issues during the Depression. 

Glenn Beck is not Father Coughlin, whom I believe revealed himself in later life to be a deeply evil man.  But viewed from the perspective of 1935, Coughlin appeared almost an angel of light shining on what was then a very dark America.

The historical rhyming of the discontent of the 1930s with that of today is unmistakable.  

Glenn Beck’s 912 Project outlining “9 values and 12 principles that embody America” led to the formation of the Tea Party. Coughlin’s list of 16 Rights and 12 Principles led to the formation of the National Union of Social Justice.

The parallels between the Roosevelt administration and the Obama administration are as uncanny as the historical parallels between Coughlin and Beck.

Beck espouses a return to God and traditional values as did Father Coughlin in the 1930’s – and, as in the 1930’s Americans responded en masse.   It would be no stretch to argue that Glenn Beck is the second most important figure in the United States — more so than Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich or anyone other than the president himself.

For now, let’s set aside the whole Glenn Beck is a Mormon thing – I plan to deal with Mormonism in detail in an upcoming OL.  It’s an issue still to be addressed.  Just not in this brief.

In today’s brief, what I want you to see is how much the first decade of the 21^st century continues to rhyme with the 1930’s as it winds down to a close.

Right down to the dynamic of the President vs. the Talk Show Host.  Keeping with the whole theme of history rhymes, what followed the 1930’s were the 1940’s and World War Two. 

Because if WWII rhymes with anything, it rhymes with ‘Tribulation.’ 

Absolute Corruption

Absolute Corruption
Vol: 108 Issue: 22 Wednesday, September 22, 2010

It’s been rightly said that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  As Good Ship America continues to steam directly for the edge of the waterfall, that power has become so corrupting that it even reveals itself during the quest for power.

A typical example of just how totally corrupted the system is comes from the Florida race between Democrat incumbent Ron Klein and challenger Allen West.   Ron Klein was elected to Congress in 2006 and is currently running for his third term.

Evidently, Klein really likes being a Congressman.  He likes it so much that there is seemingly nothing he won’t do to keep it.  

Ron Klein is a lawyer.  He graduated from high school in 1975, got his law degree in 1982 and moved to Florida in 1985.

In 1992 he won a seat in the Florida House which he held until 2004.  He was elected to Congress in 2006, riding in on a wave of voter discontent and the backlash from the Republican Tom Foley scandal.

So that’s Ron Klein.  He’s a professional politician and a lawyer who has spent his entire adult life kissing babies and parsing words.   Lt. Col. Allen West retired from the US Army in 2004 after admitting wrongdoing and paying a $5000 fine for misconduct and assault.  Here’s the Col.  Allen West backstory: 

While serving as a battalion commander in Iraq in 2003, Col. West was informed that a prisoner who had critical information about a plot to assassinate a US officer,  was being uncooperative.  Col. West took over, pulling his pistol, putting it in his lap and telling the prisoner he was there to either get the information or kill him.

After some 20 minutes of useless questioning, Col. West grabbed the man, held him down near a box full of sand used to discharge jammed weapons, and said something like, “This is it. I’m going to count to five again, and if you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to kill you.”

West held the man down, counted to five, and then fired his pistol into the discharging box about a foot from the Iraqi’s head.

He began talking. And talking.  And talking. Over the next few minutes, the prisoner gave very specific information about the plot.

He named the conspirators, gave times and dates of the assassination plan, and even described how attacks would be made.  There was no doubt he was involved.

Lt. Col West then reported the interrogation (and himself) to his commanding officer.   Eventually, the story made its way into the liberal media, which began calling for Lt. Col. West’s head.  General Odierno ordered West court-martialed and West was drummed out of the military.

So that’s Lt. Col Allen West.  He’s a professional soldier who did what he had to do to get necessary battlefield information, injuring no one in the process, and then promptly reported himself to his superiors, knowing in advance that it would not go well for him.

Col. West spent his entire adult life serving his country the hard way, as a military officer.  When faced with a decision that might cost him his career, but one that would save the lives of his fellow soldiers, he made it.   And then he stood by it.

Lt. Col West’s awards and decorations include:

The Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters and one Valor device, Valorous Unit Award, Air Assault Badge, Parachutist Badge, National Defense Medal with Bronze Star device, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Ribbon (Multiple awards) Saudi Arabia Kuwait Liberation Medal w/Palm Tree and Kuwait Liberation Medal.

Col. West, a conservative libertarian running on the Republican ticket is challenging Democrat incumbent Ron Klein.   

Klein, a lawyer and professional politician, doesn’t have a lot to run on by comparison.   His awards and decorations include membership in the Alpha Epislon Pi Fraternity and some pictures on the walls of his office.

But he likes his cushy Congressional office.He likes it so much that he would ruin Lt. Col West’s life, if necessary, to keep it.   

The Florida DNC sent out a campaign mailer for the Klein campaign blasting Col. West for a 2005 tax lien that was paid off four months later.

The tax lien notice, pulled from public records in Indiana is reproduced in the mailer with West’s wife’s name and address redacted but included Col. West’s complete social security number!

“I understand politics is a tough business. I expect to be challenged about my ideas, my beliefs,” West said in a fund-raising e-mail to supporters. “But Ron Klein has clearly crossed a line. I’m not yet sure the potential damage that might come to my wife and me, and it makes me sick to think of what could happen to my daughters. My entire family is at risk of identity theft.”

In typical fashion, the Klein campaign kicked responsibility upstairs to the Florida DNC, which called the inclusion of Col. West’s Social Security number an “oversight.”   The Florida DNC responded with the following statement about Lt. Col West, US Army (ret):

“After making every effort to remove all of Allen West’s private information, unlike West who refuses to apologize to Florida’s taxpayers for not paying his taxes and his bills, we apologize for the oversight of not redacting this information from the public record included in the mailer. “

“To end, while this mail piece does not explicitly identify any Social Security number, in order to stop the crazy West accusations, we will pay for identify theft monitoring for the next two years.”

That was the DNC apology to Col. West.  His 20 year military career notwithstanding, the DNC says that Col West owes Florida an apology. 

As to West’s being upset about the DNC publishing his social security number . . . . well, that’s just crazy.

Assessment:

If this story doesn’t make you weep, it is only because this kind of corruption is so prevalent that it’s become a kind of white background noise that you don’t notice it unless somebody calls it to your attention.

Which is by itself an indicator of just how jaded we’ve become as a country. 

What is the most sickening to me isn’t that slimy professional propagandists with the scruples of a Nazi pamphleteer are so hungry for power that they see nothing wrong with their tactics.

What is even more sickening is that they believe, based on polls and focus groups and past history, that  tactics like that are effective in winning votes. And it isn’t just the politicians or the partisans or the propandists.

Think about what it says about the voters they are targeting.  It certainly reveals what the Florida DNC thinks about the voters that they are targeting.    

The DNC thinks that smearing a decorated war hero who sacrificed his career to ensure the safety of his men will win votes for their guy, a lawyer who spent his adult life as a professional politician.

There is a reason that they think that.   They believe it will work because it would be effective against them.  That is where the major divide is between Left and Right as we understand the terms today.   

To the Left, the ends justify the means. Any means, if it ends with them in power.

That’s why they can run an ad like this and expect it to be effective. And that spells perilous times.

The same tactics would backfire if the Right were to try it.   It would so disgust conservatives and patriots that if anything, it would swing them around the other way.

That is the thing about politics.  It is a mirror of the populace.    The DNC’s smear of Col West based on four months of financial trouble five years ago will resonate with the kind of voter attracted to the platform of the Left.     

It never ceases to amaze me (and fill me with awe) when I consider how precisely the Apostle Paul’s description of the social mores of the last days — a period he calls, ‘perilous times’ —  mirrors the social agenda of the 21st century American Left.

“This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

It is a ponderous package to take in all at once.  But read through each charge carefully — and the picture that emerges is stunningly accurate.  The remainder of Paul’s word picture is equally accurate.

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

But even at this late hour, Paul holds out at least a little hope come November.

“But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was.”  (2^nd Timothy 3:1-9)

Nonetheless, Paul warns that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”   

Having warned of the perilous times to come, Paul then looks forward to the generation that will see those times with this admonition:

“But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of Whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. “   (2^nd Timothy 3:11-17)

It looks bad.   But that’s how we can tell that Christianity is real.  If you know Christ, then when it looks so bad it can’t get any worse, that’s a good sign. 

Because the Lord said that when these things begin to come to pass, we are to look up and lift up our heads for our redemption draws near.  So even while it looks bad, that’s good, if you are a Christian.  

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (2^nd Timothy 1:12)

I am not ashamed either. And I am equally persuaded.  He IS able, so ‘that day’ is the day I’ve been waiting for.

Bring it on.

Cults and Cops and More Tinfoil Hats

Cults and Cops and More Tinfoil Hats
Vol: 108 Issue: 21 Tuesday, September 21, 2010

About four years ago, I wrote a column about the United Nations called “Prozac and Extra-Thick Tin Foil Hats.”  In it, I noted that “vague sense of unease one gets when one realizes he has just struck up a conversation with a stranger whose elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.”

At first, everything seems ok, but then, as it dawns on you the person you are talking to isn’t completely in touch with reality, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck a little.

You wonder just how nuts the person is . . . will they suddenly start shouting in your face, maybe even turn violent? It’s usually just a fleeting feeling, but it is disconcerting, to say the least.

I’ve been getting that same feeling of late as I analyze current events . . . a vague, discomfiting sense that everybody is on Prozac but me, and I am bumping into them just as their meds are starting to wear off.

The majority of the emails received were from people on Prozac claiming the piece was offensive to people on Prozac.  Several others emailed me to chew me out for being insensitive to mental illness.  

I guess I am guilty as charged — I honestly didn’t consider the feelings of the mentally ill when I was writing the piece about the UN. . . but I was writing about the UN!  And forgive me for stating the obvious, but mental illness is not something one wants to see reflected in international diplomacy. 

Nonetheless, the reaction really did surprise me.   I wouldn’t necessarily do anything differently today, but I never would have expected anybody to take offense at the image of UN diplomats wearing tinfoil hats as a metaphor.

Today, I would be less surprised.  The art of taking offense has been honed and shaped and sharpened into a devastatingly effective weapon able to cut through the 1^st Amendment’s defensive shield like a hot knife through butter.   

The list of things one cannot say without giving offense is growing by the day, and as people begin to retreat from the truth in order to ‘get along’, more protected groups start to emerge and the retreat becomes a rout and eventually, a surrender.

If one says something offensive about Christians, they are bravely exercising their Constitutional right to free speech.  And they can expect it to be fully honored.  Christians won’t riot in the streets in response to seeing images of Christ immersed in urine being honored by the federal government as ‘art’.

Last year, a church in the US had Bibles printed in Afghanistan’s two most common languages and sent them to Afghanistan.  The Bibles were confiscated by the US government ‘amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans’ (of course) and the Bibles were thrown away like trash and ultimately burned. 

Yes. Burned.  By the United States federal government.  The US government burned the Bibles to prevent them from falling into the hands of ordinary Afghanis.

Not only were there no riots, it wasn’t even much of a news story.   There was instead a brief story detailing how the military is working to prevent Christians from proselytizing.

“A soldier received unsolicited Bibles in Pashto and Dari that were donated by a church in the U.S.,” Col. Gregory Julian, spokesman for U.S. Forces, Afghanistan, told CNN.

“The soldier was unaware that he was not allowed to distribute them, but the chaplain leading the Bible study later corrected the service member, although this does not appear on the footage we’ve seen.”

Then, this equally stunning disclaimer from the US military.

“The Bibles were never distributed. They were removed by the chaplains.”

When the Florida pastor threatened to burn the Koran in response to the decision to build the Ground Zero Mosque, the worldwide rioting killed dozens – eleven men died in Pakistani rioting alone.  The riots and deaths happened BEFORE the scheduled Koran-burning, which was eventually called off anyway.  

A Crucifix immersed in urine is federally protected art — but the mere threat to burn a Koran prompted objections from the White House, the Pentagon and General David Petraeus, spawned deadly riots abroad, and death threats here at home.

While the Florida pastor backed down on his threat, a New Jersey Transit worker decided to mark the September 11^th remembrance by tearing a few pages from a Koran which he tried to burn in front of the Ground Zero Mosque.

The transit worker, a man named Derek Fenton, was escorted away by New York City police.  When Fenton reported for work on Monday, he was fired.  For a legal, albeit controversial, protest that took place on his own time and in another state!   

What do you suppose the reaction would be if a government employee was fired for disrespecting the Bible during a protest on his own time – and in another state?

Assessment:

Thirteen members of what California authorities called “a cult-like” group of Christian immigrants from El Salvador were tracked down by sheriff’s deputies who feared the group was planning to commit mass suicide.  

The husbands of two of the women reported to authorities that they though their wives had been ‘brainwashed’ by the leader of the group, a lady named Marisol Chicas.  They told investigators that they feared they might harm themselves.

The sheriff’s department immediately and unquestioningly put out an all points bulletin.

Acting on ‘a tip’ deputies found the group in a public park.  The children were playing on swings and the adults were praying in Spanish.  When the deputy made contact, he was told they were praying against violence in schools and sexual immorality.

According to a sheriff’s captain, Chicas had been a member of a Christian church in Palmdale where she formed a home Bible study.   She later stopped going to church, forming a home church of some 12 to 15 people.

According to Sheriff’s Captain Mike Parker, what convinced them the group was a dangerous cult was letters saying the group was awaiting the return of Christ and would “soon see Jesus and their dead relatives.”

To the deputies, that meant they were some kind of dangerous apocalyptic cult.   

“We’ve got a group here that’s practicing some orthodox and some unorthodox Christianity,” Parker said. “Obviously this falls under the unorthodox.”

“Essentially, the letters say they are all going to heaven to meet Jesus and their deceased relatives,” sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. “Some of the letters were saying goodbye.”

The women were returned to their husbands by sheriff’s deputies.  Marisol Chicas was initially arrested and questioned by sheriff’s deputies and then committed to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

As it turns out, the letters were referring to the Rapture and not mass suicide.  

Chicas was one of many that calculate the Rapture will take place sometime around the end of the Feast of Trumpets. Every year somebody comes up with a new calculation.    

It’s been going on since The Great Disappointment of 1844.  Jesus said no man could calculate the day or the hour of the Rapture.  Every year, somebody concludes that really means ‘no man but him’. 

All of them have been disappointed. But they aren’t usually arrested and involuntarily committed for mental evaluation.    

Where these stories intersect is at the 1^st Amendment.  It guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In these stories all five guaranteed freedoms are shredded, but only for Christians.

A government employee cannot be fired for burning a Bible.  The government burns Bibles.  But a New Jersey Transit worker can be fired for burning a Koran on his own time in another state.  

Rioting is to be expected.  So when it happens, it isn’t the fault of the rioters.  The blame falls on the person expressing unpopular speech.  

Recall when a group of Muslim imams in traditional Islamic dress were prohibited from boarding an aircraft after they exhibited bizarre behavior at the airport, including loud group prayers at the jetway. 

They were later given an apology and awarded monetary damages.

Chicas calculated the Rapture would take place at the conclusion of the Feast of Trumpets and went out with her group to meet the Lord in the air. 

She calculated wrong – and got involuntarily committed by authorities for a mental evaluation.

What doesn’t seem to faze anybody is how overt the discrimination is. 

A California sheriff’s captain can make a decisive determination of what constitutes ‘orthodox’ Christianity and take official action against what he deems to be ‘unorthodox.’  Nobody mentions the 1st Amendment, which absolutely FORBIDS any police officer from breaking up a public prayer group to ask what they are praying about.   

But nobody would DARE to similarly approach a group of praying Muslims.  

We spoke about the Cartoonist Formerly Known as Molly in a recent Omegaletter.  She was forced into “disappearing” herself and re-emerging in a new place with a new life and a new identity after she offended Islam in a cartoon she drew.

As we get close to the end of this present age, one can see the spiritual madness coming upon the whole world.  It is as real as that moment when you start to see  somebody’s medication is starting to wear off.

When it comes to Islam, out comes the Prozac to take the edge off,  until we figure out why it’s our fault they are offended this time and who best to sacrifice to appease their anger.   (Sorry,  Derek Fenton)

But bring up Jesus and suddenly, everybody is wearing the extra-thick tinfoil hats to prevent the kind of brainwashing that leads to praying for peace and morality in a public park.

It beats being forced to check in to a mental hospital to be fitted for yours.

Not The Author of Confusion

Not The Author of Confusion
Vol: 108 Issue: 20 Monday, September 20, 2010

Israel’s Foreign Minister made headlines over the weekend when he called for the redrawing of Israel’s borders to exclude some Arab-Israeli citizens now living inside Israel.  

Avigdor Liebermann’s proposal was to trade Jewish settlements in the West Bank for Arab neighborhoods inside Israel.

Given that the Palestinians  (and the UN and the US and everybody else on earth) are unanimous in their assessment that any future Palestinian state must be ethnically cleansed of Jews, Liebermann’s proposal seems just as reasonable.

But he was forced to backtrack, saying later that he was only expressing his personal opinion and not the government’s after the Palestinians objected.  The objection wasn’t to the ethnic cleansing of Jews.  All parties are evidently in tacit agreement on that score (with the exception of those Jews yet to be cleansed).

It is the Arab citizens of Israel that are objecting.  They don’t want to live in a Palestinian state.  And if they don’t want to, then they shouldn’t have to.  Ethnic cleansing is only acceptable when the ones being cleansed are Jews.

It’s crazy.  I know.  It is even crazier still when it is collectively endorsed by world opinion.  But not any crazier than allowing Iran to go nuclear amid much clamor and feigned opposition, knowing that Ahmadinejad has every intention of keeping his promise to erase Israel from the map.

There are few that expect the current round of peace talks to accomplish anything –the headlines are all about why they will fail, not if they will fail.   They will fail because nobody wants peace except the Israelis.  It doesn’t matter.  Nobody cares. 

One almost gets the sense that the peace talks are being used to stall Israel and distract attention away from Iran until Iran can finish building its bomb and let Ahmadinejad solve the Israel problem and leave their consciences clear. 

But can that possibly be true?  After all, it is Washington that is pushing the peace talks.  

And stalling over Iran.

Assessment:

It is amazing how many emails I get either making a case for, or asking if we are already in the Tribulation Period now.  The craziness disguised as diplomacy in the peace process is by itself a good reason to ask that question. 

Coupled with all the other craziness the question gets even more reasonable.   One need look no further than a typical morning’s headlines on Drudge to get a sense of a world on the brink . . . of something.   War, catastrophe, upheaval, unrest . . .

This morning there is a story about an ‘apocalyptic cult’; one about a senatorial candidate who ‘dabbled in witchcraft’; one about an EU-sponsored ‘global internet treaty’; and finally,  Chinese plans to build ‘a big nuclear plant’ in Pakistan!

But it isn’t the Tribulation.   Which should give some sense of how scary the real Tribulation will be.  Jesus said it would be the worst time in human history, from the beginning of the world until then. Keeping in mind that would include the Flood, one gets a sense of it being bad.

At least the Flood left eight persons alive.

Jesus said that left to its logical conclusion, the Tribulation would end without any flesh being saved.  I am aware that there are many different views of the Tribulation Period, particularly insofar as it impacts the Church.  

But it is a simple question.  And I’m a simple man.  The Scriptures say that God is not the author of confusion.   It is from the simplicity of Bible chronology that I can confidently say that we are not now in the Tribulation Period.  

I know of no one that can say with any degree of credibility that they are confident we ARE in the Tribulation Period.  But I hear from lots of folks that say we might be or ask if we could be.  We aren’t.  

God is not the author of confusion. But God is the author of Bible prophecy. And the simplest understanding of the chronology of Bible prophecy is this. 

During the Age of Grace, believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  At the conclusion of the Age of Grace, the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn to allow for the unrestricted reign of evil under the antichrist.

The Promise to the Church is that the Holy Spirit will indwell each believer until the Lord comes.

If the indwelling Holy Spirit is to be withdrawn, and the Promise is that He will not leave me comfortless, then the only logical resolution to this apparent conflict is the one outlined by the Apostle Paul in 1^st  Thessalonians 4:16-18 and 1^st Corinthians 15:51-57  in which when the Holy Spirit’s ministry is withdrawn, the Lord Himself returns for His Church at the Rapture.

So chronologically speaking, the next prophesied event on Bible prophecy’s timeline after the restoration of Israel is the Rapture of the Church.  All that we are witnessing around us today are not actually fulfillments of Bible prophecy so much as they are shadows of what is coming.

The earthquakes, famines, wars, pestilences, signs in outer space, climactic upheaval, persecutions and so forth are in process – where they are now is NOTHING compared to their Tribulation counterparts.

Today we talk about sunspots – during the Tribulation, the sun will scorch flesh and the moon will be ‘as blood.’  Today we talk about earthquakes, during the Tribulation, the great earthquake will be the most powerful ever felt. 

We talk about wars, but by the time the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse has finished with the fourth of twenty-one Tribulation judgments, a quarter of the earth’s population will already have been killed.

The philosopher Sir William of Occam coined the philosophical rule that dictates that “the simplest and most logical explanation is usually the correct one”.   Occam’s Razor lines up comfortably with Paul’s admonition that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

The purpose for Bible prophecy is primarily to answer the skeptics.   Bible prophecy is the Signature of God.   If God said it, then it will come to pass.  When it comes to pass, then we will know that God said it.  Thus God reveals Himself through prophecy.

When He outlined the signs of His coming to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He paused midway to remind them, “Behold, I have told you before.”

Later, when Jesus prophesied of His ascension and of the coming of the Comforter, saying, “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” (John 14:29)

Bible prophecy isn’t complicated unless one makes it complicated. 

It makes no sense to assume that God made it so complicated that only those that carefully recompared the original languages and came up with new translations of Scripture could understand the real message.

The real message is no different in the last generation than it was when it was given to the first.  “Occupy until I come.” 

So we are not now in the Tribulation.  It isn’t confusing.  Nobody will have to wonder if we are in the Tribulation.   Jesus said that when these things begin to come to pass, our redemption draws near. 

Before, not after.  The chronology couldn’t be simpler.  And adjusting the chronology complicates all of it until all that remains are questions.  (Like, “could we be in the tribulation now?”)

First comes the Rapture.  Then comes the peace treaty, which then reveals the antichrist and begins the Tribulation.   

The Bible doesn’t raise the question, it answers it.  Israel is not living in peace and safety.  There is no treaty.  The antichrist has not been revealed.

And the Church is still here, occupying until He comes.